We should recognize that Christianity in its very essence is as heavenly as He who inspired it. Many who accept its divine authorship have never adequately apprehended it to be an absolutely heavenly thing, though in an earthly locale. Practically we find that the less it is apprehended as heavenly, the less also will be its divine aspect before the soul. It is impossible to understand its character and its scope, unless in its origin, operation, and end it is seen to be altogether a heavenly product for a heavenly purpose.
Rarely do we meet a Christian who understands his parentage and occupies, according to God, his present portion! How contracted and how erroneous are the commonly 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 is of the earth, earthy" (1 Cor. 15:4747The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. (1 Corinthians 15:47)); he had been running his carnal and material course for forty centuries on the earth before "the second man" paid a visit of thirty-three years to the same earth, having been sent into it in grace to "the first man". As man, He was with "the earthy". In God's reckoning He was the "second man", for all before Him God counts as one. He was the "last Adam", for there could be no more, after. But more than this, He was from (or out of) heaven just as the first man was out of the earth and made of dust. Refused, cut off from the earth, and having nothing, He is now the risen Man in the glory of God, and alike in incarnation and in resurrection He is "the heavenly"—then, now and eternally.
As He is "the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones." v. 48 JND. There is 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 we are one of the heavenly families. The one who lived, who died, and who lives again, has redeemed unto Himself a chosen race of which, as the risen man, He is the glorified federal head.
This word—"As the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones"—so constitutes Christianity in its very essence that every bit of it 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 the likeness of sinful flesh" (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)), now sits in a glorified, but no less real, positive, human body in the Father's throne. From the glory of God, from the throne of the Father, the risen and exalted Man fills all heaven with His peerless presence.
“When He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high"; this marks the starting point, both as to time and place. It is thus "the heavenly" gone back to heaven, the man in the glory of God. 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. It is all and altogether for His glory.
When He was here in the days of His flesh, knowing He came from God and went to God, He took a towel and girded Himself, and washed the feet of His heavenly ones, and in principle that word applies (in a lower sense, of course) to us. We, too, may say that we have come from God and are going to God, and when He who is coming returns in the air, we shall be eternally with God, and in the likeness of the bosom-Son of the Father. Meanwhile, we blessedly experience His tender solicitude in removing with a practiced hand every defilement that we contract in passing along an earthly scene. Nor will He cease this heavenly service of His faithful love and unwearied grace, until we assume "the image of the heavenly" at His return.
If we look at the origin of Christianity, we see that it sprang from the heart of the Father, as it takes its title from Him who adorns His throne. It is most interesting to trace how in every step of its delineation in the Word, the Spirit of God indicates its wonderful and varied relations to the Father.
It was the Father who sent His Son to be Savior of the world (1 John 4:1414And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. (1 John 4:14)). In Him the glory of the only-begotten of the Father was beheld (John 1:1414And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)). His place in the bosom of the Father made Him competent to declare Him (v. 18). Here He was about His Father's business (Luke 2:4949And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? (Luke 2:49)). What He saw the Father do He did (John 5:1919Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. (John 5:19)). The will of the Father alone was what He sought to fulfill (v. 30). The Father's works were given Him to finish (v. 36). The Father's name it was in which He was come (v. 43). The Father gave to us the true bread from heaven (6:32), and gave us to Him (vv. 37, 39). It is learning of the Father that brings us to the Son (vv. 46, 65). The life everlasting is the Father's commandment (12:50). The words, also, the Son affirms to be the Father's (14:10-24), and when He goes away it is to prepare a place for us in the Father's house (14:2). The Father holds the sheep in His hand (10:29), is the husbandman who purges the fruit-bearing branches of the vine (15:1 ,2), that He, the Father, may be glorified in our "much fruit" (v. 8). The Father is to be asked in the Son's name, and that which we ask, the Father will give, for He Himself loves us (16:23, 27). The glorified Son shows us plainly of the Father (v. 25), and is now glorifying Him (17:1). The eternal life is the knowledge of the Father and the Son (v. 3), and those who have it are kept in the Holy Father's own name (v. 11), are sanctified through the Father's word which is truth (vv. 17-19), have the Father's name declared unto them, and are loved of the Father's heart, even as He is loved (v. 26). By the glory of the Father has He been raised up (Rom. 6:44Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4)); to the Father's throne has He been taken (Rev. 3:2121To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. (Revelation 3:21)), and from thence has He sent down "the promise of the Father"-the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4;2:334And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. (Acts 1:4)
33Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. (Acts 2:33)).
These are only a few of the scriptural marks of the Father's relations to Christ and His body of which we speak. All of these are of incalculable value, as forming an essentially divine bulwark to Satan's present efforts to terrestrialize Christianity. And he has made efforts to humanize its Author, but clearly the Father is neither earthly nor human.
Christianity, then, is the revelation of the Father by the Person and work of the Lord Jesus, His eternal Son, in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit as "the promise of the Father." Coming forth from His blessed heart according to eternal purpose and counsels, it is based upon the atoning work and acquired glories of the eternal Son. And it has its unfolding by the living energy of the Spirit of God dwelling in us. By Him is its heavenly character wrought out, through and in "the heavenly ones" whom grace has reached for this precious character of blessing, as the associates in eternal glory, and in heaven of Him who is emphatically, "the heavenly.”
Two Question
(2) How far does the character and order of our lives make obvious that our former earthly standing has been eternally abrogated to make room for the new and indissoluble relations we hold to the Man through whom God has gratified His own heart in exalting Him to highest glory? If believers could answer these questions satisfactorily, it would be utterly impossible that they should go on in practical fellowship with the course and current of this world, or that they should be governed by its principles, giving utterance to its maxims, aiding its objects, adopting its practices, and accepting its patronage. The fruit of this is as the apples of Sodom whose reaping shall ever be leanness and poverty and wretchedness of soul.
May He, "THE HEAVENLY," so blessedly connect with Himself the hearts of those who have accepted His heavenly call, that our Christianity may not conform with that of this poor, faithless world. But may they be, through grace, ever acquiring in an increasing degree a character suited to its divine origin: a character expressive of its celestial destiny and redolent with the graces and the virtues of a glorified Christ!