Psalm 24

In the beginning God made the heavens and the earth. He is Lord over all. But something happened to the earth. Through one man, Adam, sin entered the created realm, and with sin came the judgment of God. Before sin came, God and man were in close communion with each other, but now man can only approach God through a mediator, earth is a place of great spiritual warfare, and heaven seems too far away.

Yet God still asserts His ownership over the earth. He made the earth and everything that dwells here. He caused the dry land to appear, and filled the earth with a great variety of creatures. Especially, God made man in His own image, and His intentions for man and for the earth are eternal. Though both man and the world itself taste death, both are a part of the resurrection order that the Lord has decreed from of old.

The Lord has a plan for a renewed earth, reunited with heaven where God dwells. He announced that plan in the beginning after sin came into the world. His plan? The Seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. Evil and the evil one would be defeated through One victorious Man. That new Man would make the way for God and His people to enjoy close communion again in a place without sin.

But who would that Man be who could accomplish such a glorious victory? Who would be the One who would be worthy to ascend the hill of the Lord? Who would be permitted to stand in God's holy place? Even to enter the Holy of Holies of God's temple in Jerusalem... Who could do that? Only the High Priest, only once a year in connection with the rituals of the Day of Atonement, and only with the blood of the sacrifice. But who can enter the Lord's holy temple in heaven?

The victorious Seed of the Woman would have to have the moral requirements necessary to come into the presence of the Almighty. He had to be a man of clean hands and a pure heart. Any record of the slightest idolatry would disqualify Him from His appointed role. Even if an angel offered Him all the kingdoms of the world in exchange for one moment of false worship, this second Adam would have to resist. He would have to keep His promises completely, even if doing so would cost Him His life.

This is what was necessary for the Lord's blessing to be upon the Son of Man. Do you think that it is an easy thing to come before the presence of God in heaven? It is far beyond the reach of any man who has even one sin on His account. Yet God has made a way for us through the Seed of the Woman, the Second Adam.

Our worthy Substitute received blessing and righteousness from on high. Not for Himself; He did not need it. In recognition of His own perfect righteousness, He received the Spirit of righteousness to bestow upon those who would seek the Lord. He came as the perfect Man and the God of Jacob. All who call upon the Name of the Lamb of God are credited with the blessings required in order to ascend the holy hill of the Lord. What He has accomplished through His perfect merit, we have received through the fullness of His grace.

After Jesus died for our sins, He rose from the dead. This is a well-established fact based on the empty tomb and His resurrection appearances to many. Some who testified to the truth of that resurrection stood by their claims at the cost of their own lives. After forty days on the earth, this same resurrected Jesus ascended the holy hill of God on the glory cloud of the Lord's presence. His disciples saw this with their own eyes, at least as much as could be seen from this side of the present divide between heaven and earth.

On the other side of that divided were the gates of the heavenly temple. The one who could go through those gates would be the King of the Lord's resurrection kingdom. Jesus has entered heaven itself on our behalf. He did not come with the blood of bulls and goats. These could never have given any man entrance into the Lord's home above. He went through the gates of that perfect temple with His only precious blood.

Through His great victory, we have become living stones in a temple not made with human hands, the temple of the Holy Spirit. We now speak as those who desire the presence of the King of glory in our own lives forever. We desire that He would be in us now, and we long to be with Him forever.

All those who seek the God of Jacob must consider that the only way for us to ascend the holy hill of God is in this descendant of Eve, this Son of David, this King of the Jews, Jesus Christ. He has returned from the battle of the ages as our victorious Warrior. Through His moral perfection and willing sacrifice, the way to heaven has been purified for all who will repent and believe in Him. He is the Son of Man and the Son of God. He has become the King of glory. In Him God will unite all things, things in heaven, and things on earth.