PSALM 110
The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool”
(Ps. 110:1).
From the glory on the Mount, to the glory of the Cross, to the glory of the Resurrection, Jesus revealed Himself as the Son of the Living God. He was the Messiah who came to take away the sins of the world, the exalted King who would rule for eternity in righteousness and truth. As we mentioned in our study a few days ago on the Ascension, this event marked the exaltation of Christ in a unique way. Today, we will examine further the unique aspect of that exaltedness, namely that His ascension was not merely a “going up to heaven” but something more.
For example, Jesus ascended in a way Enoch and Elijah did not. Jesus indicated this in one of His discourses: “No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven” (John 3:13). In this conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus hinted at the uniqueness of His “going to heaven.” Others had gone there, but no one had ascended in the special sense that He would. Only the One who had descended from heaven, who had humbled Himself even to death on a cross, was qualified to ascend in the true sense of the word. Here the word ascend means far more than simply “going up.” It specifically refers to going to a specific place to perform a specific task. Jesus was ascending to the place where He would be enthroned as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. There, beside His Father, He would rule with all authority in heaven and on earth.
This is significant in a personal sense because Jesus is not only our Savior, He is our King. We cannot separate the Cross from the Ascension, and we cannot separate His atonement from His lordship. We often meditate on and take great delight in the glory of the Cross, the victory that was had there. But let us go further. Let us delight in the ascension of our Lord, not in the basic fact that He went back to heaven as if He were no different from Enoch or Elijah, but that He ascended as King, that He rules over every aspect of our lives. We have not been saved to do as we please, but our lives have been bought with a price and for the purpose of being subjects in Christ’s kingdom, to live according to His laws, and to worship Him in spirit and in truth.
CORAM DEO
Zechariah 13–14
Revelation 21
Read Psalm 110. This is the most quoted Old Testament passage in the New Testament Scriptures. This psalm incorporates the full measure of the purpose of the Messiah. The royal Messiah will sit at the right hand of God, as our King and High Priest. Read the psalm aloud and worship your King.
For further study: Isa. 9:7 • Jer. 23:5 • Dan. 7:14 • John 3:31 • Rom. 14:9
wednesday
december