1. Prophesied in the Old Testament
“Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.” Psalm 24:7- Here is a picture of our Lord's glorious ascension foretold years before. The gates of heaven were shut until Christ had finished the work and entered in, having completed the work of obedience necessary for His people to enter in with Him, and now seated with Him, Ephesians 2:6.
2. Foretold by the LORD Jesus
“What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?” John 6:62- Christ existed before his incarnation, and he was in heaven before with His Father, not in his human nature, but as the Eternal Word, the Son of God. Here then He reveals that when he had finished the work, and the will of his Father, for which he came down from heaven, that he should ascend on High again.
3. Witnessed by the apostles
“And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.” Acts 1:9- These were eye-witnesses, on whose testimony we know and believe that it is true, and wherein our hope rests on their Spirit inspired testimony.
4. Proof that Christ had put away sin once for all
“But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God,” Hebrews 10:12- As the God-Man, He finished the work of redemption, propitiation, and justification of those the Father gave Him. God the Father would not have raised Him from the grave, nor received Him again in glory to Himself, were there yet any part of the salvation of God’s elect that He had not accomplished for them.
5. He ever lives to intercede for those He redeemed
“For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us,” Hebrews 9:24- Unlike the High Priest of old that entered the earthly tabernacle over and over again, Christ in fulfillment of what the Old Testament priests did each year, once a year, entered into glory, having paid the sin debt, and now is there to intercede on behalf of those for whom He died. He’ll not lose one.
Ken Wimer