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May 22 Daily Devotional

Carried Up Into Heaven

Frans Bakker

He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. —Luke 24:51

Bible Reading

Luke 24:49–53

Devotional

“He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.” Let us have a closer look at these words: “carried up.” For we also read in Scripture, that the Lord Jesus “ascended,” or “went away,” or that He “departed from them.” But it says here in Luke that Jesus was “carried up.”

Ascending is something Christ can do, but “carrying up” is a work of God the Father. Jesus was carried up into heaven. God received Him to glory. This is the blessing He was worthy to receive. We see here an act of God the Father. He carried Jesus up. Jesus did not do this Himself; He did not try to enter heaven by force, but He earned this entrance into heaven by means of His redemptive work.

In these words, “carried up,” we see that the LORD Himself opens up the gates of Paradise. Is that not a miracle? After the fall, the Lord placed cherubim and a flaming sword, which turned in every direction, to guard the way of the tree of life. Man could not enter Paradise. And now we read that this Man, Jesus, is carried up. Is that not a great miracle?

Man goes to heaven. That means he goes to God! Because of the finished work of the God-man, man has hope and a future. That is what heaven is all about. In heaven there is communion with God. Salvation means that man is reconciled to God and is restored into His communion. This implies eternal bliss and happiness.

Would you like to be part of heaven? Do you long to be in heaven with Jesus forever? Then you first have to be humbled. You have to experience that you have sunk away, deep in the miry clay. There was no way out for you. The cry was born: “My soul panteth after thee, O God.” Your desire is to be carried to heaven. Your desire is not necessarily heaven, but it is the God of heaven. “As the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.”

Unbeliever, do you yearn for God? Examine your heart, for to be forever forsaken of God is unbearable. Listen then to these words: There is a way to heaven. Christ is the way. We can never open the door to heaven, not even with tears or prayers. The way is opened by Christ alone. In Him we can have a foretaste of heaven on this side of the grave. Let us examine ourselves whether we know something of these things.

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.

 

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