Heavenly Mindedness (41)

 

Continuing our reflections on Geerhardus Vos’s Message on “Heavenly Mindedness” from Hebrews 11:9 – 10:

 

“The inspired writer tells us that the two most momentous events in sacred history, the giving of the law on Sinai and the end of the world, signify the removal of things that are shaken, in order that such things as are not shakable may remain. And the second shaking is so radical and comprehensive that it involves not only the earth but likewise the heavens: it will sweep the transitory out of the life of the people of God even in the higher regions, and will leave them, when the smoke and dust of the upheaval are blown away, in a clear atmosphere of eternal life.

 

“But in this sense also faith is not purely prospective: it enables to anticipate; it draws down the imperishable substance of eternity into its vessel of time and feeds on it. The believer knows that even now there is in him that which has been freed from the law of change, a treasure that moth and rust cannot corrupt, true riches enshrined in his heart as in a treasury of God.”   G. Vos.

 

Vos directs our attention to Hebrews 12:25 – 28. (Note that earlier in this message he linked Hebrews Chapter 11 with Hebrews 12:18 – 24; having us consider that we “have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God.”)

 

In Hebrews 12:25 – 28 we see two shakings, each with accompanying accountability; first at Mount Sinai and then at the end of the world. We see the two accountabilities, the two judgments, in 12:25, “For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven.” Those who did not heed Moses were judged, those who do not heed Jesus Christ will be judged. The second shaking is in 12:26, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.”

 

(I should note that Vos slips a bit when he terms Sinai and the end of the world as “the two most momentous events in sacred history,” for surely the one event which is the nexus of all events is the Incarnation in all of its scope. As far as I can ascertain, we all have our slips from time to time.)

 

The purpose of the second shaking, which Vos terms “radical and comprehensive,” is “that those things which cannot be shaken may remain” (12:27). When I have read this passage from Hebrews in the past, I have associated it with images such as Daniel Chapter 2 and 2 Peter 3:10ff; with the temporal elements of the seen and unseen realms passing away, particularly those in opposition to the Messiah (Psalm 2). It has therefore, been ironic to me that so many professing Christians are intent on preserving those very things which are passing away – it is as if we are actively opposed to the Kingdom of God as expressed in Daniel 2 and elsewhere. Why in America we even argue that our nation is the equivalent of the Kingdom of God. But let me move on from this to something that Vos introduces that I had not associated with this passage.

 

Vos tells us that this second shaking “will sweep the transitory out of the life of the people of God even in the higher regions, and will leave them, when the smoke and dust of the upheaval are blown away, in a clear atmosphere of eternal life.”

 

What might Vos mean in speaking of “the transitory…even in the higher regions”?  Note that Vos is referring to “the life of the people of God.” Vos is not talking about evil, he is not talking about heresy, but he is talking about things that are transitory. Here I think we go back to his reference to “transitory purpose” in the previous section we considered. This is especially difficult for me to write about because we tend to be rooted in the transitory, not in the contemporary transitory (though that is true also), but in the historical transitory which we have carved in stone and made our benchmark. We assume extra-Biblical historical identities and give them pride of place in our thinking, teaching, and practice. It is as if we are saying, “Let us make three tabernacles, one for Jesus and two for our doctrinal distinctives; or two for our main historical characters” (Matthew 17:4).

 

These may be in the “higher regions,” but they are nevertheless transitory, and they are “smoke and dust,” as much as we would like to think otherwise. I had never thought of this in the context of Hebrews 12:25 – 29, but now that Vos has introduced it to me I can see his point.

 

And if this is true, and if our Father and Lord Jesus have a trajectory for the People of God, the Church, the Bride; then just as it is necessary for the image of Daniel 2 to pass away, so it is necessary for the various “tabernacles” we have erected to compete with one another, and to compete with Jesus Christ, to pass away – in order that the prayer of Jesus in John 17 be fulfilled and the image of the Body in Ephesians 4 come into manifestation. This is a hard thing to ponder because we have so much invested in our religious and theological product brands, and also because we are not sufficient for these things, we don’t have the wisdom to undo what we’ve done.

 

It would seem that only a great shaking will deliver us from ourselves.

 

Seeking, Seeking, Seeking

 Below is a little something from Augustine on seeking the Face of God. It is something to ponder. I'll circle back on this, but for now I'm reminded of 2 Corinthians 3:17 - 18, a passage I quote fairly often. 

I'll mention two other things for now, which again I'll circle back on. Augustine thinks that at some point our seeking will reach fulfillment - this is one line of historic Christian thought. The other line is that since God is Great and Infinite, that our experience of Him is ever unfolding and never ending. 

Then there is the issue of "language." Is there only one way to read a word, or might there be layers to a word or image? What is the natural way to read a word? Is "natural" to me the same as "natural" to you? What do we "see" when we read a word?

Some people see things multidimensionally and others aren't prone to do that. Perhaps some of this has to do with the cultures we're raised in? 

I know from working and living with folks in various facets of life that we do see and read things differently. In business I endeavored to have people around me who read and saw things differently - in fact, I knew that with some things I really needed people with a different way of seeing things. I have found the same thing with regard to the Kingdom, I need people in my life who not just have different perspectives, but who "see" things differently - isn't this one reason we are a Body? 

Of course the essence is, What is the Holy Spirit conveying to us in these words and images? If Christ the Word was made flesh and we beheld His glory, then do I not also see the Word being made manifest in the images and words and structure of Scripture? In fact, ought not the Incarnation bring to glorious light the Son throughout the Bible? (Luke 24). Is there not a dynamic expansiveness to the unveiling of the Son (Ephesians 3:18)?

This calls us into a meditative, communal, and sacramental reading and receiving of the Word and Christ in and through the Bible. The Bible, if you will, is our Communion Table, it is where we receive the life of our Lord Jesus (of course, we also commune at the Lord's Supper, the Eucharist). 

So I tend to look at Biblical language as anagogical language and sacramental language, rather than anthropomorphic language. I see this language as piercing the veil between the seen and unseen realms and drawing us to our Father and Lord Jesus. I see this language as elevating us into Christ and renewing our minds. 

Well, we must trust our Lord Jesus to help us with these things. This is more than I intended to write for now.

From Augustine’s 63^rd Meditation on John’s Gospel:

 

“Let us give our mind's best attention, and, with the Lord's help, seek after God. The language of the divine hymn is: Seek God and your soul shall live. Let us search for that which needs to be discovered, and into that which has been discovered. He whom we need to discover is concealed, in order to be sought after; and when found, is infinite, in order still to be the object of our search. Hence it is elsewhere said, Seek His face evermore. For He satisfies the seeker to the utmost of his capacity; and makes the finder still more capable, that he may seek to be filled anew, according to the growth of his ability to receive…

 

“…as the preacher says, When a man has finished, then he begins; till we reach that life where we shall be so filled, that our natures shall attain their utmost capacity, because we shall have arrived at perfection, and no longer be aiming at more. For then all that can satisfy us will be revealed to our eyes. But here let us always be seeking, and let our reward in finding put no end to our searching. For we do not say that it will not be so always, because it is only so here; but that here we must always be seeking, lest at any time we should imagine that here we can ever cease from seeking…

 

“Let us, on the other hand, be walking always in the way, till we reach the end to which it leads; let us nowhere tarry in it till we reach the proper place of abode: and so we shall both persevere in our seeking, and be making some attainments in our finding, and, thus seeking and finding, be passing on to that which remains, till the very end of all seeking shall be reached in that world where perfection shall admit of no further effort at advancement.”

Psalm 27 – Autobiography

 

This is the 27^th of April and this morning I read Psalm 27. A little later today I’ll read Psalm 57. The Lord willing, on July 27 and October 27 I’ll read these two psalms again. I can’t live without Psalms. I see Christ everywhere in them, and the older I get the more vividly I see Him. I see the Body of Christ everywhere and the unity of the Head and the Body in them. I see humanity everywhere – both those in Adam and those in Christ. I see the ebb and flow of history; governments, economics, social agendas, the guts of mankind.

 

I also see my autobiography, I never quite thought of it like this before this morning, but when I opened to Psalm 27 and read, “Yahweh is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? Yahweh is the defense of my life; whom shall I dread,” I thought, “This is my autobiography. I’ve lived with and in this psalm for as long as I can remember.”

 

This is one of the first passages of Scripture that I distinctly recall sharing with another person. I don’t remember when I first read Psalm 27, but nor do I remember when I drew my first breath. I see my life in this Psalm; my confidence in Christ, my Father, and the Holy Spirit. The help of others along my pilgrimage. My fears and God’s care in the midst of those fears. My deep hope and trust that I shall indeed “see the goodness of my Father and Lord Jesus in the land of the living.”

 

I hear the Holy Spirit speaking to me again and again, “Wait for your Father, wait for your Lord Jesus, be strong and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for your God.” I also speak these words to others, again and again as I share this psalm with others again and again.

 

How many times have I shared this psalm? How many times have I spoken these words to others? How many times do I breathe in a day?

 

This psalm lives inside of me, and I live inside of it. This psalm is a dimension of my inheritance in Jesus Christ – He is in this psalm and He is in me. When Jesus Christ came to live within me, He brought Psalm 27 with Him. (I should be more aware of His gifts – when Jesus comes He brings gifts; gifts that have eternal shelf lives).

 

If we’re going to follow Jesus we’ll find that life is a contact sport, there is opposition and resistance. If we are going to live in obedience to Jesus Christ there is going to be difficulty because we live in a world opposed to God and His righteousness, and unless we are going to cooperate with sin and evil there are times we are going to go against the grain – in fact, our lives are going to be lived against the grain. We are going to be different from the world, unless we are ashamed of Jesus. Psalm 27:3 is nice to know, it’s a good place to live, even though we are surrounded by opposition we can be confident in Christ.

 

Seeking the one desire of verse 4 is critical to living against the tide, living against the grain and not minding it too very much. “One thing I have asked from my Father and Lord Jesus, that I shall seek; that I may dwell in the House of my Father all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of Christ and to meditate in His Temple” (see Ephesians 2:19 – 22).

 

When we desire our Lord Jesus with all that we have and all that we are, we find ourselves “concealed in His Tabernacle, hidden in the secret place of His Tent, lifted up on the Rock” (verse 5). There have been many times in my life when there has been evil and chaos and toxicity swirling around me, and yet I’ve been enveloped and filled with the peace that passes comprehension. More than once I’ve walked into, or been thrown into, the furnace of Daniel Chapter 3; sometimes I’ve come out without a hint of smoke or fire, other times I’ve been consumed – either way I’ve learned Romans 12:1 – 2 once again.

 

When I walk outside in the morning and look to the heavens, I hear my Father saying (verse 8), “Seek My face.”

 

I pray, “Your face, O Holy Trinity, I shall seek. Teach me to seek Your Face. Teach Vickie and me to seek Your Face as husband and wife. Teach Your People to seek Your Face!”

 

Most of the enemies of my life are within me, so when I read about enemies and foes in this psalm I look within. Of course, the world system provides constant opposition. Yes, I have had opponents in life, but I try to recognize the truth of Ephesians 6:10 – 17 and 2 Corinthians 10:3 – 5. Most of the time when I’ve had opponents I haven’t seen them as such, I don’t usually look at people that way; I do look at ideas and thinking and practices as either righteous or unrighteous, as either blessing people or holding them in bondage and fear; as either light, truth, and honesty, or darkness, lying, and deceit.

 

“Teach me Your Way, O Father” (verse 11). Is not my Lord Jesus the Way? Do I not want to know Him more deeply today than yesterday? Simply put, is this not why I am here this morning…to know Him and to bless others?

 

“Wait for the LORD; be strong and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the LORD” (Psalm 27:14).

 

Isn’t it wonderful that our Father has our autobiographies already written for us?

 

Why not tell someone your autobiography in Christ today?

 

Heavenly Mindedness (40)

 

Continuing our reflections on Geerhardus Vos’s Message on “Heavenly Mindedness” from Hebrews 11:9 – 10:

 

“And this applies not merely to objects of natural affection; it involves also much that is of transitory purpose in the service and Church of God. Even our religion in its earthly exercise is not exempt from the tragical aspect borne by all existence in time. The summons comes again and again: “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house,” and after a brief spell of comfort and delight we anew find ourselves in tents roaming through an inhospitable world. There is no help for these things. Like Abraham we must resolutely confess, that we are strangers and pilgrims in a land of time, and that the best this land can offer us is but a caravanserai to tarry in for a day and a night.” G. Vos.

 

Returning to “transitory purpose in the service and Church of God”:

 

Not only are there things we do for a certain moment and in a certain season, but there are things we speak and teach into particular seasons and moments; and while these words ought to be birthed in eternity and the Word, their purpose may be short lived. A danger arises when we build systems and structures out of the short lived, not recognizing their transitory nature. Much the same can be said for our experiences, while knowing the Trinity intimately ought to be an ever-deepening experience, we may pass through many individual experiences in this one Grand Experience.

 

As I write this, there are around 200 azaleas in glorious bloom surrounding our home in various varieties and colors; this is a particularly spectacular spring. However, the colors will soon be gone. Next year the colors will be back, but they may or may not be as spectacular, they may or may not bloom together as they have mostly done this year. What would you think if, after the colors are gone this year, I spent the rest of the year not seeing the remaining beauty of what remains after the colors, but rather trying to “will” the colors back? Foolish? Yet, perhaps this is what we are tempted to do when we make one experience our benchmark, our litmus test, our measure – when that experience is not meant to be a continuum, but rather as a point or season on the Grand Continuum.

 

Jesus and His disciples did not remain on the Mount of Transfiguration any more than Paul remained in the Third Heaven. Peter would continue to draw from his experience with Jesus on the Mount (1 Peter 1:16 – 18), but Peter did not see that as our norm on this pilgrimage, in fact his first letter is clear that he saw the opposite – suffering for Christ - as our norm.

 

Now I want to ask us to think about something that is not palatable, when I began working with the above quote from Vos I mentioned that there are two facets of “transitory purpose” that I wanted to touch on, and that one was more palatable than the other; I think I may have been putting the second aspect off, and I’m not sure I can express myself well on this…were it not for a sense of duty I would leave it alone.

 

The very idea of growth, of an organic body growing to maturity, of a Temple being built, of a Bride being cleansed with the washing of water with the Word; all carry with them a sense of progression, of stages, of seasons. A challenge is not to mistake the stage of growth and understanding we are in for the goal, it is not to mistake what it is to be ten years old with adulthood, or with being a young adult with middle-aged, or with being middle-aged with being an elder. In our society with its perpetual youth movement, and with adults, even elder adults, often acting like children, this may be difficult to visualize.

 

Being ten years old was always meant to be transitory; being 23 years old was always meant to be transitory; being 41 years old was always meant to be transitory. Every year of my life, however long this life may be, is meant to be transitory – transitory in the sense that it is coming out from one place into another.

 

This does not mean that it is to be an untethered life, a life without foundation, or a life without purpose and trajectory – this does not mean that it is an ephemeral life – but rather that it is lived in continual transition from “glory to glory” into the image of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 3:17 – 18). This does not mean that it is about experience for the sake of experience – which is a grave error within elements of the professing church – for our Father’s purpose is that we be “conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29). Therefore, our transitions into His image require our submission to the Word of God, the Holy Spirit, and the lordship of Jesus Christ. This is anything but ephemeral, it is substantive and eternal.

 

This is not only true for individuals and marriages, but it is also true for congregations and denominations and traditions. (When I use the term ‘tradition” I’m referring to understandings and practices within historical groups, such as Brethren, Reformed, Anglican, Lutheran, Wesleyan, Pentecostal. I also want to be clear that I am thinking about those of us who seek to be faithful to the Bible, not those elements which have no problem being paid as clergy or seminary professors while at the same time attacking the Word of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.)

 

While we are certainly called to build upon that which has gone before us, both in experience and in understanding and wisdom, if we are going to continue on our pilgrimage as the People of God we are not going to live as if frozen in time – whether in our experience or in our understanding. Our understanding of God’s Word ought to be ever deepening, our experience in the Trinity as a People ought to be ever more wonderful. We should be a People “going out” so that we may be a People “going in.”

 

Why cannot we see Christ in the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings? (Luke 24:27, 44 – 45). Why are we reduced to a list of fulfilled prophecies as opposed to actually learning to “see” Christ throughout the Old Testament? Why do we allow our traditions to form our understanding of the Bible rather than submit our traditions to the Bible? Why don’t we talk about the challenge inherent in living with our traditions and the Bible? (And I mean not only our practical traditions in terms of the way we do things, I also mean our theological traditions with their various emphases.)

 

Should a doctrinal emphasis of five hundred years ago continue to take center stage today, or should it lead to fuller understanding of the Word of God and the Person of Jesus Christ and greater maturity of the People of God (Ephesians 4:11 – 16)? We can ask the same question of doctrinal emphases of the 19^th century.

 

Romans 1:1 – 5:11 is wonderful, but without Romans 5:12 – 8:39 we do not have the fulness of the Gospel. Indeed, without the balance of Romans we do not have what the Gospel looks like when it is manifested within the People of God.

 

Are we seeking the City of the Living God, are we seeking the glory of that City in Christ; are we living in tents, or have we built permanent structures that we refuse to leave?

 

Hebrews 12:1 – 3.

Heavenly Mindedness (39)

 

Continuing our reflections on Geerhardus Vos’s Message on “Heavenly Mindedness” from Hebrews 11:9 – 10:

 

“And this applies not merely to objects of natural affection; it involves also much that is of transitory purpose in the service and Church of God. Even our religion in its earthly exercise is not exempt from the tragical aspect borne by all existence in time. The summons comes again and again: “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house,” and after a brief spell of comfort and delight we anew find ourselves in tents roaming through an inhospitable world. There is no help for these things. Like Abraham we must resolutely confess, that we are strangers and pilgrims in a land of time, and that the best this land can offer us is but a caravanserai to tarry in for a day and a night.” G. Vos.

 

As we saw in our last post, there is a “going out” from the world, and there is also a “going out” in terms of our experience in the Church of God. We have “brief spells of comfort and delight,” and we come upon caravanserai where we can rest, but if we are indeed on pilgrimage then where we are today ought not to be where we were one year ago, or five years ago, or ten years ago; and where we will be tomorrow ought not to be where we are today.

 

Just as the Body of Christ is on a trajectory of maturity and victory, so the individual members of the Body are called to be on a pilgrimage in which they know Jesus Christ in greater and greater intimacy, in which they are drawn deeper and deeper into the koinonia of the Trinity. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,” is a blessing that we are to experience as a People and as individuals as we continue to seek the Face of God in Christ.

 

When Vos speaks of “transitory purpose in the service and Church of God” and of “get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house,” I think there are two aspects to consider, one which is more palatable than the other, though both have their challenges.

 

The more palatable facet of this transitory purpose is when the Church engages in meeting the immediate needs of the members of the Body and of the world around it. This takes as many forms as the needs of humanity, a humanity which we are called to serve. This may be feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, advocating for the protection and rights of the politically, socially, and economically disenfranchised; it may include education, medical care, after-school tutoring, visiting nursing homes and shut-ins, caring for refugees. The level and nature of our engagement in these transitory needs may vary according to the ebb and flow of our surroundings.

 

There are times when, in meeting these needs, organizations are founded, branches of ministry are formed, educational institutions are established; there are also times when the nature of specific needs has abated, when society has changed, when the lifespan of an organization has run its course – our tendency is not to “go out” of these places, but to maintain them at all costs. I have pastored churches in which there are organizations that exist to no purpose, at one time they had a worthy purpose, but that purpose has long since vanished and the groups are simply “there” because they’ve always been there – there has been no “going out,” no awareness of the transitory nature of many of the things we do. We are more interested in maintaining old wineskins than in seeking new wine. When we do things a certain way because we’ve always done them that way, the chances are that the “life” has gone out of those things…and most certainly the life has gone out of us.

 

Jesus tells us that those who are disciples of the Kingdom of God are like a wise steward who brings forth out of his treasury things both old and new (Matthew 13:52). We learn, we grow, we “go out” and we “come in”, we are alive in Christ and alive with one another – and our organic nature in Christ means that we are growing up into Him in all things (Ephesians 4:11 – 16). We ought not to be the same people today in our growth that we were thirty years ago, or fifty years ago, or two hundred years ago – we are to be living trees and not a petrified forest.

 

While change for the sake of change is foolish and leads to chaos; I’ve also found that the question, “Why are we doing this?”, is guaranteed to offend others, even though it is not meant to be offensive but simply exploratory. The Church in Jerusalem struggled with what was a radical change in thinking about the dietary ordinances of the Mosaic Law; and an even more radical change regarding circumcision, a covenant rite that precedes the Law in Abraham, a rite that was the core of ethnic and religious identity. What a shock to realize that the Law of Moses was transitory! It should be no surprise that there were Jews who could never reconcile themselves to this element of the Gospel; even as there are Christians today who cannot reconcile themselves to the New Covenant in all of its fulness.

We'll continue this in our next post.

Heavenly Mindedness (38)

 

Continuing our reflections on Geerhardus Vos’s Message on “Heavenly Mindedness” from Hebrews 11:9 – 10:

 

“But the faith of heavenly-mindedness in yet another, even profounder, sense surmounts time. In contrast with what is transitory it lays hold of the unchanging and eternal. The text expresses this by describing the city looked for as the city which has the foundations. The difference between the well-founded enduring edifice and the frail, collapsible tent has induced this turn of the figure. Already in the prophet Isaiah Jehovah declares: “Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a precious cornerstone of sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.” In this word the two ideas of sure foundation and faith are brought into close connection. Because the foundation is sure the believer can lay aside all disquietude and impatience in regard to the working out of the divine purpose.

 

“He need not make haste. It is of the essence of faith to crave assurance; hence it cannot come to rest until it have cast its anchor into the eternal. And heaven above all else partakes of the character of eternity. It is the realm of the unchangeable. In this lower world Time with its law of attrition is king. Nothing can escape his inexorable rule. What is must cease to be, what appears must vanish, what is built must be broken down, even though human heart should cherish it more than its own life.

 

“And this applies not merely to objects of natural affection; it involves also much that is of transitory purpose in the service and Church of God. Even our religion in its earthly exercise is not exempt from the tragical aspect borne by all existence in time. The summons comes again and again: “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house,” and after a brief spell of comfort and delight we anew find ourselves in tents roaming through an inhospitable world. There is no help for these things. Like Abraham we must resolutely confess, that we are strangers and pilgrims in a land of time, and that the best this land can offer us is but a caravanserai to tarry in for a day and a night.

 

“Abraham would have undoubtedly rejoiced in the vision of the historical Jerusalem around which gather so many glories of God’s redemptive work. But, suppose it had risen up before him in all its beauty, would that have been the soul-satisfying vision his faith desired? No, there is neither quietness nor repose for the believer’s heart except on the bosom of eternity. There and there alone is shelter from the relentless pursuit of change.” G. Vos

 

As I’ve written before, a challenge in working through Vos’s message is that it is incredibly rich and dense. It does not lend itself to short quotations because it is tightly woven and the threads cannot be separated. It is difficult to know where to begin and end a section for consideration; if the quotation is too short the context and interconnectedness is lost; if the quotation is too long it is difficult to hold the images in tension and to focus on particular elements. A blog has its limitations, as does a Sunday morning sermon, and just with a Sunday sermon the wise hearer will ponder the Scripture passage during the ensuing week, so with a blog series like this one, the wise reader will meditate on Vos’s sermon, Heavenly – Mindedness, for an extended period – I frankly find Vos’s message overwhelming.

 

In the above quotation I have underlined the thoughts I want to focus on.

 

“Because the foundation is sure the believer can lay aside all disquietude and impatience in regard to the working out of the divine purpose.

 

“He need not make haste. It is of the essence of faith to crave assurance; hence it cannot come to rest until it have cast its anchor into the eternal.”

 

Vos presents us with Isaiah 28:16, “Therefore, thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be in a hurry.” This Stone is, of course, our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:4 – 8; Ephesians 2:19 – 22).

 

The context of Isaiah 28:16 is Yahweh’s judgment sweeping through the land, a judgment styled “an overwhelming scourge,” “overflowing waters,” and “decisive destruction.” In the midst of this comprehensive judgment is a Stone of refuge and those who believe in that Stone will not be anxious, they will not be disturbed, they will not be in a hurry.

 

Contrast this image of not being anxious, of not being disturbed, and of not being in a hurry, not only with today’s society, but with today’s professing church. Is the professing church today a place of peace or of anxiety? Are our congregations places of peace or do we exhibit the same tensions and fears and consumerism and drivenness that we see in the world? Are we drawing our life from the Eternal Vine (John 15) or from the present evil age? Are we building upon the one Sure Foundation (1 Cor. 3:10) or are we building on the shifting sands of the temporal?

 

We have just witnessed an election year in the United States in which much of the professing church aligned itself with the turmoil and anxiety of this present evil age and justified this alliance. Those who profess allegiance to Jesus Christ have been major purveyors of fear and anxiety and of violence – physical violence and moral and spiritual violence. This headlong plunge into the abyss of hatred and violence by professing Christians shows no signs of abating, in fact, as with the rest of society, it is accelerating – hatred feeds off hatred, violence feeds off violence, self-righteousness feeds off self-righteousness. Rather than casting our anchors into the eternal, we have cut loose our anchors from Jesus Christ and now sail with a pirate fleet whose admiral is Satan.

 

“The summons comes again and again: “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house,”” There are two dimensions to this “going out,” one is with respect to the church in time and space, the other is with respect to the culture in which we live. We will consider the church in time and space in the next post; concerning the culture in which we live; from Yahweh speaking to Abram (Genesis 12:1), “Get out of your country and from your family and your father’s house, to the land which I will show you,” to Paul echoing Isaiah, “Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord, and do not touch what is unclean, and I will welcome you” (Isaiah 52:11; 2 Cor. 6:17), to an angel crying (Rev. 18:4), “Come out of her [Babylon] my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues”; God’s People are called to a perpetual coming out from this evil age so that we might be a holy People to the Holy God (1 Peter 1:13 – 16) and that we might not participate in the sins of the Babylonian system which permeates every generation. This rebellious and evil system has one supreme aim, to overthrow the moral, ethical, and spiritual government of the Messiah (Psalm 2) and to enslave the souls of mankind (Rev. 18:13).

 

The slavery of the souls of men becomes such that those who “dwell on the earth” are made to actually make “an image to the beast” (Rev. 13:14). In other words, the people of this world make an image to that very entity that destroys their souls, that robs them of the image of God within them – and they offer themselves and their children to this hideous idol and the powers of evil it represents.

 

Do we see this today? Can we see this? Can we identify it? We are enslaved to comfort. We are enslaved to pleasure. We are enslaved to sports and entertainment. We are enslaved to power and recognition and wealth. We are enslaved to politics and nationalism. In the United States, we have traded goodness, truth, and beauty – elements that reflect the image of God - for the American Dream made of mud and straw.

 

When we respond to the command of God to “come out” we see the world for what it is – a land of false promises, false pleasures, false priorities, empty idols, a land of slavery, of promiscuity, of darkness, of ultimate despair.

 

Explain it away as we might in our sermons, our Sunday school and small group material, our congregational decisions, our calendars and our bank accounts, God’s Truth remains, “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4; see also 1 John 2:15 – 17). As Revelation 18:4 teaches, if we refuse to “come out” of Babylon we will not only participate (koinonia/have fellowship with) in her sins, we will also receive her judgments. (See also 2 Cor. 6:14 – 7:1; 1 Cor. 10:14 – 22).

 

What must the angels think when they see professing Christians attempting to defend the image of Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 2) which the Stone is destroying?

 

Where are we living? How are we living? Are we living as permanent residents of Babylon and this present evil age, or are we on pilgrimage with Abraham, David, Paul, Peter, John – living in that City which has foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God? Are we living as slaves of the City of Man, or are we living as the sons and daughters of the Living God?

 

 

 

Heavenly Mindedness (37)

 

Continuing our reflections on Geerhardus Vos’s Message on “Heavenly Mindedness” from Hebrews 11:9 – 10:

 

 “Neither grows he [the believer] impatient when the promise seems to tarry. For his hope also is in him a vitalizing power. It lives by the things that are not as though they were already, and makes the future supply strength for the present. Amidst all the vicissitudes of time the Christian knows that the foundations of the city of God are being quietly laid, that its walls are rising steadily, and that it will at last stand finished in all its golden glory, the crowning product of the work of God for his own.” G. Vos.

 

I don’t know about not growing impatient, after all, we see the “souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God…crying out, How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Rev. 6:9 – 10). James tells us that we are to allow “patience [endurance] to have its perfect work, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:4).

 

Does not patience grow as it is challenged and tempted with impatience? Isn’t there an interplay of impatience and patience, a tension? Doesn’t impatience, or the temptation of impatience, provide the weight on the bar to strengthen our patience? If we are participants in the process of heaven’s preparation (see previous posts), then as we “see” the goal, the perfect, the completeness of God’s work; we are driven to close the gap between what is and what shall be, between the perfect and the imperfect, between that which is complete and that which is being completed.

 

And yet we learn, “Unless Yahweh builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless Yahweh guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain” (Psalm 127:1). We learn the reality of, “I am the Vine…apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). This is not our work, this is God’s work; we are participants, we have the joy of working alongside our heavenly Father and our Brother, our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Vos writes, “For his hope also is in him a vitalizing power. It lives by the things that are not as though they were already, and makes the future supply strength for the present.”

 

The man or woman who will learn to live in the New Jerusalem now, who will walk the streets of Revelation chapters 21 and 22 now, who will draw closer and closer to the Light of that glorious City now, will find a vitalizing power that continues to draw him or her onward and upward, from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:17 – 18; Prov. 4:18).

 

When we come into a relationship with Jesus Christ, we “rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:2), for here we have a down payment of that glory, a foretaste in the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13 – 14; 2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5), and we live in growing anticipation of the fulness of the glory when we see our dear Lord Jesus (1 John 3:1 – 3). The Apostle John writes, “Everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 Jn. 3:3).

 

Hope fixed on Jesus purifies us, and the complete working out of that hope is that we will be pure “just as He is pure.” How is this possible? It is possible, it is certain, it is guaranteed by His grace, because as we behold Jesus we are transformed into His image (see again 1 John 3:1 – 3; 2 Cor. 3:17 – 18); the same grace that called us is the same grace that will perfect us in Christ…not simply as individuals, but as His People – for without “one another” there is no completeness, no perfection.

 

And so Paul can write that “in hope we are saved” as we “having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:18 – 25).

 

We learn to look at the things that are unseen, because these are the eternal things (2 Cor. 4:18); we allow the Holy Spirit to teach us to “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7). This is a way of life developed in the Word of God by the Holy Spirit, a way of life that lives in the “already and the not yet.” As Abraham, we learn to trust the One who calls “things which are not as though they were” (Rom. 4:17).

 

The context of Vos’s message, Hebrews Chapter 11, contains the theme of not only seeing things which are invisible, but also of seeing Him Who is invisible (Heb. 11:27). Another theme is that of endurance and perseverance (Heb. 11:25); from Abel through the saints of verses 32ff, those who cultivate a life of faith, of seeking that City, of pursuing the Face of God, will always find themselves going against the grain of this present age.

 

“For his hope also is in him a vitalizing power… the Christian knows that the foundations of the city of God are being quietly laid.” In order for me to know this vitalizing power, I must know this hope; to know this hope is to live in this hope, and to live in this hope is to seek its continual expansion, both in my own soul and in us as His People. This foursquare expansion is expressed by Paul in Ephesians 3:18, “…may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breath and length and height and depth…”

 

I desire to live with the Fathers and Mothers of our faith and to see what they saw, to have the hope that they had, an animating and vitalizing hope anchored in the invisible God and His son Jesus Christ.

 

I do not want to be numbered among the people of Haggai Chapter One, who only care about themselves and their own houses; whether those houses are our individual lives, our families, our congregations, our denominations, or our distinctives – we have been set free for the express purpose of building the Temple of God and the City of God and we are called to look beyond ourselves and our own wants and needs.  Let us refuse to be captives of the temporal, of the immediate, of the pragmatic, of our self-preservation. We can hardly have the hope of the eternal when our hearts and minds swim in the temporal. Let us not navigate life using the weathervane of the world, but rather the compass of the Word and the Cross. No matter the pressure upon us, let us not barter our birthright for a mess of temporal stew – whether that be political, economic, national, or any other of the false identities that seek to rob the people of God of their calling in Jesus Christ – a calling which transcends this present age, its powers, its cultures, and its religious games.

 

The hope that Vos speaks of, the hope that Hebrews Chapter 11 testifies of, the hope we have in Jesus Christ as His People (not as isolated individuals or individual groups) – is a hope that empowers us from here to eternity, a hope that conquers all in Christ, a hope that serves others, a hope that will be satisfied with nothing less than the fulness of the Father’s will and His ultimate intention in His Son. This is the hope of the heavenly – minded!

 

Let us allow the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to purify our hope in Christ, and to purify us in that blessed hope.

 

 

An Upper Room Meditation

This morning I find myself in the Upper Room, this is a place of abiding; indeed it is a portal into the Holy of Holies. It is one thing to walk into this room, it is another thing to walk beyond the room into the Room. 

Good morning, Beloved of the Father!

John 13:3

14:5

14:19

16:28

16:29 - light begins to dawn

17:24 - this is where He has brought us to (Heb. 2:11).

Perhaps in John 14:22 Judas the Faithful has a sense of the impending eucatastrophe? A new dimension, a watershed, is impending in the Upper Room, there will be horror in its bursting forth, but then O what glory. Henceforth two humanities, two genealogies, two biospheres, two perceptions, two visions.