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The Apostles’ Creed: A Guide to the Ancient Catechism by Ben Myers
As Irenaeus said in the second century, the Son of God “did not reject human nature or exalt himself above it,” but united himself with our nature in order to unite us to God.
When the New Testament writers speak of the ascension, they are not describing Jesus’ absence but his sovereign presence throughout creation. He has not gone away but has become even more fully present. His ascent “to the right hand of the Father” is his public enthronement over all worldly power.
So, the ascension is not meant to make us wonder where Jesus has gone. Instead, it ought to elicit the psalmist’s question, “Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?” (Psalm 139:7)
To quote Irenaeus again, because Jesus has ascended we also “ascend through the Spirit to the Son, and through the Son to the Father.” In Jesus, our nature has taken up residence in the presence of God.
The Apostles’ Creed: Together We Believe by Matt Chandler
The Holy Spirit is now the presence of Christ everywhere, available to all at any given moment. Now that the Holy Spirit has come in full, humans are turned into proper vessels for cosmic renewal.
As gloriously expressed by this Scripture passage and this section of the creed, the ascension confirms that Jesus is no longer among the dead and never will be again. His power has proved to be greater than death.
Although Jesus ascended to heaven, it’s wrong to say that He’s not active in the world. Throughout the Book of Acts, Jesus was still working in the world through the Holy Spirit. The same is true today.
Hebrews 7:25 tells us that Jesus makes intercession for us. Because Jesus ascended to the Father, He speaks to the Father on our behalf as our High Priest. This is why Christians pray in the name of Jesus Christ.
Robert Murray McCheyne, a 19th-century minister in the Church of Scotland, once said, “If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference; he is praying for me.”
The fact that Jesus ascended to heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father Almighty should give you confidence and a sense of holy discontentment—a refusal to settle for anything less than a life that glorifies the risen Lord.
You don’t have to (and you can’t) live the Christian life by your own strength. You live in His power. He’s interceding on your behalf.
As Matt Chandler put it, “I am not yet where I will be. I am not yet what I will be.”
Affirming the Apostles’ Creed by J. I. Packer
Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. – Romans 8:34
Our Lord’s presence and life in heaven as the enthroned priest-king, in person, is itself his intercession: just for him to be there guarantees all grace to us, and glory too.
“Heaven” in the Bible means three things:
- The endless, self-sustaining life of God.
- The state of angels or men as they share the life of God. In this sense, heaven is shorthand for the Christian’s final hope.
- The sky above us and more like infinity than anything else we know. It’s an emblem in space and time of God’s eternal life, just as the rainbow is an emblem of his everlasting covenant (Genesis 9:8-17).
Christians enjoy here and now a hidden life of fellowship with the Father and the Son that nothing, not even death itself, can touch—for it is the life of the world to come begun already, the life of heaven tasted here on earth.
The prayer used on Ascension Day in the Anglican Prayer Book asks God to “grant…that like as we do believe thy only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into heavens; so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell.” May we be enabled to do just that.
The Apostles’ Creed: Discovering Authentic Christianity in an Age of Counterfeits by R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
Christ’s ascension into heaven finds little or no recognition among many contemporary Christians. But without the ascension of Jesus, the gospel possesses no present power. When Jesus sat down at the right hand of God, he inaugurated a new age of hope founded upon his completed ministry.
Christians must orient their lives around the splendor of Christ’s ascension into heaven and his coronation as King of the universe. These two truths should stand as a beacon of Christian spirituality.
Christ’s ascension reveals three pillars that are essential to Christian theology:
1. Grounds his exaltation
Luke’s account uses the language of being “carried up into heaven” (24:51). This ascent, more than a spatial progression from earth to heaven, enshrines the glory, supremacy, and exaltation of Jesus Christ.
The Father raised Jesus from the dead to seat him at his right hand—the place of supreme authority over the entire creation.
2. Establishes the giving of the Holy Spirit
When Jesus told his disciples of his impending departure, he comforted them with this assertion:
Without his ascension the Spirit could not come; and, in some mysterious, spectacular way, the indwelling of the Spirit eclipses the physical presence of Jesus Christ.
Jesus told his disciples about 3 benefits of the Holy Spirit:
- “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.”
- “He will declare to you the things that are to come.”
- “He will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
3. Secured a place for Christians in heaven for all eternity
In John 14:1-4, Jesus comforted his disciples on his departure with words of incalculable assurance.
Jesus’ ascension secured an intimate fellowship with God himself in the age to come.
A Theology of Ascension
In his first sermon on earth, Jesus proclaimed, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). The ascension of Jesus manifests the seal of god’s approval for all that Christ has done and provides vindication for Jesus’ initial claims.
Through the obedient life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, salvation has come to sinners. In Luke 19:10, Jesus summarized his purpose of coming to earth, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Mark clearly indicated a specific location to which Jesus ascended when he wrote, “So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God” (16:19). Heaven exists as a reality and place to which all who believe in Christ will one day live for all eternity.
Finally, Jesus’ ascension deepens our understanding of our union with him. Our unity with Christ, our Mediator and Great High Priest, provides direct access to God the Father, as Hebrews 4:16 encourages us to “draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
When Jesus ascended to heaven, the left his followers with:
- A Promise: He promised the gift of the Holy Spirit to help them to understand truth and to live lives of obedience.
- An Assignment: Jesus assigned them to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19).
Apostles’ Creed by Alister McGrath
Jesus came to earth from heaven in great humility; he returned to heaven in triumph and glory, having accomplished all that was necessary for salvation. Yet in no way does the ascension of Christ mean he is now absent from this world. Through the resurrection, Christ broke down the barriers of time and space and now lives in believers through the Holy Spirit.
The creed states that Jesus now sits at the right hand of God, which suggests special favor and status. It also suggests that Jesus has the Father’s ear.
May we find comfort in that, as we continue to shoot for the stars!