In the

heavenly

places

'In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth ... '

Today, space exploration has added to the confusion about the 'heavens' being the dwelling place of God. Space is counted 'empty' of deity! But it is a matter of language and concepts rather than of a theory of the divine dwelling in the heavens. Unfortunately this is not always remembered by Christians who find numerous references to the 'heavenlies' in the New Testament. This is often compounded today by the resurgence of the erroneous ideas that the Scriptures are to be accepted as the unalterable and definitive words of God - literalism. Many of the early commentators such as Origen, and later writers would often allegorise passages of Scripture which seemed to need some 'enlightenment' in order to be useful to us. But in the 16th century reformation the idea of the importance of the literal meaning of Scripture was insisted on and we have been left with this legacy of the mysterious ideas of 'heavenly' presences as the abode of God. So, the author of Hebrews writes of Jesus -

'... we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens ...' (Hebrews 8: 1).

But now consider the opening of Colossians chapter 3 -

'... if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things on earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3: 1-3)

Under the language of 'space' in that passage, lies the clue to the New Testament! For Paul, as for the writers of the gospels 30 years later, the risen, transformed Jesus, is the Lord who is near and not far off. We have been raised with Jesus. From the moment when Paul was confronted on the Damascus road by the transformed and risen Lord, he must have begun to realise that what had been prophesied as the 'last days' had begun to happen. In his letters to the churches he deals with this extraordinary difficult concept that already, in the new creation of the Father by the raising of Jesus, we may already anticipate, in faith, the last days - the eschaton when there will be a transformed race of people, with the dead, and a new earth in the consummation of history. Even in the Old Testament there are usages of language where God's presence is described as in the 'cloud', the shekinah, overshadowing his people in the wilderness journeying. Or in Hosea's remarkable passage where God is said to have taught Ephraim to walk, "I took them up into my arms ..." So not only the risen Lord but God, too, is near us and with us.

In contrast to Paul's very strong assertions, seen throughout his letters, that we are 'in Christ' as believers, and that we must live that out here and now as a 'heavenly' life, has been the Western Church's emphasis on our weakness and sinfulness. The transfiguring, selfless death of Jesus - the last Adam, as Paul called him in 1 Corinthians 15:45 - has, from Anselm onwards in the 11th century, been portrayed as the one destined to atone for our sin to the Father, even to accept that death as a punishment instead of us. (Paul recognised that Jesus was crucified for us - to bring us to life - but not instead of us.) So after the crucifixion, the resurrection and ascension Jesus came to be regarded, as that passage in Hebrews seems to affirm, as way above us in the starry heavens. And in Western theology, often even today, the idea of the transformed Jesus' presence to us in the world, is regarded as an erroneous idea. God, and the risen Lord, it is often assumed, are not 'near' us but residents of 'heaven'. The Eastern Church's worship is, in effect, the opposite to this Western view. In worship we are 'there' with the divine and all the saints, represented in the icons with which the churches are adorned.

The New Testament writers were struggling to express what they had experienced, using only the language that was available to them as a continuation of their Hebrew inheritance. But it gives us in the post-modern world (if that is the right term) quite a lot of grief to come to understand their excitement and convictions. And there is a sense that the churches have not really come to terms with the revolution in the sciences because the Bible is seen as the definitive, literal expression of understanding our faith. (Galileo was counted as a heretic by the Catholic church in the 17th century for upholding Copernicus' theories.) However, like Paul, our discipleship with the risen Lord is primarily by our consent to his authority and also by a serious consideration of the thoughts of the New Testament writers that lie under their reported words. There is no security in that approach. But security is the enemy of faith in Jesus the Lord who asks us to be disciples with him - as in the heavenlies of the risen life!

... for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3: 3)

______________________________________________________________________________

For detailed study see: Paradise Now and Not Yet - studies in the role of the heavenly dimension in Paul's thought with special reference to his eschatology, by Andrew T. Lincoln, Cambridge University Press, 1978.