Our Heavenly Calling: May 2006
Table of Contents
Heavenly Men
Called from above, and heavenly men by birth
(Who once were but the citizens of earth),
As pilgrims here, we seek a heavenly home,
Our portion in the ages yet to come.
Thou wast “the image,” in man’s lowly guise,
Of the invisible to mortal eyes;
Come from His bosom, from the heavens above,
We see in Thee incarnate, “God is love.”
Thy lips the Father’s name to us reveal;
What burning power in all Thy words we feel,
When to our raptured hearts we hear Thee tell
The heavenly glories which Thou know’st so well.
No curse of law, in Thee was sovereign grace,
And now what glory in Thine unveiled face!
Thou didst attract the wretched and the weak,
Thy joy the wanderers and the lost to seek.
That precious stream of water and of blood,
Which from Thy piercd side so freely flowed,
Has put away our sins of scarlet dye,
Washed us from every stain, and brought us nigh.
We are but strangers here; we do not crave
A home on earth, which gave Thee but a grave:
Thy cross has severed ties which bound us here,
Thyself our treasure in a brighter sphere.
J. G. Deck
Our Heavenly Calling
“Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me: for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24).
He came from God’s glory, all the way down to the depths of the cross with all its shame. God raised Him from the dead and gave Him His rightful place of honor at His right hand. The Father loved Him before the foundation of the world. He knows His own also love Him, and, loving Him, He knows that they would desire to see Him in His glory, having realized something of His shameful rejection and death. These are the ones He wants to be His bride. He could only desire that they be with Him where He was going. Nothing less could satisfy His heart. Soon, very soon, the Father will tell Him, Go, Son, and bring them home.
We are but strangers here; we do not crave
A home on earth, which gave Thee but a grave:
Thy cross has severed ties which bound us here,
Thyself our treasure in a brighter sphere.
Our Heavenly Calling: .au
A heavenly calling is not in itself exclusive to the church, for such a thing was known even in the Old Testament. In the first part of Hebrews 11, the Spirit of God refers to men like Abel, Enoch, Noah and Abraham, of whom it is said in verse 13, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” Then in verse 16 we read, “But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly.” So these men all looked for heavenly blessings rather than earthly ones, and with this hope, they lived as strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
The church, however, has a heavenly calling that is unique. Not only are we called to be strangers and pilgrims, but we are directly united to a risen Christ in glory. More than this, Christ is the center and pivot around which all of God’s purposes revolve, and Christ and the church are one. To be sure, God’s dealings with men on the earth revolve around Israel, and they will be brought back into blessing on earth during the day of the millennial kingdom. In that day they will be God’s administrative center in the world, and the kingdom will be governed from Jerusalem. However, they will not have the nearness to Christ and the place of blessing that the church will have. Not only will the church administer the kingdom with Christ, but they will have that special place of nearness to His heart that characterizes the bride. She is the bride of Christ, and even in the eternal state, when the kingdom as such has been delivered up “to God, even the Father” (1 Cor. 15:24), she is still presented “as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev. 21:2).
The Families in Heaven
Even in heaven all will not share that place of nearness, for Scripture speaks of “every family in the heavens” (Eph. 3:15 JND), showing us that there will be different families in heaven. So the Lord Jesus could say of John the Baptist, “Among them that are born of women there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Matt. 11:11). John the Baptist will be in heaven, for he will have “part in the first resurrection” (Rev. 20:6), but positionally he will not be part of the church, and in that sense all who are part of the church will be greater than he.
The Favored Place of the Church
Thus we see that the church is in a most favored place in God’s sight. Others were called to look forward to heavenly blessings, but only the church is united to a risen Christ in glory. Only the church will be the bride of Christ in heaven for all eternity. The question arises, “Does this have its proper effect in our lives?” Paul could say to the Corinthians, “I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:2). The church is to be only for Christ, like a woman who waits for her wedding day, yet she is left in this world to be a living witness for the One who has given everything in order to have that “one pearl of great price” (Matt. 13:46). May we have our Bridegroom before us and live as those who wait for Him to come at any moment!
Remembering Our Calling
If we remember our heavenly calling, it makes the pathway of faith simple. We will not be asking whether it is all right to do this or that, but rather will feel instinctively what is appropriate for those who are engaged to Christ, the man presently rejected by this world. We will not be mixing with the world on its level, but will be like the woman in the Song of Solomon who delighted to tell others of the beauties of her Beloved. If our hearts are really full of anticipation for His coming, it will show on our faces and in our lives. Our longing will be to see the One who loves us and died for us, and we will want to be at home with Him. Because He is absent, everything down here will fail to interest us, even though we may, up to a point, enjoy the things of nature that He has created and given for our good. But all bears the stamp of death, and we look for that which is heavenly.
If we can only grasp what our heavenly calling means, it can only draw us closer to the blessed One who is our Bridegroom and whose coming is our hope! W. J. Prost
Beholding Him in Heaven
When a believer is full of the Holy Spirit, where will he look? And what will mark his testimony? We are told that Stephen, “being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God” (Acts 7:55). Thus we learn that the Holy Spirit led him to look away from his present trial to the Lord Himself, where He now is in the glory of God. He was thus led by the Spirit to gaze steadfastly on that blessed One who loved him and gave Himself for him. He was occupied with the glorified Man who a short time before had suffered at the hands of His betrayers and murderers, who no doubt was strengthening His servant’s faith and encouraging his heart, by presenting to his view a martyr’s crown. It was not now Stephen remembering a finished work done for him on the cross, blessed as it always is, but occupation with the Person who had done the work. Thus the Spirit of God directs us to look to Christ in glory.
The Person
Stephen’s testimony to others, therefore, was concerning this wondrous Person who now filled his soul’s vision, occupied every faculty of his mind, and filled every chamber of his heart. He was absorbed with the Lord Himself, so that he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God” (vs. 56). Of what else could he speak at such a moment, but the glorified Man? What a testimony! It was not abstract doctrine, however true or important in its place, but what he saw and was occupied with was the Lord Himself.
We shall find that the secret of our walking as Christ walked, of growing in grace, of sustaining the life of faith and joy — blessings which we all so desire — are realized in personal relationship and communion with Christ glorified.
Like the Master
The effect of Stephen’s being occupied with Christ in heaven, in all the attractiveness of His grace and glory, was that he acted like his Master, and that under the most trying and distressing circumstances. The suffering martyr was able to pray for those that hated him and despitefully used him: “He kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.” We also find that when the stones of his cruel murderers were rolling in upon his body and crushing him to death, he quietly and confidingly committed himself to the Lord, saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit”! Thus the suffering servant on earth, looking up steadfastly into heaven and occupied with the Lord Himself, was able in measure to walk as He walked, who, when suffering all the agonies of the cross, prayed for His murderers, saying, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” and who also closed His path of suffering with “Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit.” If we are to manifest the ways of Christ on earth, we must be taken up with Him who is now on the right hand of God!
The effect of our being occupied with Him there by the Spirit, as He is made known to us through the Scriptures, is that we become more and more changed according to His own mind. “We all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18 JND). Thus we have seen not only that the Holy Spirit directs us to look up to a glorified Christ and occupies us with Him, but also that then our ways will be like His ways, our testimony will be of Him, and our progress will be according to His own mind — “from glory to glory.” How encouraging to our hearts to look up to Him!
H. H. Snell, selected from
Things New and Old, Vol. 25, p. 38
Enjoyment and Conflict
There is the heavenly life, the warfare in the heavenly places, which goes on at the same time with the wilderness journey. When I say at the same time, I do not mean at the same instant, but during the same period of our natural life on the earth. It is one thing to pass through this world faithfully, or unfaithfully, in our daily circumstances under the influence of a better hope; it is another thing to be waging a spiritual warfare for the enjoyment of the promises and of heavenly privileges and to conquer the power of Satan on God’s behalf, as men already dead and risen, as being absolutely not of the world. Both these things are true of the Christian life. Now, it is as dead and risen again in Christ that we are in spiritual conflict; to make war in Canaan we must have crossed the Jordan. To this Ephesians answers, only Ephesians has nothing to do with our death to sin. It is, as to this question, simply God’s act, taking us when dead in sin and placing us in Christ on high. Colossians is partially both. It is life here in resurrection, but it does not set us in heavenly places — only our affections there. By heavenly life I mean living in spirit in heavenly places. Christ was divinely there — we are united to Him by the Spirit.
In both Philippians and Colossians the heavenly life is spoken of as a present thing, but there is entire separation, even down here, between the pilgrimage and this heavenly life itself, although the latter has a powerful influence on the character of our pilgrim life. J. N. Darby
Seated in the Heavenlies in Christ Jesus
It may not be too much to say that the whole of the Epistle to the Ephesians is the development of chapter 1:3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” In this statement of praise there are three things. First, all the blessings into which we are brought flow to us from God as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that is to say that, on the ground of redemption, we are brought into the same relationship with God as Christ enjoys. Second, all these spiritual blessings are made ours as being in Christ. Third, the place in which they are possessed and enjoyed is in the heavenlies. Let us prayerfully seek to understand these points.
We may ask what is meant by Christ being in the heavenlies, and this is explained to us at the end of chapter 1. There the Apostle prays that the saints may understand “what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the [heavenlies]” (Eph. 1:17-20).
The mighty power of God was displayed in the resurrection of Christ. He was raised up out of the grave in which He lay and set down at God’s own right hand in the heavenlies. We read that His power for us is “according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ.” If chapter 1 gives us the effect of this mighty power in relation to Christ, chapter 2 shows us the effect on His people. The exceeding greatness of God’s power met us in the place where we were dead in sins and “quickened us together with Christ . . . and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:5-6). Christ has accomplished God’s purposes for God’s glory, and God has acted in power in response to the One who has endured all for His glory. The effect is seen in a twofold way — in the place Christ occupies, and in the place we occupy in Him — seated in Him in the heavenlies.
It may be objected that we are in Christ Jesus in the heavenlies only in the sense of being seen in Him as the head of the new race. In the first place, Christ is never spoken of as the Head of a race in this epistle; rather, He is spoken of as Head over all things to the church. We are also told that all things, whether in heaven or in earth, will be “headed up” in the Christ, but this is a very different thing. We are blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ, not merely through Christ. As united to Him and members of His body, we are blessed in Him. This is the teaching of Ephesians. There everything is seen as on God’s side, the side of purpose, and thus is complete. The counsels of God are accomplished, and He has before Him His whole church seated in Christ. He reveals this to us to show us our true place, the character of our blessings, and the scene in which, in spirit, He would have us live and move. We have been made to sit in heavenly places in Christ. There is the whole church now before the eye of God, and He has it there “that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7).
Adapted from The Christian
Friend, 1884, pp. 204-207
Heavenly Calling and Union With Christ
Our heavenly calling is not in itself our union with Christ at all. It is very important to make the difference. Those who have the heavenly calling may be united. But union with Christ is not a calling but a state, an acquired place and position. A calling is that to which we are called by faith and is never in itself union, though those called may be united. My calling is that which God has set before my soul, as that which is to form my soul, by my heart being set upon it as given to me by grace, and by grace called to it, and Scripture constantly deals with the soul on this ground.
J. N. Darby from Collected Writings, Vol. 15
Earthly Christianity
In Joshua 1:12 the Word of God refers to the Reubenites, the Gadites and half the tribe of Manasseh. We remember that they had chosen to take their inheritance on the eastern side of Jordan because it was well adapted to their circumstances (Num. 32). Now, when the time had come to conquer the land of Canaan, they do not refuse to enter, as did the previous generation, when the spies caused their hearts to melt. On the contrary, they associate themselves with their brethren, but not to take possession of the land. They had already chosen their inheritance on the other side of Jordan, because the country was “a land for cattle” (Num. 32:4).
Earthly Cares
It is the same with many Christians today. The main point in the lives of such believers is the circumstances of this life, the everyday needs, such as enclosures for their cattle and cities for their families. Such are not, properly speaking, lacking in faith. On the contrary, they experience that the Lord can enter in grace into all their circumstances, adapting Himself to them. Theirs is not a worldly Christianity, but an earthly one. Israel was a type of worldly Christianity when they refused to enter into the land with Moses at the first, but the two and a half tribes are the type of those who lower Christianity to a life of faith for the earthly circumstances they experience, making their life to consist in these things. Moses is at first indignant, but afterwards he bears with them, seeing that although their faith was weak, still it was faith, and that these earthly links did not separate them from their brethren.
Such a tendency to lower Christianity to earthly cares is evident on every hand. With much pretension to power, little is known beyond a Christ in whom to trust for His providential care and in the details, great or small, of everyday life. Christ is indeed known as a Shepherd, but even in this way, how feebly the extent of His resources is appreciated! The green pastures are not in the sheepfolds, pastures and cities of Gilead (east of the Jordan), but rather in the land of Canaan.
Heavenly Canaan
It is good to trust in Him for everything, but let us know something of the joy of entrance even now there where a glorified Christ is to be found, of being attached outside this world, drawn away from this scene, to be introduced, dead and risen with Him, into a heavenly Canaan. There the motive for our walk will no longer be “much cattle,” but, having left all behind — self and the affairs of this life —in the bottom of the river of death, we will be ready to fight to take possession of all our privileges in Christ and to enjoy them in the power of the Spirit. It is well to fight against infidelity and the power of Satan in this world, but let death and resurrection be a realization with us, and not merely a creed.
Worldly Principles
The two and a half tribes again come to our attention in Joshua 22. They had gone on armed before their brethren to fight the enemies of the Lord in the land of Canaan. Now they receive from Joshua permission to return to their inheritance on the other side of Jordan. There was apparently nothing in them with which to find fault. However, a problem soon presented itself with them.
When the Christian allows, in any measure, the principles of this world to govern his conduct, his position necessarily becomes a very complicated one, whereas nothing is more simple than the path of faith. In this way the two and a half tribes had found it necessary to build sheepfolds for their cattle, fenced cities for their families, and to abandon their wives and children during many a long year. Now, when the opportunity comes for them to return to their homes, a fresh complication presents itself. The Jordan separates them from the rest of the tribes and they are uneasy. Their position exposes them to a division, and they see that the moment may come when they will be treated as strangers by their brethren. The danger of their situation obliges them to set up a testimony by which they publicly proclaim that they serve Jehovah, just as on a previous occasion (Josh. 1:1618) their doubtful position had compelled them to make a loud profession. So they build a great altar in the borders of Jordan within the limits of their territory. Their own wisdom leads them to set up this testimony. It might be called a confession of faith, against which, for the moment, nothing could be said. Nevertheless, it had the appearance of another gathering point. This act, the result of a good intention, savored of man. Their contrivance for maintaining unity gave them the appearance of denying it, and they expose themselves to being misunderstood.
The Sin of Independence
The children of Reuben and Gad eventually called the altar, the altar of Ed, meaning “a witness.” An even greater evil was in danger of creeping in with this altar of Ed, and that is that it might open the door to independence. Phinehas, a pattern of zeal for Christ, sees through all this. He brings before these two and a half tribes two things that could result from this — the sin of Achan and what had happened in the iniquity of Peor. Achan’s sin was lusting after the things of the world, while Peor was characterized by a corrupt alliance with the religious world.
May God keep us from worldliness, alliance with the religious world, and independence, the most subtle and dangerous of all, because it is the root of all sin. Christ is ever the holy and the true, and our responsibility is to be faithful to Him. May we be found walking in holiness and dependence, without which there is no communion with Him.
H. L. Rossier, adapted from
Meditations on Joshua
How to Be Heavenly
What was the power to the converts of early days to be heavenly? It is one thing to see what the heavenly calling is, and another to know the spring of power that makes a people heavenly. We know that the Lord Jesus has gone from this world to heaven, the Holy Spirit has come down, and the mystery of the church has come out in Paul’s ministry. During our Lord’s earthly ministry, the twelve had the personal experience of what Christ was during three and a half years of intimacy. All that time their thoughts were set on His taking the place of king on earth, and even after His resurrection their thoughts went on beating round that same idea. He was with them forty days as a risen Man, His thoughts flowing out according to God’s plans. Then they saw Him go up, but even then they did not know that He would not return at that time to Jerusalem to reign, for God meant to make the people one more offer. But He was gone! The magnet that had drawn their hearts had gone off to heaven, and it was impossible not to feel, in thought and affection, that heaven was the scene for them.
When He was on earth, Peter, James and John could not, ought not, to have had their thoughts in heaven where their Lord was not. He was to be the center of their hearts; their thoughts and affections were to follow Him. That lies at the bottom of the question: How am I to become heavenly? Get firm hold of the fact that Christ has gone up into heaven and has not come back. Yes, Christ is gone into heaven, and I can afford to be discovering whatever in me is not like Him. Do not say, “There is no hope, now that things are so low and worldly everywhere,” or I shall think you do not love Christ. What do you possess if you have not Christ? Where do you have Him? In heaven. Look to it, that whatever in you is inconsistent with Him there is judged.
The Spirit of God Is the Power
The Spirit of God is the power in the children of God, and as such all power is centered in Him. He is also called the Spirit of Christ, and as such He is the expression of His mind and ways. He has come down to you from Christ, and He has brought power and the mind of Christ down into you. You may speak of your weakness, for you cannot expect anything but this in yourself. However, if you have the Holy Spirit, you know the power of God in yourself, and you must not speak of your weakness.
Christians do not feel the solemnity of the fact that they are robbing God of His glory. The thought, “I want peace,” will not give solemnity like, “How dare I question what Christ has done?” Levity does not become us in the presence of the Son of Man in heaven. God has rolled the curtain right back and shown us what is in heaven. His Son, having made purgation, sat down there (Heb. 1:3). Christ is now Head of His house; He outshines all the rest, though fulfilling all in Himself.
Heavenly Interests in Our Earthly Path
There is a solemn word which I should like to see put home on all our hearts. To Israel it was one thing to leave Egypt, but it was another thing for that generation to fall in the wilderness. We cannot get through the place without God, and we do not want to do so without Him. God knows how, not only to show bright visions of glory, but to bring the heart of a man into that position where nothing but Abba will do for him down here, as well as up there. It is not merely that you must go through the wilderness, but that God has so formed it that man may have the opportunity of saying deliberately, “I will have nothing but from God and Christ.” He brings us into circumstances in which He is our servant. The Word of God searches and exposes you. If you give yourself credit for the least bit of will or power, you will go down from that point.
What sort of hearts does the Lord find when He reads yours and mine? Will He turn away? No, but He will bring in His own deepest experience to bear on our weakness, as He did, in Revelation 1, with John, who fell at His feet as dead. Christ looks at the dirtiest thing He can find — the soiled heart of a poor sinner — and makes it fit for the presence of God. There is nothing between you and God now, any more than between God and Christ. Take care what you are about. It is in heaven your portion is; take care your interests are eternal now. Look at Paul, and see if you are like him in this respect.
G. V. Wigram, from Ministry of G. V. Wigram
The Power of Nazariteship
In Luke 2:49 the Lord puts the question to His earthly parents, “Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?” Which of us would have said these words when we were twelve years old? His ways had been such that He would appeal to them as though they ought to have known from the tenor of His life what he was occupied with. Philippians 3 shows how Paul, a man of like passions with us, may tread the same path, seeing and estimating the beauty of Christ. The effect was, first, that he counted all else dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord, and, second, having the death of the Lord as his substitute and the resurrection of Christ as his righteousness, he found that everything was against him. His position was like that of Christ Himself, and he could say, “Father.” As a child of the Father, his thought becomes, I want to be like Christ in the fellowship of His sufferings. He had no bag with holes, like Judas, into which he could put the things of earth. They were but dung, and the whole world to him was a place savoring of the murder of Christ, and it produced in him a sort of nauseous disgust of the things in it.
Association With Christ
The power of Nazariteship comes from the knowledge of association with Christ. Being crucified with Him and raised up together with Him, I would like to walk as He did in this world, to have the life He had when raised from the dead manifested in my ways. How few have this as their aim and object! How few seek to live out Christ! What will produce it? If you and I could say, “Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?” we should soon find ourselves in the fellowship of His sufferings. If I am a son, the Father has His business still to be done down here. Does it enter into our souls, sitting around the table, when we commemorate the death of our Lord, that our Father has business to be done? By His Spirit we can find out what part of that business He puts on us, and let us do that, letting self and the world completely go. The extent to which the simple faith of that truth would bring our hearts into treading the same path as Christ trod and give power to be occupied with the Father’s business is greater than we know. Christ has brought me, put me in the right place — I in one, you in another, where there is suffering or no suffering, but as He likes, and where there is His Father’s business to be done. Standing in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, conscious that His Father is our Father, His God our God, and that we have the Spirit of that blessed One at the right hand of God, the purpose of our hearts must be to mind the Father’s business. Have you purpose of heart? The compass needle quivers restlessly till it has turned to the north; there is purpose there. “Whose service is perfect freedom” should be our word. What am I doing? Minding the Father’s business, for one thing. What is my confidence as to what lies before me? What would it be if I sought only the Father’s will, if I had confidence in His wisdom and desired nothing but His will? How could I fear if I had no business but the Father’s will?
G. V. Wigram from Ministry of G. V. Wigram,
Vol. 1, pp. 234235
Our Calling and the Church
The heavenly calling does not in itself convey the thought of the church. We might, as a set of individuals, be called up, and look to be caught up into heaven, and have a heavenly portion as the brethren of Christ, without knowing that we were the body and bride of Christ. The “hope” of the church is its marriage with the Bridegroom, and that is in heaven; we may come forth from heaven, for the kingdom and the glory, but our place is in heaven, in the unity with Christ as one with Him. We are builded together for the habitation of God through the Spirit; that is the calling of the church down here.
J. N. Darby from Collected Writings,
Vol. 12, pp. 381-382
The Heavenly Calling and the Church
Question: Does the expression “heavenly calling” of Hebrews 3:1 include only the church, or is it wider in its aspect than the church?
Answer: The writer of Hebrews is addressing a peculiar remnant. They had been Jews and had come in for all the blessings of a “heavenly calling.” This calling is much wider in aspect than the “assembly which is His [Christ’s] body,” and it takes in all the Old Testament saints, all of whom will have part in the Father’s kingdom (Matt. 13). “The Bride, the Lamb’s wife” will have a higher place in the glory, and we (alone) as “the bride” in spirit now are “in Christ Jesus,” not merely “in Christ.”
There are three normal aspects in which a person may be said to be a “believer” in Scripture:
1. As one who is earthly in hope — a millennial saint, for instance.
2. As one who awaits perfection (actual) in Christ, in a glorified body. This all the Old Testament saints will have (see Heb. 11), as also those who may be slain during “the great tribulation” will have. These receive a supplementary resurrection before Christ appears in glory.
3. As one who has lived on earth at any time from Pentecost till the rapture of the church. Such a one, when sealed, is united to Christ above and will (as being “in Christ Jesus”) have a special portion in the heavenly side of the kingdom as the bride, the Lamb’s wife.
Hebrews, then, is directly addressed to those who had been brought out of Judaism into the church, yet much of the epistle will suit the condition of those who will be slain during the tribulation and even those in the millennial kingdom on earth. The believer in Hebrews is seen on earth, but as looking for Him who “shall . . . appear . . . without sin unto salvation” (Heb. 9:28). Luke 21 gives us this remnant, while Matthew 24 and Mark 13 would include the millennial saints. David’s words, “I shall go to him” (2 Sam. 12:23) are expressive of the thought that he would become a heavenly man, and thus a partaker of the “heavenly calling.” The heir after the flesh has passed away and is sure above. This would bring in the “sure mercies of David” (Acts 13:34).
Adapted from Words of Truth, Vol. 8, pp. 38-39
Theme of the Next Issue
Glories of the Lord Jesus
In the next issue, we plan, the Lord willing, to focus attention on some of the glories of our Lord Jesus Christ. How thrilling to anticipate the Father’s answer to our Lord’s prayer: “Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory” (John 17:24)!
Called From Above
He came from above, from the dwelling-place of God, to earth. He lived quietly for about thirty years. Then He called disciples to follow Him as He traveled from town to town doing good and calling sinners to repentance. He was rejected, cast out, nailed to a cross and crucified. Loving hands carried His body to the grave and kept watch over the tomb. On the third day, He rose from the dead and manifested Himself to them for the next forty days. Then He was taken up from them into heaven to sit at the Father’s right hand.
Following Him
The moment the cloud received Him out of their sight, their object, their hope and their lives were no longer centered on earth; their Lord, their all in all, was now in heaven. From that moment on, their lives were linked to heaven. Separated in heart from earth by death, His death, they now lived in the power of resurrection life and in the hope of His promise to return for them to receive them up to Himself and take them home to the Father’s house where they would be with Him forever. Since He would no longer be with them on earth to look after them, when He got to heaven He sent down to earth the Holy Spirit to dwell in them and to handle and direct the affairs of their lives. The Spirit in them was the “seal” of their redemption and the assurance that, belonging to Him, their portion was to be with Him where He was, to behold Him in His glory.
Shortly after his Lord returned to heaven, Stephen charged the Jews with their sin in murdering Him, the Just One, and, in response, they cast him, like his Lord, out of the city to stone him to death. He, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up into heaven itself and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on God’s right hand. He, calling upon God, said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” and fell asleep in Jesus.
A Heavenly Man on Earth
Later, Saul on his mission to persecute these people who were followers of Jesus was struck down by the light of heaven and heard a voice from heaven speaking to him. Called from above, He was obedient to the heavenly vision, owning Jesus as Lord, and this new man was given the new name of Paul. He had the unique privilege of being called up to the third heaven to view the glory that awaits those who like himself are called from above. God made his life a pattern for all to follow—the pattern of a heavenly man living on earth. As such he was crucified with Christ; he had Christ risen as his life; he had Christ in glory as the sole object of his life. He forgot everything already behind him, to run totally focused on the goal line and “the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14 JND).
The Jews were an earthly people with earthly hopes and promises. But when they rejected and crucified their king, they stood guilty of casting out the One on whom all their earthly promises depended. During the present day of grace, those earthly hopes have been set aside. Now they, like all other men, are to trust in Jesus to be made “partakers of the heavenly calling.” The Man in heaven at the right hand of God is to be their Apostle and High Priest. Earthly things, including the visible things of earthly worship, are set aside and “heavenly things” take their place. Instead of having an earthly dwelling-place for God, which they were not fit to enter into, they were now given access into heaven itself to worship — access through Christ, who had by one sacrifice forever removed their sins from God’s sight. Better still, each one who, like Paul, responds in faith to the heavenly call leaves his earthly place as a Jew and becomes a part of the church of God, the new, heavenly Jerusalem.
Earthly or Heavenly
Today, every man begins life as a member of Adam’s race, a citizen of earth. As such, he has no place, no link with heaven, but is lost in his sins. The Man from heaven came to earth seeking and saving such. When found, he is redeemed — redeemed from his sinful condition, given new life in Christ, raised up from the dead with his Saviour, and seated before God in heavenly places. His citizenship—his life and relationships — are now heavenly; he minds heavenly things. The supreme object of his life is in heaven and nothing can fully satisfy him but being with and like his Lord where He is. He looks for Him, his heavenly hope, to fulfill His promise, “Surely I come quickly.”
Before, he was of the first man of the earth, earthy, but the second man, his Redeemer, is the Lord from heaven. He shall be changed to bear the image of the heavenly. Now in the earthly house he groans “earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with [his] house which is from heaven.” He waits for the redemption of the body, that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (see Rom. 8:23; 2 Cor. 5:1).
When at home, in heaven, he shall share the glory with others who desired “a better country, that is, a heavenly” one — others like Noah and Abraham and David and John the Baptist who were also to be taken up to share in the heavenly kingdom (2 Tim. 4:18) and to be there as friends of the Bridegroom. When God’s coming judgments are in the earth, some in faithfulness to their Lord will be martyred. They, too, shall be called up to heaven as part of the “first resurrection.”
A Warning
Each one, now called from above, is warned about the danger of minding “earthly things” — of losing sight of their “treasure” in heaven, of the fact that their Lord has been cast out and crucified, and, as a result, of becoming like those who are enemies of the cross of Christ (Phil. 3:1820). Such are called upon to rise up, trim their lamps (with oil in them) and go forth to meet their Bridegroom, for the marriage in heaven is at hand.
D. F. Rule