CHRIST THE ACENDED LORD

[nChrist]

CHRIST THE ACENDED LORD
by J. C. Ryle - Written About 1887

"He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things." --  Ephesians 4:10.

IN these few words we have the whole history of the Lord Jesus Christ. They carry us back into eternity past, and help us to think of "the glory which He had with the Father before the world was." They carry us forward into the eternity to come; and we learn how the Father has "set Him at His own right hand in heavenly places, far above all principality and power, and hath put all things under His feet." These short sentences, with their long meanings, were not given without a purpose. They abound in the Word of God; as if the servants of God were expected to meditate and think them out; then to gather them and store them up. The Jewish people, because they were a persecuted race, laid up At their wealth in jewels and gems, precious things easily carried and fondly cherished, for the times of trial told how soon they might be driven from the common possessions of life. And Christ's people, who know not what a day may bring forth, are glad to have Divine wisdom in narrow compass, such as memory can carry, and yet thought can delight to examine and find how beautiful and how valuable the truth, as it is in Jesus, proves. We cannot think too often, or know too much of our blessed Lord and Master; and a man who is ignorant about these greatest matters, because he has given attention only to lower and meaner things, condemns himself of a folly which he will be sorry for, when he finds how much he has lost that he might have won. I ask for very close attention, therefore, to this short text; not only for attention now, but investigation afterwards; because it has so much to tell which we ought all to know.

(1) Christ descended; what may we learn from that? It tells of the high place from which He has come down. " Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." "Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by Him and for Him; and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist." Have you or I mastered that great fact about the Redeemer? Have we considered how great a thing salvation must be, when only He could finish it? Have we thought what the honour should be, which the Lord Jesus ought to have, from those whom He came down to rescue and to raise into His kingdom and glory? The world has not yet done justice to Christianity or to Christ. The Church has never fully represented the honour which God conferred upon the fallen family of man, when " He gave His only-begotten Son."
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[nChrist]

CHRIST THE ACENDED LORD
by J. C. Ryle - Written About 1887

The pre-existence of Christ has been explained by St. John in the first chapter of his Gospel; but human thought has yet much to extract from his deep words, " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God." May the Holy Ghost open our understanding, that we may know whence Christ came, and what He was and is, in the wonders of the life and the position which He had before He came " to seek and to save that which was lost." But the Saviour's descent has much to say about the condition into which He came. " He took upon Him the form of a servant;" but angels serve, and they take it to be an honour. He "was made in the likeness of men;" but there are high and holy men, on whom God is looking with approval, as they do their great work, in His wide world, for the glory of their Maker, and for the good of men. "Being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death;" but that is the common lot of all men, and thousands every day face that mysterious fact as they pass from the seen into the unseen; and yet they die, without a shudder or a murmur, by reason of their faith and hope and love. It was " even the death of the Cross:" and though two malefactors were crucified with Him, yet, take "agony of soul" and anguish of body together, and nothing that earth has ever seen has equalled the sufferings of Him who died for you and me. I ask you to study the story of the Cross: what it meant to the Saviour, what it has brought to the saved, and what it will have to tell about the unsaved, when they "neglect so great salvation." The Holy Jesus came into the midst of sins and sorrows, and " He was despised and rejected of men." He "went about doing good," and they turned their scorn, their hate, their cruelty upon Him. He "was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners;" and they said He was a malefactor, for whom there was to be no pity, no judgment, no salvation. The shame upon humanity, the stain of this fallen world of ours, is this, that "the Son of Man had not where to lay His head." And in every age, in every place, in the history of us all, this sad reflection should sink into our hearts, that man's treatment of the Lord's mercy, the sinner's rejection of the Redeemer's love, the believer's indifference to much that the Saviour has taught, has become a disgrace upon many, who know so little what the life and death and revelation of Christ have taught. But my text takes us into another field of thought.

(2) "The same also ascended, far above all heavens." What may we learn from that? We are reminded first of the vastness of the creation which the Lord God has made. We are not to limit our ideas by what is visible to mortal eyes. The far-off stars are centres, large and many, to show how wide the rule of God must be. But we read of the heaven of heavens -- the third heavens, up to which the spirit of St. Paul was caught -- and this seems to say that there are still higher and larger domains, which the eye of man cannot reach, and yet the hand of God sustains and governs. So, again, Holy Scripture tells of principalities and powers, as if to remind us that space may be peopled by other orders of intelligent beings than we have ever even thought about aright. But one thing comes out: that the Lord Jesus is higher than all high things which God has made. He has ascended to the throne of God above all that the universal ruler governs. So, when imagination fails to take in many grand realities, faith can go further still, and say that the Saviour is " head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." Out of these great truths the believer's reverence comes; and Christians take the gift of the great salvation at the hand of Him whose high estate adds pleasure to the privileges which the Redeemer bestows upon the redeemed. And to these great facts maybe traced the security of a Christian's hope. Who need doubt the word or the power of this glorious Saviour, who can look down upon all portions of His dominions, and cause all things to work together for good to them that love God? But what does the ascension further teach? It shows that the Son of God has gone up to the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens; and the Son of Man has taken our human nature into the glory upon the universal throne. The ascension elevated humanity; and in the glorified Christ we have the joyful expectation of an incorruptible human body and a glorified human soul. Many are the benefits of faith even here and now. Our holy religion has expanded our human knowledge; for Christ has " thrown light upon life and immortality, through the Gospel." It has also elevated our human pleasures; for it has lifted human desires above the changeful things of earth, and beyond the duller pleasures of sense, and further than the passing enjoyments of time. So Christians ascend in heart and thought whither our Saviour Christ has gone before; and hope is higher, and desire is purer, and ambition is holier, when the soul, under grace, is waiting for the glory which shall be revealed in us. But, think of all that the believer is to be, and you will be helped by the information, "Where I am, there shall also My servant be."
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[nChrist]

CHRIST THE ACENDED LORD
by J. C. Ryle - Written About 1887

The real Christian may well be a man of large expectations. He has no boastful spirit, because he is a debtor to grace for all that he has or hopes for. But he has no cowardly spirit; for whatever may be the difficulties of the way, or the weakness of the flesh, or the violence of the enemy, the end will come with its victories and its inheritance, its honours and its joys, the happy home, the holy family, the heavenly worship; and man restored will hear again the blessed announcement when God shall look upon the things that His grace has made, and declare all to be very good.

We hear much, in this day, about the honour of our humanity; and something within us may tell that it is a natural craving, when men in low estate long for restoration. But the history of man's exaltation is not to be found in the scheming of men, but in the provision made by God Himself. We Christians believe in a Paradise regained; but we expect it according to the plan which the wisdom and love of our Heavenly Father has laid down. And when we stand gazing up into heaven, as the first disciples did when the Lord Jesus went up from their midst, or while we read and think what the Psalmist meant by the strange words, " Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, that the King of Glory may come in," we are filled with a grand idea of a coming existence in a grander world, where we shall personally enjoy all that our Lord Himself provided and promised to them that look for and love His appearing. Oh for that higher life, the holy life of the regenerate soul, in which you and I may better understand what Christ is, and what Christians are to be! And further still

(3) " That He might fill all things." What does that imply? The idea seems to be, that nothing can be incomplete which the Lord Jesus has undertaken to supply. We think of the places which the Lord has gone to prepare for His people in heaven; and we understand that till the whole family shall be gathered, some of the abiding-places will not be filled. Many are now with the Lord, and our hearts are glad that the family in heaven has grown so large; and we are longing to find our places above; and the multitude that no man can number will one day become a glorious whole. Well, our consolation is, that the Lord will fill all things, so that no vacant places will be in the home above. " The whole family in heaven and earth is named" of Him, and must be collected round Him, to be "ever with the Lord." Then our thought turns to the wondrous plan and purposes which have been in the mind and under the Providence of God from the beginning of the world. We see not yet its full accomplishment; and we are told that many great hindrances have appeared, and are at work, to make the counsel of God of none effect. The history of the Church has many blots and blemishes on it; and " evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse." There is very much land yet to be occupied in the Master's name; and the great enemy holds a position in the world from which it seems impossible that He should be dislodged. The Lord's servants have been falling out by the way. There are always some false ones found to have betrayed their Lord; and we are all conscious of inconsistency in our own character and life and work. Still, one great truth dominates all the difficulties; " the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth," and Jesus will shortly accomplish the number of His elect, and finish the work which was given Him to do. Then, as we shall look back upon the whole, the Divine providence and procedure, the conviction will rise to us as to the chosen people of God -- " Not one thing hath failed of all the things that God has promised." " Hath He said it, and shall He not make it good?"
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[nChrist]

CHRIST THE ACENDED LORD
by J. C. Ryle - Written About 1887

So we consider another state of things. In our own souls, with the very holiest people, in their very best moments,-a sense of incompleteness will come in. There are great failings in our experiences, great gaps in our expectations of delight, great regrets, great humiliations, great wants, great shortcomings, great yearnings after something more. Still, the supply has never quite failed, the light has not quite gone out, the water and the bread have not been clean cut off. Even while we are faint, we are still pursuing; and though we are weak, yet in the Lord we remain strong. The explanation is, that Christ can fill all things. He is " all," in "all His people." " The Lord is my Shepherd, therefore can I lack nothing." So we look for the coming performance of every exceeding great and precious promise; and we take it to be true, because God has said it, " Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee." We "trust in the Lord for ever, for with the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength."

What, then, are the great lessons that these facts were meant to teach? " He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things." One thing, surely, must be this. Let no man be afraid or ashamed when he is brought low. High places are often dangerous; and too much success has made many a man proud, who was happier and safer when he was a humbler man. The Saviour's mind should be in us; and He humbled Himself upon earth. Cultivate a real spirit of submission before your God. Be careful about your soul's health, specially when the pleasures and prosperities of life tempt you to think and feel as if you were a person to be envied, a man to be flattered and pleased, a servant who may now sit down in a high place among the Redeemer's guests. The heart can easily be snared by the vanities of earth, and under the sunshine of wordily success, a Christian may be sometimes ready to forget that there is yet a better part to be expected in heaven. Another lesson may be this that as He who descended is the same also that ascended, so we from our lowest situation may look up for something higher. The Saviour's ascension has left a streak of holy hope that can be traced through the darkest cloud. His holy footprints can be seen in front to encourage us to climb over the roughest rocks and snow. However high our thought may rise on the wings of faith and love, something in the Saviour's invitation, or instruction, or example, will say that we may still mount higher. So let us all be hopeful, all aspiring, all remembering that " the path of the just is as the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day."
 
Lastly, may we not all remember that perfection only is to be found in Christ Jesus our Lord; and the fulness of joy is only to be had in His presence, and only at His right hand can there be pleasure for evermore? It is of God's own arrangement that man shall never be satisfied with anything less or lower than God Himself. The poor sinner, as he finds time passing so hurriedly, and earthly holds becoming so uncertain and so few, and worldly pleasures failing to please when the shadow of death closes round as a cloud, through which no hope can pass, is as a traveller trembling at every step, unwilling to go further and unable to go back. He must have sad misgivings whenever he dares to reflect that he has gone astray so long that his iniquity will be his ruin. Oh! who would like thus to end a life, and thus to be alarmed about the future? It should not be so, and it need not be so, with you or me, my friends. For think what the humblest follower of the Lord Jesus Christ can say. " Complete in Him," "accepted in the Beloved, .... presented in Christ Jesus without spot or wrinkle or any such thing," the Redeemed of the Lord have "an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away," "reserved in heaven for" us "who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed at the last day."

Brethren, let us "press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." This, if we do, we shall "rise on wings as eagles "; "we shall go from strength to strength," "from grace to grace," from faith to sight, from hoping to having, from time into eternity, and after earth through death into immortality and heaven. What glorious glimpses, what a ladder of delight, what beckonings of goodness, what vistas of everlasting brightness, what picturings of holy hope, can all come out of sober reflections even upon one short text! Well may we treasure it, and take it home, test it, and believe it real, lean upon it, and make it the very stay and comfort of our soul; for it is delightfully true, ever and to all who belong to the Lord Jesus, "He that descended is the same also that ascended up, far above all heavens, that He might fill all things."