THE WIND OF ANOTHER CENTURY

THE WIND OF ANOTHER CENTURY

Rom. 8:17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

Over the last several years I have learned the value of reading old books. It seems reading the books from other centuries brings us face to face with another perspective. C.S. Lewis says the wind of another century blows through these books. It seems to me when reading the books of the Puritan Fathers there is a sense of eternity in them. Often, the more modern books deal with this present life and the issues of this life. Many deal with topics such as living your best life now and have very little if any eternal value. For example, in today’s verse, Paul is speaking about our inheritance in Christ. The modern preacher somehow makes this into a message about having an earthly inheritance; houses, cars, and other earthly possessions. The older commentators have a different perspective. Here is something John Gill from the 1600-1700’s had to say about our inheritance in Christ.

“Heirs of God – either efficiently, he makes them heirs; they are not so by nature, nor do they become such by the works of the law; but God his rich grace adopts them into his family, begets them again, and freely bestows the inheritance on them: or subjectively, they are heirs of himself; he not only makes them his heirs, but he himself is their inheritance and portion; they are heirs of all things which are his; they share in his love, grace, and mercy; and his wisdom, power, truth, and faithfulness, and indeed, every perfection of his are engaged on their side, and in their favor; all things are theirs who have God to be their God and Father; the Gospel and the ministers of it are theirs; the world and the things of it, life and death, things present and things to come; heaven and happiness, which go by the names of glory, riches of glory, kingdom, eternal life and salvation, are all represented as things to be inherited by the saints.”

What a different perspective! The natural man views everything from the point of improving his position or his circumstances in this present world. He has no sense of the heavenly realm, no awareness of the kingdom of God. The heavenly man recognizes another kingdom and sees himself as possessing another kind of inheritance. Jesus spoke about this in terms of storing up treasures. He said to store up treasures in heaven where they cannot be stolen. The Lord was instructing us to live our lives with a view toward the life to come.
The Apostle Paul used a different approach when talking about the emphasis of our lives. He said in Colossians to set our affections on things above. Many people live their lives as if there is no world or things above us. Their whole life is spent accumulating things in this life. That is the greatest of all tragedies, to spend your life, or rather waste your life, focused only on earthly matters.