He Ascended into Heaven - Part 1

Ascension day is celebrated in some churches, but tends to be largely forgotten or neglected in most others. How important is Ascension Day?

A local preacher wrote to me with a theological question (“Does Jesus still have a human body today?”) and a liturgical question (“Why do Methodists seem to ignore the Ascension?”). This article is based on my reply.

The Bible does say that Jesus had a resurrected body after His Resurrection. It was in this same body that He ascended to heaven. Little more is said about the nature of this resurrected body, except Paul’s teaching on the ‘spiritual body’ in 1 Corinthians 15. This body cannot be the same as the bodies that we are born with, though there is a continuity and similarity between the two; one cannot think of how the earthly body can ascend beyond the skies without being harmed.

So, while we believe in the bodily Ascension of Jesus, there is still some mystery surrounding this.

We must be careful not to say more than what the Bible says. On the one hand, we can say with C S Lewis that the Resurrection and Ascension were bodily events, showing that they were not a kind of reversal of the Incarnation.

On the other hand, we must be careful not to conceive of the glorified body in exactly the same terms as our earthly bodies. We can say that Jesus is still fully God and fully man – today as he was 20 centuries ago. Also, that he ascended bodily and remains in that state today.

The early church fathers maintained that Jesus brought humanity to heaven through the Ascension. But regarding the body of Jesus, there are different opinions. Both Luther and Calvin believed that the bodily Resurrection and Ascension released Christ’s body from the bounds and restrictions of time (as it was during His earthly life). Luther further believed that the Resurrection and Ascension also freed the body of Jesus from the bounds of space.

In other words, in the resurrected and ascended state, Jesus is free to both be in a specific location and be everywhere. Calvin disagreed, and hence their different opinions about whether He was at the table or on His throne in heaven with regard to the Lord’s Supper. Again, there are different views when we speculate on how Jesus exists in His body.

Augustine’s wise words are most helpful:

But by a spiritual body is meant one which has been made subject to spirit in such wise that it is adapted to a heavenly habitation, all frailty and every earthly blemish having been changed and converted into heavenly purity and stability. But the question as to where and in what manner the Lord’s body is in heaven, is one which it would be altogether overcurious and superfluous to prosecute.

Only we must believe that it is in heaven. For it pertains not to our frailty to investigate the secret things of heaven, but it does pertain to our faith to hold elevated and honourable sentiments on the subject of the dignity of the Lord’s body.

Discussion Questions:

In the historical creeds of the church, the Ascension of Jesus is given prominent place: “He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.” Does the contemporary church pay sufficient emphasis to this doctrine, and if not, why not?