OUR JOY IS IN HEAVEN
OUR JOY IS IN HEAVEN
As to this earth being “in mourning”, that is just what it ought to appear to us, But we ought to come into it all brightness from the scene of light and life! We ought really to expect nothing bright in a scene where we remember the Lord in His death, and yet we are all brightness and joy, because we do not belong to the earth and all our expectations are outside it.
If I walk faithfully here, it is a desert where nothing [p. 176] contributes to me, and I must refuse everything in it. I am set here as Christ’s witness to draw all my supplies from elsewhere. The harbour, where the supplies come in, is the only cheering spot in this dry and barren land where no water is. I must seek and receive everything from outside this desert island. But I must resist in it!
The Old Testament saint sought and received favours in this scene. The mighty power of God fed him - the faithful one - with the finest of the wheat, and with honey out of the rock satisfied him. But now there is nothing here for the faithful one - his supplies are from above, and the power of Christ to make him strong in weakness, so that a sense of weakness is actual gain Thus he is looking to bring Christ from above into his circumstances, and to know His power in his weakness, so that his enjoyment is not from this earth, but outside it with Him in heaven.
The Old Testament saint had joy from God’s gifts to him - God’s power made things here contribute to him. But the christian’s joy is in heaven and springs from what God has given him there. He demands nothing from this world, but in the power of Christ he contributes to it, of the grace that nourishes and comforts himself outside it. Not only is my blessing in heaven, but I need Christ’s power to enable me to rise above the sense of my own infirmity down here, for this world, instead of contributing to me, makes me feel my weakness and need, and that I must rise out of it to find and enjoy my blessing. The very infirmity which this evil age makes me conscious of makes me draw upon the power of Christ, as the One outside it, passed into the heavens, so that I take pleasure in the very infirmity which is exposed here, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
It is a difficult lesson to accept the fact that nothing here contributes to the life of Christ in you. In Old [p. 177] Testament times the power of God made things down here contribute to His own and infirmities were removed But now it is: “When I am weak, then am I strong”! (2 Corinthians 12: 10)