THE ASCENSION
Chapter
Ten from the book
Meditations
on the Sacred Humanity of The Blessed Redeemer
There is this peculiar blessedness in the
Person and work of the adorable Redeemer, that, like the sun which shines in
every clime, he is ever beaming forth out of his inexhaustible fulness rays of
grace and glory, under every aspect, to believing eyes and hearts; so that the
more we look to him the more we see in him to adore and love, the more we
believe in his name the more it becomes as the ointment poured forth, and the
more we experience of his grace the more we feel of its power. "Have I
been," he asks his people, "a wilderness unto Israel? a land of
darkness?" #Jer 2:31. No, Lord, we may well answer; not
"a wilderness," for from thee is all our fruit found; not "a
land of darkness," for with thee is the light of life. If, then, no fruit
be gathered by us from that portion of the heavenly garden through which we now
purpose, with God’s help and blessing, to walk with our readers, it is not
because no fruit grows there, but because our eyes are too dim to see, or our
hands too weak to reach it down from the tree of life. In this, as in
everything else that we speak, write, or do in his name, we willingly
acknowledge our shortcomings; for though we would wish to set forth to the
utmost of our power the grace and glory of the incarnate Son of God; and though
what has lately engaged our pen has not been without some amount of careful
thought and consideration, yet we feel miserably to fail both in conception and
expression, and must confess with Berridge,
But we
lisp and falter forth
Broken
words, not half his worth.
And if this be true as regards our past
Meditations on the holy humanity of Jesus in his state of humiliation here
below, how much more must it be so when we have to view him as he now is,
enthroned on high in all the fulness of his mediatorial grace and glory. Still,
we essay the task, in the hope that our meditation of him may be sweet, and be
attended with a blessing from on high to those who love his name and long for
his appearing. For though he is exalted far beyond all present conception, yet
in the word of truth we have a sure guide, by following which we may obtain
some believing apprehensions of what he is to those who see him by faith at the
right hand of the Father.
1. The first point, then, that will now
engage our thoughts is the ascension of the blessed Lord; and the first step in
our meditation upon it will be to prove the fact.
This, in the depth of his wisdom. God has been pleased to place beyond all
doubt or controversy, at least to all who receive the scriptures as an inspired
revelation; and by so doing he has given us much reason to admire his infinite
condescension and grace. The Lord might have ascended to heaven immediately
after his resurrection, without showing himself to his disciples; or after
appearing to them, to prove that he was risen from the dead, he might have gone
up on high without any eye-witnesses of his ascension. But that so stupendous
and yet so indispensable a fact might rest on an immovable foundation, the Lord
did not ascend till forty days after the resurrection, that by his repeated
appearances to his disciples he might afford them so many "infallible
proofs" #Ac 1:3 that indeed he was risen from the dead;
and when he went up on high it was in the presence and in the open sight of his
eleven apostles, that not only they themselves might have the evidence of their
own eyes, the strongest of all possible proofs, but that through all ages the
church might be able to rest with sure confidence on such indubitable
testimony.
The fact, then, of the Lord’s ascension we
have now more particularly to show from the scriptures of truth. On the morning
of that day on which he ascended to heaven the blessed Lord appeared for the
tenth and last time to his followers. The eleven apostles met together at his
command in Jerusalem, and there Jesus appeared in their midst. As we read:
"And being assembled together with them, he commanded them that they
should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father,
which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but
ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." #Ac 1:4,5. During this last solemn interview the Lord conversed at
some length with his disciples, as recorded, for we need not quote the passages
at length. #Mr 16:15-18 Lu
24:44-49 Ac 1:4-8. He thus
afforded them not only the sweet consolation of his actual, living presence
before he was parted from them, but the clearest possible evidence that he was
the very same Jesus whom they had so well known and so dearly loved in the days
of his flesh, during the whole time that he had consorted with them. Having,
then, afforded them this confirming evidence that it was indeed he himself, he
ascended visibly before their eyes to give to them—and to the church of God
through all ages by them—the surest testimony that he had gone up into heaven
in the same bodily form, the same identical humanity, in which they had ever
known him.
As this is so important a feature of our
present subject, and must form the foundation of our Meditations upon it, we
will quote the very language of the Holy Ghost as we find it written in the
inspired page: "And he led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up
his hands, and blessed them; and it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was
parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and
returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and were continually in the temple,
praising and blessing God." #Lu 24:50-53.
"And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld he was taken up;
and a cloud received him out of their sight." #Ac 1:9. Consider for a moment the strength of this testimony. Could
these eleven men have been deceived or mistaken in what they thus personally
witnessed? Most of them afterwards laid down their lives in confirmation of
what they then saw. When, then, they viewed him with whom they had been for
some time holding sweet converse taken up before their eyes, and they watched
his ascension till a cloud received him out of their sight, could they have had
a more indubitable testimony of the fulfilment of his own words, "I came
forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world and
go to the Father?" #Joh
16:28. And again, "Go to
my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to
my God and your God." #Joh
20:17. But to leave not a
shadow of doubt on their minds, and to seal it more effectually on their
hearts, as well as to assure them of his future return, the Lord was graciously
pleased to add to their own eye-witness angelic testimony: "And while they
looked stedfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them
in white apparel, which also said. Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up
into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so
come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." #Ac 1:10,11.
It may seem, perhaps, to some of our readers,
almost unnecessary for us to have brought forward so much scripture testimony
on a point which no believer doubts. But, through some little acquaintance with
the unbelief and infidelity of the human heart, and continued assaults from
that quarter, we have long seen and felt in our own mind that faith wants the
strongest and surest foothold that God has given on which it may stand during
seasons of darkness and temptation. Some never seem to doubt either the
certainty of the rock or their own standing on it; but we freely confess that
there are times and seasons with us when hell, with all its infernal artillery,
and the infidelity of the human mind combine together to shake our faith to its
very centre. But we have learnt this lesson in the school of temptation, that
faith needs the firmest possible foothold on which it may stand while the storm
rages. As, then, the shipwrecked sailor, washed ashore by the heaving billow,
cleaves with all his strength to the rock which he has happily reached, lest
the receding wave should sweep him out to sea, so does the believing soul,
landed on the rock of truth, cleave with all its might to the word of God’s
grace, lest the wave of infidelity sweep it away to the sea of destruction.
Now, when by divine grace faith can stand
upon facts so clearly attested as the resurrection and ascension of the blessed
Lord, it feels that there is firm ground beneath its feet; and that in
believing in a risen and ascended Lord it does not "follow
cunningly-devised fables," but receives the truth as it is in Jesus from
the sure witness of those who "have made known the power and coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ, as eye-witnesses of his majesty." #2Pe 1:16. Faith, too, needs food as well as foothold; and it is
upon these divine verities, so plainly revealed and so clearly established in
the word of truth, that faith feeds as its choice provision. The time may come
with you, dear reader, when you may feel as if clambering up a steep and lofty
mountain, whose top you must reach or die; and yet, with all your exertion,
every stone on which you would place your foot rolls away from under you,
filling you with dread at every step lest life be lost or limb be broken. Under
such circumstances how you would prize a solid rock on which, step by step, you
could set your trembling, staggering feet. This rock is Christ, which God has
laid in Zion; but that faith may stand upon it unmoved, immovable by the
assaults of unbelief and infidelity, he has in the word of his grace laid this
foundation firm and sure by the strongest testimony.
2. Having, then, seen the strong
foundation on which the ascension of the blessed Lord rests as an ascertained
fact, we may now proceed to view him by faith as entering the courts of bliss. And the first most obvious view that
faith obtains of him is that he entered heaven in the same identical human body
in which he last communed with his disciples, and which they had seen taken up
before their eyes; for one part of "the great mystery of godliness"
is that "God manifest in. the flesh" was "received up into
glory," and therefore in the same flesh as that in which he was thus
manifested. #1Ti 3:16. Dr. Owen has so clearly expressed the
faith of the church on this vital point that we prefer giving his words to any
of our own:
"All perfections whereof human nature
is capable, abiding what it was in both the essential parts of it, body and
soul, do belong unto the Lord Jesus Christ in his glorified state. To ascribe
unto it what is inconsistent with its essence is not an assignation of glory
unto its state and condition, but a destruction of its being. To affix unto
human nature divine properties, as ubiquity or immensity, is to deprive it of
its own. The essence of his body is no more changed than that of his soul. It
is a fundamental article of faith that he is in the same body in heaven wherein
he conversed here on earth; as well as the faculties of his rational soul are
continued the same in him. This is that ‘holy thing’ which was framed
immediately by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin. This is that ‘Holy
One’ which, when it was in the grave, saw no corruption. This is that body
which was offered for us, wherein he bare our sins on the tree. To fancy any
such change in or of this body, by its glorification, as that it should not
continue essentially and substantially the same that it was, is to overthrow
the faith of the church in a principal article of it. We believe that the very
same body wherein he suffered for us, without any alteration as to its
substance, essence, or integral parts, and not another body of an ethereal,
heavenly structure, wherein is nothing of flesh, blood, or bones, by which he
so frequently testified the faithfulness of God in his incarnation, is still
that temple wherein God dwells, and wherein he administers in the holy place
not made with hands. The body which was pierced is that which all eyes shall
see, and no other." — A
Declaration of the Mystery of the Person of Christ, Chap. XIX. By Dr. Owen.
The clearness, wisdom, holy and heavenly
sobriety of the above extract need no commendation from us. {1} It speaks sufficiently for itself to those who know and love the
truth, and are willing to submit themselves to the oracles of God as its own
infallible source. We must have no tampering, then, with that fundamental
article of our most holy faith, that the Lord Jesus took into heaven the
identical humanity which he assumed in the womb of the Virgin. But this
thorough identity of his holy humanity does not impair or detract from every
perfection as now made manifest in that glorified human nature which is
consistent with its preserving its real form and essence. And of this we seem
to have a very clear proof in the word of truth. When holy John had a
revelation of his glorified humanity, in the Isle of Patmos, it was not of an
aerial body, retaining no traces of the human form, a Jesus whom he could not
at once recognise as having seen him before in the flesh, but "one like
unto the Son of man"—that very same Son of man whom he had known here below—one,
too, who had "head, and hair, and eyes, and feet, and hands," these
human members all still retained in their entirety, but all unspeakably
glorious; and whose "countenance" still the same human countenance
"was as the sun shineth in his strength." #Re 1:13-16.
It is necessary, indeed, to bear in mind
that whilst we speak of the identity of the risen and ascended body of the
Lord, we utterly separate from it what the apostle calls "the
weakness" of Christ; "he was crucified through weakness;" #2Co 13:4; for though this weakness was compatible with, and even
necessary unto, his state of humiliation, it is not consistent with a heavenly
condition, or his exaltation to eternal glory. The body of the blessed Lord
ate, and drank, and slept, was weary and thirsty here below. But no such
infirmities, or, to speak more correctly, no such sinless contingencies of a
state of humiliation were taken with him into heaven. His body and soul are
still identically and unalterably the same as they were upon earth; but
heavenly glory, without destroying or even impairing the reality of his human
nature, has eternally swallowed up all those mere passing and contingent
circumstances which necessarily attended his humanity in a time-state. This
will also be the case with the risen bodies of the saints at the great day, as
the apostle so beautifully speaks: "Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall
not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be
raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed; for this corruptible must put on
incorruption and this mortal put on immortality." #1Co 15:51-53.
But though they will be fashioned after
the likeness of the risen body of Jesus, we must ever bear in mind that the
glory of Christ’s human nature in its mediatorial state essentially differs
from that glory which will clothe the souls and bodies of the risen saints at
the great day; for his humanity, as existing in intimate union with his divine
Person, is there-by eternally distinguished from theirs, and exalted infinitely
beyond any glory which the risen bodies of the saints shall wear. They will
indeed see his glory face to face with-out a veil between, #Job 19:27 Joh 17:24 1Co 13:12, and be partakers of it, which will be
their eternal joy; #Joh 17:22
Lu 22:29,30 Re 3:21; they
will be conformed in body and soul to his glorified image, so as to be
eternally resplendent in all the beauties of holiness; #Ps 17:15 1Co 15:49 Php 3:21; and as such they will "shine as the
brightness of the firmament, and as the stars for ever and ever." #Da 12:3. But with all this eternal weight of glory, the glorified
humanity of the blessed Lord, from its ineffable union with his Deity, will
ever differ from theirs not only in degree, but in nature. For this reason, his
human nature, as being so glorious from its conjunction with his Deity, is the
object of adoration and worship of all creatures the very same worship which is
paid to the Person of the Father: "And every creature which is in heaven,
and on earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are
in them, heard I, saying. Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power be unto
him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." #Re 5:13. This glory it has from its subsistence in his divine
Person, therefore inherent in it, and thus essentially distinct from the
inferior glory of the risen saints, who have it as a gift and not a necessary
adjunct. All the glory which they will have is from him as a gift of his grace,
and as being members of his mystical body; but it dwells in him in all its
fountain fulness, for "it pleased the Father that in him should all
fulness dwell." What we have here, or shall have hereafter, is only by
gift; but what he is and has he is and has by right.
Besides which, though his sacred humanity
in its glorified state still remains a creature, and neither is nor can be
deified, yet, from its intimate conjunction with his Deity it receives emanations
of power and glory which we may apprehend by faith, but of which no adequate
conception can ever be formed by a finite intellect, not even of the highest
angel. His eternal Deity irradiates his humanity with a lustre beyond its own,
and shines through it with resplendent glory, as the sun shines through a
cloud, or as at the moment of his transfiguration the glorious Person of the
God-man made "his raiment become shining exceeding white as snow." #Mr 9:3. If such a comparison be admissible, as our soul ennobles our
body, and thus, even in our fallen state, as being an immortal principle,
separates us from the lower creation, so the essential Deity of the Son of God
ennobles his humanity, and separates it from all approach or comparison of the
inferior glory of his risen saints. But we pause, lest we seem to intrude too
much on high and speculative subjects, though, as far as we have gone, we
cannot but feel they are blessed mysteries when apprehended by a living faith.
3. We may pass on, then, to examine in what way, and to
accomplish what special purposes of wisdom and grace the blessed Lord entered upon his present
state of mediatorial exaltation at the right hand of the Father. And viewing
him as ascending on high that, in his complex Person as God-man, he might be
"set at God’s own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all
principality and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named,
not only in this world, but also in that which is to come," #Eph 1:20,21, we may consider his entrance into his glory #Lu 24:26 under these two different aspects: as a triumphant King,
and as a gracious High Priest. He entered heaven, then, in glorious triumph, to
take possession of his mediatorial kingdom, as Zion’s anointed King, and
"to sit and rule upon his throne." #Ps 2:6 Zec 6:13 Lu 1:32,33. God the Father had appointed unto him a kingdom #Lu 22:29 as the reward of his incarnation and humiliation, #Php 2:9,10 Heb 2:9, and this he went into heaven to take
possession of. #Lu 19:12 Re
3:21. Immediately, then, that
he left earth, and was received out of the sight of the eleven apostles in a
cloud of glory, his royal progress began. Surely, if a chariot of fire and
horses of fire were despatched to take Elijah up to heaven, #2Ki 2:11. the blessed Lord had no inferior convoy. Was the servant
so honoured, and was no honour paid to the Master? Should the subject be taken
gloriously to heaven, and the King have no train of celestial glory? Did
"his train fill the temple" when Isaiah "saw his glory and spake
of him?" #Isa 6:1 Joh
12:41; and did no train of
glory follow him as he ascended on high to take possession of his mediatorial
kingdom? But we are not left to conjecture upon this point. The scripture
affords the clearest proof of the triumphant manner in which the Lord of life
and glory went up on high.
In #Psa 68 there is
a blessed description of the glorious convoy of angels which attended him on
his royal progress up to heaven’s gates; for as, when "he shall appear a
second time without sin unto salvation," he will be "revealed from
heaven with his mighty angels," #2Th 1:7, and
shall "come in the glory of his Father, with his angels," #Mt 16:27, so thousands upon thousands of ministering angels
attended upon him at his triumphant ascension. "The chariots of God are
twenty thousand, even thousands of angels; the Lord is among them, as in Sinai,
in the holy place. Thou hast ascended on high; thou hast led captivity captive;
thou hast received gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious also; that the Lord
God might dwell among them" #Psa 68:17,18.
This triumphant ascension of the blessed Lord is also clearly intimated in Psa.
xlvii., "0 clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice
of triumph; for the Lord most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the
earth. God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing
praises to God, sing praises; sing praises unto our King, sing praises; for God
is the King of all the earth; sing ye praises with understanding." #Ps 47:1,2,5-7.
Nor are we left without scriptural
intimations even of the blessed Lord’s reception at the very courts of bliss.
When he reached the gates of heaven the celestial courts were, as it were,
moved at his approach, for then was accomplished that memorable transition
recorded in #Psa 24. As thus represented to our faith, it was
as if the attendant angels that formed his glorious convoy shouted aloud before
him, as the heralds of his approach, "Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates, and
be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in."
#Ps 24:7. But from within is made the inquiry,
"Who is this King of glory?" The answer is given from without by the
attendants of his train, "The LORD, strong and mighty; the LORD, mighty in
battle." Then comes forth the universal chorus, from without and from
within, "Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting
doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD
of hosts, he is the King of glory." #Ps 24:9,10. We
do not say, it might be rash to assert it, that all this was literally and
actually transacted, for heavenly realities are beyond the range of human
conception; but it is so represented to our faith in the word of truth; and as
such we receive it in the simplicity of little children.
Nor were good angels the only attendants
of his train. Ancient kings, returning home after triumphant wars, brought back
conquered enemies as well as congratulating friends. In a similar way the
blessed Lord is represented in scripture as then manifestly triumphing over
Satan and all his angels, as if in his glorious ascension, when "he led
captivity captive," he dragged at his chariot-wheels the infernal hosts of
hell, and openly showed them to all the holy angels as vanquished prisoners.
Thus, at least, the apostle speaks, "And having spoiled principalities and
powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it," that
is, the cross, or, to adopt the marginal rendering, "in himself." #Col 2:15. The ancient promise was that "the seed of the woman
should bruise the serpent’s head." When Satan, by entering into Judas, and
by instigating the chief priests and the people to demand that Christ should be
crucified, had, as he thought, effectually succeeded in destroying Jesus, he
little imagined that this was to be, by God’s eternal design, the very means of
accomplishing that prediction. On the cross the seed of the woman bruised the
serpent’s head the seat of his poison-fangs, as well as of his infernal craft
and cruelty. There Jesus spoiled principalities and powers, and cast them out
of their usurped dominion. But when he ascended on high he "led captivity
captive;" #Psa 68:18;
Eph 4:8; that is, he led
captive those who had led poor fallen man captive, in the open sight of all the
angelic host, that the elect angels might be eye-witnesses of the ruin and
misery which had fallen on the heads of their apostate brethren in the defeat
of all their schemes against the Holy One of Israel.
It would appear, from the testimony of
scripture, that the holy angels were partially, if not wholly, ignorant of the
designs of God in the mystery of the incarnation till all was fulfilled in the
death and resurrection of Jesus; and even now are waiting for further
developments of the wisdom of God as therein displayed in the present grace and
future glory of the church of Christ. This was represented in the Levitical
dispensation by the cherubim looking toward the mercy-seat of the ark, as Peter
explains the figure, "which things the angels desire to look into;" #1Pe 1:12; and observe that the apostle does not say that they
"desired," but that they "desire," that is, still desire,
to look into these heavenly mysteries, to afford them renewed discoveries of
the wisdom and glory of God; for it is not by creation, with all its wonders,
nor by providence, in all its displays, that the wisdom of God is made known to
angelic minds, but by redemption. "To the intent that now unto the
principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the
manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in
Christ Jesus our Lord." #Eph
3:10,11.
With what surpassing and resplendent
glory, then, was the infinite wisdom of God displayed to these bright, angelic
intelligences when, at the ascension of their Lord and ours, they personally
witnessed how, in that very nature which "was made a little lower than the
angels," in his state of humiliation, he had defeated all the designs of
Satan, vindicated the honour of God, glorified his justice, magnified the law
given by their ministration and made it honourable, revealed the grace, mercy,
and love of the Father in the salvation of millions of redeemed sinners, and
was now returning triumphant into heaven to reign and rule at the right hand of
the Majesty on high.
4. And this leads us to consider the ends for which Jesus ascended thus triumphantly into glory. They may
be briefly viewed as two, which may be severally characterised by the two
different instruments of regal power which the enthroned King of Zion bears as
the insignia of his authority.
i. The rod of iron
whereby he rules over his enemies. This has been put into his hands by his
Father: "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in
pieces like a potter’s vessel." #Ps 2:9.
"Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies," was the charter of his
authority, when the Father said unto him, "Sit thou at my right hand until
I make thine enemies thy footstool." #Ps 110:1,2.
Thus power is given him "over all flesh;" #Joh 17:2; yea, "all power in heaven and in earth;" #Mt 28:18; for "God hath put all things," and therefore
"all enemies," "under his feet." #1Co 15:25-27. All persons and things are subject to
his control; and though "the kings of the earth set themselves, and the
rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed; he that
sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision."
#Ps 2:4.
ii. But there is the sceptre of his grace, by which he rules in the hearts of a
willing people; #Ps 110:3; bows them at his feet in sweet
submission to his will; and becomes enthroned in their heart and affections as
the Prince of peace. But as we shall have occasion to speak more particularly
of the exercise of this twofold kingly power when we come to the consideration
of our Lord’s present state in heaven, we shall not dwell any longer on this
branch of our subject, but proceed to view the adorable Redeemer as:
5. Ascending on high that he might be a High Priest over the house of God, and that "not after the law of a
carnal commandment," as the priests under the law, "but after the
power of an endless life." #Heb 7:16. It
was prophesied of him that he should be "a Priest on his throne." #Zec 6:13. as uniting in his glorious Person the regal and priestly
dignities. Of this conjunction of king and priest in one Person Melchisedec was
a type, who was "king of Salem and priest of the most high God;" #Heb 7:1; and we know that the testimony of God to his dear Son
was, "Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." #Ps 110:4 Heb 7:17. When, then, the blessed Lord had
fulfilled one part of his priestly office here below by offering the sacrifice
of his sacred humanity, his pure body and his holy soul, on the cross, thereby
making an expiation for the sins of his people, he went up on high to
accomplish on their behalf the second part of the priestly office, which is to
make intercession for them. #Ro
8:34 Heb 7:25. This was
beautifully typified by what took place on the solemn day of atonement, when
the high priest, wearing the holy linen garments, a type of the pure humanity
of Jesus, first offered sacrifice in the outer court and made atonement for
sin, and then, with the blood of the bullock and of the goat, and the smoke of
incense beaten small, lighted by coals taken from the brazen altar, entered
into the most holy place. This most holy place was a type of heaven, #Heb 9:24, and the ascension of our great High Priest thither was
represented by the steps up which the high priest went when, after offering
sacrifice, he entered with the blood into the temple.
We may also observe that when the high
priest thus ascended the steps of the temple to present himself before the Lord
in the most holy place, this was the very time when the jubilee trumpet sounded
through the land, and proclaimed liberty to all slaves and captives, and to
those who had sold their houses and lands that they might freely return and
take possession of them. Thus when Christ ascended up on high to enter heaven
with his own blood, proclamation was made of pardon and peace, for then began
the spiritual jubilee, when those who lay captive under the law, in bondage to
doubt and fear, and who had sold themselves and all their possessions for nought
were to be liberated by the joyful sound of a free grace gospel preached by the
apostles on the day of Pentecost.
{1} We have often thought that
if the children of God who are blessed with time and opportunity, instead of
galloping over the flimsy religious productions of the present day, would set
themselves prayerfully and carefully to read such works as Owen on "The
Person of Christ," his "Meditations on the Glory of Christ," his
"Communion with God," his "Exposition of #Psalm 130," etc., they would, with God’s blessing, derive a
benefit from them which would amply repay them. We can say for ourselves that
when favoured with a spiritual frame—and there is no profit even in reading the
Bible in any other—we have rarely taken up any of the above-named works without
finding some instruction, or edification, or reproof, or something to do our
soul good, and draw it up to heavenly things.
Please direct your comments to Mike
Krall.