Meditation and Communion with God by Davis John Jefferson;

Author:Davis, John Jefferson; [Davis, John Jefferson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2012-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

The psalmist thinks of those who are on pilgrimage (v. 5) to the holy city and to the temple, and of the joy and satisfaction that he anticipates from being near the divine presence in the courts of the Lord (v. 10). In the new covenant, where the powers of the age to come (Heb 6:5) have already been inaugurated, we find that the psalmist’s longing can be fulfilled in the worship and believing meditation of the church. We have come to Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, and are even now, in an act of true worship, in the presence of a joyous angelic host and of God and Jesus Christ (Heb 12:22-25). The architectural beauty of Solomon’s temple pales in comparison with the magnificent beauty and splendor of the new Jerusalem (Rev 21–22), which even now can be seen coming down out of heaven. In the act of meditation, Psalm 84 can be pondered in the light of Hebrews 12:22-25, and Hebrews 12:22-25 in turn in conjunction with Revelation 21–22, as we let the beautiful images of the new Jerusalem inform and renew our Christian imaginations regarding the world to come.

A third example illustrates a transition from a New Testament account of an event in the life of Jesus to the heavenly state: the transfiguration (Mt 17:1-8; Mk 9:2-8; Lk 9:28-36). In this meditative reading of the transfiguration account, the presence of Peter, James and John with Jesus on the mountain, and their seeing him in his glorified state, is seen as pointing to the spiritual state of the whole church, now seated with the glorified Christ in heaven (“seated . . . in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” [Eph 2:6]). This spiritual and heavenly reality of being in the presence of the glorified Christ in the heavenly realms is an answer to Jesus’ prayer that believers “be with me, where I am, . . . to see my glory” (Jn 17:24). This prayer of Jesus will, of course, be more fully and finally answered at the time of the second coming, when we will see Christ fully as he is (1 Jn 3:2), when we ourselves will be fully transformed, but even now, already, we can begin to see, in the Spirit, his divine glory.

Some commentators on Ephesians 2:6 speak of this being “seated with Christ in the heavenly realms” as a positional truth, presumably in distinction from an actual, experiential truth. While the text does point to a positional truth in the sense of referring to our real relationship with Christ, it should not be limited to such a sense. Being united to Christ, and being raised and seated with him, refers as well to a real state of being and a real experience, by virtue of our connection with the exalted Christ by the Holy Spirit. As Harold Hoehner in his commentary on Ephesians has stated, we are truly “alive in the heavenlies with Christ. . . . This corporate solidarity is a reality now, but in the future its reality will be enlarged as we fully bond with our Savior.

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