Ascent, Ascension

Described in the Bible as the lifting up of Jesus Christ into heaven 40 days after the Resurrection (Mark 16:19; Luke 24:51; Acts 1:9), the Ascension signifies the exaltation of Christ as Lord of the universe and is thus closely associated with the resurrection. Ascension Thursday, kept 40 days after Easter, is one of the major feasts of the Christian church.

Ascent, Ascension

The Ascension, in Christian belief, was the departure of Jesus Christ from the earth 40 days after his resurrection from the dead. The event is described as occurring in the presence of the apostles; Christ was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. In some New Testament passages (see Mark 16:19-20; Luke 24:50-51; Acts 1:1-14) the ascension is represented as an observed historical fact. Other passages (see 1 Peter 3:22; 1 Timothy 3:16, Hebrews 4:14) stress its theological dimension. Its significance seems to center on the glorification of Christ and its service as a sign that his earthly mission had been fulfilled.

Feast of the Ascension

Ascension of Christ

That act of the God-man by which he brought to an end his postresurrection appearances to his disciples, was finally parted from them as to his physical presence, and passed into the other world, to remain there until his second advent (Acts 3:21). Luke describes this event in a word or two in Luke 24:51 and more fully in Acts 1:9. Even if the words "and he was carried up into heaven" are not part of the true text in Luke 24:51, we have good reason for saying, in the light of Luke's clear and unambiguous words in his second treatise, that the doubtful words in Luke 24:51 express what was in his mind. In accordance with the oral testimony of the apostles, he carries on his story of the life of Jesus as far as "the day that he was taken up" (Acts 1:22).

According to the Fourth Gospel our Lord referred on three occasions to his ascending into heaven (John 3:13; 6:62; 20:17). Paul speaks of Christ ascending far above all heavens in order to permeate the whole universe with his presence and power (Eph. 4:10). Such phrases as "received up in glory" (I Tim. 3:16), "gone into heavens" (I Pet. 3:22), and "passed through the heavens" (Heb. 4:14) refer to the same event. Paul exhorts the Colossian believers to "seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God" (Col.3:1, ERV), and the numerous references in the NT to the session at the right hand of God presuppose the ascension.

In Eph. 1:20ff. Paul passes directly from the resurrection to the exaltation of Christ to the place of supreme power and authority in the universe. In passages like Rom. 8:34 and Col. 3:1 the session might seem to be thought of as the immediate result of the rising from the dead, thus leaving no room, as some have argued, for the ascension as a distinct event; but it is difficult to see that there is any force in any argument derived from Paul's silence in such passages when in Eph. 4:10 he states so emphatically his belief in the ascension. Our Lord's postresurrection appearances had, no doubt, shown that he belonged already to the upper world of light and glory; but with the ascension his fleeting visits to his disciples from that world came to an end, and the heavens received him from their sight. Yet, through the indwelling Holy Spirit they were to come nearer to him than ever before, and he was to be with them forever (John 14:16-18).

To object to the account of the ascension of Christ into heaven as implying a childish and outmoded view of the universe is, more or less, solemn trifling. While we may agree with Westcott when he says that "the change which Christ revealed by the ascension was not a change of place, but a change of state, not local but spiritual" (The Revelation of the Risen Lord, p. 180), on the other hand we are not unscientific when we think of the land where "the king in all His glory without a veil is seen" as the upper world of light and glory, high above us as good is above evil and blessedness above misery.

The Heidelberg Catechism suggest three great benefits that we receive from the ascension.

• (1) The exalted Lord in heaven is our Advocate in the presence of his Father (Rom. 8:34; I John 2:1; Heb. 7:25). As our High Priest he offered on the cross the one perfect and final sacrifice for sins forever (Heb. 10:12), and now, having sat down at the right hand of God, he has entered on his priestly ministry in heaven. As our King-Priest he communicates, through the Holy Spirit, to all believers the gifts and blessings which he died to win for them. "Christ's intercession in heaven," said the old Scottish preacher Traill, "is a kind and powerful remembrance of His people, and of all their concerns, managed with state and majesty; not as a suppliant at the footstool, but as a crowned prince on the throne, at the right hand of the Father."

• (2) We have our flesh in heaven, so that, as the subtle Scottish thinker "Rabbi" Duncan said: "The dust of the earth is on the throne of the majesty on high." In that, as the Heidelberg Catechism says, we have "a sure pledge that He, as our Head, will also take us, His members, up to Himself."

• (3) He sends us his Spirit, as the earnest of the promised inheritance.

The ascended Lord is with us in the struggle here (Mark 16:19-20), and we know that he has gone to heaven "our entrance to secure, and our abode prepare" (John 14:2;Heb. 6:20).

A Ross
(Elwell Evangelical Dictionary)

Bibliography
HADC; HDB; HDCG; W. Milligan, The Ascension and Heavenly Priesthood of Our Lord; A. M. Ramsey in Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, Bulletin II; H. B. Swete, The Ascended Christ; M. Loane, Our Risen Lord.