Knowing That Christ Is at the Father's Right Hand (1)

It is a great comfort knowing that Christ ascended for us.
It is a singular comfort that Christ ascended as a public person, on our behalf, in our nature, for our good. When we think of Christ in heaven think of ourselves in heaven also. 'We are seated together with Christ in the heavenly places' (Eph. 1:20). We have a glorious life, but it is hidden with Christ in heaven. When Christ himself will be revealed, our life will be revealed with him. Though we creep upon the earth as worms, yet we have communion and fellowship with Christ, who is joined with us in the same mystical body, who is now at the right hand of God in heaven. He took on flesh and blood that he might bring his church to glory. Therefore, we ought to as confidently believe that he will take his mystical body, and every particular member of it, to heaven, as we believe he has already taken his natural body and set it in glory.
It is a comfort, in the hour of death, that we yield up our souls to Christ, who has gone before to provide a place for us (John 14:2). Therefore, when we die, we do not have to seek a place. Our house has already been provided. Even as paradise was provided for Adam before he was made, so we have a heavenly paradise provided for us. We had a place in heaven before we were born. What a comfort this is at the hour of death, and at the death of our friends, who have gone to Christ and glory! We were shut out of the first paradise by the first Adam. But now our comfort is the heavenly paradise that has been opened to us in Christ. There was an angel to guard paradise when Adam was shut out; but there is none to keep us out of heaven. No, the angels are ready to convey our souls to heaven, as they did Lazarus (Luke 16:22), and as they accompanied Christ in his ascension to heaven, so will they attend the souls of his children.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
The Fountain Opened, Works, vol. 5, pp. 529-30
Banner of Truth has granted permission for the use of this material.