Acts 1:10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes…
I don’t recall ever thinking of the tomb of Christ as being anything like the mercy seat before, but it’s true. There was an angel on either end and they witnessed His death and resurrection. Notice how there were also two angels (probably the same ones for witness purposes) at Jesus’ ascension on the mount of ascension!
The Holy Spirit just made that connection for me wow. Because the full Good News is that Jesus restored us to glory–to the Father–by first going there Himself. The Good News doesn’t stop at the cross, at the tomb, or at the ascension where He stood outside the tomb and then preached the kingdom of heaven for 40 days on earth. The full Gospel is after Jesus ascended to be with the Father where the “greater works” come from in which the church is commanded by Jesus to operate.
Colossians 3:1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
We are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus now, as proof that we are restored now… not someday way in the future after we all physically die. However, there is a transformation of our lowly bodies into His glorious one still to come. It’s appointed to man to die once. We die already when we place our faith in Christ. We pass from death to life. Just as we have already been made new, so too have we already first died. So as we die in Him we also live in Him and are seated with Him now where He is.
2 Thessalonians 2:14 It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We are called by the Gospel, and the purpose of the Gospel is for obtaining the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. So the full Good News is all the way up to the Father of glory.
Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
This is the place where we are “in Christ”. Christ means “anointed One”, and “in Christ” means we are permanently in the anointing or in the activated state of the Father’s glory.
