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‘Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God.’
1Pe_3:22
For us He has gone into heaven. What do we know in any detail, from the Word which cannot lie, about the works and purposes of His exaltation?
I. Head over all things.—‘God hath set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places … and given Him to be Head over all things to the Church, which is His body’ (Eph_1:20; Eph_1:22-23). That wonderful Headship is here connected expressly with the historical Ascension. True, there is a sense in which the Lord is eternally all that He is; He rises above time in the virtues of His work. He is ‘the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,’ as to the purpose and as to the merit of His blessed historical atonement. But none the less the historical cross and passion were awfully necessary in order to the realisation of the eternal purpose in time at all. Just so, in the covenant of blessing, the Lord has been for ever the life and Head of His saints; but His actual exaltation after death was required that it might be so; and that exaltation, further, was the glorious signal of a manifestation of His headship so great that it ‘made’ Him Head as coronation ‘makes’ a king. This at least we know, that He is set before us now as our Head expressly in the light of His victory and majesty. It is expressly as the ascended and enthroned Christ Jesus that He is what He is to His happy ‘limbs.’ The life He pours into them, the life which He is for them (Col_3:4), is life as He lives it ‘at the right hand of God.’ ‘The Lord’ to Whom every member ‘is joined’ (1Co_6:17) is the glorified, triumphant, infinitely exalted Jesus. His contact with us, His government of us, our union with one another in Him our Head—all these things are steeped in the splendour of the Ascension. Such is He to us in His glory, such are we to Him in our humiliation, that we are said to be ‘seated together [with Him] in the heavenly places in Him’; with Him as His companions, in Him as His members, in the bright world of His victorious joy. From other and only too obvious points of sight we are, indeed, not there yet. But all the more deliberately and often let us take our view of things from this point. As regards our reunion and communion with Him on Whom we have believed, as regards that oneness of the Head and members which allows St. Paul to say of Him and us, ‘So also is Christ’ (1Co_12:12); not only is He where we are, but we are where He is.
II. The Mediator of the New Covenant.—‘He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us’ (Heb_9:12). And now, having ‘obtained it,’ He is there to administer it. He is, in his ascended glory, ‘the Mediator of the New Covenant’ (Heb_9:15). He has ‘obtained’ for you all its blessings by His finished work on that green hill on the other side of Olivet. He has ascended from this green hill to be the faithful Trustee and the ever-willing Giver-out of all those blessings to you His disciple. Your Mediator stands in medio—one with the Father, one with you. All the gifts of the everlasting Love lie in His possession, on purpose for you: the abundant pardon, the eternal Spirit, the transfiguring power, the keeping presence, and, in due time, the glory that is to be revealed. He has undertaken all your responsibilities that he may invest you with all His death-won possessions. And He has invested you with them, on the delightful condition that they shall be always inseparable from Himself. You are never to find them anywhere out of Him. In Him, possessing Him in the free grace of Himself to you, you possess them now, you possess them here, you possess them all.
III. The Enthroned Intercessor.—‘Who also maketh intercession for us’ (Rom_8:34). He is doing it at this moment, and He is doing it as the enthroned Intercessor; as the Priest upon His throne. He is speaking for you. He is your Advocate. He is showering blessing on you as Mediator; He is presenting your name before His Father as Intercessor; as the Lord’s supreme Remembrancer (Isa_62:6), perpetually making mention of His unworthy members before the everlasting Love. Nay, let us correct the expression, and say not ‘before’ that Love, but ‘beside’ it. For where and how is He interceding? Do not think of Him, or speak or sing of Him, as if He were before the Throne. Do not dream of Him as if he were standing priest-like at an altar, pleading a propitiation, while He looks upward to the Power Who is to forgive. Such pictures of our Intercessor are not revelation; they are imagination. He is indeed our Priest, our great and glorious High Priest in heaven. But He is the Priest Who has for ever and ever done the altar-work of the Atonement-day. He has passed now through the veils of Holy and of Holiest, leaving them rent that we may follow in with Him. And behold, he has ascended the very Ark itself; He sits enthroned upon the Mercy-seat; He is crowned with many crowns; His hands have done with their victim-sufferings for ever, and are at work for blessing only. His intercession is carried on by the Father’s side and in the glory of the Father.
IV. King for ever.—Once more let us look up, and lift up our heads, to that deep heaven of air which is God’s own symbol of ‘the presence of His glory.’ Christian, the ascended Saviour of your soul, the Head, the Mediator, the Intercessor, the Priest upon His throne—He is there as ‘King for ever.’ Let us kneel upon the place of the Ascension, and own this again, as if we had never done so before. ‘Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ.’ ‘My Lord, O King, I am thine, and all that I have.’ And as Thou art my King, in all the claims of Thy most sacred and righteous and beatifying autocracy, reigning over my heart and over my life, so Thou art King and Lord of earth and of heaven; Thy Father hath set His King upon His everlasting Zion; all power is Thine. Thou dost reign; Thou ‘must reign,’ in the predestination of infinite righteousness and love, ‘till He hath put all enemies under Thy feet.’ And then, for ever, in the holy City, ‘the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it’; ‘of His kingdom shall be no end.’
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Bishop H. C. G. Moule.
Illustration‘Six hundred years before Christ came Ezekiel saw his grandest vision, “the likeness as the appearance of a Man above” the sapphire-like throne (Eze_1:26). The prophet saw heaven opened, but the strange vision had to wait long for its full interpretation. The first Christmas Day came, and the first Easter; at last on the first Ascension Day Ezekiel’s vision became a fact, and the Second Man, the Divine and human Saviour, sat down on the throne of the universe (Eph_4:10). Turn to the fifth chapter of the Revelation and you will see the vision of Ezekiel fulfilled to the letter. “Lo, in the midst of the throne … stood a Lamb as it had been slain.” Heaven places Him “in the midst of the throne.” Earth crowned Him with thorns and placed Him in the midst among the malefactors. Heaven crowns Him with many diadems, and places Him in the midst upon the throne. Facts are the foundation-stones of the Gospel. Every doctrine is based on a fact. Herein lies its charm. Few men can reason, or understand a system of philosophy. But a fact, something that took place, or was done, or suffered, can be understood by all ages and capabilities. There is many a dry page in theological books. But there are no dry pages in the New Testament. Why not? Because the crucified and living Christ is ever pictured forth before our eyes. It is not Christianity. It is Christ.’