But that final dwelling with God is not wholly identical with the
initial one. The earthly life was no mere parenthesis, and He who
returned to the Throne carried with Him the manhood which He had
assumed, and bore it thither into the glory in which the Word had dwelt
from the beginning. And this is the true consolation which Christ
offered to these His weeping servants, and which He still offers to us
His waiting children, that now the manhood of Jesus Christ is exalted
to participation in the divine glory, and dwells there in the calm,
invisible sweetness and solemnity of fellowship with the Father.
If that be so, it is no mere abstract dogma of theology, but it touches
our daily life at all points, and is essential to the fullness of our
satisfaction and our rest in Christ.
'We see not all things put under Him, but we see Jesus.' Our Brother is
elevated to the Throne, and, if I might so say, He makes the fortunes
of the family, and none of them will be poor as long as He is so rich.
He sends us from the far-off land where He is gone precious gifts of
its produce, and He will send for us to share His throne one day.
Christ's ascension to the Father is the elevation of our best and
dearest Friend to the Throne of the Universe, and the hands that were
pierced for us on the Cross hold the helm and sway the sceptre of
Creation, and therefore we may calmly meet all events.
The elevation of Jesus Christ to the Throne fills Heaven for our faith,
our imagination, and our hearts. How different it is to look up into
those awful abysses, and to wonder where, amidst their crushing
infinitude, the spirits of dear ones that are gone are wandering, if
they are at all; and to look up and to think 'My Christ hath passed
through the Heavens,' and is somewhere with a true Body, and with Him
all that loved Him. Without an ascended Christ we recoil from the cold
splendours of an unknown Heaven, as a rustic might from the
unintelligible magnificence of a palace. But if we believe that He is
'at the right hand of God,' then the far-off becomes near, and the
vague becomes definite, and the unsubstantial becomes solid, and what
was a fear becomes a joy, and we can trust ourselves and the dear dead
in His hands, knowing that where He is they are, and that in Him they
and we have all that we need.
So, dear friends! it all comes to this--make sure that you have hold of
the whole Christ for yourselves. His earthly life is little without the
celestial halo that rings it round. His life is nothing without His
death. His death without His resurrection and ascension maybe a little
more pathetic than millions of other deaths, but is nothing, really, to
us. And the life and death and resurrection are not apprehended in
their fullest power until they are set between the eternal glory before
and the eternal glory after.
These four facts--the dwelling in the Father; the voluntary coming to
earth; the voluntary leaving earth; and, again, the dwelling with the
Father--are the walls of the strong fortress into which we may flee and
be safe. With them it 'stands four square to every wind that blows.'
Strike away one of them, and it totters into ruin. Make the whole
Christ your Christ; for nothing less than the whole Christ, 'conceived
of the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, ... crucified, dead, and
buried, ... ascended into Heaven, and sitting at the right hand of
God,' is strong enough to help your infirmities, vast enough to satisfy
your desires, loving enough to love you as you need, or able to deliver
you from your sins, and to lift you to the glories of His own Throne.