The person of the Lord, the works which He has wrought, and the light which He has shed down from on high,-would Justify fully "Most earnestly" as faith's answer to this question.
Paul's answer may be gleaned, I think, easily:-" to die is gain " (Phil. 1:2121For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21)); "I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better " (ver. 23). " We are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord we are confident, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord " (2 Cor.).
And this, in the very nature of things, is the result of faith.
1st. The person of the Lord is not down here, but up there, where I should be if I left the body. The beauty and the attractiveness of that person fills the throne on high, and fills heaven and the minds of all that have heaven's estimate of Him. I know Him. Precious in God's sight, is He not precious to me? my Lord and my God, my life hid in God is He. He loved me He loves me; He will love me even unto the end. High on the throne, higher still in the Father's love and approbation than even His present place with the Father, in the glory which He had with Him before the world was, can tell; Himself, object of worship on high,-His heart, His mind, His affection and thoughts are all told out there, by His actions, to be upon me! If He call me to heaven, shall I not go, and go cheerfully? If that word reach me, " the master calls for thee," or " rise up and come away," shall no glad joy fill my soul? Such love in Him provokes desire, in the heart that knows it.
2nd. His works, in doing which He has told out the who and the what He is, clear the way too, not only for our saying, What love! but clear the way of all the real difficulties to desiring to depart.
He came down from on high once to become a man (Phil. 2), and in His course down here showed out His will-lessness and His subjection unto death, the death of the Cross. His will-lessness and subjection have convicted me of wilfulness and of insubjection. But in that death of His, He bare all the wrath divine which was due to my wilfulness and insubjection; and now risen from among the dead, He is alive without any reference to my sin, save that it has been borne by Himself in my stead. My most gracious loving Lord 1 alive there He has proclaimed what are the thoughts up there of God and His Father about me. Crucified together with Him, dead together with Him, buried together with Him, quickened together with Him, raised up together with. Him, made sit together with Him-six unsearchably full privileges! And, there above, He cares for all the interests of His people; secures all for them up there and secures them down here for Himself and His Father up there. And what was the blessedness of the use these fruits of His death, resurrection, and ascension to be? " I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God (a living person, seen by faith,) who loved me and gave Himself for me " (Gal. 2:19,2019For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. 20I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:19‑20)). " I.... live to God." " He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again " (2 Cor. 5:1515And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. (2 Corinthians 5:15)). A life to Himself up there He main tains in us; and this is inseparable from conflict with Satan, and bearing the Cross upon one's own shoulder down here, through a hostile world that knows us not. To live to Him supposes a new life and nature to have been given to us, consists in living to Him and not to ourselves, and flows out of occupation with things in heaven where He is. But what is a Son of God, an heir of God and joint heir together with Christ, to do while he finds himself down here? Surely to have divine freedom from all around, and Nazarite occupation with Christ and His things in heaven. To be in our measure, each one down here, for Him and His representative, as Himself on high represents our portion and place anal hope. Everything which I needed to be done down here He came and did. Everything which I need to be done up there now He is there to do it. Everything which I shall need to be done hereafter He will come again out of the glory to do.
3rd. And has He not shed forth, on His people down here, that which bears ample testimony in their souls who have committed themselves to God and the word of His grace, that, in and through Christ Jesus, all things are theirs?
" Children of God by faith and Christ Jesus," and " because ye are sons God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father.' " If children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs together with Christ, if so be we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together."
Believer! have I drawn an untruthful picture of the claims of the common faith upon your heart's desires to be at ones, with the Lord? And how is it with you in this matter? I ask it kindly-not legally, so putting upon you a burden as a man, according to what you were as a creature; but spiritually, as raising the question according to the place you have as a new creation in Christ. Have you that enjoyment of Himself and of His way as to make it a matter of self-denying patience in you to remain down here, only because He wills you still to be away from home for a while, a pilgrim and a stranger still, where you find no rest for the sole of your foot: your affections and thoughts being in another scene than this, even above where He is, and conflict down here your portion?
The cares of this life prevent this with some, that is, they know not how to fulfill their duties down here as unto Christ up there. The poor man, called to eat bread in the sweat of his brow, oft forgets that it is not His labor that feeds him and his children, but God who gives him both labor and its guerdon. In the sweat, etc., marks the state (the streaming forehead, or toiled labored state of him that eats,) not the source from which he draws what he wants, be it bread and rent, or be it planting or watering the seed of life. The deceitfulness of stores down here in the hand, present possessions in the things of the world, or it may be in the Lord's field, hinder some (who walk through nature, according to things seen,) from remembering what they have in God of Christ Jesus. And wherever energy of nature from within is at work, it will both snatch at what it can get, and, therefore, necessarily keep the soul out of present occupancy with Christ in heaven.
Intellectual perception of the justness of faith's claim to a ready, "I come, Lord," is well, as showing forth God's having well cleared our way. But the eyes of the heart must be enlightened, if I am not only to generalize and say: " It is of the very nature of the new man to say, I long, Lord, to be with Thee;" but if, myself a member in particular, I am to say to Him, "I long to be with THEE." To do this truthfully, I must be able to present to God, in the secret of His presence, a heart weaned from itself. It may be through disgust at what I, as a human being am, in contrast with what my Lord, whop, I adore, is. I so willful, He so will-less. I so would-be independent, He so subject to God and His Father. And yet, too, there is power in the contrast in what I, as a descendant of Adam, am; and what, as a new creation, in Him. And His love so full and free, so unselfishly proving itself every day down here to the poor silly sheep whom He has picked up in the dreary desert, saving it from the lion and the bear, and the desert itself; joying and rejoicing in heaven over it now, and about to let it soon in a renewed body, glorious like unto His own, into those courts above, that house of His Father's love!
But I must add that the one great reason of the want of boldness and confidence now-a-days, the want of desire to be with Himself so soon as He will,-the sooner felt to be the better-is the want of individual practical dissociation from the present evil world and victory over the flesh, with its affections and lust. Through want of these things the shadow of darkness of the enemy rests upon many a lot. Such clearly have a part to act, a something to do. Even to retrace in thought their course to the first point of divergence from the path of that faith once given to them, and having owned that failure before God, then before man, to begin and cease to do evil and learn to do well. The extent to which the world, with its pleasant pictures, is sanctioned by believers, in the present day, is solemn in practice; and how opposed to the wearing upon heart and mind and in life down here, the Cross of Christ (Phil. 3:1818(For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: (Philippians 3:18), Gal. 6:12-1512As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. 13For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. 14But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. 15For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. (Galatians 6:12‑15)). Self-judgment for past if not present ways and habits and thoughts is called for, and a taste of the contrast between our conduct as representing Christ down here, and His conduct on high as representing us. Can we bear the test: "I represent Him down here as and because He represents me up there."
Many, I am persuaded, have to begin there. They must go on afterward with us in daily learning how to have their souls occupied with Christ and His things in heaven. Heaven alone can displace earth in a soul; Christ alone can displace myself, with all its likings and dislikings, and lusts.
Christ 'Jesus in heaven upon the throne, my Lover, Savior, and my Lord; head of that body of which I am a member-is all I can turn to amid the ruined state of all around me.
Read Col. 3:1,41If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. (Colossians 3:1)
4When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:4); study Phil. 3 (especially from 17 to 21); mark Gal. 6:12,1512As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. (Galatians 6:12)
15For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. (Galatians 6:15); and deal faithfully with yourself as one who feels called up to examine for Christ's own name sake that part of His property which lies under your own eye.
The Lamb upon the throne who said, I am He that liveth, was dead; and behold, I am alive for. evermore. Amen. And have the keys of death and of Hades-Him you will find your only place of rest, the only restorer of your soul, if your heart has so lost its first love as not to long and yearn still to be with Him. Amen and amen. How happy should I now be if I had died.