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{Since the Heavenly Trade Is the Best Trade…
Exhortation and Counsel to Professors of Christianity
Make Secure Your Portion of Heavenly Treasures
How to Know That Heavenly Treasures Are Yours}
QUESTION: But how may I come to the knowledge of this desirable truth: that heavenly treasures are surely mine and that I may have a valid claim to God, to Christ, and the things of Heaven?
Answer 1: By Your Communion with the Heir of Heaven
{Since the Heavenly Trade Is the Best Trade…
Exhortation and Counsel to Professors of Christianity
Make Secure Your Portion of Heavenly Treasures
How to Know That Heavenly Treasures Are Yours
Answer 1: By Your Communion with Heir of Heaven}
First, you may know that heavenly treasures are yours by your marital union with the Heir of Heaven.
[Christians have a kind of marriage-relation to Christ only because they are members of the invisible Church, Christ’s Bride. Individual believers, though united to Christ, are not individually Christ’s spouses. The idea that individual believers are married directly to Christ was a common Puritan error. However, the error does provide a useful illustration. Also, if you have not read the subchapter Emotions: Goals or Indicators, now is a good time to do so. Ed.]586
All things in Heaven and earth are Christ’s; He is the heir of all things. “[God] has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds” (Hebrews 1:2 NKJV). All things in Heaven and earth are His by donation, purchase, and inheritance, judicially conveyed to Him in the new covenant and actually put into His hand at the finish of His meritorious work and victory over death.587 “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth’” (Matthew 28:18 NASB). The word for authority (εξουσια [ex-oo-see´-ah]) indicates lawful power, right, privilege, and authority; these were granted to the Lord Jesus and He had all things put into His hands, and all creatures under His feet (Hebrews 2:7–8).588 All right to true riches is derived from Him through union (Romans 6:2–5)589 with Him. “Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s” (1 Corinthians 3:22–23 ESV). If you are Christ’s, then all things are yours, and if you are not in Christ, nothing is yours. Your title is founded on your marriage-relation to Him. “And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise” (Galatians 3:29 NASB). A title to the these glorious treasures is conveyed in the new covenant, which covenant is confirmed in Christ. It is made in Him and through Him to all who are His. He is the way; there is no getting these treasures except by Him. He is the door; there is no entering into the treasures except through Him. He is the treasury itself, in whom are all the riches of grace and fullness of pleasures and satisfaction. You must have the treasury before you can have the treasures. You must have the well itself before you can get the water. He who has the Son has life (1 John 5:12);590 he has [the gift of] Him by way of possession, as an owner and proprietor.591 If you have Christ, you have all that is His. His person and that which He purchased for believers go together. Rebekah had to consent to go and marry Isaac before she could partake of that substance and wealth that was his (Genesis 24:58).592 This new covenant that grants a soul a portion in the Lord Jesus and His unsearchable riches is a marriage covenant. “And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord” (Hosea 2:19–20 ESV).593 “‘Then I passed by you and saw you, and behold, you were at the time for love; so I spread My skirt over you and covered your nakedness. I also swore to you and entered into a covenant with you so that you became Mine,’ declares the Lord God” (Ezekiel 16:8 NASB).594 This was a marriage covenant. “‘Return, O faithless sons,’ declares the Lord; ‘For I am a master to you, And I will take you one from a city and two from a family, And I will bring you to Zion’” (Jeremiah 3:14 NASB).595 If you want to prove your title to heavenly treasures, test your marriage union to the Lord Jesus, the Heir of Heaven. Not every relationship with Christ is a marriage union with Him. There is a general relation to Him, as dead branches on a tree: “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned” (John 15:1–6 NASB). A person may also be on [not in] Christ as a luxuriant branch of a parasitic plant on the tree. He or she sucks the sap of privileges and gets some nourishment and comforts, but does not bring forth fruit. It sprouts out of the stock as proud flesh596 grows on a wound. Such people have no valid union with the root or nourishment from the head. They butt in, consume resources, and pretend to be children [of God], but are strangers. They do not go in by the door [Christ] to dwell with God, but climb up some other way like a thief to steal (John 10:1).597 They are as occasional workers in Christ’s house that now and then do some service for Him and have some scraps and favors, but are not abiding members of His household. They are like a plant that hangs on a wall but is rooted in the earth.598
There is also a temporary relationship as a servant to a master where there is an employee-employer relationship for a time. The servant comes into the household, enjoys privileges and protection, does some service, is very useful for the family, and may even be beloved as a servant. Such is the relation of some to Christ. But this vastly differs from that union that entitles one to the person of the Lord Jesus and that which He purchased for His people. Such a temporary servant does everything for his own gain and is (likely secretly) motivated by his own advantage in beginning his employment and in continuing it. He does not do anything from a pure love of Christ, but for selfish reasons and advantages. His welfare is not wrapped up in the welfare of the family, to stand or fall with it, to invest his being in the prosperity of that house. He lives with the family and lives off his Lord, but for himself. He is like a planet that moves with the sun, but has its own distinct motion and orbit. He is with the family, but not of the family. His relationship is in name only, so it is only temporary; he does not abide in the household forever (John 8:35).599 And, when he goes away, he carries off nothing but his own; not a bit of the inheritance is his. He has fared well and had a great deal of reputation and comfort for a time, but he goes as he came and is the same person he was.
There is also a concubine-relation to Christ; it gives the soul some use of His kindness, but no right to His person. A concubine600 is one who is contented with the man’s bed, but has no marital love to his person. She does not become part of her husband’s family and her children are not considered legitimate. She is one who by either constraint or consent enters into an external communion with another for his use and bed, but is never married to his person. She has not chosen him for her husband, to become one flesh with him, delight in him, and to do all from love for him. And, as she does not have the properties of a wife, so she does not have the privileges of a wife: intimacy, being cherished, household authority, and maintenance.601 This is the kind of relationship that many have to Christ: they consent to have some enjoyment of Christ, but are not in marital union with Him. He is not theirs by choice, but either out of necessity or for advantage to enjoy their own pleasures by Him and receive some profit from Him. They never saw an excellence in Him, and never gave Him their hearts. “You have captivated my heart, my sister, my bride; you have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace” (Song of Solomon 4:9 ESV). In this verse, the bride captivated the groom’s heart. But Christ never captivated the hearts of these people, and they never consented to all His proposals in order to be in union with Him. They never heartily gave up themselves to Him, nor entered into covenant with Him and so became His. And, as they are strangers to marriage union with Christ, so they are strangers to a spouse-like disposition. They do not have the temper and way of life of a wife, so they do not have the resultant privileges. They are not acquainted with His secrets, His heart, or that love of His that is reserved for believers. They have no authority or rule, that is, they have no power over their corruptions, nor command of their spirits and affections—but these ought to be in subjection to themselves. Grace does not reign in them; sin and self does all in their souls. They were never enrolled in Christ’s household, nor acknowledged by the Lord Jesus as ones in whom He delights. They do not have the allowance and special provisions of the King’s bride and Lamb’s wife. And, as to those “children” [thoughts, words, and deeds] they seem to have by Jesus Christ, they are spurious and illegitimate and never acknowledged by the Lord Jesus as the genuine fruit of His own Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23).602 This is the case of those who have no marriage union with Christ; they have no right to Him or His treasures. So test your relationship to Christ.
How Do I Know If I Am Married to Christ or Not?
{Since the Heavenly Trade Is the Best Trade…
Exhortation and Counsel to Professors of Christianity
Make Secure Your Portion of Heavenly Treasures
How to Know That Heavenly Treasures Are Yours
Answer 1: By Your Communion with the Heir of Heaven
How Do I Know If I Am Married to Christ or Not?}
QUESTION: How may I know whether I am married to Christ or not?
ANSWER: There are five things that prove marriage to the Lord Jesus.
You Have a Special Acquaintance with Christ
{Since the Heavenly Trade Is the Best Trade…
Exhortation and Counsel to Professors of Christianity
Make Secure Your Portion of Heavenly Treasures
How to Know That Heavenly Treasures Are Yours
Answer 1: By Your Communion with the Heir of Heaven
How Do I Know If I Am Married to Christ or Not?
You Have a Special Acquaintance with Christ}
First, if you are married to Christ, you have a special acquaintance with Christ. You know Him in a way that unbelievers do not. The wife has more particular and distinct knowledge of her husband than anyone else. Others may know something, even much of him, but nobody knows him as well as his wife. She knows all his excellent traits and all his infirmities. More than anyone else in the world, she has a taste of his love, experience of his sweetness, and intimate conversation with him. So it is with the spouse of Christ; she dwells in His presence and lodges in His arms. She sees Him inside the veil (Exodus 26:31–34),603 inside those coverings that stand between Him and the eyes of strangers, which veil conceals His loving personality from the general public. He puts aside His glorious robe and shows her His bare chest and lays her hand on His tender heart. She is often alone with Him in His inner room where he expresses intimacy with her, as Isaac did with Rebekah (Genesis 24:67).604 There He reveals the secrets of His heart and the greatest disclosures of His love. He tells her what thoughts He had of her from all eternity; when He was in His Father’s kingdom, His heart was on her, and He thought the wait too long before He came down to see her (Ephesians 1:4).605 And no sooner did He see her lying in her blood, though loathed by others, and thrown out [exposed] in the field, His heart burned toward her.606 [When] it was the time of love, He told her that all the time of His hard labor in the world for her seemed to be just a few days (Genesis 29:20).607 The enormous weight of her sins and the Father’s wrath on Him for her sake seemed to be as nothing for the love He bore to her (Isaiah 53:12; Matthew 27:46; Hebrews 12:2).608 In the words [of Scripture], He assures her of His love, person, and kingdom. However He may seem due to His providences, His heart is fixed on her and faithful to her. He swears that He will never, never leave her, but after a little absence, will come and receive her to Himself and she will be with Him forever (Hebrews 13:5; John 14:3).609 Thus, He clearly reveals Himself to her in a way in which He does not reveal Himself to the world (John 14:16–17).610 For this reason, she becomes well acquainted with Him and knows His voice by faith, being one of His sheep (John 10:27).611 She can tell by experience who and what her beloved is and how far better He is than others. There is never a soul that is married to Christ that does not have memories of special discoveries of His love and of Himself to that soul, and can tell some stories of what Christ once said and did for her. Such a soul can tell what sight she had of Him and what gifts from Him.612 Such a soul can tell how, when he was dead, Christ made him alive; when he was lost, Christ found him; when he was in prison, Christ set him free. He washed him when in his blood and poured oil into his wounds, healed his backsliding, and loved him freely. He can say, as Rebekah to her brother Laban: “When he saw the ring and the bracelets on his sister’s wrists, and when he heard the words of Rebekah his sister, saying, ‘This is what the man said to me,’ he went to the man; and behold, he was standing by the camels at the spring” (Genesis 24:30 NASB). And, as Judah, he brings out the signet, cord, and staff (Genesis 38:25).613 Like the man born blind, he tells how Christ opened his eyes and what He said to him (John 9:11, 15, 17, 25–27).614 By his sin and unbelief, a Christian may lose sight of Him for a time and lose assurance of salvation. Yet, if the believer will rightly consider Christ’s work in his life, he can perceive an acquaintance with Christ that no hypocrite ever had.
{Since the Heavenly Trade Is the Best Trade…
Exhortation and Counsel to Professors of Christianity
Make Secure Your Portion of Heavenly Treasures
How to Know That Heavenly Treasures Are Yours
Answer 1: By Your Communion with the Heir of Heaven
How Do I Know If I Am Married to Christ or Not?
Your Love for Christ}
Second, another thing that will prove your marriage to Christ is your marital love for Him. “Go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord, “I remember concerning you the devotion of your youth, The love of your betrothals, Your following after Me in the wilderness, Through a land not sown”’” (Jeremiah 2:2 NASB). The Lord convicts Israel of the great decay and change of Israel’s love from what it once was. There was a time when their affections were strong toward God. When he called them out of Egypt, took them from the iron furnace, and married them to Himself, then nothing was too hard for them. They could follow God in a wilderness, where there was nothing but God alone to satisfy them. There were minimal created things to allure them there in the wilderness, but they would do anything for God; no difficulties could separate God and them. From where came this warmth of affection? Why, it was their nearness to the God Who created them. The Lord took them into a marriage covenant and carried them in His bosom. This inflamed their hearts toward Him. When the Lord brings a soul into a marital state, He gives them marital love, and that is the greatest love. “Oh, sweet!” said Rutherford, “is that sickness to be soul-sick for Him and a living death it is to die in the fire of the love of that soul-lover, Jesus.” The apostle makes this an essential duty of marriage: to have marital affection; the husband is to love his wife as his own flesh and the wife to love her own husband as herself (Ephesians 5:28; Titus 2:4).615 And the prophet reckons this love to God as the certain fruit of their covenant relation to Him: “Also the sons of the foreigner Who join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, And to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants—Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, And holds fast My covenant—Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, And make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices Will be accepted on My altar; For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations” (Isaiah 56:6–7 NKJV). As soon as Paul accepted the Lord Jesus, it appeared in his supreme love to Him; he valued nothing like Christ. “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Philippians 3:8–10 NKJV). Marital love is a personal love; pure love to Christ is set on Christ Himself, for Himself, not for His gifts that come from Him, but for His excellencies, love to His person, not merely for His promised eternal reward.616 The source of our love for Him is His love for us. “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19 NKJV). True affection for the Lord Jesus is a gift that comes from His own love for us, a coal kindled from His fire.
Marital love is also exclusive and particular, as well as personal love. So far as it is marital, it is to Him, and none but Him. Or, if to others, it is for His sake. Marital love to Christ is stronger than any other. If there is any person or thing that you love more than Christ, or equally with Him, your love to Christ is not marital love, but as that of a whore. “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37 NASB). “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26 NASB).617 True love for Christ will let nothing in all the world share in that love that is to Christ, and will take none into his bed but Christ; it is chaste love.
Again, one who has marital love for Christ, longs to be found in Christ, not [wrapped up] in one’s own self. Such a person desires that Christ alone will be glorified and seen as excellent. The person counts Christ as the only source of anything that is truly honorable in himself or herself. This love wants to get as near to Christ as possible and never rests until it is in Him. “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith” (Philippians 3:8–9 NKJV). This love is also a kind of love that conforms to Christ. Love is assimilating; it desires to be like its particular object. The affectionate wife confirms as much as possible to her husband. So it is with the spouse of Christ: she desires that, in everything that may be imitated, she may resemble Him. It is her great trouble that she is not more like Him. What would such a soul give if his heart were like Christ’s heart and he had such a spirit and life as the Lord Jesus had on earth? He would want to be holy, just as Christ is holy and would be satisfied with nothing less. It is true that no soul has the kind of Spirit that Christ had; it is too proud, vain, carnal, quick-tempered, earthly, and selfish—and that troubles him. He can never rest until he comes nearer to the pattern in Heaven and to a full likeness to his well-beloved Jesus.
You Are Willing to Leave All for Christ
{Since the Heavenly Trade Is the Best Trade…
Exhortation and Counsel to Professors of Christianity
Make Secure Your Portion of Heavenly Treasures
How to Know That Heavenly Treasures Are Yours
Answer 1: By Your Communion with the Heir of Heaven
How Do I Know If I Am Married to Christ or Not?
You Are Willing to Leave All for Christ}
Third, a soul married to Christ will leave all for Christ. That is the condition of marriage between Christ and His Bride. “Listen, O daughter, Consider and incline your ear; Forget your own people also, and your father’s house; So the King will greatly desire your beauty; Because He is your Lord, worship Him” (Psalm 45:10–11 NKJV). This is as if He were to tell you to weigh and consider the terms on which this match is to be concluded between Christ and you. If you want to be His, you must leave everything else for Him. To the extent they hinder your love to Christ, your communion with Him, or your duties to Him, you must forsake all other lovers, friends, possessions, and comforts. When a woman becomes married, she leaves her friends, father’s house, [possibly even] country, and everything, to go live with her husband. Rebekah left her father, brother, friends, and country to go to Isaac. “And they called Rebekah and said to her, ‘Will you go with this man?’ She said, ‘I will go’” (Genesis 24:58 ESV). The one who cannot consent to part with all for Christ, really and with thoughtful consideration, has not come up to the terms of the proposed marriage. The [nascent] covenant between Christ and that soul never went far enough to come into effect. And, if it goes no further; if your soul cannot agree to this: to part with all you have, your dearest comforts, and indeed, your very self for Christ, your developing union with Christ will be broken off and you will remain separate from Christ forever [unless you repent]. Oh, soul! Test your heart in this matter, for here is the critical indicator. This is the most difficult of all Christ’s requirements for union with Him. It is the one for which the soul is most reluctant: to let go of everything for Christ (Luke 14:27–33).618 Christ’s person and His promised Heaven may be pleasing enough, but to now leave all for Christ and go with Christ—this is the hard saying.619 People want Christ and the world too, Christ and friends too, Christ and reputation, peace, liberty, pleasure, and self too; and if Christ will not grant this, then they reject Christ. But if you have ever closed with Christ620 and you are His and He yours, you cannot consider anything too valuable to part with for Him or let go of at His command. If Christ calls for estate, husband, wife, children, an Isaac (Genesis 22:2),621 a Benjamin (Genesis 43:14),622 a right eye, or a right hand (Matthew 5:29–30),623 all must go, and you must part with them freely and cheerfully, as Abraham did with Isaac. “So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him” (Genesis 22:3 NASB). We must not be as Jacob when he parted with Benjamin by constraint and grudgingly, saying, “If it must be so…” (Genesis 43:11).624 He was almost starved before he would consent to part with Benjamin, and when he did, he let him go last of all. He gave up some of the best fruits of the land, balm, honey, spices, myrrh, pistachio nuts, and almonds, even double money—anything else first. And, at last, Benjamin was squeezed out of him also. Many people must have their comforts wrenched out of their hands before they will let them go, but this is not love to Christ. A soul married to Christ will say to Christ something similar to what Mephibosheth said about his land to King David: “Mephibosheth said to the king, ‘Let him even take it all, since my lord the king has come safely to his own house’” (2 Samuel 19:30 NASB). So let God take all my estate, strength, liberty, and comforts since the Lord Jesus has come home to my soul in peace.625 Houses, lands, friends, reputation, peace, and life may be dear, but Christ will be dearer if He and you are united. “All Bavaria,” said George Carpenter, “is not so dear to me as my wife and children. Yet for Christ’s sake, I will forsake them cheerfully.” “Do you think me such a fool,” said Ogvier to one who tempted him with life and preferment, “that I should exchange eternal things for temporal?” “Loss of goods is great [loss],” said Hooper, “but loss of God’s grace and favor is greater.” Love is never accurately seen until it comes to parting. Oh, the tugging, holding on, schemes, and long, hard thinking that occurs before people will part with what they dearly love. “Now it will appear,” said Philpot, “what we love best for, to that which we love, we will cling.” If Christ has most of your hearts, you will let everything fall out of your hands to hold Christ tightly. “I have,” said M. Bale, “exiled myself forever from my own native country, kindred, friends, and acquaintances—the great delights of this life—and am well contented for the sake of Christ.
You Cling to Christ and Are Supported by Him
{Since the Heavenly Trade Is the Best Trade…
Exhortation and Counsel to Professors of Christianity
Make Secure Your Portion of Heavenly Treasures
How to Know That Heavenly Treasures Are Yours
Answer 1: By Your Communion with the Heir of Heaven
How Do I Know If I Am Married to Christ or Not?
You Cling to Christ and Are Supported by Him}
Fourth, a soul married to Christ clings to and is supported by Christ. The wife casts herself on her husband’s love and care for her supplies and is supported by his allowance for all her provisions.626 It is suspicious for a married woman to be maintained by strangers and to be supported by other men for what she needs. It is the husband’s duty to provide for his own and to nourish and cherish his wife as the Lord does the Church (Ephesians 5:25).627 And, it is the wife’s duty to go to him and rely on his faithfulness for her needs (Titus 2:4–6).628 So it is with the soul that has espoused Christ; it is to be supported by Christ for all it needs. Those who truly take Christ take Him for their all, not merely for better or worse, or for richer or poorer as women take their earthly husbands. But they take Christ for their only and sufficient portion at all times and in all conditions because Christ is always the best of all and always exceedingly rich and full of unsearchable treasures. “‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘Therefore I have hope in Him’” (Lamentations 3:24 NASB). “Lord,” said Paulinus when his city, gold, and silver were taken away, “let not the loss of these things trouble me, for you are all and more than all these to me.” Christ is the believer’s all here on earth, and God is his all in all in Heaven. “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Colossians 1:19 ESV). “‘You have put all things in subjection under his feet.’ For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him” (Hebrews 2:8 NKJV). And this is for the supply, comfort, and blessedness of those who are His. “And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:22–23 NKJV). As Mediator, whatever Christ has is the Church’s for her use and profit. If people have plenty of liquors, they fill their vessels with them. If they have much riches, they put them in their treasury. Likewise, Christ disposes of His fullness for His Church’s good. Hence, the spouse of Christ comes from the wilderness leaning on her beloved (Song of Solomon 8:5),629 and dares venture her all on the love and sufficiency of her loving and lovely Lord. She fails [sins] often, but she is supported by Him for righteousness. She has many weaknesses, but she goes to Christ for strength. “He shall say, ‘Surely in the Lord I have righteousness and strength. To Him men shall come, And all shall be ashamed Who are incensed against Him’” (Isaiah 45:24 NKJV). She is aware of many needs, but casts herself on the promise: “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19 NASB). Her backslidings, temptations, dangers, troubles, and fears are many, but she depends upon the Lord Jesus, Whom she has chosen for her only friend in Heaven and earth. There she lays herself down in His bosom when wearied with difficulties and doubts and trusts herself in His faithfulness for all she has need of, for life, godliness, grace, and glory.
You Have Fruitfulness in Christ
{Since the Heavenly Trade Is the Best Trade…
Exhortation and Counsel to Professors of Christianity
Make Secure Your Portion of Heavenly Treasures
How to Know That Heavenly Treasures Are Yours
Answer 1: By Your Communion with the Heir of Heaven
How Do I Know If I Am Married to Christ or Not?
You Have Fruitfulness in Christ}
Fifth, fruitfulness for and in Christ proves marriage to Christ. Hence the spouse is described by metaphors that express fruitfulness. One example is of a garden, not a wilderness, but even by that kind of garden that is usually the most fruitful, a well-watered garden from which the spices flow out. This is the believer in whom the graces of the Spirit are more effectual and abundant, and souls become more fruitful in clearly seen holiness! “Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates with all choicest fruits, henna with nard, saffron, calamus, and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all choice spices” (Song of Solomon 4:13–14 ESV). All the choice spices signifies the preciousness, variety, and abundance of grace and holiness in those who are savingly united to the Lord Jesus. Another example is a flock of sheep. “Your teeth are like a flock of shorn sheep Which have come up from the washing, Every one of which bears twins, And none is barren among them” (Song of Solomon 4:2 NKJV). Other examples of such metaphors are those that use the palm tree, the cedar, the vine, the fig tree, and the green olive, plants famous for flourishing growth, clusters of fruit, and constant fruitfulness. It is said of the fig tree that it bears fruit all year long, and in many places, people always find green figs on it.630 This kind of imagery shows how the spouse of Christ is fruitful and flourishing as opposed to the world and hypocrites. “So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit” (Matthew 7:17 NASB). “Whoever is wicked covets the spoil of evildoers, but the root of the righteous bears fruit” (Proverbs 12:12 ESV). Wherever the grace of God is truly received, it brings forth fruit (Colossians 1:3–6).631 As sin brings forth fruit leading to death, so grace brings forth fruit leading to life (Romans 6:22).632 As soon as the Lord Jesus espouses a soul, He heals it of its barrenness. “He grants the barren woman a home, Like a joyful mother of children. Praise the Lord!” (Psalm 113:9 NKJV). “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit” (John 15:2 ESV). A barren Christian is a monster in religion and not a living member of Christ’s body. There are, indeed, winter seasons when fruit may not appear, but even then life is in the seed and sap in preparation for the fruit, which appears in season. But to always be without the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (Galatians 5:22–23)633—is a sign of a person who never had marriage union and intimate communion with Jesus Christ. This state is a certain mark of a fruitless fig tree that is in danger of being cut down and the mark of that ground that is cursed and ready to be burned (Luke 13:7–9; Hebrews 6:8).634 Souls, test your condition; it is for your lives since all you are and have depends on your marriage union with Christ. Have you never had any special acquaintance with Christ? Have you no marital love to Christ? Are you unable to consent to leave all [everything] for Christ? Do you usually live and rely on other things for life and salvation, but not Christ? Have you always been barren souls that never brought forth the fruit of the Spirit to God? If so, then you were never married to Christ, nor have any title to heavenly treasures.
Answer 2: You Naturally Love Heavenly Treasures
{Since the Heavenly Trade Is the Best Trade…
Exhortation and Counsel to Professors of Christianity
Make Secure Your Portion of Heavenly Treasures
How to Know That Heavenly Treasures Are Yours
Answer 2: You Naturally Love Heavenly Treasures}
You may know that heavenly treasures are yours by the naturalness and supremacy of your love of them. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21 NKJV). If heavenly things are yours, your heart is there. But worldly people have set their hearts on the world.635 Their hearts are just copies of the world. Similarly, heavenly souls have heaven set in their hearts, which are copies of heaven. Everything has a natural love for its own, so the world will love its own (John 15:19).636 “For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church” (Ephesians 5:29 NKJV). Consider what affection brute animals have for their young and how they will venture their lives to defend and preserve their young. There is a story about when the town of Delph in the Low Countries was on fire. The storks saw the fire get near the nests and they tried to carry away their young, but could not. So they fluttered over them and shielded them from the fire with their wings until all perished together. Natural affection is strongly for its own and its natural offspring; gracious affections should be even stronger for gracious concerns. David said, “Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 119:97 NKJV). From whence came this affection? It came from his valuing those great and lovely truths. “Your testimonies I have taken as a heritage forever, For they are the rejoicing of my heart” (Psalm 119:111 NKJV). Souls that are risen with Christ and born [again] to the inheritance above will set their affections on the things above (Colossians 3:1–2).637 Christian, where is your heart, in Heaven or earth? What things are dearest to you and sweetest to your taste? Can you prize the light of God’s countenance better than life? Would you rather be a doorkeeper in God’s house than dwell in the pavilions [fancy large tents] of this world (Psalm 84:10).638 Is a little of Heaven better than a great deal of earth? Can your heart be content to sustain any loss in the world to enjoy God in His ordinances and be enriched with spiritual blessings in heavenly places? Then heavenly things are yours.
Answer 3: You Care for and Pursue Heavenly Treasures
{Since the Heavenly Trade Is the Best Trade …
Exhortation and Counsel to Professors of Christianity
Make Secure Your Portion of Heavenly Treasures
How to Know That Heavenly Treasures Are Yours
Answer 3: You Care for and Pursue Heavenly Treasures}
Third, if heavenly treasures are yours, it will be shown by your heart’s care for them and vigorous pursuit of them. Consider how full of care people are concerning their own interests, to keep them safe and increase them. “For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 2:21 ESV). If the things of Heaven are yours, your greatest care will be to get and keep them.639 When Kish thought his son, Saul, was lost, he quit caring for the donkeys and was anxious and sorrowful for Saul, saying, “What will I do about my son?” (1 Samuel 10:2)640 Christian, if heavenly things are yours, they will be closer to your heart than all the world. In addition, the sense or fear of losing heavenly things will be more troubling to you than any or all worldly losses. The world, relatives, and creature comforts will be forgotten when you strongly suspect that your heavenly portion is in danger. You will do more and part with more to get Heaven, than you would for anything of the world or the dearest comforts of it. Many people will pretend desire for heaven, as the young man in the Gospel (Mark 10:21–22),641 but Christ will say to them as to His hearers, “And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?” (Matthew 5:47 NKJV). Soul, you want to have Christ here and Heaven hereafter, but what do you do to obtain them? What do you do that is more than those do who are hypocrites, or more than those who profess Christ, but whose whole portion is in this life? Can you leave the world for God? Can you deny yourself to please Christ? Can you part with your right eye and right hand? Can you throw away your idols of gold and silver, the world, and fleshly lusts? Can you honor God with your time, strength, and substance? Can you let your plow stand still to follow God’s plow? Can you refuse to be stopped by any pains or hardships in order to enjoy the least spiritual good? If so, then heavenly things are yours.
Answer 4: Your Spirit Is Suited to Heavenly Treasures
{Since the Heavenly Trade Is the Best Trade…
Exhortation and Counsel to Professors of Christianity
Make Secure Your Portion of Heavenly Treasures
How to Know That Heavenly Treasures Are Yours
Answer 4: Your Spirit Is Suited to Heavenly Treasures}
Fourth, you may know that heavenly treasures are yours when your hearts and spirits are suited to them, when the Lord has suffused a heavenly influence into your hearts, inlaid your spirits with heavenliness, and given you a mind that reflects heavenly things as a mirror reflects an image of a face. When God intends people for Heaven, He makes them [progressively more] fit for Heaven during their time on earth.642 Where He gives a title to mercy, He gives the ability to receive it. When God grants a promise of the riches of glory, He makes that soul a vessel fit for glory. People do not purchase pearls for pigs to wear or build schools for animals. God did not make the sky for fish or the sea for land animals, but He has suited every creature for its habitat. Those whom He has adopted are His new creatures also (Ephesians 2:10).643 When God destines them for a blessed end, He give them a nature suitable to that end and gives them a disposition to move toward that end. Those who are set apart for Heaven in the hereafter bear the image of their Heavenly Father while on earth (1 Corinthians 15:49).644 There is a stamp of glory on the heirs of glory, even though it may be so covered with dirt and worn out with the rust of corruption that it cannot always be easily seen. “And He said to them, ‘Whose likeness and inscription is this?’” (Matthew 22:20 NASB). Caesar’s coins have Caesar’s stamp, and the children of Heaven have their Father’s mark on their foreheads (Revelation 14:1).645 If Christ’s treasures are yours, you are a treasury of Christ; although you are clay pots, you are His treasures, vessels and money bags that do not wear out (Luke 12:33).646 Do you hope for spiritual blessings? Of what kind of spirit are you? Do you enjoy heavenly things? What things best suit and please your spirit, the things of Heaven or the things of the world? Grace or goods? Righteousness or riches? Spiritual things or carnal things? What goes down easiest, or when down, sits easiest in your stomach? The heirs of Heaven do not conform to this world, but are being transformed into a spirit of Heaven, and their minds are being renewed to their new condition, blessedness, and glory (Romans 12:2).647
That is a second thing in which this heavenly trade lies: making sure of your portion of heavenly things and making it secure.
586From Ephesians 1:22–23; 5:23, 25, 32, and Revelation 19:6–9; 21:2, it is clear that individual believers are members of the one Bride of Christ, that is, the invisible Church; they are not themselves spouses of Christ individually, but are part of the Bride, the invisible Church. This is further brought out by the description of individual believers as parts of Christ’s body in 1 Corinthians 12:12–27. Ashwood’s language here is unfortunate; Christ is not a polygamist and male believers are not in a sodomitic union with Christ. For an individual Christian to think of himself or herself as being directly and individually married to the transcendent Christ is to think of oneself way too highly, to say the least. Ashwood was not alone among writers of the era in missing this distinction and the error continues into the present. The Puritans interpreted the Song of Solomon directly in terms of Christ and the Church, whereas scholars have since come to realize that it speaks primarily of human marriage. However, since human marriage is to reflect Christ’s love for His Church (Ephesians 5:22–33), the Song of Solomon does so as well. The editor will continue to translate Ashwood’s text without further commentary on this error, in large part because the error, taken rightly, can be a useful and instructive illustration, analogy, or metaphor. The reader is cautioned that, in order to learn the full biblical teaching concerning the relationship between our Lord Jesus Christ, His Church, and individual believers, one must take into account all of the earthly analogies and teachings of Scripture, such as: master/slave, Heavenly Father / adopted child, building / living stone, Good Shepherd / sheep, and so on.
587As the Second Person of the Trinity, Christ already, as God, owned all things, if nothing else, because all things were created through our Lord Jesus. But at Christ’s resurrection, all became His as man as well.
588“‘You have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, And set him over the works of Your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet.’ For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him” (Hebrews 2:7–8 NKJV).
589“May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection” (Romans 6:2–5 NASB).
590“He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:12 NKJV).
591By no means does this statement imply even the least loss of the Creator-creature distinction and relationship or of the supreme sovereignty and authority of Christ. Rather, it is based on Christ’s awesomely gracious gift of Himself to all believers: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20 ESV). The phrase as an owner and proprietor simply means that the gift is truly given to believers; a gift normally becomes the property of the recipient.
592“Then they called Rebekah and said to her, ‘Will you go with this man?’ And she said, ‘I will go’” (Genesis 24:58 NASB).
593In the Hebrew in this passage, the second person pronouns (“you”) are feminine singular in number. The verb know is of a form that implies you will and is also singular in number. Thus, God is speaking to Israel, the primitive Church as a body, not as individuals.
594In the Hebrew in this passage, the second person pronouns (“you”) are feminine singular in number; thus, God is speaking to Israel, the primitive Church as a body, not as individuals.
595Some translations put I am married to you instead of I am your master. The Hebrew בָּעַ֣לְתִּי has as its root בעל [baw-al´], meaning to possess, own, rule over, or marry. The Hebrew for Baal is בַּעַל, whose root is also בעל. The context is of God rebuking His people for gross idolatry, worshiping many false gods, including Baal (Jeremiah 2:8). God is to be their master (בָּעַ֣לְתִּי, baal), not Baal or other false gods. In this verse, the second person pronouns (“you”) are plural.
596proud flesh: hypergranulation or overgranulation. This is a still-current medical term for a situation during wound healing in which an excess of granulation tissue forms in a wound, typically above the surface, and which greatly hampers healing of the wound. The interested reader should consult the medical literature. As horses are especially prone to proud flesh in wounds, this topic would have been more familiar to Ashwood’s readers than today.
597“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber” (John 10:1 ESV).
598The idea is that the plant is near and seems attached to the wall, but it gets its nourishment from the earth, in contrast to a branch of a vine that is nourished by the vine of Heaven.
599“The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever” (John 8:35 NASB).
600concubine: in biblical times, a slave-wife. Generally, she is a woman who cohabits with a man, but is not fully his wife; her children might not inherit from the father. Different cultures have had different laws and traditions concerning concubinage. In biblical history, God has never sanctioned the practice, except in the case of a slave girl who was reserved for full wifehood at maturity, but in this case, she was not called a concubine. Although concubinage (and polygamy) were unsanctioned by God and He spoke through the prophets only a little against these practices, Genesis 2:18–25; Matthew 9:1–12; Mark 10:1–12; 1 Corinthians 7:1–16; 1 Timothy 3:2, 12; and Titus 1:6 make it clear that God’s standard is for marriage to be between one man and one free (non-slave) wife. Ephesians 5:25-33 explains that marriage is to reflect the relationship between Christ and His bride, the Church.
601Ashwood’s description of a concubine here suits his purposes of illustration.
602“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22–23 NASB).
603“You shall make a veil woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen. It shall be woven with an artistic design of cherubim. You shall hang it upon the four pillars of acacia wood overlaid with gold. Their hooks shall be gold, upon four sockets of silver. And you shall hang the veil from the clasps. Then you shall bring the ark of the Testimony in there, behind the veil. The veil shall be a divider for you between the holy place and the Most Holy. You shall put the mercy seat upon the ark of the Testimony in the Most Holy” (Exodus 26:31–34 NKJV).
604“Then Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah his mother and took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death” (Genesis 24:67 ESV).
605“…just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love” (Ephesians 1:4 NKJV).
606See Ezekiel 16:1-14.
607“So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her” (Genesis 29:20 NASB).
608“Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12 ESV). “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Matthew 27:46 ESV). “…looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2 ESV).
609“Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5 NKJV). “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3 ESV).
610“And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:16–17 NKJV).
611“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27 NKJV). It has been this editor’s observation that, as soon as a person is converted, whatever their previous attitude toward and understanding of the Holy Bible, they immediately embrace and believe it.
612God reveals Himself to believers through the Scriptures with the help of the Holy Spirit, one’s conscience, and by His creation and providence.
613“As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, ‘By the man to whom these belong, I am pregnant.’ And she said, ‘Please identify whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff’” (Genesis 38:25 ESV). Why did Ashwood use an analogy from a case of incest, a heinous sin? Perhaps in this sense: that Tamar presented evidence of having been in a close relationship to Judah.
614“11He answered, ‘The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, “Go to Siloam and wash.” So I went and washed and received my sight.’ 15So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, ‘He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.’ 17So they said again to the blind man, ‘What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?’ He said, ‘He is a prophet.’ 25–27He answered, ‘Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.’ They said to him, ‘What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?’ He answered them, ‘I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?’” (John 9:11, 15, 17, 25–27 ESV).
615“So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself” (Ephesians 5:28 NASB). “…and so train the young women to love their husbands and children” (Titus 2:4 ESV).
616It is Christ Himself Who sets before us Heaven and Hell. To be motivated to accept and embrace Christ by fear of Hell and hope of Heaven is thus not wrong or evil, but evidence of faith in God’s Holy Word. The believer should seek to grow beyond this weaker and imperfect love to love for Christ as He is, for all He is.
617The language of this verse is hyperbolic, similar to a steel mill worker calling boiling water cold due to molten steel being very much hotter.
618“Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:27–33 ESV).
619Dear reader, faith, trusting Christ and His promises, can be of enormous help here. “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18 NASB).
620closed with Christ: trusted in Christ, believed in Him, committed your life to Him without reservation, unconditional surrender of yourself to Him—all to eternal life.
621“He said, ‘Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you’” (Genesis 22:2 NASB).
622“And may God Almighty grant you compassion in the sight of the man, so that he will release to you your other brother and Benjamin. And as for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved” (Genesis 43:14 NASB).
623“If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell” (Matthew 5:29–30 ESV).
624“And their father Israel said to them, ‘If it must be so, then do this: Take some of the best fruits of the land in your vessels and carry down a present for the man—a little balm and a little honey, spices and myrrh, pistachio nuts and almonds. Take double money in your hand, and take back in your hand the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks; perhaps it was an oversight. Take your brother also, and arise, go back to the man. And may God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may release your other brother and Benjamin. If I am bereaved, I am bereaved!’” (Genesis 43:11–14 NKJV).
625“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein” (Psalm 24:1 ESV). “For you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:20 ESV). In light of these and other Scriptures, all we are and “own” belongs to God; we thus own nothing, but are stewards (managers or keepers) of ourselves and all that the Lord has put into our hands. This implies a necessary willingness to let God determine what He gives into our care and takes out of our care, and a need to care well for what is in our charge, all for His glory.
626In Ashwood’s time, very few married women worked outside the home.
627“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her” (Ephesians 5:25 NKJV).
628“…that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded” (Titus 2:4–6 NKJV).
629“Who is that coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved? Under the apple tree I awakened you. There your mother was in labor with you; there she who bore you was in labor” (Song of Solomon 8:5 ESV).
630In the Holy Land, figs may be picked nine or ten months of the year.
631“We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints; because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth” (Colossians 1:3–6 NASB).
632“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life” (Romans 6:22 ESV).
633“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22–23 NASB).
634“And he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?’ And he answered and said to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down’” (Luke 13:7–9 NASB). “But if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned” (Hebrews 6:8 NASB).
635Ashwood references and quotes part of Ecclesiastes 3:11. This verse has: “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end” (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NKJV, emphasis added). The NKJV and most modern translations translate עֹלָם [o-lawm´] as eternity, but it may also be translated world, as does the KJV.
636“If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19 ESV).
637“Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (Colossians 3:1–2 NASB).
638“For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness” (Psalm 84:10 ESV).
639And an ever greater care will be to glorify and love God.
640“When you go from me today, then you will find two men close to Rachel’s tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah; and they will say to you, ‘The donkeys which you went to look for have been found. Now behold, your father has ceased to be concerned about the donkeys and is anxious for you, saying, “What shall I do about my son?”’” (1 Samuel 10:2 NASB).
641“And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’ Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions” (Mark 10:21–22 ESV).
642This is the process of sanctification, a process that starts at conversion and is never complete in this life.
643“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10 NASB).
644“Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly” (1 Corinthians 15:49 NASB).
645“Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads” (Revelation 14:1 ESV).
646“Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys” (Luke 12:33 NASB). Ashwood uses this verse as an illustration. The body wears out, but the soul is eternal.
647“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2 ESV).
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