There are two methods which the Lord graciously adopts, in order to draw the heart away from this present world. The first is, by setting before it the attractiveness and stability of “things above”: the second is, by faithfully declaring the evanescent and shakable nature of “things on the earth.” The close of Hebrews 12 furnishes a beautiful example of each of these methods. After stating the truth, that we are come unto Mount Zion, with all its attendant joys and privileges, the apostle goes on to say:
“See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh; for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven; whose voice then shook the earth, but now He hath promised, saying, ‘Yet once I shake, not only the earth, but also heaven.’ Now this ‘once’ signifieth the removal of the shakable things, as of things that are made, that the unshakable things may remain.”
Now it is much better to be drawn by the joys of heaven, than driven by the sorrows of earth.
The believer should not wait to be shaken out of present things. He should not wait for the world to give him up, before he gives up the world: he should give it up in the power of communion with heavenly things. There is no difficulty in giving up the world when we have, by faith, laid hold of Christ: the difficulty would then be to hold it. Thus, if we are realizing our portion amid the unshakable realities of heaven, we shall find little difficulty in resigning the delusive joys of earth.