Spiritual Gravity
Putting on Christ allows us access to heaven’s atmosphere. Clothed with His righteousness, we escape the draw of the realm of the flesh (the old way of being) and access a Spirit-empowered lifestyle. We are swept away from a purely earthly way of being into a reality empowered by God’s presence.
The natural realm is an expression of the spiritual (Romans 1:20). The earth and other objects of the solar system all have a center of gravity and exude a gravitational pull. Objects with more mass have more gravity. The further one is away from an object, the more the object’s gravitational pull will decrease. The sun, as the center of our universe, has the largest mass and the strongest gravitational pull.
In the spiritual realm, Jesus Christ is the center of everything. He sustains and upholds the universe, and everything, whether invisible or visible, is in existence because of Him (Colossians 1:16-17). The Son is the spiritual Sun. He gives light and warmth, which sustains all life.
Humanity’s sin blinded us to this reality and prevented us from accessing the light and warmth of Christ. This is why Christ came - to remove and destroy sin’s power. When we put on Christ (Galatians 3:27), we gain the ability to leave sin’s gravitational field. Sin’s gravitational field is empowered by the flesh. The flesh is used throughout the New Testament to refer to the human way of being before Christ and the Holy Spirit. We die to sin’s power and become alive in the Spirit (Romans 6:11).
As new creations, we have been completely set free from the realm of the flesh (Romans 8:9), which is dominated by mindsets and behaviors in opposition to the cross of Christ (Galatians 5:19-21). Christ reorients our center of gravity from ourselves to Himself. It is as if we become a type of spiritual astronaut, able to leave the bondage of pride and sin in order to explore new realms and new frontiers.
All of this is made possible by the Holy Spirit, who allows us to participate in Christ’s divine nature:
2 Peter 1:3-4 (NIV) “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”
As we grow in Christ, the gravity field of heaven becomes ever stronger. We are progressively transformed from an earthly way of being into a heavenly one. The purpose is not to escape the physical world, but to become a living witness of Christ in order to radiate His heavenly presence. We remain in the world but are not of the world (John 17:14-17). The temptations to return and act in the realm of the flesh progressively fade as we abide in intimacy with Christ. Our tastes and desires become His tastes and desires. As they do, the enemy loses his foothold in our hearts and we disappear from his vision. (Ephesians 4:27; James 4:7).
Heaven’s atmosphere is dominated by the fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faith, and self-control. Love for God and our fellow humans abounds in this atmosphere (Mark 12:28-31). It is in this atmosphere that the gifts, graces, and powers of the Spirit flow freely (1 Corinthians 12:7).
Christ’s goal for humanity is that all will be drawn into His gravity field, in order to live in this atmosphere. It is this truth that prompted Paul to write the following about the resurrection on the Last Day, when we will all live completely in heaven’s atmosphere:
1 Corinthians 15:40-42 “There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and stars differ from star in splendor. So it will be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable.”
1 Corinthians 15:47-49 (NIV) “The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so let us bear the image of the heavenly man.”
The Lord has already opened the door for us to access the heavenly way of being. This Way (John 14:6) allows us participation in the age that is to come and empowers us to live effective lives for the gospel of Jesus Christ during our time on earth. We must allow His love and presence to continually draw us ever higher.
