A Better Country

A BETTER COUNTRY

By Given O. Blakely

"But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them a city." (Heb. 11:16).

In Scripture "country" denotes the place of citizenship; the locale where we are at home. It also speaks of a habitation with which we are compatible. Thus Scripture speaks of men belonging to a specific city, and having their "own country" (I Kgs. 22:36). Jeremiah spoke of those who wanted to forsake Babylon and return to "their own country" (Jer. 51:9). When the Lord Jesus "dwelt among us," the place where He was raised was called "His own country" (Mt. 13:54; Jn. 4:44). When God created man, He made him with a desire to belong – to fit in a specific environment. Although this desire has been corrupted because of sin, it is fully answered in the Lord Jesus Christ. In salvation, God is making us to fit into the realm in which He Himself resides. That process commences with justification, and is brought to its intended culmination in glorification. It is then that we will be fully adapted for a "heavenly" country. The redemption that is in Christ Jesus also, by faith, produces a longing for that blessed environment, and a corresponding dissatisfaction with this present evil world.

Faith, in our heart, essentially uproots us from this world, and from every country in it. When once a person believes God, a sense of NOT belonging to this world settles upon the soul. There comes a realization that we have been created in Christ Jesus for a better realm. Now, while we remain in the flesh, what is fervently desired cannot be supplied by this world and its resources. Those who are in Jesus at once become misfits in "this present evil world." The only way to avoid this perception is to cease to walk by faith. Of course, should this occur, we no longer fit into the domain of holiness, for we cannot essentially be citizens of this world and the world to come at the same time.

This fundamental condition of not fitting into this world, and longing for a heavenly country causes the religious chatter about health and wealth and prosperity in this world sound like so much nonsense. No matter how eloquent the perpetrators of these misconceptions are, and regardless of their cunning, yet dishonest handling of Scripture, the person who is living by faith is looking for "a better country." Further, everything related to health, wealth, prosperity, etc., relates to this world, not "the world to come." Regardless of how much you gain of this world, or how seemingly perfect your body is, all of it will eventually have to be left behind. None of it is compatible with heaven, and all of it has the taint of sin upon it. What a disadvantage such preachers have brought to Christian people. When the grand gathering of all men before the throne of judgment takes place, there will not be a single vestige of the things of this present world present. In an instant, the message of these health and wealthers will have been rendered obsolete – not able to survive the fire that will destroy the world (II Pet. 3:10-12). If they manage to make it through the fire themselves (I Cor. 3:15), they will have to learn a new message, for what they preached in this world will be nothing more than offensive babel in that one. To prepare for that appointed gathering, it is on the part wisdom to abandon the proclamation of everything that will not survive the end of the world.

A classic example of this can be found in Abraham. Although God promised him the land of Canaan for an "everlasting possession" (Gen. 17:8), yet when he arrived there, his faith cried out for more. The Spirit says it this way, "By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, AS IN A STRANGE COUNTRY, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God" (Heb. 11:9-10). The great heart of the patriarch seemed to sense that he had been destined for a greater land than Canaan. As expansive as the land was, there were people there with whom Abraham could not mesh. There were famines, hostile people, and  sorrows. Even while he traversed in the promised land, because he was living by faith, he was all the while seeking "a better country."

Faith has associated us with heaven, and our real citizenship is there. As it is written, "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Phil. 3:20, NKJV). Faith cannot be content with the paltry and defiled resources of this present evil world. It is preparing us for a better place. What are riches, careers, popularity, and fleeting enjoyments to the person who has the eagle eye of faith? The one who enjoys fellowship with the God of heaven and the Lord Jesus Christ (I Jn. 1:3; I Cor. 1:9), cannot be filled with the dust of this world. Its wells are not deep enough for him, and its goods are too prone to rust to please the heart. Riches can "fly away" (Prov. 23:5), and the person who is living by faith and walking in the Spirit cannot be attracted to such things. The individual; who possesses eternal life has a primal longing for eternal things, not temporal ones. As elementary as that may appear, what is being preached and taught these days has emitted a spiritual fog that hides such realities from the people.

In this world, we are "strangers and pilgrims" (I Pet. 2:11; Heb. 11:13). We do not fit into it. In fact, it chaffs against our spirits, and its manners militate against our faith. We may be in the world, but we are not of the world (Jn. 15:19) – not of its order or kind. We just do not fit well into it, and we know it. In fact, we are categorically told that we have not been made in Christ for the body we presently occupy, or the present world in which we find ourselves. In a grand development of this subject, Paul reminds us of that our earthly house, the human body, is scheduled to be "dissolved," or done away. It is then that we shall move into a new body, referred to as our "house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. In our present bodies, "we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven." Our present bodies are tabernacles, o frail tents, in which "we groan, being burdened." But it is not because we simply want to get out of this present body; we want to get into our new body – "clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life." Paul then states the case with staggering clarity, affirming that this whole arrangement is a Divine intention, and has been arranged on purpose. "Now He that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit" (II Cor. 5:1-5). In other words, salvation is fitting us to live in an immortal body. Tell me, then, how much sense does it make to get people all wrapped up in life in this world, while we are in a corrupt and dying body.

Because our hearts have been uprooted from this realm, we cannot be satisfied with its offerings. Our hearts are set on a "better" place! It is as true of those in Christ as it was of the saints of old; "But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city" (Heb. 11:16). God is still "not ashamed" to be identified with those who "desire a better country!" They are His kind of people, and He will indeed bless them with blessing. As for those who accent life in this world, and feel at home here, I will leave it to you to obtain some rational persuasion of how God must view them.

The heavenly country is better because it is eternal. It is better because there "the wicked cease from troubling and the weary be at rest" (Job 3:17). In that fair land there is "no more curse" (Rev. 22:3). The total absence of trouble and turmoil is depicted by the phrase "no more sea" (Rev. 21:1). Everything brought in my sin is totally absent there – everything!

There will be no adversary in that heavenly country! When Abraham arrived in the promised land, "the Canaanite was then in the land" (Gen 12:6). When Joshua led the children of Israel into the promised land, it was occupied by "seven nations greater and mightier" than themselves (Deut. 7:1). But when we arrive in the "better country" we now desire, no such occupants will be found. We will diligently consider their place, and it will not be found! (Ps. 37:10). In every way, it is a "better country."

 Truly, it is a "better country!" We will fit in there! We will be at home there. There we will have peace and tranquility, world without end.

PRAYER POINT: Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank You for giving us a hope that is an anchor for the soul, both steadfast and sure.