The ascension, visibly, even liturgically, marked the end of Jesus’s earthly mission and announced his future return. Despite Jesus’s apparent departure, the disciples could be joyful because they knew they would not be abandoned. His Spirit would be with them, and someday he would return. Since the ascension returned the Son to prior glory, the new element of exaltation involved his theandric identity as the God-man. Now, as Daniel 7 anticipated the Son of Man has received royal-priestly authority at God the Father’s right hand. For Jesus to share in the name above every name (Phil 2:9) exalted a human life to inaugurate our promised participation in God’s reign. Justification terminology is used for Jesus’s vindication by the Spirit (1 Tim 3:16); in the resurrection and ascension he attains divine approval that we come to share. The active obedience form which our justification follows is not merely a spartan compliance with divine commands but a heroic self-offering with which God is pleased. (Daniel J. Treier, Lord Jesus Christ [New Studies in Dogmatics; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Academic, 2023], 283, emphasis added)
