The heavenly calling has been before the mind of God from the beginning, the man of the earth, in every age, from the fall of Adam bringing only grief and sorrow to the heart of God; the children of God being sufferers and strangers here. Of old it had been disclosed "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God" (Heb. 4:9); and from this same epistle we learn that this rest is in heaven (Heb. 6:20); a blessed rest indeed for the tried, suffering, weary saints of God.
When we turn to the 11th chapter of Hebrews, where faith is displayed in all its diversity of action and energy, as seen in the lives of that illustrious "cloud of witnesses," it is recorded of Abraham, "By faith he sojourned as a stranger in the land of promise, as in a foreign country, having dwelt in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise" (Heb. 11:9). Was his strangership referred to because he had left Ur of the Chaldees? nay, verily! Abraham was a stranger because he had not yet reached the heavenly inheritance. Nothing could cure or close his strangership but possession of the inheritance to which God had called him. "All these died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them from afar off and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and sojourners on the earth … they seek their country … that is, a heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God; for he has prepared for them a city." Well might the Spirit of God say of such, "of whom the world was not worthy."
Moses and Enoch, too, of patriarchal days are witnesses to this heavenly calling: "Enoch walked with God; and he was not; for God took him" (Gen. 5:24); and Moses, who was not allowed to enter the earthly inheritance, got the Pisgah of God. Elijah among the prophets did not see death, but was translated to heaven as Enoch was. And so the elect of God of the ages we have considered have their part in heaven, in the heavenly country and in the city God prepared for them. But their part is to be distinguished from the part of the saints of this dispensation, from the church which is the body and the Bride of Christ, in the Epistle to the Galatians the Old Testament saints are shown to be heirs, and here in Hebrews to be soon perfected in heaven; but they have no place with those of whom the hymn writer says:
Thou gav'st us, in eternal love,
To Him to bring us home to Thee.
These are the men that the Father has given Him out of the world.
If our place of privilege and of blessing is so great, the responsibilities attaching to it are correspondingly great. How do we measure up to this? How miserably we have failed in walking consistently with our heavenly calling and in the light of the heavenly inheritance. The condition of the saints of God today attests only too convincingly to the disruptive and disintegrating agencies that have combined to bring about such a deplorable condition of things. Had the heavenly calling been held in constant remembrance, in all its pristine lustre and perennial freshness, these disruptive elements would have had no place whatever. Another has said, "Declension begins with the surrender of the calling." These are searching words beloved! Those who are more matured in the things of God all agree that a saint always surrenders the highest truth which he has received when he declines. In this he acts in direct contrast with the man of the world who will, as a rule, sacrifice everything so that he can retain that upon which he has specially set his heart. Yes, it is very sad and solemn, that in every time, declension begins with the surrender of the calling, the glory of the position.
The calling is God's, and so the energy of Satan is directed against it, in order to contravene the will of God. The calling gives character to the present testimony, and hence if any one can be diverted from it, the enemy has gained the day. The glory of the Christian calling is that we are associated with the glorified Man in heaven, and every defection, since the day of its inauguration until now, begins with the surrender of the calling. In the light of these things how necessary it is to "have an outline of sound words." A partial Gospel will result in the allowance and sanction of that which beclouds the glory of the heavenly calling, such as earthly prosperity and the things of the world. I believe that the great characteristic of the revival of the truth at the beginning of the nineteenth century was that ours is a heavenly calling. Many joyfully parted with their goods knowing in themselves that in heaven they had "a better and an enduring substance" (Heb. 10:34). The one commanding thought was that they did not belong to earth, but to heaven; and all their hopes and joys centred in heaven. Professions, prospects, position, and even lawful callings were gladly surrendered, so that there should be a heavenly testimony. Do not say that this is carrying things to extremes. Was it not for this purpose that the blessed Lord gave Himself? "Who gave Himself for our sins, so that He should deliver us out of the present evil world, according to the will of our God and Father; to whom be glory to the ages of ages" (Gal. 1:4-5).
By the same mighty work on the cross we are justified; we are brought to joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, "through whom now we have received the reconciliation" (Rom. 5:11). Then our old man being crucified with Him, we reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus; by death we are freed from the man of sin and shame, the man under the judgment of God, and we now belong to the glorified Man in heaven. "He died for all, that they who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who died for them and has been raised" (2 Cor. 5:15). As being in Christ there is a new creation; the old things have passed away, all things have become new, and all things are of God; and the blessed One who is the centre of all these things is the object for the undivided attention and affection of our hearts. A great day has dawned upon our souls when we realise that the One whom the Father has set at His own right hand is none other than the Head of the body; my Head. How differently human things and thoughts appear as we contemplate Him thus.
Let us ever seek therefore the things which are above, where Christ sitteth; the things with which the Spirit of God would engage our hearts, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him, the deep things of God. Here we find the things prepared for us in the eternal counsels of His love, revealed now that we may enjoy them. But these things can only be enjoyed in the sphere to which they belong; and so the Spirit would bring us in spirit into those heavenly scenes as the only proper environment, where the new nature develops, expands, and becomes fruitful in us. One of the greatest anomalies in this world is the presence of the saints of God in it; they belong to heaven; and it ought to be our constant exercise that while absent from the place which is truly our home, we should display in heavenly ways and demeanour that we belong morally to that scene "prepared for us by Christ our Head." There are the things of the flesh in which those after the flesh enjoy themselves; but there are the things of the Spirit, the scene and elements for the engagement and enjoyment of those who are after the Spirit; otherwise we should be like fish out of water; that is with a new life, having different affections, tastes, desires, and capacities, and no sphere of things suited to them.
In closing I quote the words of beloved J. A. Trench, "The heavens, with Christ there as the intimate link that connects with all that is there, are the present revealed scene of our home, relationships, objects, hopes, joys, interests, and pursuits, that thus a heavenly people may be formed practically as such by what is heavenly on earth — showing out nothing but what is heavenly." May we so know the Lord's love to us that the least of heavenly things may be incomparably greater than all the things of this scene.
A. Shepherd.