Song Spotlight

For a long time, Christopher Wordsworth’s “See the Conqueror” was a mainstay in Anglican churches on the Sunday after Ascension. By and large it has fallen by the wayside lately, though I’m sure there are still plenty of churches who have sung it every year for generations. It’s a beautiful hymn about Jesus’ triumphant ascension. Having conquered sin, death, and Satan on the cross, the risen Christ rises to take his rightful place in the heavenly throne room. That pronouncement of victory is reason enough for us to sing.

I hope that on Sunday when we sing this together your heart can catch a glimpse of the Ascension’s everyday importance for all of us. When Jesus ascends into the throne room of God, we go with him. That almost sounds like something we shouldn’t be allowed to say out loud, but it’s true! Because we are “in Christ,” bound to him, united with him, in some mysterious way we go where he goes. This is why we can sing with Paul “there we sit in heavenly places” (Eph. 1:20). When Jesus enters into the heavenly holy of holies (Heb. 10:19-20) we stand with him in the presence of God.

It also means that we share in his exaltation. Let that sink in. We have neither earned nor deserved it. We have won none of his cosmic victories. Still, on Sunday we will sing together “thou hast raised our human nature.” We receive the new life and renewed human nature of our risen and ascended Lord. His obedient heart and faithfulness unto death become ours, deserved or not. He offers us his triumph, his Spirit, and his righteousness. “Mighty Lord in Thine ascension, we by faith behold our own.”

Listen to "See the Conqueror" here!

- Justin