THE HEAVENLY FAMILY
Robert Webster
Ephesians 1: 3; 2: 4-7
1 Corinthians 15: 48-49
Colossians 3: 1-4
I was freshly impressed on Lord’s day with the blessing of being part of what we refer to as the heavenly family. We are part of a company of persons who are bound together, with the blessing of an inheritance and a place of recourse that is in an entirely different sphere to what is down here. The earth on which we are is solely a place of our sojourning. Scripture speaks of those who “confessed that they were strangers and sojourners on the earth”, Heb 11: 13. Perhaps we are all too easily affected by circumstances, but it struck me afresh as to the greatness of having part in that which relates entirely to a heavenly sphere. No doubt the experience of this would form and characterise us. We have to go through circumstances here in the scene of our responsibility, but these are all temporary things. There is that which awaits final realisation by us as far as that which relates to our heavenly portion is concerned; but, through faith and the gift of the Holy Spirit, the One who is spoken of as “the earnest of our inheritance” (Eph 1: 14), we are given the present enjoyment, experience and part together in that which relates to a heavenly sphere. It is a very precious thing to be able to have company with those whose “commonwealth has its existence in the heavens”, Phil 3: 20. That is where its existence is, in the heavens. That is what binds us together. It is a real thing but it raises a challenge of how much we know, experience and enjoy it.
My mind went to this verse in Ephesians 1, “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ”. That is really the character of our blessings: they are spiritual. There are earthly blessings and by and by Israel will come into those. There are also, as we prove, and we are thankful for, providential blessings in our circumstances, but they are all temporal. The character of our true blessings is that they are heavenly. All that God has predetermined for us by way of eternal blessing is heavenly in character. We perhaps just touch on them but it is a question of whether we are formed through the experience of them. To think that God has had these things in His heart to bless us with; not things to be found on the earth but heavenly and in the heavenlies. We can lay hold on, experience and enjoy them whilst we are still here. The apostle expounds in this epistle on the fact that they are in the heavenlies in Christ. Our portion is all that we have in Christ. He fills that sphere. All our blessings are found in the place where He now lives. We have been “marked…out beforehand for adoption through Jesus Christ” (v 5), “taken … into favour in the Beloved”, (v 6), “sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the earnest of our inheritance”, v 13-14. These blessings can be enjoyed now. There is that which in its fulness will be realised in a coming day when we are called to be with Christ, never to go out again, but in writing to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul is seeking to direct their hearts into what their inheritance is, the character of their blessings. We too can know something of it by coming into the good of it ourselves.
The scripture that I read in Ephesians 2 struck me on Lord’s day, that by virtue of the work of God in us and on account of all that He has set His heart upon, the heavenlies are really the most suitable place for us, our true home. A line in hymn 7 reads,
Yon heaven is our home.
God “has raised us up together, and has made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus”. That suggests to me suitability, a place of settled rest and enjoyment. It is the place where we are fully at home. We are not at home here. There are things that we are at variance with in the circumstances in which we are, but there is that which is beyond circumstances and our situation down here, and it is the place for which we have been made suitable. I just had an impression of that on Lord’s day morning; the place that is proper to us, for we have been made “fit for sharing the portion of the saints in light”, Col 1: 12. We have been brought into a sphere of greatest blessing, and it is a place where we can be at home. It is a wonderful thing that it should be so. It is something we enjoy, and enjoy together, our sitting “down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus”. Well, it is a challenge as to what we can say about it, but the experience would surely form us in our outlook and in our spiritual constitutions, for it is a spiritual experience. It is not something that man according to nature knows anything about, but it is a great thing to touch in our spirits whilst we are still here.
My mind went to the scripture in 1 Corinthians 15, and the reference there to the heavenly ones: “such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones. And as we have borne the image of the one made of dust, we shall bear also the image of the heavenly one”. There is that, as to our condition, that awaits a coming day, but there is to be a moral reflection of what is heavenly now. When the Lord Jesus was here on earth there was that which was brought to bear in Himself - the atmosphere, the joy and the resource of heaven. It drew out opposition, which is well recorded in the gospels. But it attracted persons as well. I wonder if there should be something of testimonial character expressed in “the heavenly ones”. Where is it evident that our life is? Do we get weighed down by circumstances here? That scripture already referred to in Hebrews 11 describes those who confessed that they were strangers and sojourners on the earth. And it goes on to record, “For they who say such things shew clearly that they seek their country”, v 14. There is that, I think, that should be very attractive in the heavenly ones, those whose lives, and resource and enjoyment are centred elsewhere altogether, and who are therefore not weighed down, or overwhelmed by, that which is purely circumstantial. We always have recourse to somewhere that is above everything down here, and it is eternal as well. All those spiritual blessings are eternal in character. As the Lord Jesus Himself said, “lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust spoils, and where thieves do not dig through nor steal; for where thy treasure is, there will be also thy heart”, Matt 6: 20, 21. Those treasures are lasting.
I refer to the passage in Colossians to draw out the practical effect of our being amongst the heavenly ones, those that have been raised with Christ, should have upon us. “Seek the things which are above, where the Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God: have your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth; for ye have died, and your life is hid with the Christ in God”. I suppose that would come about through the actual enjoyment, the proved experience of those things that are above. “Have your mind”; that is where our minds resort to. We have to do with things here of course, but to where do our minds resort, and where do we find our recourse? The exhortation of the apostle is to have them on the things that are above, where the Christ is. He “has passed through the heavens”, (Heb 4: 14), and is “sitting at the right hand of God”, in a sphere where all is at rest. He has accomplished all that was necessary that it might be so and there is nothing to disturb it. Although we pass through a scene of great disturbance, we can have our minds on the sphere to which disturbance does not attach, and where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. There is great spiritual gain, great profit to be had. It is where our minds can resort to amongst the responsibilities of each day.
May the Lord bless the word.
Word in a ministry meeting in Buckhurst Hill
8th October 2019