CHRIST'S ASCENSION
"Somewhere
in my reading I came across the expression, "The richness of
the ascension." I was struck by the expression because so
little is said or written these days about the tremendous act of both
the Father and the Son, by which the Gospel of God concerning His Son
is brought to its climax.
A gospel that does not speak of an ascended Lord is not the Gospel of God! If the Gospel is Christ and Christ is the Gospel, and surely this is true; we must proclaim a Christ risen, exalted and reigning. He must be preached where He is now identified as the pre-existent, virgin born, sinlessly living, vicariously dying, Son of the living God. Always the apostles preached the living Christ and worked backward, a decided reverse from the gospel of today.
This is God's good news. How can Christ be preached if He is not preached where He is now? If Christ be risen and exalted, the rest is easy to accept! If not, the virgin birth and everything else cannot be accepted. The whole pattern of the gospel story sinks or swims on the truth or falsity of the resurrection and exaltation. By the resurrection Jesus is seen to be Victor over death and corruption. By the ascension He is seen to be Lord, with all power in heaven and earth (MATTHEW 28:18). As sin was shown to be subject to Him by His sinless life, as death was shown to be subject to Him by His resurrection, so all things in heaven and earth are shown to be subject to Him by His ascension. It was not that the ascension affects His Lordship any more than the resurrection affects His victory over death. Rather, the ascension is the designation and demonstration of His Lordship."
A gospel that does not speak of an ascended Lord is not the Gospel of God! If the Gospel is Christ and Christ is the Gospel, and surely this is true; we must proclaim a Christ risen, exalted and reigning. He must be preached where He is now identified as the pre-existent, virgin born, sinlessly living, vicariously dying, Son of the living God. Always the apostles preached the living Christ and worked backward, a decided reverse from the gospel of today.
This is God's good news. How can Christ be preached if He is not preached where He is now? If Christ be risen and exalted, the rest is easy to accept! If not, the virgin birth and everything else cannot be accepted. The whole pattern of the gospel story sinks or swims on the truth or falsity of the resurrection and exaltation. By the resurrection Jesus is seen to be Victor over death and corruption. By the ascension He is seen to be Lord, with all power in heaven and earth (MATTHEW 28:18). As sin was shown to be subject to Him by His sinless life, as death was shown to be subject to Him by His resurrection, so all things in heaven and earth are shown to be subject to Him by His ascension. It was not that the ascension affects His Lordship any more than the resurrection affects His victory over death. Rather, the ascension is the designation and demonstration of His Lordship."
-Gospel report by preacher Rolfe Barnard (1904-1969 A.D.)
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