Heavenly Mindedness (53)

 

In the word that God speaks we can taste all his goodness and grace. Hope itself is spiritualized, remaining no longer the hope of imagination but grasping in God the ideal root from which the whole future must spring and blossom in due time. The heavenly world does not appear desirable as simply a second improved edition of this life; that would be nothing else than earthly mindedness projected into the future. The very opposite takes place: heaven spiritualizes in advance our present walk with God. Each time faith soars and alights behind the veil it brings back on its wings some of the subtle fragrance that there prevails. G. Vos.

 

Continuing to ponder: “Each time faith soars and alights behind the veil it brings back on its wings some of the subtle fragrance that there prevails.”

 

I find it difficult at times to speak of some elements of my own life in Christ, of our life in Christ, and of the life in Christ which those who have influenced me have had – both because there are so many facets to living in Christ and because misunderstanding seems to come with the territory. I am so thankful that men and women of many Christian traditions have influenced me, from Roman Catholic, to Eastern Orthodox, to most all Protestant groups, to Pentecostals. Perhaps this is one reason why I continually look to the Scriptures, and to Christ in the Scriptures, so that in Christ these many influences can find their integration and harmony.

 

There is a subtle deviation from Scripture in the idea that we go “behind the veil.” Can you see it? To be sure this deviation is understandable, considering the baggage that most of us have inherited. Also, in one sense this idea of “behind the veil” may be classified the same way we’d classify the phrase “sunrise” or “sunset” – more a matter of optics than astronomy. Nevertheless, I think it important enough to spend some time on it, because if Vos can make this deviation in the midst of his glorious message on Heavenly Mindedness, a message that we’d all do well to meditate upon and absorb, then what deviations might I be unconsciously making? What is particularly interesting to me is that the deviation in Vos’s message on Hebrews 11 comes right after Hebrews 10:19 – 22 in which, as we saw in a previous post, we are taught that the veil is no more – there is no longer a barrier separating us from the Holy of Holies. Therefore, to speak of going “behind the veil” is to speak of something which it is impossible for us to do – other than in our minds, for the veil no longer exists.

 

To be sure, the phrase can express entering into intimacy with the Trinity, but it is, nevertheless, not an accurate phrase – after all, much of the point of Hebrews is that the veil has been removed and we are living in a New Covenant, we are living in the reality of which the Old Testament Tabernacle was but a reflection. Alas, we are so accustomed to thinking of barriers between us and our heavenly Father, we are so accustomed to living in the Outer Court, or on a good day in the Holy Place, that we cannot consistently conceive of living in the Holy of Holies as a Way of Life.

 

And yet, Jesus Christ calls us to live in union with the Father as He lives in union with the Father, He calls us to be in the same place in the Father that He is. In John 13 we see the Laver of the Tabernacle in the Outer Court, the washing; in John 17 we find ourselves in the Holy of Holies, and in that Holy of Holies we hear (John 17:24), “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”

 

When Jesus prays “be with Me where I am,” He is not praying that we would be in Jerusalem, or in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, but rather that we would be with Him in His relationship with the Father. “…that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved me” (John 17:21 – 23).

 

O dear friends, as long as the veil remained, separating us from the Holy of Holies, the heart’s desire of Jesus Christ for us to know the koinonia of the Trinity could not be fulfilled, but He made a way on the Cross and the curtain, the veil, the barrier in the Temple has been torn in two from top to bottom! When the earthly veil was rent, it signified that the heavenly veil had been rent – what was accomplished in the heavens was manifested on earth; what happened in the Heavenly Temple was announced in the earthly Temple.

 

Prior to the rending of the veil we might be excused for living outside the Tabernacle, we might be excused for living in the Outer Court and only occasionally entering the middle space known as the Holy Place; but O dear friends, now our calling is to live in the Trinity as the Trinity lives in us (John chapters 13 – 17) – and in the Trinity we are called not to live from the outside to the inside, but from the inside to the outside. We are not born again from the outside in, but from the inside out. We are not made new creations from the outside in, but from the inside out.

 

Why then do we spend so much time in the Outer Court? Why do we focus on the natural? Can we not hear Jesus saying, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6)? Can we hear Jesus saying, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24)? Listen to Jesus when He says, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (John 6:63).

 

“For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba Father!’ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:14 – 15).

 

Do we desire to live in the natural? Having met Jesus Christ do we still insist on living from the outside to the inside? Then let us hear Paul, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3). Do we insist on living as children, as infants, playing with the things of this earth when we could be living in intimacy with our Heavenly Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the blessed Holy Spirit?

 

How will it sound, when we leave this life, instead of hearing, “Well done good and faithful servant, blessed son! Blessed daughter!” Instead to hear the words, “Where have you been?”

 

The veil is no longer! Christ has wrought a perfect and complete and glorious salvation for His brothers and sisters – He calls us to come know the Father, to live from the inside to the outside, to be in Him a source of light and life to others.

 

“I am writing to you, fathers, because you have known Him who bas been from the beginning…” (1 John 2:13).

 

“He said, ‘It is finished!’” (John 19:30).