I have recently been enjoying this matter in the light of God’s word (from the Recovery Version of the Bible and the Life Study of Hebrews). John 3:13 says:
And no one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.
God’s work throughout the generations is to build Himself into man. He is the God of heaven, possessing not only the nature of God but also the element of heaven. When He builds Himself into us, He constitutes the nature of God and the element of heaven into us. The more we allow Him to work Himself into us by submitting to the Spirit, the more we will have the element of God and the element of heaven, and we will have the presence of God and the taste of heaven within us.
Christ is the mystery of God (Col 2:2) and the church is the mystery of Christ (Eph 3:4). The great mystery in the universe is Christ and the church. In Christ, God, heaven and man are mingled as one, and the mingling of the three is the church today.
What is the church? The church is God and heaven mingled together to man. This surely is a mystery. Those who have not received God’s salvation cannot comprehend this matter. The unbelievers are merely human, but we who are saved have the all-inclusive Christ living in us. We are something mystical because we have God and heaven inside of us.
In my reading and enjoying the life study in Hebrews I found more light of how the church is the mingling of God, heaven and man. Hebrews 4:16 tells us to come forward with boldness to the throne of grace.
Since the throne of grace is in the heavens, how can we come forward to it? According to fundamental teaching, we must wait until we die and go to heaven. But how can we come forward to it while we are still on earth? The secret is in verse 12 of the same chapter which speaks of the dividing of the soul and spirit by the living and operative word of God.
As we have seen, the very Christ who is sitting on the throne of grace in heaven (Rom. 8:34) is also now in us (Rom. 8:10), that is, in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22), where the habitation of God is (Eph. 2:22). As Christ is in our spirit, both the Father and the Spirit are also in our spirit (John 14:20, 23; Rom. 8:16). The Triune God is in our spirit.
At Bethel, the house of God, the habitation of God, which is the gate of heaven, Christ is the ladder who joins earth to heaven and brings heaven to earth (Gen. 28:12-17; John 1:51). Although the throne of grace is in the heavens, our wonderful Christ has brought the third heaven into our spirit, the very place where God’s habitation on earth is today. Our spirit may be called today’s Bethel.
According to Genesis 28, Bethel is firstly a place and secondly God’s habitation. Both the place and the stone were called Bethel. According to principle, where God’s habitation is, there is the heavenly ladder and the gate of heaven.
Christ, the wonderful One who came to us from God, who has accomplished and attained so much, and who is our Captain, Apostle, and High Priest, has come into our spirit, making our spirit the gate of heaven. Now it is easy for us to come forward to the throne of grace, for it is right within the gate. While the throne of grace is in the heavens, by and through Christ it has been joined to our spirit.
Hallelujah, we can come to God through Jesus Christ, the heavenly ladder, by contacting Him in our spirit, and we get God and the heavens infused into us! [guest post, bro. Moh]
