Heavenly Mindedness (73)

 

“And the faith is the faith of the Psalmist, who spoke: “Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.” Here it is impossible for us to tell how truly and to what extent our relation to God is a relation of pure, disinterested love in which we seek Him for his own sake. There, when all want and sin-frailty shall have slipped away from us, we shall be able to tell.

 

“It was because God discerned in the souls of the patriarchs, underneath all else, this personal love, this homesickness for Himself, that He caused to be recorded about them the greatest thing that can be spoken of any man: that God is not ashamed to be called their God, and that He has prepared for them the city of their desire.” G. Vos

 

As we continue to work through the final two paragraphs of Vos’s message, let’s ponder: “Here it is impossible for us to tell how truly and to what extent our relation to God is a relation of pure, disinterested love in which we seek Him for his own sake. There, when all want and sin-frailty shall have slipped away from us, we shall be able to tell.”

 

There are three components to the above, “here,” “there,” and “pure, disinterested love.” We’ll look at the first and third, and then consider the second.

 

Is it really impossible for us to tell, in this life, how much we love God and the nature of our love for Him?

 

When we do see God face to face, will we think about such things? Will we look to our lives on this earth and consider how much we loved God and what the form of that love was? Will we look to our condition as it will then be, and measure our love for God?

 

Regarding the third element in the above, our future state in eternity, my sense is that we will be so caught up, so focused, so centered, in the Father and the Lamb; so filled with love for them and God’s love for us, and with their glory, that the idea of measuring ourselves – whether measuring our past life on this earth, or our life as it is then in the Trinity and with one another, will not enter our minds, hearts, or souls. This is my sense.

 

In 1 Corinthians 15:35ff Paul touches on the glory and substance of the Resurrection. In 2 Corinthians 3:1 – 18 Paul writes of the glory of the Gospel, of the New Covenant, and that it has a trajectory of what I’ll style as “open heavens” with a continual unveiling of Jesus Christ, an unveiling which transforms us into His image (2 Cor. 3:17 – 18; recall our consideration of Colossians 3:1ff and 1 John 3:1ff).

 

In Dante’s journey into Paradise, Canto III, Dante the pilgrim, with an earthly mindset, wants to know whether those in the lower areas of Paradise want to aspire to higher areas, aren’t they thinking about progressing? Don’t they want to be farther “up there” with those higher than themselves? Dante the author’s answer to the question is fuller than what I’m going to quote and it demonstrates Dante the pilgrim’s inaccurate perception, for it is replete with assurance and joy and peace and contentment, but the following oft-quoted segment is the beginning of the answer to Dante’s question by a lady in Paradise:

 

“Brother, love’s virtue sets our will at rest,

and makes us wish for only what we have,

and doth not make us thirsty for aught else.

If higher we desired to be, our wishes

would be discordant with the will of Him,

who here discerneth us, which, thou wilt see,

can in these circles not occur, if love

be necessary to existence here,

and if love’s nature thou consider well.

Nay more, essential to this blessèd life

it is, that we should be within the Will

Divine, whereby our wills become one will;

and so, even as we are, from grade to grade

throughout this Realm, to all the Realm is pleasing,

as to its King, who in His Will in-wills us;

and His Will is our Peace; and that

the Ocean is, whereunto moveth all

that It creates, and all that Nature makes.”

 

Courtney Langdon, translator. Public Domain

 

We live by God’s grace here, we will live by God’s grace “there.” We live in Christ here, we will live in Christ “there.” My sense is that, as we behold Christ and the Father “there” that we will have no inclination, or thought, of self-assessment, of measurement, of comparison – for God will be “all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28).

We’ll pick this back up in the next post in this series.