The Lord Jesus died under the hand of God, His soul was made an offering for sin. "It pleased the Lord to bruise Him." (Is. 53)
And He rose as the One who had thus died, His resurrection witnessing the acceptance of the sacrifice; and He ascended the heavens in the same character also, there to carry on the purpose of the grace of God in such a death and such a resurrection.
But the Lord Jesus died also under the hand of man (Acts 2:2323Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: (Acts 2:23)); that is, man's wicked hand was in that death, as well and as surely as God's infinite grace. He was refused by the husbandmen, hated by the world, cast out, crucified, and slain. This is another character of His death. And His resurrection and ascension were in that character also, parts or stages in the history of One whom the world had rejected; His resurrection, consequently, pledging the judgment of the world (Acts 17:3131Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. (Acts 17:31)), and His ascension leading Him to the expectation of a day when His enemies are to be made His footstool (Heb. 10:1313From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. (Hebrews 10:13)).
These distinctions give us to understand the different sights which faith, in the light of the word, gets of the ascended JESUS, seeing Him, as it does, in priestly grace there, making intercession for us; and, at the same time, waiting, as in expectation, the judgment of His enemies.
These distinctions are very clearly preserved in Scripture.