OUR impression of the glory and majesty of God is far too faint; otherwise our joy over the ascension of Jesus would be far greater, far more intense. It is to us all too frequently, as though the ascension of Jesus were little more than a necessary result of His resurrection; an aftermath of Easter-morn; the only conceivable means by which He could disappear from this earth.
And when we read that Enoch went away without dying, and Elijah went into heaven with fiery horses and chariots, it does not seem to us so wonderful and so striking, that Jesus went away from this world by ascension. He could no more die; neither could He remain on this earth; hence in order to go into heaven, He was bound to ascend thither.
Yet in this way the meaning and purpose of Jesus’ ascension is altogether lost. It remains indeed a fact, which you believe, a final act of the drama which began with the incarnation and about which you are glad for Jesus’ sake. But all this is a work of remembrance and of thoughts and does not touch your heart.
And this should not be so. The ascension too is a link in the work of redemption, and you can celebrate the ascension only, when you appreciate and enjoy the fruit of this part also of the work of salvation.
Already the Twelve articles of the faith set the pace for you, to accept the ascension of Jesus among the mysteries of faith. Thus there lies in it not merely something for your memory, but also something for the faith of your soul. And it is that aroma of Jesus’ going up into heaven in which you should exult on the feast of His ascension into heaven.
And what is this mystery?
It is this, that He ascended into heaven in order that by Him you should have access.
I well know, that in our more secular moments our soul does not cling to this. In days and hours of thoughtlessness we are reckless and insolent enough to imagine that there is nothing wrong in it, when we present our prayers directly to the Eternal Being ourselves; with our soul go straight to Him; and so force our presence and our fellowship upon the Lord God!
But such seeking of the Lord is nothing but useless effort. You kneel indeed on your knees, but you do not pray. You call, but your voice does not reach His ear. You seek Him, but your eye does not discover Him. And from fellowship with the Eternal Being your soul remains far distant.
Presently therefore you judge and condemn that bold recklessness; and in moments when the heart became tender, and you became sensible of your own condition, and the overwhelmed soul would pour out itself, there was nothing more of this unspiritual daring; then wilfulness forsook you; and bashfulness overtook you and shamedness of face.
And when you ask in which of these moments there was real piety in you, you can not hesitate, but realize at once, how thoughtless, hollow and empty that pseudo-piety was, wherewith you dared to call upon your God, and how on the contrary the timidity and diffidence, the confusion and shame-facedness which afterward overtook you, brought you under a far more real impression of the majesty of your God.
And God’s word says Amen to this, and seals that hesitancy, and addresses you in those moments of your confusion, by pointing you to Immanuel, your Surety and Brother, Who discloses to you the access and approach to the Eternal Being.
And this is the mystery of Jesus’ ascension into heaven. He was here; as one of us; in our flesh and in our blood; and from here He ascends and goes into heaven, “there to appear before the face of God for us,” that is to say, where angels cover their faces, and in our best moments we shrink back and have no more courage, He goes in for us, to pray for us, to carry our prayers on the censors, and so give to our soul a bold, and yet not over-bold access to fellowship with our God.
It is not, that Jesus lives to pray for us, as though we ourselves were not permitted to pray to the Father. On the contrary, the Lord Jesus Himself has said: “I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you, for the Father Himself loveth you.” (John 14: 27). From your own soul to call on the Father He has taught us in the Our Father. True worshipers, worship the Father.
But here is the key to earnest prayers; you truly pray, but it only becomes true prayer from your soul to the Father Who is in heaven, when your prayer goes through Jesus, when in the prayer He is the Mediator, Who discloses the access to you again, and in Him you appear before the Father, and through Immanuel you have the approach of your prayers to the Throne.
When you hover upon yourself, when for one moment you do not live in Christ, when for one moment your soul stands outside of Him, then you are in yourself, in your own barrenness and lie in the midst of death; and it is impossible, that from that barrenness and from the midst of that death outside of and without your Mediator you should find a real soul quickening approach to the throne of grace.
Then everything beats back upon your own soul. There are words but there is no motion of soul. There are sounds, but there is no warmth. You do not get beyond the semblance, and the reality of the matter you lack.
But when faith flourishes; when it sparkles; and sparks spring out in you; so that you lay hold on Immanuel; and in Him your Avenger; and in that Goel you feel yourself slip away from you, so that in Him, and not in yourself you appear before the Eternal;—O, then at once the whole world of your prayers turns around, then there come breaches in that copper heaven, then it is as though the windows above are being opened unto you, and you perceive, you feel, you handle it, that your prayer became real exercise of fellowship, a crying of your soul on high, and an assurance, a blessed experience, that it is He Who has heard you.
If now this going in, in Christ, and this going through Christ to the Father were the product of your thought, your deed, your soul’s transaction, of course the ascension would have nothing to say to you. But this is just what the Scripture teaches you otherwise. She teaches you, that it is not your soul that lays hold on Christ as your Guide, at Whose hand to go to God, but that it is your Lord on high in heaven, your good Shepherd, Who leads you to the Father.
It is no act of yours therefore, whereby you use Jesus as a passive instrument, but Jesus the Person from Whom action goes out upon you, and gives, apportions and provides you with the access to the Father.
A Christ, a Mediator, an Advocate, Who still comes down every moment to His redeemed, to lift them out of their faintness, and with them ascends into heaven, to lead their souls in to the Father.
And therefore in dying there is nothing so sweet, as dwelling with the soul on Jesus’ ascension into heaven.
Dying also is an “appearing before the presence of God.” Not yet in the judgment. Not yet in the great illustrious day. But still an appearing “before the face of God,” in a clearer and a deeper sense, than ever we did in our prayers here on earth.
Every one feels it, when it comes to dying: now all swathings and all veils fall away, and God, God Himself, awaits me.
And, O, it is then so poor and cold and desolate, when in its denuded state, the soul must go into eternity. It rouses deepest pity, to see, how, that they might appear before God, thousands upon thousands have no one to take them by the hand, to lead them through the valley of death, and escort them to the Eternal.
But glorious, rich, to make the eye beam with delight, is then the lot of Zion’s children.
For there is One, Who then gives them this guidance; Who at once takes them by the hand; Who carries them through the valley of death; Who clothes them with His righteousness; and under the whisperings of words of tenderest love, leads them into the august palace of their God.
With every death of one of the called it is always a descent of the faithful Shepherd to take their soul, and with it to ascend into heaven.
Blessed access!
Here in prayer. Presently in dying. And so shall we be ever with the Lord.
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