The Threefold Doctrinal Significance of the Ascension

More notes from my research for my next posts at Out of the Ordinary. 

The ascension of Jesus 

1. “clearly embodied the declaration that the sacrifice of Christ was a sacrifice to God, which as such had to be presented to Him in the inner sanctuary; that the Father regarded the Mediatorial work of Christ as sufficient and therefore admitted Him to the heavenly glory; and that the Kingdom of the Mediator was not a kingdom of the Jews, but a universal kingdom.”
   
   
2. “was … exemplary in that it was prophetic of the ascension of all believers, who are already set with Christ in heavenly places, Eph. 2:6, and are destined to be with Him forever, John 17:24; and also in that it revealed the initial restoration of the original kingship of man, Heb. 2:7, 9. 
   
   
3. “was … instrumental in preparing a place for those who are in Christ. The Lord Himself points to the necessity of going to the Father, in order to prepare a place for His disciples, John 14:2-3.”

Quoted from the section on Christ’s state of exaltation in Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof [page 351]. 

Theological Term of the Week

materialism
“[T]he view that everything is ultimately material in nature,” that “everything that exists consists of nothing but matter and energy.”1

• Proof that materialism is unbiblical:

“You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.”  (Isaiah 43:10 ESV)

• From the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 2, Section 1:

  I. There is but one only, living, and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body … .

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Heidleberg Catechism

Question 49. Of what benefit to us is Christ’s ascension into heaven?

Answer: First, he is our advocate before his Father in heaven. (a) Second, we have our flesh in heaven as a sure pledge that he, as Head, will also take us, his members, up to himself. (b) Third, that he sends us his Spirit as an earnest, (c) by whose power we “seek, not on things that are on earth, but the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” (d)

(Scriptural proofs after the fold.)

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