Ascension

I have a student in my classes who recently stayed during lunch to let me know about his spiritual path.  He told me that he is on a journey of spiritual ascension.  He uses some Christian words as connotation words, devoid of their Biblical meaning, and he also uses a lot of other words I have never heard of.  I looked up the book he is reading on the internet and discovered that he is New Age.  I honestly don't know that I have ever had a discussion about New Age with someone who believed in it, so this was a new one to me.

I do not intend to recount and dismantle everything he said.  That would be unnecessary and quite honestly, being polemic with my post is not something I have the energy for right now.  I just got home from working the ticket booth at the Coahulla Creek basketball game, and I am tired from a long week.

What I do intend to do is give a brief exultation in the nature of the Gospel delivered by Jesus and the Apostles.  I just deeply believe that we have the only really Good News...

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  (Philippians 2:5-7)

The Gospel tells us that God himself descended, became incarnated in human flesh, and became our servant.  He would go on to wash his dense disciples' feet.  He would touch lepers, raise the dead, and eat with tax collectors and sinners.  He would be betrayed, shamed, mocked, spit on, beaten, abandoned, ridiculed, crucified, and unjustly murdered.  And he in midst of this - and only because of this - he forgives!  What a glorious statement when he cries out, "It is finished!"  He had borne the wrath of God for our sin, and he declares that he has drank every last sip of that bitter awful cup.  God now looks on us with favor because Christ's very righteousness is imputed to us.  What crazy awesomeness!!!  (Hey, doxology can be contextualized to fit goobers like me.)

The Gospel is not about the ascension of our souls to God.  It is not about the spark of divinity in us.  It is not about meditating to find inner enlightenment.  It is not about us working to impress God.  It is not about our gradually becoming better and better, even through multiple lives, to level-up spiritually.  It is not about our righteousness.  It is not about our rising up.

The Gospel is about God.  It is about descension.  God coming down.  God becoming man.  God taking on flesh.  God gifting us with faith, grace, love, righteousness, and overflowing mercy.  In this equation, God's grace and goodness are magnified simply because of my huge poverty of righteousness.  I dare not rise up to meet God in my current state.  He is holy, and I am not, and I deserve to be burned.  His presence unchecked would destroy such a sinful man as me.  But he condescends to meet us with grace in our low estate!  God saves us; we do not save ourselves.  God does not save us so that we are then able to save ourselves.  He just plain saves us. 

This news does indeed hit our hearts, and we become new, and we want to pursue righteousness.  We also look forward to the end of our sanctification, Christ-likeness, and our eventual glorification.  We look forward to being able to dwell with God in a new way in heaven.  But that is not because we are good or because we ascended to meet him. 

Jesus is the only one who can ascend to God because he is God.  He is God-become-man for our sakes.  And when he defeated death, he ascended to the right hand of the Father to make intercession for us.  He who condescended has now ascended and continues to mediate in order that we might not be destroyed, but rather that we might know the presence and glory of God better day by day. 

I thought this was going to be a short post.  Oh well.  All praise be to God.  Soli Deo gloria!