To Be With Christ — O, Beloved!

My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.

— Philippians 1:23 (ESV)

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Oh, to think of heaven without Christ! It is the same thing as thinking of hell. Heaven without Christ! It is the day without the sun; existing without life, feasting without food, seeing without light. It involves a contradiction in terms. Heaven without Christ! Absurd. It is the sea without water, the earth without its fields, the heavens without their stars. There cannot be heaven without Christ. He is the sum total of bliss; the fountain from which the heaven flows, the element of which heaven is composed. Christ is heaven and heaven is Christ. You shall change the words and make no difference in the sense. To be where Jesus is is the highest imaginable bliss, and bliss away from Jesus is inconceivable to the child of God.

If you were invited to a marriage feast, and you were yourself to be the bride, and yet the bridegroom were not there - do not tell me about feasting. In vain they ring the bells till the church tower rocks and reels, in vain the dishes smoke and the red wine sparkles, in vain the guests shout and make merry: if the bride looks around her and sees no bridegroom, the dainties mock her sorrow and the merriment insults her misery. Such would a Christless heaven be to the saints. If you could gather Together all conceivable joys, and Christ were absent, there would be no heaven to His beloved ones. Hence it is that heaven is to be where Christ is.

To dwell with Christ, to feel His love,
Is the full heaven enjoyed above;
And the sweet expectation now,
Is the young dawn of heaven below.

. . .

Thanks be to God for all the mercies of the pilgrimage, for all the dropping manna and the flowing stream; but oh, the wilderness with all its manna, is nothing compared with the land that floweth with milk and honey. Let the road be paved with mercy, it is not so sweet as the Father’s house of the many mansions to which it leads. It is true that, in the battle, our head is covered, the wings of angels oft protect us, and the Spirit of God Himself nerves our arm to use the sword; but who shall say that the victory is not better than the battle? The warrior who has won the most victory will tell you that the gladdest day will be when the sword rattled back into the scabbard, and the victory is won for ever.

Oh, the wooing of Christ and the soul, this is very sweet: the rapturous joys we have had in the love-making between Christ and us, we would not exchange for emperors and kings, even if they offered us their crowns; but the marriage day will be better far, the glorious consummation of our soul’s highest desire, when we shall be with our Wellbeloved where He is. Far better, said the apostle, and he meant it; far better it is.

He did not say — and I want you to notice this again — though he might have said it, ‘We shall be in better condition; no poverty there, no sickness there;’ he did not say, ‘We shall be better in character;’ he might have said it: there will be no sin, no depravity, no infirmity, no temptation there. He did not say, ‘We shall be better in employment,’ though surely it will be better to wait on the Master, close at His hand, than to be here amongst sinners and often amongst cold-hearted saints. He did not say, ‘We shall have better society there,’ though, truth to tell, it will be better to be with the perfect than the imperfect. Neither did he say we shall see fairer sights there, though we shall see the city that hath foundations of jasper, whose light is the light of the Lamb’s own presence. But he did say, ‘To be with Christ.’ He summed it up there. The bare being with Christ would be far better. And so it will be. Our spirit longs for it.

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…If we have believed in Jesus, we are on a journey Home, and all fear of death is now annihilated. You notice the apostle does not say anything at all about death, he did not think it worth mentioning; in fact, there is no such thing to a Christian. I have heard of people being afraid of the pains of death. There are no pains of death: the pain is in life. Death is the end of pain. It is all over. Put the saddle on the right horse. Do not blame death for what he does not do. It is life that brings pain: death to the believer ends all evil. Death is the gate of endless joy, and shall we dread to enter there? No, blessed be God, we will not.

And this points us to the fountain of bliss while we are here, for if heaven is to be with Christ, then the nearer we get to Christ here, the more we shall participate in that which makes the joy of heaven. If we want to taste heaven’s blessed dainties while here below, let us walk in unbroken fellowship with Him — so we shall get two heavens, a little heaven below, and a boundless heaven above, when our turn shall come to go Home…Go to Jesus now by humble faith, that afterwards He may say, ‘Come; ye did come on earth, now come again, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of the world.’

— ‘For Ever With the Lord’ - The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit pg. 570-576 (C.H. Spurgeon)

O, beloved!

Do you see?! All our desires are really the desire for Christ Himself? It is Him we long for - Him!

And we’re getting nearer to Him, beloved, we are! With each passing moment in Time, with each tear that falls, with each ache and pain that is life here…we are getting closer to our Beloved, the tender lover of our souls! The One who created and formed us; the One who delights to please us and who delights for us to find our pleasure in Him!

We know more of Him now than when we first began, do we not?! And we will know more of Him yet, as Time plods on, yes?! (hopeful)

He is only wooing us now, beloved! Leading us tenderly though this wilderness. He is caressing our hands, and kissing our eyes, and whispering words of love in our hard-of-hearing ears! And His wooing is wonderful! We find great joy in the wooing!

But beloved?

What we’re really waiting for, really longing for…is the marriage feast and the final consummation, are we not?! The perfect coming Together?! The joining of two into One? When we are, Together, united to Christ?

Yes, beloved.

It is that for which we wait and long.

But while we wait and long for that glorious Day, beloved…we catch glimpses of His glory here, yes? When we are near to Him, looking for Him, He shows us bits of Himself! He shows us His love and grace and forgiveness! He shows us tenderness and self-sacrifice and true intimacy! I think He’s trying to reveal Himself to us in this, beloved! All of it!

And that should give us great Hope, yes? That He loves us enough to make Himself known? The God of the Universe? To sinful, messy humans like us, beloved? Yes! What great Hope that brings!

Beloved? (so very tender) We get a little heaven now, but a boundless heaven One Day, do you know?

Only a taste here, but an everlasting feast to consume There! Only a bit of wooing here, but perfectly full and eternal intimacy There! Only the most fleeting glance at Christ here, but There, we will behold Him face to face!

O, beloved. (gentle)

To be with Christ is far better than anything we could ever ask or imagine. He loves us so. Let us submit to Him, willingly, gladly, forever Together, please? For He is good, so very good. We rest in Him, now and always.