“GONE... into heaven” is said of both.
Angels had been to this world in connection with an important announcement, and they had returned. They were a praising host―a “multitude” of them. The message was a joyful one. It exactly suited God, it was perfectly adapted to man. There was glory in it for God― “glory in the highest”; there was salvation in it for man—for man in the lowest. Not only did it embrace the lowest in the social scale, as for example, a few shepherds on their night-watch in the fields, but it extended, as this Gospel so blessedly shows, to the worst of sinners in the city (Luke 7:3737And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, (Luke 7:37)), and even to one too bad to be tolerated in the city―the dying robber at Calvary. Not only had the hosts of heaven come near to man on earth, the heart of God had come near to His ruined creature. Not only had an angel come to say “Fear not!” on God’s behalf, Jesus, the Son of God, had come to hush every bit of alarm in the heart of man in the presence of God.
This visit came to an end, and they went back. We read, “When they had gone away from them (the shepherds) into heaven,” the shepherds began to bestir themselves. There was a new object of attraction for man on earth, “a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord”; not a lawgiver and not a judge, but a Saviour. They hastened to see Him, and found Him; and they in turn became a praising company (vs. 20). Poor sinners had been brought into the mind of heaven, and their fear turned to praise.
After thirty-three years and a half the Saviour’s visit came to a close also. Peter describes it and says: “Who is gone into heaven and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him” (1 Peter 3:2222Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him. (1 Peter 3:22)).
The angelic mission was soon over. It moved the hearts of those they spoke to, and they returned. Now the marvelous mission of Jesus was over. He who but yesterday was at a thief’s right hand on a cross of shame and suffering, was now at God’s right hand in authority and glory and power.
What had the angel done? Only brought a message, accompanied as it was by a praising host. What had Jesus done? He had declared God in grace and sealed that precious declaration by His death for sinners. If an angel could say “Fear not!” He could do a work which would express a love that could cast out all fear ―God’s perfect love! That work He did, the Lamb once slain now fills the throne of God above, His love fills the heart of His redeemed below.
Angels went to heaven to take their place of subjection to a Man! He had passed them by in descending to become a man. He had once more passed them in ascending as man to the right hand of God.
He has evidently shown, dear reader, a most, marvelous interest in you and me. What interest have you found in Him? A Pharisee hardened in self-satisfaction has no particular interest in Him until he is shorn of all that a Pharisee could glory in, and stands in his real character, stripped and exposed, a real sinner before Jesus the gracious Saviour. It is then that His mission to this world becomes a never-dying charm to him. Let a saved Pharisee tell the story himself: “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief” (1 Tim. 1:1515This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15)).
But there is a solemn alternative. He is coming again. He will judge the world in righteousness as the Man ordained of God to do it―the Man Whom He has raised from the dead. Has He not given a pledge of this to all men by that very resurrection?
“Behold the Lamb with glory crowned!
To Him all power be given;
No place too high for Him is found,
No place too high in heaven.
He fills the throne―the throne above,
Its rights to Him belong;
The object of His Father’s love,
Theme of the ransomed’s song.”
GEO. C.