August 1929
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its inventions without God, and in its inversion, religiously and politically, without Christ (Gen. 4:16, 17; Matt. 21:39; Heb. 13:12, 13). These “overcomers” took their place “outside”_ the world, in its religious and political pursuits. They followed Christ “without the gate” in their relation to the politics of the world, while they went forth unto Him “without the camp” in their relation to the or ganized religions of the world. VI. T h e H eavenly C it iz en sh ip ( P h il . 3) As a country requires a city, so does a city require a citizenship. Our citizenship IS IN HEAVEN. This citi zenship, or commonwealth, expresses our present relation and identification with heaven, its God, its Christ, and with God’s country and city. “For our conversation [ politeuma ] is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20). The word for “conversation” is a political term, expressing WHERE our citizen state, or associations of life, really are. And truly such must be IN HEAVEN where Christ IS, and from whence we “look” for Him to COME as Saviour. As we follow the apostle Paul as the bondservant of Jesus Christ to the prison at Rome, we behold this “min ister o f the church” (Col. 1 :24, 25) pouring out through those precious “prison epistles” the truth of the believer’s identification with a rejected and crucified, yet living Christ, whose life is our life, and whose place is our place, both of rejection on earth and acceptance in heaven. It was to the Philippian saints that he wrote the ex hortation: “Only let your conversation [ politeuo ] be as it becometh the gospel of Christ” ( 1 :27). The full Chris tian position on earth is now revealed. We are surely to be ardent and ambitious POLITICIANS, but of a HEAV ENLY sort. Those who “mind E A R TH L Y things'’ may be very diligent in announcing the Gospel of their Caesar, but ours is to use greater diligence in announcing the Gospel of our Christ. Christ is our L IFE : He is our MAN, and it is the power of His Gospel upon heart and life that marks us now as heavenly citizens, who have a patriotism, born from above, that causes us to forget and forsake the best the world can offer (Phil. 3). As I was going down street one day, I chanced to see a tuft of lovely green grass growing right in the cement sidewalk. I could not refrain from stopping to examine it more closely, to see how that plant, if one might call it such, could possibly grow in such an unlikely spot. There it was, at the edge of the sidewalk, close to the busy street, and as I gazed on its beauty, I came to the conclusion that the wind must have blown dust and earth into the crack in the pavement, or it might have been the foot of a passer-by that put some mud there. At any rate the earth got there, and the seed also, and it grew, appar ently as well as if it had been in some more favored place. That bit of verdure, amidst the most adverse surround ings, taught me a lesson that has been of great value to me. •When I hear people rave about what they could do if they only had the proper environment, and how they are handicapped by their circumstances from attaining to the goals they are anxious to reach, I endeavor to tell them about the grass that grew so luxuriantly in that stone pavement in the midst of the great city with its intense heat and dust. And how it gave me the assurance that the Creator does not always require favorable conditions in order to bring His designs to perfection.— E. D. Hooey. m Concerning Handicaps
the cursed and crumbling possessions of earth; to that fair, unfading possession in heaven, which God is reserving for earth’s “pilgrims and strangers.” “The hope that is laid up for us in heaven” surely does not kindle within us an ambition for worldly gain and possession. To pos sess all things in Christ, satisfies and tranquilizes the heart of the one who hopes in Christ, till “the hope of righteous ness” be attained with Him. Already hope’s anchor has been cast over into the promised land of our possessions, and this anchor enables us to hold fast with confidence the rejoicing of our hope until the end. It is faith that makes real to us what to sight is merely a fancy and a dream. We know and are sure, because WE HAVE BE LIEVED. Beyond this we can offer no satisfactory reason for our hope. All our testimony to the unbelieving world is based upon this confidence of faith. “I BEL IEVED and therefore have I spoken” (2 Cor. 4:13). We have been called to inherit a blessing, and in the divine intelligence of this, if faith and love are active, God means that a powerful effect should be manifest in us, in the rendering of blessing all around us. May we thus prove the reality of “laying hold,” in the present time, “upon the hope set before us” (Heb. 6:18; 1 Pet. 3:9). IV. T h e H eavenly C ountry (H eb . 11) Thank Gòd for the heavenly fatherland, towards which all the faithful children of Abraham are hastening. There are three things that the Spirit of Cod has beau tifully joined together, and let us not be guilty of putting them asunder. For every one who is of the faith of Abra ham, there is a heavenly COUNTRY, a heavenly CITY, and a heavenly CITIZENSHIP. Abraham’s goal was the same as ours. All the heirs of promise are, by faith, seek ing “a better country, that is, an heavenly.” And because of this, they are confessing that they are “strangers and pilgrims ON THE EAR TH .” Since these are NOT ASHAMED to make such a confession, God is not ashamed to be called THE IR God, for in that country He hath prepared for them a city. These have an overmas tering “desire” for “a better country” than earth can af ford, for they are “minded” to “seek” the heavenly patria (fatherland), as the true “Immanuel-land.” The seeking of this better country is bv no means obligatory, but is simply THE CHOICE OF FAITH . Th t ' “opportunity” is ever open, either to “seek” this, or, being “mindful” of the country they have left, they may, like Orpah of old, “return,” and settle down among the “dwellers ON THE E A R TH ” (Ruth 1; Heb. 11:9-16, 25; Rev. 6:10). The example of Lot may warn us of a “choice” contrary to faith, while that of his wife may witness to us of a fatal “desire” ruling the heart (Gen. 13:11; 19:26). But God would call our particular attention to V. T h e H eavenly C ity which has “ foundations” that are imperishable. A city which He Himself has “builded” and “prepared” for His people ; a city which Abraham “looked for,” and which we ourselves “seek,” “the city o f the living God,” unto which by faith we have already “come” (Heb. 11:10, 16; 12:22; 13rl4). It is “the N EW Jerusalem” above to which the attention of the Hebrew Christian was particularly called, because the OLD Jerusalem below was about to be dis continued (13:14). The Philadelphia “overcomers” of Rev. 3 :12 become identified with this city in a remarkable way, since its “name” is written upon them. This is be cause Christ finds in them a special delight, in that they exhibit here on earth the pilgrim-stranger character. In the term, “city,” we have expressed what the world is in
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