THE LIMITLESS AND THE LIMITED
THE OMNIPRESENT AND THE LOCALIZED
The ascension of Jesus of Nazareth
was the final crisis in His great work. To omit it would be to omit that which
is a necessary link between His resurrection from among the dead, and reappearance
amid His disciples; and the coming of God the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.
It is not easy to follow Him as He passes out of human sight. This difficulty
is recognized logically in the very brevity of the Gospel narrative. Very
little is said because little can be said which could be understood by those
dwelling still within the limitations of the material, and having consciousness
of the spiritual world only by faith. Still the positive fact is definitely
stated, and following closely the lines laid down, we may humbly attempt their
projection beyond the veil of time and sense.
It is almost pathetic that it is
necessary to pause one moment to insist upon the actual historic fact of the
ascension into the heavenly places of the Man of Nazareth. If the RESURRECTION be denied, then of course there is no room for ASCENSION. If on the other hand
it be established, that Jesus of Nazareth did indeed rise from the dead, then
it is equally certain that He ascended into heaven. No time need be taken in
argument with such as believe in the authenticity of the New Testament
account, and with those who question this, argument is useless. That there is
an unconscious questioning of this fact of ascension is evident from the way in
which reference is sometimes made to the Lord Jesus. It is by no means uncommon
to hear persons speak of what He did or said “in the days of His Incarnation." Such a phrase, even when
not used with such intention, does infer that the days of His Incarnation are
over. This however is not so, any more than it is true that Abraham, Moses, and
Elijah have ceased to be men. Indeed the presence of Jesus of Nazareth in
heaven as a Man, is more complete than that of any other except
Enoch (Gen. 5:24; Heb. 11:5), Moses
(Matt. 17:3; Jude 9), and Elijah (2 Kings 2:11). (See article TESTIMONY OF THE FATHER). All others wait the
resurrection for the reception of their body. He in bodily form has passed into heaven.
So also Enoch passed as a SIGN in the dim and distant century of the triumph
over death that God would win in the Person of His Incarnate Son. So also
Elijah passed, for a testimony in the midst of corruption, which was issuing in
unbelief in immortality. Moses' body was brought out of the grave by Michael
the archangel, for reunion with his spirit for the purpose of communion with the
Man Jesus (Jude 9). This again was
an act of God's faith in Christ, and though the devil disputed with the archangel his right to
appropriate the benefits of redemption, until redemption were accomplished by this very
act God declared the absolute accomplishment of redemption in the Divine
economy, long before it had been wrought out into human history. (Jude 9) Jesus therefore through Whom,
and through Whom alone eventually, men as such will be found in the heavens,
ascended in bodily form to those heavens, being Himself as to actual victory
the First-born from the dead.
The condescension of God to human
form was not for a period merely. That humiliation was a process in the
pathway, by which God would lift into eternal union with Himself all such that
should be redeemed by the victory won through suffering. Forevermore in the
Person of the Man of Nazareth, God is one with men. At this moment the Man of
Nazareth, the Son of God, is at the right hand of the Father. Difficulties
arising concerning these clear declarations as to the ascension of the Man of
Nazareth must not be allowed to create disbelief in them. Any such process of
discrediting what is hard to understand, issues finally in the abandonment of
the whole Christian position and history. It may be objected for instance that
if He be indeed localized as a Man, in heaven, how He can be present with His
people on earth. In answer to that, it must be stated, that working in the
inverse way, the same difficulty obtains in understanding His presence on the
earth as a Man. In
the very mystery of the Being of the God-man, as has been shown, THERE
IS THE LIMITLESS AND THE LIMITED, THE OMNIPRESENT AND THE LOCALIZED. Just as
He was here upon the earth in order that the grace of God might have its outshining
in a Person, and yet while here, spoke of Himself as the "Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father"; (John 1:18) so today the Man Christ
Jesus is in heaven, and through Him the glory of God is having its outshining
in a Person, while He is yet in the deep and unfathomable reaches of His Being,
the infinite and eternal I AM.
In considering the ascension first
as the coming into heaven of God's perfect Man, there are three things to be
noted,—
1st, His perfection in
the realization of the Divine purpose for man;
2nd, His perfection in
the accomplishment of the Divine purpose of the redemption of ruined man;
3rd, His investiture
with a name.
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