Heavenly Mindedness (62)

 

“It is characteristic of faith that it not merely desires the perfect but desires the perfect as a work and gift of God. A heaven that was not illumined by the light of God, and not a place for closest embrace of Him, would be less than heaven. God as builder and maker thereof has put the better part of Himself into his work. Therefore those who enter the city are in God. The thought is none other than that of the seer in the Apocalypse:

 

“I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb are the temple thereof. And that city has no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God lightens it, and the throne of God and the Lamb are therein: and his servants shall do Him service, and they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads.”  G. Vos [see Revelation chapters 21 & 22]

 

May I gently ask, how often do you read and meditate on Revelation chapters 21 and 22? If I ask you to please close your eyes and picture these two chapters, are you able to do so? What do you see? If you were with children, how would you describe these chapters?

 

Consider that these chapters are the conclusion to a letter that Jesus Christ wrote to Seven Churches via the Apostle John. Also consider that these churches were suffering persecution and dealing with apostasy. In writing to the Seven Churches, Jesus Christ wrote to all churches, or better yet, He wrote to His One Holy Catholic Church that transcends time and space, having its roots in eternity past and its trajectory in eternity future. Finally, it cannot be accidental that these chapters form the conclusion to the canon of Holy Scripture, they are the final words within the Word, the eternal image that is without end in our life in Christ.

 

Is it any wonder that Vos leads us here, to the Holy City, in his message on heavenly – mindedness? Where else would we anticipate the pilgrimage of Hebrews 11 to lead us, but the very City that the patriarchs sought with all their hearts and minds and souls?

 

There is a sense in which, I think, this is what we experience beyond the veil that Jesus Christ rent in two on the Cross. Can this be so? Can this be not only what lies before us in its fulness, but also how we are to live today in Jesus Christ and with one another? Do we not have the melding of John 17 with Revelation 21 and 22?

 

Let’s ponder what Vos has selected from these two chapters:

        

“I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb are the temple thereof.” Are we not to live in Christ today? Is not the Holy Trinity to be our place of abode? Doesn’t Jesus tell the Woman at the Well that God is Spirit, that true worship is not a matter of geography, but rather of transcendent Spirit and Truth? Do we not see the phrase “in Christ” again and again in the New Testament? Can we see that we are the Temple of God, the dwelling place of God in the Spirit (Ephesians 2:19 – 22; 1 Peter 2:4 – 5)? God is our Temple and we are God’s Temple, is this not what we see in John 17?

 

“Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them…” (Rev. 21:3). Can we see that this is a continuation of John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…”? Can we see that this is an extension of John 12:24, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit”? Do we have eyes to see the manifestation of this City and Temple in Acts 2:4, “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit…”? He who was from eternity past, touched earth in Bethlehem, then in Jerusalem came to abide in His People, and will have His fuller manifestation on that Day we see in Revelation 21 and 22. (I do not say that this Mystery will have its “ultimate manifestation or expression” then, for who can grasp what koinonia with the Eternal One has for us? I do not think that “ultimate” is a word we can use in this context.).

 

“And that city has no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God lightens it…” We also read in Revelation 21:23 that “its lamp is the Lamb.” If the Lamb will be our lamp then, if the glory of God will be our light then, if we will not need the sun or the moon then – that is, if we will not need “lesser lights” then; why, O why, do we think we need lesser lights now? Is not Jesus Christ the Light of the world? Does not the Father emphatically say, “This is my Beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased, hear Him!” (Matthew 17:5)?

 

We are to glory in Jesus Christ, not in ourselves, and not in lesser lights, whether those lights be philosophy, doctrinal distinctives, traditions, nationalism, politics, sectarianism, Gnosticism in various forms – including pseudo-Christian forms, the social “sciences” with its myriad therapies and healers, worldviews, religious experiences…nothing, nothing, is to stand alongside the Person and Light and Life of Jesus Christ.

 

We only need to ask a question or two to determine whether we are dealing with a lesser light, or indeed, even dealing with false teaching. “Where is Jesus in this? Do I unambiguously see Jesus Christ portrayed? Where is the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ? Is this designed to draw me closer to Jesus Christ and His Cross? Is Jesus Christ the center of what I am hearing or what I am reading?”

 

Dear, dear friends, if you apply the above to much of what passes for Christian teaching and writing, you may find that you are seeing and hearing lesser lights, and in some cases false teaching, that has nothing to do with the Cross of Christ, the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, and the exclusive claim on our lives by Jesus Christ. Do not be deceived, the message of the Cross is an offense for it lays bear our sinfulness, our utter inability to attain to righteousness, and our spiritual and moral and ethical bankruptcy. When we come into a relationship with Jesus Christ our dependency on Him is total, complete, and unequivocal – for without Him we can do nothing, absolutely nothing (John 15:5).

 

If the City of Revelation chapters 21 and 22 is our eternal home, ought we not to begin to live in that City today? Ought not our congregations to portray that City? When the world looks at us, are they seeing citizens of that holy City, the City of God?

 

We’ll continue with this section from Vos in the next post.