24. The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath.
Another beam of light and immortality here shines upon the Old Testament Dispensation. For if the life above is beyond animal sensation, it must be the life eternal. The hell beneath, opposed to it, must stretch beyond the grave into eternity. But the way of life — the way in which alone life is found, the way to God, the way to glory — is but one. That way is Christ. (John 14:6.) If therefore I come to him, renouncing all other hope, casting all my hope on him, and every step of my way “looking unto him” (Hebrews 12:2) — am not I in this way? And if I follow him in “the obedience of faith,” is not my course, my daily walk, advancing in that way? (John 8:12.)
This way is above — of heavenly origin — the fruit of the eternal councils — the display of the manifold wisdom of God. Fools rise not high enough to discern it, much less to devise and walk in it. Their highest elevation is grovelling. God does not allow them even the name of life. (1 Timothy 5:6.) Cleaving to the dust of earth, they sink into the hell beneath. But this way of the wise is above. They are born from above; taught from above; therefore walking above, while they are living upon earth. A soaring life indeed! The soul mounts up, looks aloft, enters into the holiest, rises above herself, and finds her resting-place in the bosom of her God. A most transcendant life! to be “partaker of the Divine nature!” (2 Peter 1:4) the life of God himself (Ephesians 4:18); in humble sublimity, ascending above things under the sun, above the sun itself. Not only is it out of the reach of carnal men, but beyond the comprehension of all. (Job 11:7-9.) It is such a way as neither men nor angels could ever have cast up, such as can never be contemplated but with reverential faith. The wise in their most favored moments cannot fully conceive their present privileges; how much less the glorious unfolding, when the clouds shall never more be known.
The further we walk in this way above, the further we depart from hell beneath. Heaven and Hell are here before us. Soon will our state be fixed for eternity. — What then am I? Where am I? Those “who mind earthly things, their end is” the hell beneath. Those who walk in the way above — “their conversation is in heaven;” their hope is fixed on the Lord's coming from thence; their everlasting joy will be the complete transformation into his own image.† There is no downward tendency. It is still upwards. It is all rising ground. Mount ever so high, the ascent is ever before us; an immense distance still appears, ere we gain the summit. Yet the moment we desire this heavenly state, we have begun to know it, and we shall rise higher and higher heavenward, till we take our place before the throne of God. Thus ‘he that is truly wise, in this holy way of obedience, walketh to eternal life.’†
Children of God! walk like yourselves; with “your hearts lifted up in the ways of the LORD;”† with a holy loftiness above the debasing pleasure of earth; “looking at the things that are unseen;”† “having respect unto the recompense of the reward;”† walking in the way above, where your hope is,† where your treasure,† where your home,† above all — where your ascended Savior is;† and where one golden ray of his favor, one reflected beam of his glory, will outshine all the glare of a shadowy world. Had we more of heaven in our hearts, we should have more of its spirit in our profession. We should think less of the roughness of the way, if we more fully realized the rest beyond. But except we know — in its measure — heaven as our state now, how can we hope to enjoy it as our everlasting home? ‘Grant, we beseech thee, that, like as we do believe thy only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to have ascended into the heavens; so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell.’†
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