When he ascended, returning to God the Father, Jesus took his whole humanity — body and soul — with him into heaven.
The Letter to the Hebrews especially stresses this: that Jesus’ human nature, with all its human experiences which he shares with each of us, remains with him there.
As we see in Paul’s paralleling of Adam and Christ in Romans 5:12-21, the one who has ascended is Jesus the second Adam — who through his life, death and resurrection is the re-founder of the human race, the bringer-in of the new creation.
‘It is to your advantage that I go away.’
Representative Man
‘It is the ascension of representative Man in whom all humanity is gathered up and made participant in his self-offering, so that in his ascension Christ is installed as Head of the New Humanity, the Prince of the New Creation, the King of the Kingdom which he has won and established through his incarnate life and passion.’1T. F. Torrance, ‘The Ascension of Jesus Christ’ in Space, Time and Resurrection, 112.
The ascension stands as the counterpart to the incarnation — the Son’s return to heightened glory mirroring his original descent into flesh — a movement traced in passages such as Philippians 2:5-11.
And it’s precisely his human nature and experiences, held in union with his Divine nature, that equip him to fulfil his heavenly office as Prophet, Priest and King (Heb 2:14-18; 4:14-16).2See Benjamin Dean, Great Truths – Christ the Lord: Jesus’ Person and Kingdom, Part 5, Prophet, Priest, and King; available at https:greattruthsglobal.org
Forerunner
Jesus ascended as ‘a forerunner’ (Heb 6:20) — meaning his ascension is preliminary and preparatory to ours.
He has gone ahead. We shall in due course follow.
As Bavinck puts it:
‘his association and contact with [us] is not weakened by his physical disappearance but confirmed and heightened. Now [we] are unable to touch him, but when he has ascended, then communion with him will be confirmed and reinforced by the Holy Spirit. Physically and locally restricted, time-and-space-bound contact [with Jesus] will then make way for spiritual, inward, deep, unbreakable, and eternal fellowship.’3Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 2:443-44.
Read that against how it must have felt at the time. Watching him go looks like loss. Bavinck insists it’s the opposite — contact heightened, not weakened. What was restricted by geography becomes unrestricted.
Absence That Is Advantage
‘The ascension means the establishment of a church in history, within space and time on the historical foundation of the apostles and prophets.’4Torrance, ‘The Nature of the Ascension Event’, in Space, Time and Resurrection, 136.
It’s worth noting that the ascension does mark a real separation of Jesus from his disciples in his bodily state, even as it inaugurates a new mode of spiritual presence with them.
Jesus himself anticipated this tension in his final discourse. He spoke of his departure in terms of absence — ‘a little while, and you will see me no more’ (John 16:16) — yet in the same breath insisted this going away was to their benefit, because it was the necessary condition of the Spirit’s coming: ‘it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper [the Holy Spirit] will not come to you’ (John 16:7).
That’s a strange thing to say to people about to lose you. And yet the whole subsequent history of the church turns on it being true.
What Pentecost Completed
Pentecost completes this shift toward the presence and power of the Spirit in the present age.
The ascension announces Christ’s transition into a new dispensation of his prophetic office, and this office is now exercised through the Spirit’s presence within Christ’s body on earth.
The Spirit guided the church in writing Holy Scripture, continues to enlighten and shape the church’s interpretation of that canon, and equips the church with the gifts by which she sustains, nourishes and extends her life and ministry.
The Spirit’s work in the present age is that of ‘the Spirit of Christ’ (Rom 8:9), and the ‘Spirit of the Son’ (Gal 4:6). The new nature and shape of Jesus’ ongoing heavenly life and ministry, announced at the ascension, thus defines and fills the Spirit’s present ministry.
Where God once spoke through the prophets, he has now spoken more fully and finally through his Son (Heb 1:1-2). And Jesus himself names the Spirit ‘the Helper … the Spirit of truth,’ who will testify about him (John 15:26).5M. A. Bowald, ‘Ascension,’ in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Second Edition, 88.
The Hinge
‘The ascension is [therefore] the transitional point that moves from the past complex of events, the cross and resurrection, into the present process that unfolds during Christ’s heavenly session.’6Treier, Lord Jesus Christ, 283.
It forms the connection between his incarnate earthly life and ministry and his incarnate ongoing heavenly life and ministry. The ascension adds up to the change and transformation from here to there.
A Mystery to Hold, Not Solve
This tension isn’t a contradiction to be resolved but a mystery to be held together.
As Peter Jensen explains, the incarnation continues, because the resurrected Lord remains a fully embodied physical and spiritual human being:
‘at the same time it tells us clearly that Jesus remains both true man and true God, and his withdrawal is not to be regarded as the loss of his true humanity, but its transference to another place of existence, in glory, to his Father (John 20:17; 1 Tim 3:16). It speaks also of his continued triumph (Eph 4:8-10) and reminds us that Jesus is Lord of this present age.’7Jensen, Life of Faith, 203.
Not the shedding of humanity. Its relocation.
So the ascension proclaims Christ’s ultimate glorification and the beginning of his heavenly reign. It also anticipates the final proclamation of his completed kingdom at his return, heralded by the archangel’s voice and a trumpet call (1 Thess 4:16).
One Motion, Not Two
In the New Testament record of apostolic gospel preaching, heavy stress was laid upon Jesus’ resurrection — yet in that same message, resurrection combines with ascension in one massive motion of super-exaltation.
Together with the resurrection, the meaning and implications of the ascension feature prominently in apostolic proclamation.
The historical reality of Jesus’ bodily resurrection is thus of a piece with the historical reality of his bodily ascension.
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- 1T. F. Torrance, ‘The Ascension of Jesus Christ’ in Space, Time and Resurrection, 112. ↩︎
- 2See Benjamin Dean, Great Truths – Christ the Lord: Jesus’ Person and Kingdom, Part 5, Prophet, Priest, and King; available at https:greattruthsglobal.org ↩︎
- 3Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 2:443-44. ↩︎
- 4Torrance, ‘The Nature of the Ascension Event’, in Space, Time and Resurrection, 136. ↩︎
- 5M. A. Bowald, ‘Ascension,’ in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Second Edition, 88. ↩︎
- 6Treier, Lord Jesus Christ, 283. ↩︎
- 7Jensen, Life of Faith, 203. ↩︎