The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. Hebrews1:3
He ascended into heaven.
Ascension day used to be a public holiday in South Africa but now each year we have to make a special effort to observe Ascension Day, which, in my mind, is not a bad thing because instead of just seeing it as a day off, we have to think about _why_ we're going to such effort.
Did you know that there are seven significant truths about the Ascension?
The Ascension means that:
1. Jesus completed His Ministry as our faithful High Priest.
2. Jesus takes our humanity into heaven and the God-head
3. Jesus sends the Holy Spirit
4. Jesus intercedes for us
5. Jesus prepares a place for us
6. Jesus will return and restores the Kingdom
7. Jesus will judge the living and the dead.
Jesus is our Great High Priest. A significant portion of the letter to the Hebrews explains this. Being both God and Man, He represented God to us and then as a sacrifice for sin, He represented us to God.
The ascension into heaven and being seated at God's right hand is an indication that His sacrifice was accepted, that His offering was complete and that His work is done.
On the cross Jesus said "It is finished."
The Ascension and being seated at God's right hand is the conclusion of the matter. It is God saying "Come sit at my right hand my son - your work is done!"
We could describe Jesus' work with three C's: The Cradle, the Cross and the Crown. The ascension is a culmination of all the enthronement psalms we read in the Old Testament. The Ascension is the announcement of His success and His victory. The ascension is the announcement that He is our great High Priest and King.
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Theo Groeneveld theo @ emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at emmdev[dot]blogspot[dot]com/
