Week 27—Sunday Acts 9:3-6
“UNTIL THE DAY WHEN HE WAS TAKEN UP”
We continue this week to look at the outstanding elements of the Divine Impact. We saw yesterday that the Word became Alive. But suppose the Word had become alive in that particular situation, and suppose the Victory had been a local victory in a local situation and suppose he had been finally taken by death—would that have been the answer? It would have been interesting, but irrelevant. It would have belonged to the past, but not to the present and the future. The next step covers that—“until the day when he was taken up” (Acts 1:2). He was “taken up,” and Peter explains what that “taken up” meant: “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you see and hear”(Acts 2:32-33). So the Word became Final Authority and Final Power.
It was not enough for the Word to rise from the dead. The rising from the dead in a particular situation must have cosmic significance. It has. A nail-pierced hand holds the scepter of the universe. Goodness—Sacrificial Goodness—is at the place of Final Authority and will have the last word in human affairs; whoever has the first or the intermediate word, he has the last word. He is “the Alpha,” the Christ of the Beginning; he is also “the Omega,” the Christ of the Final Word.
This is not only Good News—it is Universal Good News. Were he not at the place of Final Authority, this could not have been said: “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9-11). This is sweeping—“every knee should bow . . . every tongue confess.” And we may add: “And everything made shall acknowledge its Maker”—Jesus is Lord!
O Jesus, you are Lord! People are not acknowledging it; but if they don’t, life goes badly. But with you as Lord life goes singing down the years. If we do not confess you as Lord, we have to confess ourselves as beaten. We thank you. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I rule in his ruling; he invites me to his Throne!