SAINTS IN HEAVEN AND EARTH ONE FAMILY… 4 So might I continue showing the points in which the saints above and the saints below are akin, but this last must suffice—They are all members of one body—and are necessary to the completion of one another. In the Epistle to the Hebrews we are told, concerning the saints above, that, “they, without us, cannot be made perfect.” We are the lower limbs, as it were, of the body, but the body must have its inferior as well as its superior members. It cannot be a perfect body should the least part of it be destroyed. Hence it is declared that in the dispensation of the fullness of time, He will gather together in one, all things in Christ, both which are in Heaven and which are on earth. The saints above with all their bliss must wait for their resurrection until we, also, shall have come out of great tribulation. Like ourselves they are waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body. Until all who were predestinated to be conformed to the image of the First-Born shall have been so conformed, the Church cannot be complete. We are linked to the glorified by bonds of indispensable necessity! We think that we cannot do without them, and that is true—but they, also, cannot do without us! “As the body is one and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many are one body, so also is Christ.” How closely this brings us together! Those for whom we sorrow cannot be far away, since we are all “the body of Christ and members in particular.” If it is dark, my hands know that the head cannot be far off, nor can the foot be far removed—eyes, ears, feet, hands, head are all comprised within the limits of one body—and so if I cannot see my beloved friend, if I shall not, again, hear her voice on earth, nor see her pleading tears, yet am I sure she is not far away and that the bond between us is by no means snapped, for we are members of our Lord’s body, of which it is written, “not a bone of Him shall be broken.” Thus have I, according to my ability, set forth some of the points of this family union. May the Holy Spirit give us to know them for ourselves. II. Let us now speak upon THE INSEPARABLENESS OF THIS UNION. “The whole family in Heaven and earth” Not the two families nor the divided family, but the whole family in Heaven and earth. It appears at first sight as if we were very effectually divided by the hand of death. Can it be that we are one family when some of us labor on and others sleep beneath the greensward? There was a great truth in the sentence which Wordsworth put into the mouth of the little child when she said, “O master, we are seven.”— “But they are dead: those two are dead! Their spirits are in Heaven! ‘Twas throwing words away, for still The little maid would have her will, And said ‘No, we are seven.’” Should we not thus speak of the Divine family, for death, assuredly, has no separating power in the household of God! Like the Apostle, we are persuaded that death cannot separate us from the love of God. The breach caused by the grave is only apparent—it is not real, the family is still united—for if you think of it, when there is a loss in a family the father is bereaved, but you cannot conceive of our heavenly Father’s being bereaved. Our Father which art in Heaven, You have lost none of Your children! We wept and went to the grave, but You did not, for Your child is not dead! Rather has Your child come closer unto Your bosom to receive a sweeter caress and to know more fully the infinity of Your love! When a child is lost from a family, the elder brother is a mourner, for he has lost one of his siblings, but our Elder Brother is not bereaved—Jesus has lost none of His! No, has He not, rather, brought home to Himself, His own redeemed? Has He not rejoiced exceedingly to see His good work perfected in one whom He loved? There is no break towards the Father, and no break towards the Elder Brother, and therefore it must be our mistake to fancy that there is any break at all! It cannot be that death divides our Israel—were not the tribes of Reuben and Gad and Manasseh one with the rest of Israel, though the Jordan rolled between? It is a whole family, that redeemed household in Heaven and in earth! How little death prevents actual communion it is impossible for us to tell. Some attractive but worthless books have been written pretending to unfold to us the connection between departed spirits and ourselves. But I trust you will not be led into such idle speculations. God has not revealed these things to us and it is not for us to go dreaming about them, for we may dream ourselves into grievous errors if we once indulge our fancies. We know nothing about the commerce of the glorified with earth, but we do know that all departed saints are supremely blessed and that they are with Christ! And if they are with Christ, and we are with Christ, we cannot be far from each other. … 5 spurgeongems.org
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 17:34:11 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015