Luke 24:50 and 51 say, “And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. And it came about that while He blessed them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven.” This took place at the Mount of Olives (Acts 1:12). While the Man-Savior was speaking to the disciples, He was carried up into heaven. He ascended to the highest point in the universe. The disciples were excited and returned to Jerusalem with great joy (v. 52), waiting to be equipped with the Holy Spirit economically.
In his Gospel Luke displays and presents to us mainly five crucial and excellent aspects concerning the Man-Savior: His birth, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension. The Man-Savior’s birth was of and with the Spirit of God essentially. This birth made Him a God-man to be the Man-Savior (1:35). His ministry was by and through the Spirit of God economically to carry out God’s economy in His jubilee (4:18-19). His death was by the God-man to accomplish God’s redemption for man (23:42-43) and to release Himself into man as the fire of life to burn on the earth (12:49-50). His resurrection was God’s vindication of Him and of His work, His success in all His achievements, and His victory over the universal enemy of God. His ascension was God’s exaltation of Him. In ascension He was made the Christ of God and the Lord of all (Acts 2:36) to carry out His heavenly ministry on earth as the all-inclusive Spirit poured out from the heavens upon His Body composed of His believers (Acts 2:4, 17-18), as recorded by Luke in his further writing, the Acts.
In the Acts, the Epistles, and the Revelation the various aspects of Christ’s ascension are revealed. The ascension of Christ was for Him to be crowned with glory and honor (Heb. 2:9). When He ascended to the heavens, God gave Him a crown, and this crown is His divine glory and honor.
In His ascension Christ was seated on the throne of God’s government. In His ascension He was enthroned. Concerning this, Hebrews 12:2 says that Christ is now “seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
In His ascension the Man-Savior was made the Lord of all and the Christ of God. This is revealed in Acts 2:36: “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.”
In His ascension Christ also was made the Head of all things to the church. Ephesians 1:22 tells us that God “subjected all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the Head over all things to the church.”
In His ascension, Christ was made our High Priest to minister the heavenly life and the heavenly supply of the divine riches to all the believers on earth. Concerning this, Hebrews 8:1 and 2 say, “Now in the things which we are saying the chief point is this: we have such a High Priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the holy places, even of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.”
In His ascension the Man-Savior was crowned, enthroned, and made the Lord of all and the Christ of God, the Head over all things to the church, and the High Priest in the heavens ministering the heavenly life and life supply of the divine riches into all His believers. These are the major aspects of Christ’s ascension revealed in the Acts, the Epistles, and Revelation.
As those who believe in Christ, we are in His resurrection and ascension. In resurrection we have life, and in ascension we have power and authority. In resurrection we receive the essential Spirit for life, and in ascension we enjoy the economical Spirit for power.
When some hear that as believers we are in Christ’s resurrection and ascension, they may say, “I don’t feel that I am in the resurrection and ascension of Christ.” If this is your situation, you need the Lord to open up His Word to you and also to open your eyes. When the Lord opens His Word and our eyes, we see that we are in Christ, and Christ is no longer in the tomb but is in resurrection and ascension. In resurrection He is our life, and in ascension He is our power. The resurrected Christ, that is, the pneumatic Christ, is our life essentially; and the ascended Christ, that is, the enthroned Christ, is our power economically. We do not need to feel this or sense it—we simply need to see it. Seeing produces believing. When we see, we believe.
But how can we see? We see through the Lord’s opening the Word and opening our eyes. Praise the Lord that He has opened His Word and our eyes! Now we believe not only in His death, but also in His resurrection and ascension. More and more, let us experience life in His resurrection and power in His ascension.