The Ascension as the Visible Sign of the Acceptance of the Redeemer
Acts 1:9
And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.…


If the secret of the Redeemer's life on the earth be this - that he was working out for us a man's obedience to God in a human body and human spheres, then the closing scenes of the record of that life may be thus represented. In the struggle of Gethsemane our Redeemer's soul won a full triumph of trust, submission, and obedience. This inward soul-triumph was tested and proved, and came off perfectly and triumphantly victorious, in the bodily shame and suffering, and even in the death-agony, of Calvary. As a "man," his spirit and purpose of obedience, and his actually doing and beating in obedience, were thus perfectly tested and proved. What remained necessary to constitute him a perfect and all-sufficient burnt offering, to be presented to God for us? Manifestly this alone, that God himself should give some adequate and visible sign to us that with Christ he was infinitely well pleased, and that he would accept him as our Sacrifice. And just this we have in the Resurrection and Ascension. God raised him from the dead. God received him to his own right hand in the heavenly places. Disciples saw him go up to God; and if Enoch was manifestly accepted of God because of his translation; and if Elijah was declared to be God's prophet by his wondrous fire-journey into the unseen world; much more was the Lord Jesus declared to be the "Son of God," and the accepted Sacrifice, by that breaking of grave-bonds, and passing, to mortal vision, up within the clouds. Our Redeemer's work may be said to lack completeness until his soul-triumph of trust and submission, and his bodily act of obedience, in enduring the cross, as God's will for him, have manifestly and in some open way gained the acknowledgment and acceptance of God. The Ascension properly completes the Resurrection, and both together are the Divine acceptance of the perfect Son, and the acceptance, be it remembered, of humanity in him who was its Head and Representative. Then two thoughts may be unfolded and illustrated -

I. THE RESURRECTION IS THE ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MAN'S VICTORY. That is of Christ, as man, for man; of man in Christ. It is his victory over self, the evil power; and over sin, the evil Consequence. Christ mastered self, and obeyed perfectly, as a Son. Christ broke the bonds of death; for the penalties of transgression cannot lie on One who is infinitely acceptable. Now, in Christ, serf is no unbeaten foe; and "death hath no more dominion over us." We have hope in the struggle with self. We have security against the penalties of sin. In Christ death cannot hold us.

II. THE ASCENSION IS THE BEGINNING OF GIVING THE VICTOR THE VICTOR'S PLACE AND HONOUR. He is "highly exalted, and given a name above every name." He is "glorified with more than the glory which he had with the Father before the world was." Exalted to position of highest honor, to a place of power and authority; entrusted with the "bringing on of sons to glory;" empowered to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins; set on God's right hand, our one Mediator and Intercessor; and "Head over all things to his Church." In heaven we may not conceive him as dissociated from the place, relation, and work of earth, but occupying these still in relation to us, only in altogether higher, more efficient, and spiritual modes. He is the "Captain, or Author, of salvation." Able now, as the ascended Lord," to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God by him." - R.T.



Parallel Verses
KJV: And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

WEB: When he had said these things, as they were looking, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight.




The Ascension and the Second Advent Practically Considered
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