The Late A Leckie
Mark, Luke and Paul, referring to our Lord's return to heaven, employ a verb which tells us that our risen Lord was taken hold of and taken up. Acts 1.2 refers to the TIME WHEN; Mark 16.19 to the PLACE WHERE; and 1 Timothy 3.16 to the MANNER HOW. Luke in Acts 1.9 speaks of our Lord being taken up in a cloud receiving Him out of the sight of His disciples. The force of the verb "taken up" is that our Lord was both taken up and carried away. The force of the verb "to receive" is that a cloud took its place under Him and, no doubt as a triumphal chariot, transported Him upward to heaven. Each of these expressions refers to what was done FOR our Lord rather than done BY Him. The power of God was exercised with the fulness of divine pleasure toward a Man who had accomplished the will of God though rejected by men.
The language of John is rather different. There we learn what our Lord Himself did in His own inherent power. In John's Gospel we learn that our Lord ascended, meaning "to go up". He has ascended up to heaven (3.13); He has ascended where He was before (6.62); and He has ascended to the Father (20.17). In ch.16, speaking to His disciples of His going away, our Lord uses three different words: "I go my way" (v.5) – a withdrawal would be involved: "I go away" (v.7) – a separation would be involved: and "I…go to the Father" (v.28) – there was an end in view, a goal to be reached. The great goal in His ascension was the Father (20.17; 16.28). To his disciples our Lord said, "If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father" (14.28). The disciples did love the Lord, but theirs was a selfish love: they could only think in terms of His withdrawal and consequent separation from them. If they could have thought less of their loss and more of His gain, they would have rejoiced. He was going to the Father - this was the goal, the end in view in His ascension. In John's Gospel the Son ascends where He was before. He ascends to the Father.
In the Epistle to the Ephesians the Apostle Paul also speaks of our Lord ascending (4.8-10). Here it is not the Son ascending to where He was before and to the Father; it is a Man who lay in death, (4.9), now a mighty conqueror (4.8), ascending in triumph far above all heavens that, ultimately, He might fill all things with Himself (4.10).
There are three lovely statements in the Epistle to the Hebrews that depict for us our Lord's going back to heaven: "passed through the heavens" (4.14 RV), "made higher than the heavens" (7.26), and "entered…into heaven itself" (9.24). There are three heavens (2 Cor 12.2): the aerial heaven, the stellar heaven, and heaven itself. In Acts 1.9 our Lord commences His journey through the aerial heaven. What an experience this must have been for those disciples! One moment their Lord is talking with them and the next He is rising from their midst. They watch Him until He is out of sight, then they return to Jerusalem to await the baptism of the Holy Spirit. As they wend their way to Jerusalem, our Lord continues His journey through the aerial heaven, the domain of the enemy (Eph 2.2). With what awe and trepidation the devil and his evil spirits must have watched their victor pass through their domain. Who is the victor? A Man in a body but recently crowned with thorn and spiked to a tree outside Jerusalem.
Having passed through the aerial heaven, our Lord enters and passes through the stellar heaven, the heaven of those galaxies of countless myriads of stars, some known but the greater part unknown and millions of light years away. He made them all and now as Man He passes through them.
Having passed through the aerial heaven and the stellar heaven, what next? Hebrews 7.26 tells us that He has been made "higher than the heavens". How much higher could He go? Hebrews 9.24 provides the answer: Christ has entered "into heaven itself". Heaven itself is the third heaven, the uncreated heaven, the eternal heaven, the abode of God and the high holy angels. Can you think of the welcome those angels beyond numbering must have given to this One who had recovered everything for God, this Man in a body on which there were still the marks of Calvary? Watch Him pass through the serried ranks of those angelic beings as upward and upward He goes, until He can go no further. As He reaches the throne of God, we can but feebly enter into the pleasure with which God says to Him, "Sit thou…"!
Wonder of wonders He is there for us, openly manifested before the face of God and requiring no cloud of incense to cover the throne lest He die, because He is unsullied in His purity and not one whit short of the glory of God. He is "before the face of God" (Heb 9.24, RV), with nothing between, and we can only feebly appreciate with what pleasure God looks upon Him. He is there now as an interceding High Priest who is able to succour, sympathise and save. The background of Hebrews 9 is the Day of Atonement, and our Lord has passed through that of which the Court and Holy Place were but types. He hasn't carried His blood up to the throne of God: but He is Himself before the face of God FOR US in all the value of His accepted sacrifice, in all the eternal efficacy of His precious blood. And He is there NOW!
Concluded.
