1 Timothy 3:16
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
Received up into glory
The Lord Jesus Christ gave us a hope in Him that is sure and the anchor of our soul. This hope is threefold and is evidenced when we were saved, and as His life is manifested in us during our earthly walk, and when we shall be caught up together with Him in the air and our bodies shall be changed into glorified bodies fashioned like our Lord’s body. As we desire to exercise ourselves to godliness and see the application as we learn of God being received up into glory, we must view the last aspect of our Lord’s earthly ministry and understand how and where He went, so we might further understand how and where we’re going.
When we read the Old Testament and learn about the animal sacrifices, we see how they pointed forward to Christ. The fire for the altar on which the sacrifices were burnt, was originally lit by God by fire coming down from heaven. As a sacrifice was burnt, the smoke and savor of the sacrifice would ascend back to the heavens. We immediately think of our Lord Jesus Christ coming down from heaven, dwelling on the earth, shedding His blood and being sacrificed for us, rising from the dead and ascending to heaven. The perfect sacrifice for a world of lost sinners.
When we examine our Lord’s ascension to heaven, we notice that it is two-fold. When Mary Magdalene was at the empty tomb weeping because she didn’t know where our Lord was, Jesus appears to her and He says in John 20:17
Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God and your God.
This ascension was the pure sacrificial savor to God the Father, Christ could not have sinful human flesh touch Him before He was received by the Father in glory. Later in the same chapter we can see that He had ascended to the Father and was back on earth, for we see he was able to be touched by human hands as we read in John 20:27-29
Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because you have seen, you have believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
It is very interesting to note that the first ascension of Christ was in secret in the sense that it was not viewed by anyone and as far as we can tell by the Scriptures and was only known about by Mary Magdalene who was looking for the Lord. With that in mind let’s look at the second ascension of Christ.
After the Lord Jesus Christ rose from the grave, ascended to God, and was back on earth, He taught the apostles for forty days and then He ascended to heaven the second time. We read about this ascension in Acts 1:9-11
And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
As we examine this ascension to the throne of God, we can read the outcome, which the Holy Spirit through the pen of David prophesied in Psalm 110:1
The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
Here then we see God the Son received up into glory a second time, this time seated at the right hand of God the Father. So now we need to consider that when we see the disciples witnessing Christ’s second ascension and the two men in white explaining that our Lord will return in the same manner, we need to follow where the Holy Spirit is pointing to. So if we consider these things and then think of how His ascensions are similar with the way He will return, we notice that the first ascension was in secret, it seems then that the first return of our Savior will be in secret. This is commonly called the rapture of the church, though the word rapture is not found in our Bibles. The words “caught up” are in our Bibles and are describing this coming of our Lord in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Now what is interesting is when we see the words “caught up” this is actually one word in the greek, and that same word is used in Acts 8:39 to describe when the Holy Spirit caught up Philip and brought him to another city, and we also see this word used in 2 Corinthians 12:2,4 when Paul describes the man who he knew who was caught up to paradise in the third heavens.
Now when we consider Christ’s second ascension into heaven being visible with men watching, we think of His coming back which will also be visible as we read in Revelations 1:7
Behold he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so Amen.
We also see this in Matthew 24:30
And then shall the shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
So then this coming will be at the end of the 7 year tribulation period, when our Lord Jesus Christ comes back to the earth and sets up his millenial reign, as He sits on the throne of David and rules and reigns the earth and Israel is a nation of priests.
There is a lot more to consider, but I want to post this, so Lord willing, we will continue looking at God being “received up into glory” in the next post.
Grace and Peace to you all,
DW
