Pastor Andrew’s Reflections on Chapter Eleven
The Inner Sanctum of Puritan Piety
Pastor Andrew’s Week Nine Reflections
Chapter Eleven, “The Hope of Union with Christ”
We come now to the final chapter of The Inner Sanctum of Puritan Piety. I hope this has been an interesting and edifying read for you as it has been for me. I hope you have learned more about our mystical union with Christ and its benefits and blessings. I hope that you have experienced the joy of union with Christ more fully as you have grown to understand it more fully.
I hope.
Hope is an interesting thing, isn’t it? There is so much that is captured for a word that size. Webster defines it as, “A desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfilment.” Samuel Johnson’s dictionary (1755) has probably my favorite definition of the word, if not a bit incongruous with most recent connotations. He says hope is, “Expectation of some good; an expectation indulged with pleasure.” He goes on to explain, “Hope is that pleasure in the mind which every one finds in himself, upon the thought of a profitable future enjoyment of a thing, which is apt to delight him.” Isn’t that a marvelous way to consider heaven and our future glory with Christ? That is certainly “a profitable future enjoyment of a thing,” which is guaranteed to delight us.
It is striking how earthly of a word it is. Here’s what I mean by that – hope is a word that is perpetually future. One cannot hope for something that is now or has already been. One can only hope for what is yet to come. Even if that hope is for the next moment, as soon as that next moment arrives, hope is no more. As Christians, our ultimate hope is our future glory with Christ, but we haven’t arrived yet. All of this will change when we receive our hoped-for reward and are brought to be with our Savior. In this sense, hope is a very earthly word, seeing as one day it will cease to be. So we are left with the reality that we tarry along on this side of eternity, and as we do we have hope and because of that hope we carry on.
This presents another striking reality about hope. Hope is something at which we never arrive in the present, while at the same time it is a necessary possession to carry on in the present. What is it that keeps us putting one foot in front of the other? Hope. What is it that pulls us through the tragedies of life? Hope. How do we encourage those who are going through a trying season? With hope. Hope compels us to continue making forward movement toward that future enjoyment of a thing which we anticipate will delight us.
How is it that in this world filled with sin and hopelessness we can find hope? You guessed it – through our union with Christ.
Flavel describes the hope that we have in Christ, “the life of glory,” via three related truths:
The vision of God.
The image of God.
The enjoyment of God.
First, on the vision of God. As we all know, we have some knowledge and vision of who God is. But on this side of eternity (from a position of hope) we see him imperfectly. What we do see and know fills us with the greatest hope, but there is so much yet to be revealed.
I have a bit of a pet-peeve that I think is probably fairly common. Clean sunglasses, especially when driving. You know how it is, your eyelash oil or eyebrow oil, or maybe a fingerprint or a sweat line (only me?) or some other partial obstruction has made a home on your sunglasses and obscures the clear image that should be. Not long ago I noticed one of my sons, who was wearing his sunglasses in the truck, had fingerprints all over every bit of his lenses. I asked him to hand them to me and quickly cleaned them with a microfiber cloth. When he had put them back on he said with awe, “Wow, I can see so much better now!” I had to laugh. This is in small part what our vision of God is like on this side of eternity. But one day that will change and we will see Christ face-to-face (beatific vision). This is the hope of the Christian!
Second, on the image of God. Have you ever seen something that changed you? This is what seeing Christ in his glory will do – it will change us. We will be restored. All of sin and its consequences will be perfectly and permanently removed from us. We will no longer be sinners saved by grace. Rather, we will be saints joined to God. As Yuille puts it, “The faculties of the soul will again be marked by knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. The mind will perceive God as the greatest good, and the affections will love God as the greatest good.” Oh for that day to arrive quickly!
Third, the enjoyment of God. Brothers and sisters, this is the hope the Lord has put before us, that one day we will have the blessing of enjoying God perfectly and for all eternity. There is no greater privilege, no greater blessing, no greater pleasure, no greater happiness, no greater satisfaction, no greater ENJOYMENT than being in perfect union with Jesus Christ. As Flavel puts it, “God is that supreme good, in the enjoyment of whom all true happiness lies.”
In the closing paragraph, Yuille says, “God created us to glorify Him; we glorify Him by delighting in Him; and we delight in Him by communing with Him. The image of God is the means by which we do this. At glorification, that image will be fully restored. And this is the hope of union with Christ.
I strongly encourage you to read the two page conclusion to this marvelous little book. There are many nuggets of truth and some very helpful concluding thoughts.
What I want to leave you with are these verses from Psalm 16. Think on them, pray through them, memorize them, read them over and again.
5 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot.
6 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
7 I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
in the night also my heart instructs me.
8 I have set the Lord always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;
my flesh also dwells secure.
10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
or let your holy one see corruption.
11 You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
May the Lord guard and keep you as you grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.
With hope,
- Pastor Andrew