There are abundant passages to prove that the Church is heavenly, both as to life, hope, and possession. Let us look at a few of them.
The Lord says in John 3:12, 1312If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? 13And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. (John 3:12‑13), "If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." The eternal life is heavenly in its nature. Again in verse 31, "He that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: He that cometh from heaven is above all." So far we have a heavenly life on the earth; and in chapter 14, the Lord tells His own that He goes to prepare a place for them. "In My Father's house are many mansions:... I go to prepare a place for you.... I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." Here we have a heavenly life, and a place prepared for us in heaven.
In 1 Pet. 1 we read, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you." This was now the hope of the Israel of God. They were looking for heaven now, as their fathers had looked for Canaan. Their prospects were connected with heaven, and not with earth. Here they suffered, and they were not to think it strange, the fiery trial that was to try them, as if some strange thing had happened to them.
Paul, in writing to the Colossians, prays for them touching "the hope which is laid up for you in heaven"; while he warns the Hebrews of the "day of provocation," lest there should be in any of them an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. They were partakers of the heavenly calling, and their danger or snare was that they would sink to the old earthly standing in which Israel had been, and which Christendom to its loss and confusion has adopted. These Hebrews had already proved the practical power of the heavenly hope. "For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance." The food of heaven was known to them on earth, like the grapes of Eshcol, before they got there.
In Col. 3 we are told to "seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth." And again, "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." Finally, in Ephesians, we are not only "blessed... with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ," but we, His body, are raised up and made to "sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Thus there can be no question but that the saints are heavenly in life, with a heavenly destination, and even now, blessed and seated in heavenly places in spirit. If the earthly be condemned, nothing remains but the heavenly. Even James refuses the earthly, and connects it with "sensual and devilish." In one sentence Paul determines the matter, "as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly."
Now it is not a mere contention whether we are an earthly people now, or a heavenly people, but it is of deepest importance to ascertain and to adhere to the character of our calling. Ignorance or indifference as to this great truth has been a bitter loss to souls individually, and has obstructed the testimony committed to us.
In the gospels, how carefully our Lord sets forth that His work was not only to deliver from human—, misery, but that He might give heavenly joy in the very spot where the misery is. The teaching of Luke 14-the great supper-sets this forth, and contrasts heavenly joys with human joys. It is not that land, or oxen, or a wife are sinful, but they are earthly, and not the joys proper to the gospel. The fatted calf is peculiarly heavenly, and belongs to the Father's house. The ransomed soul is brought to joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The soul that is filled with the earthly thing has no taste for the heavenly. "The full soul loatheth a honeycomb." Surely we all know if we study our own history, that while there has been much exercise of soul to reach the joy of salvation, which is called peace, there has not been persistent seeking for, or sole expectation of, heavenly joys, or feasting on the fatted calf, while we journey here. How little has even the mature believer grasped that the condition on earth of the saved soul is that he should "never thirst," that there should be in him a well of water springing up into eternal life. A perfect redemption through the blood of Christ, and an unclouded assurance of eternal acceptance are, thank God, enjoyed by many; but how many can say that they are in such practical enjoyment of this heavenly gift that they never thirst? and that they are so replete with it that out of them flow rivers of living water?
If the Christian has been reared up wrongly, if he has grown up undirected, and untaught to joy in God, he is quite unprepared for the Church's portion in heavenly places. If he has never heard that the "fatted calf," the joys of the Father's house, are his present portion, made known to him by the Spirit come down from heaven, how can he desire to rise up to heavenly places, where Christ is, and enjoy them there as his right? If I do not know the taste of the grapes of Eshcol before I enter Canaan, I cannot long to be in the land, that I may eat them where they grow. We may well wonder, as we learn God's calling for the Church, that so few really enjoy the position of being united to Christ; that so few are in the enjoyment of being over Jordan, after the experience of Gilgal; remembering Christ in His death, in spirit in the full efficacy of His accomplished work; and then feeding on Himself in glory-the corn of the land.
Now one way to account for this great lack is that there has been a defect in the Christian education and calling from the beginning. God's thought even as set forth in type, was never merely to deliver His people from misery, or to find them a home in the scene of their former misery, but to translate them into the blessings of another place, as it is written, "I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey." Exod. 3:88And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. (Exodus 3:8). The hankering that Israel had after Egypt, and their reluctance to enter into Canaan, lamentably depict the career of saints today. The consequence of this ignorance of unbelief, as observed, is twofold: first, an immense loss to the individual soul; and second, a complete barrier to the understanding of our corporate position and testimony.
It is an immense loss to the believer if he has not learned that not only has the work of Christ delivered him from the misery in which sin has plunged him, but that now through the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, he has "joy unspeakable and full of glory"; for if he does not know this latter part, he is drawn away by the attractions of this present life. Hence the word even to "young men" who are "strong" is "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." In ignorance of the portion that has been given him, he hews out to himself cisterns that hold no water; he compasses himself with sparks of his own kindling; his righteous soul is often vexed, and everything is disappointing to him, for he has been looking in the wrong place for his happiness.
But this is not all. How can the saint who is seeking his pleasure in earthly favors, even of the best kind which nature, art, or science can produce, apprehend the mystery of God-the Church-the body of a risen Head in heaven? How can one who has not turned to heaven as the sphere of his own joys, be prepared for the truth that he is one of a company united to Christ in heaven, raised up together and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ? The doctrine of the Church as a heavenly company representing Christ here on earth, is perfectly inscrutable to him. He has been looking for manifestation of divine favor on the earth; hence, though he has heard and read of the Church, he regards it only in its earthly aspect. He has not known it as united to Christ, in the region where nothing could interfere with it. I may believe that the Holy Ghost is here, and that He dwells in me, and that He forms the body; but if I do not see and enjoy the fact that I am raised in company with all saints to the place where He is, I have no assured sense of union either with Him or with all saints; and the Church is to me really an earthly thing, and not a heavenly, sent by Christ into the world.
In conclusion; it is impossible for anyone who is not heavenly in taste, association and hope, to comprehend the Church as the body of Christ.
There is union to begin with, but it is union in resurrection; hence the first action of one holding the Head is, "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." Many a one through grace, enters into the gospel as delivering him from his misery as man on the earth, and assuring him of an eternal home in heaven, who cannot grasp the Church in its real character; because, though on earth, it is of a heavenly order.
There is much accepted and owned in this day of the Spirit's presence and indwelling; hence, it is necessary to insist that He does not lead to earthly joys. He leads to and imparts heavenly ones, and when the heart of the believer goes after natural gratification, "a strange god," he is hindered and checked. It is not that He would lead us to despise or disregard the comforts which our Father's care so continually provides for us in our path here; and He is ever ready to succor, and to console, and to help us in our infirmities; but while most effectually strengthening with all power according to the might of His glory unto all patience, He would satisfy our hearts with heavenly joys, so that even if we were deprived of all the comforts here, we should still have "joy unspeakable and full of glory."