The Gospel Coalition

“Labor to get a sense of the vanity of this world. And labor to be much acquainted with heaven.”
–Jonathan Edwards

Doesn’t it seem that all too often we do the exact opposite?  We labor to imagine vain thoughts of heaven, while toiling to be acquainted with this world.  We sometimes voluntarily and sometimes quite unconsciously participate in that vain striving after the wind.  We set our delights on this world of shadows, forgetting that ineffable world to come, which is the real world of substance.  Or, Lord, let us be more heavenly minded.  Let the things of this earth grow strangely, steadily, happily dim in the light of His glory and grace.

My soul has been, I trust, in some measure, perhaps by increments and fine gradations, freed from the gravitational pull of this world by a sermon I listened to yesterday.  It’s from the 2003 Desiring God National Conference, which focused on the life and thought of Jonathan Edwards.  Sam Storms preached a sermon entitled “Joy’s Eternal Increase: Edwards on the Beauty of Heaven.”  I think you’ll leave this world at moments if you give it prayerful consideration.

Storms began with four propositions regarding a consistent focus on the beauty of heaven:

1. A contemplative focus on the beauty of heaven frees us from the excessive dependence upon earthly wealth and comfort.

2. A contemplative focus on the beauty of heaven enables us to respond appropriately to the injustices of this life.

3. A contemplative focus on the beauty of heaven produces the fruit of endurance and perseverance now. “The strength to endure present suffering is the fruit of meditating on future satisfaction.”

4. A contemplative focus on the beauty of heaven is where we see the essence of true religion, where we learn the nature of genuine religious affection.

Then he continued with about a 35-40 minute mediation on the nature of heaven and the joy that awaits all those who believe in Christ and look to His coming.  Here’s a snippet from around 30 minutes:

Our experience of God will never reach its consummation. We will never finally arrive, as if some day in heaven you will arrive on this last mountain peak only to discover that there’s emptiness ahead of us. Our experience of God will never become stale. it will deepen and develop and intensify and amplify and unfold and increase and broaden and balloon. Our relishing and rejoicing in God will sharpen and spread and extend and progress and mature and flower and blossom and widen and stretch and swell and snowball and inflate and lengthen and augment and advance and proliferate and accumulate and accelerate forever!

Then meditate on this nugget from Storms: “It’s one thing to be free of imperfection. It’s another thing to experience perfection perfectly.”

Or this comment from Edwards about our senses and bodies in heaven: “Every perceptive faculty shall be an inlet of delight.”

My heart sings: “Yes! Yes! Come, Lord Jesus! Bring us home!”