“HIS ASCENT”
J. D. Gray
I want to speak, dear brethren, about the manner in which Christ ascends to the house of His God. Divine pleasure is seen in a Man ascending into the house of Jehovah. What struck the queen of Sheba here was “his ascent by which he went up to the house of Jehovah”. Our hymn brought that out somewhat, ‘He has Thy presence entered, As Man in heav’n is known’
(Hymn 66). I wonder if we have ever considered the glory of this ascent. This woman considered a physical thing; what we consider is not a physical thing, but it is glorious. Christ says, “I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God” (John 20: 17), but there was something prior to that, there is the great matter of redemption. It is not only that He ascends Himself, but there is a company going to ascend with Him. Christ has His own distinctive glory as the ascending One. No other could ascend in that sense; but as going up to the house of His God He is going to take others with Him; we come into that.
But it struck me somewhat that the ascent involves a moral way also. It begins in redemption. Christ’s glory as the Redeemer, the One who has cleared the liabilities and set the scene to introduce “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness” (2 Peter 3: 13), so that as coming out of death He is the glorious Victor, the Redeemer. As you make this ascent you see an ever-increasing vista of the glories of this Person and the glories of the system which He has already brought us into and is going to bring us into eternally. Because finality is not yet; finality involves eternal conditions; finality involves the body of glory; finality involves our being suited fully to dwell with Christ eternally. Scripture says, “to him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages (Ephesians 3: 21)—that is finality. It is going to be a purpose reached substantially in persons. Christ having His own peculiar place, “and to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians 3: 19)—that is the Person who is ascending. So He comes out from the grave victorious, the great Redeemer, “In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1: 14)—that is the Person in whom we have redemption, and so you start on the ascent and see something of His glory.
Then, He is “firstborn from among the dead” (Colossians 1: 18)—what a Person, the firstborn One! He has distinctive glories which attach to Himself as “the last Adam a quickening spirit” (1 Corinthians 15: 45)—that is also in resurrection, breathing into His own the Holy Spirit; He quickens in relation to the life in which He now is. But “firstborn from among the dead” involves there are others with Him and “the second man, out of heaven” (1 Corinthians 15: 47) involves the heavenly race; it is a heavenly race that He is going to lead in to the presence of God. It is a wonderful thing to consider as you make the ascent to see something of the glories that God has conferred on this blessed Person, and God’s delight in Him. He is bringing in, as I said, a “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness” (2 Peter 3: 13) and “the tabernacle of God is with men”, Revelation 21: 3. These things are all related to the finality of the ascent, but as going up you see something of Christ’s glories.
What it must have been when He ascended through the heavens, principalities and authorities made subject to Him! Then there is a glorious vessel alongside of Him, able to take her place in relation to His headship. He is going in as “minister of the holy places” (Hebrews 8: 2) too. As going in to the house of His God He is going in to hymn Him, ‘in the midst of the assembly will I hymn thee’ (see Hebrews 2: 12), or “sing thy praises”. He leads you up, but He is leading you up to lead you in, and lead you into an environment of a circle of affections all divine, into the Father’s realm; that is where He is leading. He is leading to where He has gone. “I go to prepare you a place” (John 14: 2)—the place is prepared because He is there, but think of His work as laying the basis of the ascent and bringing us in with Himself, “Such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones” (1 Corinthians 15: 48)—He is working out in us a moral result in conformity to Himself. We shall be conformed to the image of God’s Son; that is finality, the purpose of God being secured through the work of Christ. What a blessed thing to contemplate! God is not defeated. Everything is working towards the end of the divine purpose, the divine plan, to secure persons in suitability to Christ whom He can lead in to the Father’s house.
Well, we touch it on Lord’s day morning, but finality is not that. Finality is when He has us in eternal conditions. That is the glory of it; so He says, ‘in the midst of the assembly will I hymn thee’. Think of Christ as the Minister of the sanctuary hymning, controlling the praises, quickening, by the impulse of the Spirit through His own blessed touch, sanctified and consecrated hearts set apart for Christ. Well, that is the glory of this ascent to this house. No wonder it says of the queen of Sheba, “There was no more spirit in her”. It corresponds to what others have said about Ephesians 3, that it is the love of Christ that is the anchor for the soul in a scene that would be almost overwhelming. Those are eternal conditions; that is what this woman touched something of in type, the reality of eternal conditions, “the house of Jehovah”, the house of His God. It is a wonderful thing to contemplate Christ’s God. There is no greater thought of God than that, dear brethren, Christ’s God. It is an apprehension of God that is beyond us, yet He says, “I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. There is a distinctiveness about Christ in His own relations with His God. That blessed and glorious Man has His own distinctive place as the exalted Man in the divine presence—others like Him, but He is for ever distinctive. That is where He leads and that is the glory of the ascent.
Our hearts need to be encouraged because we are down here in a testing scene, and God gives you a look from the top, because you need to look from the top at times. You say, ‘Maybe I am not up to this’. No, neither am I. The light we have is one thing, but God is going to bring us into correspondence with the light. It is good to take a look from the top, to see things from the position of a man in Christ, “I know a man in Christ” (2 Corinthians 12: 2); sometimes we do touch that. That man heard things not suited to the lower creation, not suited for communication in the conditions in which we are. So you touch something in your spirit that is beyond expression; that involves ecstasy, but you come back into the area of sobriety. That involves the assessment in moral judgment of anything here that is not in conformity to Christ. So your path is governed by attraction to that blessed Man who occupies the favour of God and who has led you in to touch something of the glories that will be yours eternally. That is true consecration; the heart is filled with Christ, the hands are filled with Christ. Why? Because you know Him, because you have experienced something of His presence; so it sets the heart aglow—that is why Mr. Darby wrote, ‘That way is upward still, Where life and glory are’. He knew what it was to live up there, but he also knew what it was to be down here in the midst of assembly sorrows and pressures and to enter into them in a very feeling way. So also do we enter into one another’s circumstances and feelings, the pressures of the assemblies—some matters pressing on our spirit daily, cares carried in the local assembly.
How the devil seeks to turn us aside! Oh that our hearts might be stimulated to commit ourselves to this blessed Man who would give us a touch of an upward way; who met us in our degradation, but who established our feet on the divine highway, no longer to be in degradation but to go from glory to glory by the Lord the Spirit. That is the area we have been brought into, dear brethren. Of Solomon’s time scripture says, “there is neither adversary nor evil event” (1 Kings 5: 4), but we are brought by the Spirit into an area where there is the power to judge evil. It is not that it would not arise, but there is power to judge it, so the way is clear to ascend with Christ in relation to things that are related to eternal purposes. May the Lord encourage our hearts, for His name’s sake.