V. The resurrection of Christ is THE COMPLETE DEMONSTRATION OF TRIUMPH. “ Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raiseit up.” It has ever been held that the Resurrection was the Divine seal of testimony to the perfectness and acceptability of the work of Christ. The rage of wicked men, the antagonism of error, the whole power of the enemy, triumphed in crushing the truth ; but the Resurrection is a demonstration of complete superiority to all, and casts its illuminating comment upon the words, “I lay down my life, that I may take it again. .. . I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” ‘These and many other teachings cluster around this most precious incident in the history of this typical life. He who would derive the utmost advantage therefrom must needs share the experience of the holy apostle: “I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellow= ship of his sufferings, becoming conformed unto his death; if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection from the dead” (Phil. iii, 8—11).—@.
Vers. 19, 20.—The Ascension. And now after “he was manifested” many times, showing “himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing unto them by the of forty days,” and having taught to his disciples, in the new light of his resurreo-
tion, “the things concerning the kingdom of God,” he—“‘the Lord Jesus ”»—“ was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of, God,” “the heaven” receiving him “until the times of restoration of all things.” Now the holy, earthly life of Jesus is terminated. He has “ ascended on high; ” now the luminous pathway to heaven is open; now the eyes of the disciples of the Lord Jesus are ever turned upward, and their steps tend to heaven. Now the great truth is exemplified ; life ends not in a grave, nor even in aresurrection from the dead, but in an ascension into heaven, This is the true goal. This the final hope, The regained Paradise is not on earth, but on high. The home of the weary is in “ my Father’s house.” The world’s rest is in heaven. Now life is a pilgrimage; men “seek a country,” “a better country, that is, a heavenly ;” and “ God hath prepared for themacity.” The typical life is a perfect
cH. xvi. 1—20.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. 36)
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one; the cycle is complete. He “came down from heaven.” He kas ascended up “ where he was before.” So is it with the revelations of Holy Scripture. They begin in an earthly paradise ; they end in a heavenly one. Such is the cherished hope of all believers. We must consider the ascension of Jesus in its bearing upon his own life, and upon the life and hope of his disciples, and upon the aspect of human life generally.
I. The Ascension into heaven is THE JUST VINDICATION OF THE LIFE AND CLAIMS OF JEsus. The position which he assumed amongst men as the Son of God, as the Saviour of the world, as the Judge of human actions; the call which he addressed to men to believe in him, to accept his teachings as of supreme authority, to trust in him for salvation and eternal life; and the great promises which he held out to men ;—all needed a demonstration of their validity. To the patient reader of the Gospels this demonstra- tion is afforded again and again “ by divers portions and in divers manvers,” But all would lack their crowning affirmation had Jesus remained enchained by death, or had he not ascended up on high, It were impossible to believe in such a Mediator as still in the grave. ‘The Ascension, which is the necessary consequence of the Resurrection, is the complement of the Incarnation. Such a life and such a death as Jesus’ demanded a triumph and a vindication. It was, in the absence of the Resurrection, the failure of the truth. Sin, error, the world, conquered the truth and righteousness of heaven. So for the one brief sabbath—the dead lull in the world’s active history—it seemed to be; but the Resurrection, completed in the Ascension, is the effectual vindication of truth and of righteousness, as it is the vindication of the righteous One.
IL. Not less is the Ascension THE VINDICATION OF THE WORLD’S FAITH IN JESUS, They who accept a teacher as authoritative, who commit great interests into his hands, who have so great faith in him as to entrust their reconciliation with God into hishands, who accept him as a mediator between themselves and God, who depend upon him for eternal life, who concentrate all their hopes of the future upon his word, must be pre- pared to justify their conduct. That justification is found in the Ascension. ‘Too great a confidence cannot be placed in One concerning whom it may be said, “The third day he was raised again from the dead ; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God.” Jesus, who vindicated himself in every step of his progress, vindicates also the daily, humble, entire faith of “ them that put their trust in him.”