There is another angle to the ascension-a rather practical one-that is worth considering as well. But because of the ascension of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is with us, and because Christ is united to us by His Spirit, we are truly able to say and believe that Christ is “with always, to the end of the age” (Matt. In short, without the ascension, there would be no abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. Once the ascension occurs in history as promised, then comes the promised Holy Spirit within us as well. In order for the Spirit to descend upon the church, Jesus must first ascend up into heaven. Acts 1 not only records the ascension, but it also anticipates the coming of the Spirit just as Jesus promised in Acts 2. His ascending into heaven was the necessary precursor to the sending of the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49–52). Jesus told His disciples multiple times that not only would He rise from the dead but that He would also ascend up into heaven in glory (e.g., John 20:17). 7), the throne that was promised to Jesus by His Father before the world began. The resurrection was Christ’s triumph over sin and death, while the ascension seated Him upon the throne of David (2 Sam. ![]() The particular nuance of the ascension is that after the resurrection and the postresurrection appearances, Christ ascended up into heaven to be “seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty” (Apostles’ Creed). After Christ was raised from the dead, He “ascended up into heaven,” as is affirmed by both the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed. In short, we live resurrection lives-lives that reflect our hope in the resurrected Christ.Īs central as the resurrection is to the Christian life, however, it is not the end of the work of Christ. But because Christ has been raised from the dead, Christians frame their entire lives in the light of the resurrection. As the Apostle Paul so aptly put it, if Jesus Christ was not raised from the dead, we are the world’s most pitiable fools, and rather than following Christ, we ought to “eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” (1 Cor. Chief among these historical events is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Something happened in history, and all that man is, believes, and does is based on these events-events that occurred in history. Gresham Machen, in his prescient and potent little book Christianity and Liberalism, argued that Christianity is “an event-centered religion.” Christianity is based on historical events.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |