It is of no little importance that we should recognize that Christianity in its very essence is as heavenly as He who inspired it. Many are they who accept its divine authorship, who have never adequately apprehended it to be an absolutely heavenly thing, though in an earthly locale. But practically we find that the less it is apprehended as heavenly, the less also will its divine aspect be before the soul. And this we may safely predicate, that it is impossible to understand its character and its scope, unless in its origin, in its essence, in its operation and in its end, it is seen to be altogether a heavenly product for a heavenly purpose. How contracted and how erroneous are the prevailing thoughts of what Christianity is. How little is it accepted as the reflection of a heavenly Christ in a heavenly people redeemed from the earth, who are here only for Himself and looking for translation at His coming!
"The first man... of the earth, earthy," had been running his carnal and material course for forty centuries here below, before "the second man" paid a visit of three and thirty years to the same scene, having been sent into it in grace to "the first." As man, He was, He is, "the heavenly," and by this title is contrasted with "the earthy." In God's reckoning He was "second man," for all before God counts as one; and He was "last Adam," for there could be no more after. But more than this He was "from [or out of] heaven" as the first was out of the earth, made of dust. Refused and cut off from the earth, having nothing, He is now the risen Man in the glory of God, and alike in incarnation and in resurrection is He—"the heavenly" -there, now and eternally!
Further, as is He, "the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly [ones]." There is, it is admitted, another aspect of Christianity in which birth and profession give status, and wherein are certain privileges and answering responsibilities; but what is now before us is a matter of race, and as to this we are born of God, are partakers of the divine nature, and just as truly as the angels, are we one of the heavenly families. The One "who lived, who died, who lives again," has redeemed unto Himself a chosen race of which, as the risen Man, He is the glorified Head, and this word—"as the heavenly [One], such also the heavenly [ones] "—so constitutes Christianity in its very essence, that every bit of it which is a genuine thing before God, expresses in word or in deed, the cardinal truth that man is in the glory of God, and God is glorified thereby. One who was once visible upon earth, "in likeness of flesh of sin" (Rom. 8:33For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: (Romans 8:3) JND) sits now in a glorified, but no less real, positive human body on the Father's throne. From the glory of God, from the throne of the Father, and in the risen, exalted Man who fills all heaven with His peerless presence, Christianity has its origin; and in the power of the Holy Ghost alone, witness from thence of His exalted majesty and glory, it has its activities in so far as they are according to God. "When He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high"—marks its starting point both as to the time and place. It is thus "the heavenly" gone back to heaven—man in the glory of God—in whom it takes its rise; and it is this fact—the parent truth of Christianity—which imparts to it its distinctive character. It is a divine thing as He is divine; it is heavenly as He is heavenly; He is its sure foundation, its tried corner-stone, its immovable keystone, its crowning top-stone!
Two questions naturally arise here. 1. Have we truly accepted the fact that generically we are as heavenly as He who adorns the Father's throne? (Compare John 17:1616They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. (John 17:16) with Heb. 2:1111For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, (Hebrews 2:11).) 2. How far does the character and order of our lives make patent that our former earthly standing has been eternally abrogated to make room for the new and indissoluble relations we hold to the Man whom God has gratified His own heart in exalting to highest glory? Could believers answer these inquiries satisfactorily it would be utterly impossible that they should go on in practical fellowship with the course and current of this world—governed by its principles, giving utterance to its maxims, aiding its objects, adopting its practices, and accepting its patronage, the fruit of which is as the apples of Sodom, and whose reaping shall ever be leanness and poverty and wretchedness of soul.
May He, "the heavenly," so blessedly connect with Himself the hearts a those who have accepted His heavenly call, and who know that what they have been brought into is as intrinsically of heaven as it is radically of God, that our Christianity may not comport with that of "this poor, faithless world," but may, through grace, be ever acquiring in an increasing degree a character suited to its divine origin, expressive of its celestial destiny and redolent with the graces and the virtues of a glorified Christ!