By George G. Findlay
"Jesus went up where He was before, but not as He was. He resumed the glory which He had with the Father before the world was; but He assumed a new glory hitherto unknown, that follows on His sufferings." George Findlay in "The Ascension of Jesus" writes:
We are to understand that the Lord Jesus ascends as the glorified Son of man, as the acknowledged and exalted Christ. He mounts upward as the Conqueror on our behalf of sin and death, the Head over all things to His Church.
. . . . The descent of the Spirit proved the ascent of the Lord Christ. . . . Pentecost verified to them the ascension of the Lord Jesus. By the coming of the Spirit of power on the disciples they knew, beyond a doubt, that their Master had reached His journey's end; that when He passed from their sight through the parting clouds above Olivet, He had not vanished into empty space, but had taken His seat on the Messiah's throne at God's right hand. His sacrifice for sinners is accepted; His promises to men are honored by the Father; the crown is set upon His head, and henceforth "all authority" is His "in heaven and upon earth."
Now this is the issue of the ascension which supremely concerns ourselves, and the prospects of God's kingdom upon earth. . . He came to identify Himself with men, to redeem our race from iniquity, to proclaim and to found God's kingdom in this evil, rebellious world. . . .
. . . . Our Lord goes up with the government upon His shoulders. . . to represent them evermore before the throne of God, while He draws forth from the depths of the Godhead new and infinite resources for the effecting of His purpose of salvation.
Jesus goes to His own place . . . that He may "appear in the presence of God for us"; for He is the High Priest of mankind, now by His life and death identified with the race for ever and bearing the names of all the tribes upon His heart. The headquarters of the church will henceforth be no longer at Jerusalem, nor certainly at Rome, but at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens. There "He must reign, till He has put all enemies under His feet" (Great Sermons on the Resurrection of Christ, compiled by Wilbur Smith, pp. 186-188).
This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear (Acts 2:33-34).
