The Victory Procession of the Ascension

Karl Barth writes concerning the Descent and Ascension of Jesus:
The earth rejoices at the Son of God having descended from heaven, but heaven is glad no less at the Son of Man having ascended from the earth. "He sits," it says, "at the right hand of the Father." This was necessary, beloved, in order that the flesh of man, which, when sin was in authority, had been captivated for a long time, might receive the freedom of living there whither sin could not penetrate (Church Dogmatics IV, ii, 143).
Gerrit Dawson, continues in the stream of Barth's thought:
As he [Jesus] ascends, creation is healed. The gulf between heaven and earth caused by human sin is bridged; the rift of our ancient wound is closed. The 'flesh of man' is able to go where it was always intended but had ever been prevented since the Fall - into the courts of heaven and the immediate presence of God. This is the foretaste of 'the glorious freedom of the children of God' in which the entire creation will be 'liberated from its bondage to decay' (Romans 8:21). The ascending, triumphant King is the firstfruit of the new creation. Such is the victory procession of the ascension....

The victory of Jesus, celebrated in the ascension, inaugurates his reign as the God-human enthroned at the right hand of the Father. This economy will continue until the entire creation in Christ Jesus, led by Christ Jesus, submits to the Father and the Triune God again fills all in all. The ascension, then, is the promise of a more complete victory. Our King has gone forth to his throne; he will come again in splendour. In this hope, the church has found its identity in the world, and the more the church has embraced the place of its ascended Lord, the more it has advanced his kingdom (Jesus Ascended, pp. 71-72).