THE DIFFERENCE IN DOCTRINE BETWEEN A HEAVENLY AND A MILLENNIAL SAINT
THE DIFFERENCE IN DOCTRINE BETWEEN A HEAVENLY AND A MILLENNIAL SAINT
While every believer will admit his imperfection in practice, he generally considers himself correct in doctrine; he may own that he is ignorant of a great deal of truth, but his conscience would not be at ease if he did not think that he held what was true. Hence it is more difficult to convince a saint of his error in doctrine, than of his defect in practice.
There cannot be correct practice with an assured conscience, but as there is correct doctrine. Once a saint is taught of God that he is heavenly as to calling, he may fail much in being practically heavenly, but as he knows the doctrine of his calling, he finds out that there is power given him according as he turns to the Lord to maintain his course as a heavenly saint.
In the first great point of doctrine the heavenly saints and the earthly saints are together; the sins of both are washed away in the blood of the Lamb: this one great truth is common to both, and to every saint since the foundation of the world.
Now because this first great doctrine distinctly and unquestionably belongs to both, the tendency or snare is to conclude that it is the same with regard to other doctrines, and this snare will always be in the descending [p. 37] or earthly line, and not in the ascending or heavenly. That is to say, the calling and blessing of the heavenly saint are brought down to the line of the earthly. Now in the very terms earthly and heavenly there is an immense distinction involved; and the rest is easily learned when once this great distinction is admitted. The real difficulty lies in convincing saints of the fact that they are heavenly in the true sense of the term. Christians acknowledge it in a general way, because they know that heaven will eventually be their abode, but no one can see the heavenly standing who does not see that Christ being rejected from the earth, the saint, if united to Him now, must be united to Him in heaven where He is; and that if not united to Him there, he has no link to Christ absent, although he is absolved from his sins by the blood of Christ. Moreover he is on the earth where Christ is not ruling, (for He must come before He reigns,) so that the portion of a saint now, if he were not united to Christ in heaven, would be infinitely worse than that of a saint in the millennium.
The saint in the millennium will have the happy consciousness of Christ’s rule over everything. Satan will be bound and Christ will order everything morally as the sun rules the day materially. Christ is now absent, and unless the Spirit of God unites the saint to Him in heaven where He is, it is evident he is on the earth in a worse position than the earthly saint. But the saint now is united by the Spirit to Christ, and as he belongs to a heavenly Christ, he is on his way to heaven as his own place, even though he still be on the earth.
I am not now stating the various doctrines which distinguish and peculiarly belong to the heavenly saint; I am seeking to establish the fact that a saint is now heavenly both as to standing and hope, because he is united to Christ in heaven, and that the one great difference between an earthly saint and a heavenly one is, that the earthly one will not be united to Christ in heaven, but will be on the earth when the Lord reigns. The Lord [p. 38] being now rejected, a saint must either be connected with the world and the order of things here, or he is dissociated from man here because united to Christ in heaven. There can be no middle course.
The difference between this present time and the millennium is very distinct. The Lord is not reigning now, but He will reign then. The saint now is joined to the Lord, and is one spirit with Him. This embraces a great deal, and if this point of difference be really and truly admitted, all the others will follow as a consequence. If I am united to Christ, He is my life; “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death”. I am not only born again, which is true of every saint (see John 3: 3 - 12), but I am enjoying another life through the Holy Spirit, and this could not be without distinct and positive deliverance from the man in the flesh, so that “the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me”. Here I am dead, and my life is hid with Christ in God. The earthly saint lives here on earth, he is not united to Christ, he is not dead, he is a man living in all the commandments and ordinances of the law blameless.
As united to Christ, I have Christ living in me. I am to live in Him who is not here in the place where He is not, but in order that I may be able to do this, I am united to Him where He is.
This then is a great difference - the heavenly saint has a perfect sense of complete deliverance from the man in the flesh; while the millennial saint is through grace empowered to do what God required of a man in the flesh. “I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people”, Hebrews 8: 10.
The heavenly saint is not below this in walk, but he is greatly beyond it, and if he be not, he is, as I have said, worse off than a millennial saint, because he is now where Christ is not present, nor reigning.
[p. 39] Again, the way into the holiest of all is now made manifest. We - the heavenly saints - have “boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh”. The earthly saint, though cleansed from his sins by the blood, cannot speak of being inside the veil, because his economy or dispensation is connected with this earth. If we admit that our place as worshippers is inside the veil, we must admit another great difference between a heavenly and an earthly saint.
One more difference I would notice: the saint united to Christ in heaven, knowing perfect deliverance in Him, and worshipping in the holiest of all, has a place in heaven prepared for him by Christ, which the earthly saint could never speak of. True he can speak of knowing the Lord of heaven and earth, and eventually he will be in the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, when all things are made new; but he cannot speak of having a place prepared for him in the Father’s house, and still less can he speak of being raised up together with Christ now, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Thus we see there are four great differences in doctrine between the heavenly and the earthly saint - first, the connection with Christ is different, the saints during His rejection being united to Him, a privilege not known by, or granted to, any other class of saints, neither to the saints before His first advent, nor to the saints after His return. Secondly, the deliverance is different because the saints united to Him are in Him, and He is their life. Thirdly, the worship is different; the saint in perfect deliverance is inside the veil; and lastly, while the saints before the coming of Christ looked forward to a prospect of a heaven - they “looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” - the saint at this time, not only knows that Jesus has prepared a place for him in heaven, but he knows too, that by the [p. 40] Spirit of God he is there, in Him through faith; now, with regard to the millennial saint, his hope and position are simply earthly.
If we admit these differences between the three classes of saints (and I apprehend they cannot be denied), it is evident that any saint who now loses sight of his calling as a heavenly one, will be weak in his soul as to all these blessings which I have spoken of - namely, his union with Christ, his perfect deliverance, the true worship, and the place - the Canaan given him of God.
All the saints are set upon the earth, but each of the three classes is called to a very distinct and peculiar relation to it. The Old Testament saint found that the prospect of heaven was the relief from the confusion and evil here; the millennial saint will be able to enjoy everything here, because the power of evil will be restrained, and the Lord will reign. Hence it remains that the saints on the earth during the absence of Christ should not be of it, but having received greater blessings, should walk here during His absence, studying only to be like Him whom men refused and to be unlike those who refused Him. The snare is that because they are forgiven their sins and have been relieved of the fear of judgment, they turn to the earth, and expect favours from God in connection with it; and when they do, they practically surrender the great truths which distinguish them from the earthly saints, and they are necessarily low in practice because low in doctrine. They fail in testimony and are, according to the light and opportunity which they have not answered to, subjected to chastening; for “our God is a consuming fire”, and His “jealousy is cruel as the grave”.