Ascension into heaven is the consummate event of our Lord's life on earth with immense significance. The disciples struggled with His leaving. They were grieved and fearful. But in John 16:7, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage if I go away." Ascension marked the completion of our Lord's earthly work and it signaled the end of our Lord's limitation. John 17:5, Jesus prays, "Glorify Me together with the glory I had with You before the world began." And the ascension brings that into reality. He was restored in that newness to limitless intimacy with God as the perfect God-Man which He remains forever. And the signs and scars of His suffering remain on His glorious and eternal body forever. The ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ signaled our Lord's sending of the Holy Spirit. We are dependent upon the Holy Spirit for everything. It is the Holy Spirit that convicts us of sin. It is the Holy Spirit who takes up residence in us, we become His temple. It is the Holy Spirit who sanctifies us. It is the Holy Spirit who seals us unto eternal glory. This marvelous ministry of the Holy Spirit was launched upon the return of our Lord Jesus to heaven. The ascension marks the start of our Lord's preparation for our heavenly home. Jesus said in John14, "If I go away, I will prepare a place for you, and I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also." Our Lord is still preparing the place for those of us who are not yet there, constantly preparing it. Our place in the eternal heavens, our place in the new heaven and the new earth, our place in the New Jerusalem, the capital city of heaven. He is preparing for us a room in the Father's house. You cannot look at the cross in its fullness without understanding what happened afterward. You cannot even look at the resurrection in its fullness without understanding what happened afterward, namely the ascension. It's not enough to look at the cross and talk about wounds and pain and suffering and sin bearing and all of that. The final word on the cross is not Jesus' word, "It is finished," 'Tetelestai', one word in the Greek. The final word on the cross is the Father's exaltation of the Son by which God affirms the perfection of His redemptive work. And so, as we think about our Lord's death on the cross and press that glorious reality forward to its full meaning, we end up at the ascension. So as we think about the cross, think about it in connection with the richness of all these spiritual blessings.
In Christ,
Pastor Peter Suhn
