a meditation for the Sunday after Ascension Day
The Son of God who “descended” into space and time from the Father in heaven and then “ascended” from space and time back to the Father in heaven was one and the same Person but on his return to heaven, the vast array of angels knew that he had changed.
Not that he had changed in any way as a divine Person, the Second Person of the Blessed, Holy Trinity. He still remained of one substance with the Father and the Holy Ghost in his divine nature. He had changed in that he had taken to himself, by the action of the Holy Ghost, a full human nature and body in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And in that human nature and body he had lived a fully human life, maturing from a baby to an infant to a child to a young man to an adult man. Further, in that human nature he had submitted himself to the Law and the Will of the Father, a submission which included his Passion, Crucifixion and death. His submission led to a perfect obedience, active and passive.
When the Father raised him from the dead on Easter Day he raised him with an immortal, spiritual and glorious resurrection body. In him human nature was now perfected and deified while still remaining created human nature. So the Son of God who ascended and is exalted into heaven, is the Son of God with his perfected nature and body.
His arrival in that body and with that nature in heaven, and his being placed at “the right hand of the Father” at the very center of God’s supreme dwelling place, brings a totally new dimension and reality into heaven. And that dimension is humanity, not sinful imperfect humanity, but human nature deified and glorified, belonging to the Son of God for everlasting.
All the benefits that flow to believers on earth and then into eternity from the Ascension and Exaltation of Jesus are available as gifts and by grace because the Lord Jesus is in heaven as the One Person made known in Two Natures – divine and human.
Because he is Man as well as God yet One Person, we have one, sure Mediator between God and mankind. We can come to the Father through, with, in and by him.
Because he is there as the God-Man, the Saviour, he prepares a place for his people so that they shall be with him unto ages of ages, with a body like unto his glorious body, as they move in eternity from glory into glory.
Because he is there as the King of Kings, he rules the universe to fulfill the will of the Father, to exercise providence for the good of believers, and to bring to a glorious conclusion the total salvation of the elect.
Because he is there as the High Priest, he represents all his disciples, the whole Church, before the Father in heaven presenting them, their service and their worship/prayers to the Father on the basis of his own merits so that they are loved and accepted in and through and by him.
Because he is there as the great Prophet, he speaks his Word to the church and to the world through the ministry & gifts of the Spirit, his Paraclete, whom he has sent to be with his people, to dwell in them and to guide, empower and sanctify them.
Because he is at the right hand of the Father until the end of this age, he will return to earth from there with power and great glory to judge the living and the dead, to consummate the purposes and will of God, and inaugurate the glorious kingdom of God, wherein the redeemed church shall see the glory of the Father in the face of Jesus Christ.
Therefore St Paul urges Christians to set their minds and hearts on things above where Christ is (Colossians 3). Those who are most useful on earth are those who are truly heavenly-minded.
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.),
Christ Church, Biddulph Moor & St Anne's, Brown Edge
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