The vision and experience of christ in his resurrection and ascension
Scripture Reading: Heb. 7:16, 24-25; Rom. 8:34; Col. 3:1-4
I. In His ascension Christ is the divine High Priest—Heb. 7:24-25, 16:
A. Christ's divinity constitutes Him a High Priest who is living, full of life, and able to continue His priesthood perpetually—v. 24.
B. Christ has been constituted the divine High Priest according to the powerful element of an indestructible life—the divine, eternal, uncreated, resurrection life that has passed through death and Hades; because of this indestructible life, the divine priesthood is the presence of life and the absence of death—v. 16; John 11:25; Rev. 1:18.
C. If we would experience and enjoy the ascended Christ as the divine High Priest, we need to pass through the realm of Christ's earthly ministry and enter into the mystical realm of Christ's heavenly ministry; furthermore, the ascended Christ with His divine priesthood must become subjectively objective to us in our experience—Heb. 9:12-15; 8:1; 1:3; 13:21; Rom. 8:34, 10; Col. 3:1; 1:27; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 6:17; Hymns, #536.
II. As the divine High Priest with an indestructible life, the ascended Christ is able to save us to the uttermost—Heb. 7:16, 25:
A. To be saved to the uttermost is to be saved completely, entirely, perfectly, for all time and eternity, and to the end; hence, His salvation reaches to the uttermost.
B. The divine priesthood is the saving power of the indestructible life; the divine life with all its riches as our supply will bring us into Christ's perfection and glorification; to be saved to the uttermost is to be brought into Christ's perfection—5:9; 7:28.
C. The ascended Christ can save us to the uttermost because He is living not only in the heavens but also in us; while He is living in the heavens, He is transmitting Himself into us—Col. 3:1; 1:27; Eph. 1:20-22; 3:17.
D. Christ in His divine priesthood saves us from death and the issues, the by-products, of death—1 Cor. 15:54-57:
1. Sin caused a tremendous result—death; the issue of sin is death—Rom. 5:12.
2. According to the broadest understanding in the Bible of death, death includes vanity, corruption, sighing, groaning, and decay—8:20-23.
3. Because of the issues of death, we need the salvation that comes through the divine priesthood.
4. The ascended Christ is able to save us from the by-products of death and bring us into His perfection; this is the saving of the divine priesthood of the ascended Christ, the saving to the uttermost—Heb. 7:25.
E. Christ saves to the uttermost those who come forward to God through Him; when we come forward to God through Christ, our divine High Priest, He saves us in the power of His resurrection and by the law of the Spirit of life—v. 25; 4:16; Phil. 3:10; Rom. 8:2.
III. As the divine High Priest, the ascended Christ is interceding for us, and we need to respond to His intercession—Heb. 7:25; Rom. 8:34; Col. 3:1-4:
A. God has appointed Christ to take care of us, and He is now taking care of us by interceding for us:
1. Christ died for us, He was resurrected, and today in His ascension He is interceding for us and caring for us.
2. In Romans 8:34 Christ intercedes for us to be glorified (vv. 17, 30), and in Hebrews 7:25 Christ intercedes for us to be saved to the uttermost; being saved to the uttermost is the equivalent of glorification.
3. Christ undertakes our case by interceding for us; He appears before God on our behalf, praying for us that we may be saved and brought fully into God's eternal purpose—1 John 2:1; Heb. 9:24; Eph. 1:11; 3:11; 2 Tim. 1:9.
4. Our divine High Priest intercedes for us constantly, knowing how easy it is for us to fall and, once we have fallen, to remain in our fallen state; eventually, His intercession will overcome, subdue, and save us—Rom. 5:10.
B. The intercession of Christ as the divine High Priest requires our response—Heb. 7:25; Col. 4:2; Acts 12:1-5:
1. We need to become on earth the reflection of Christ's intercession in His heavenly ministry, praying the prayers of the interceding Christ—Rom. 8:26-27, 34.
2. The purpose of our living with Christ is to be one with Him in His intercession for the churches—Col. 3:1-4:
a. To seek the things which are above means that we correspond to Christ's heavenly ministry—v. 1.
b. When we seek the things which are above, we respond to Christ's heavenly ministry and reflect it.
c. Through our prayer, Christ, the Head, is given a way to carry out His economy through His Body—1:18; 2:19; 3:1-2.
d. As Christ is interceding, we, the Body, are working on earth, responding to His intercession and reflecting what He is doing—Heb. 2:17; 4:14; 7:26; 8:1-2; Rev. 5:6.
3. Between Christ in heaven and us on earth, there is a divine transmission, a heavenly current—Eph. 1:22:
a. The more we receive this transmission, the more we will respond to the intercession of the ascended Christ as the divine High Priest—Heb. 7:25.
b. If we continuously receive the divine transmission, experiencing the transaction between the ascended Christ and us, we will respond to Christ's interceding, and the Lord will have a way to move on earth for the fulfillment of God's eternal purpose—Eph. 1:11; 3:11; Rom. 8:28.
4. If we seek the things which are above and have one life and one living with Christ, we will be wholly occupied with the Lord's enterprise—Col. 3:1-4, 17:
a. Our heart will be with Him in heaven, where He is interceding for the churches, supplying the saints, and administrating God's government.
b. We should aspire to be one with the Lord in His heavenly ministry and to have a heart that is one with His heart, and we should long to be one with the ascended Christ in His intercession.