What Christ's Ascension Means to Us

by Donald K. McKim

Easter day has come and gone. But the church’s season of Eastertide continues. We move through seven weeks after Easter till we come to the Day of Pentecost, 50 days after Easter Sunday. On Pentecost we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to the church, to be with us, comforting us, leading us and staying with us forever (John 14:16; 15:26; 16:7).

But before we get to Pentecost, there is Ascension Day. This day is always a Thursday, 40 days after Easter. On Ascension Day, we celebrate the risen Christ’s entrance into heaven and his rule over all the earth to be carried on forever. The Ascension of Jesus Christ is a great event. Ascension Day is not often celebrated in our churches. But Christ’s Ascension is full of meaning and significance, forming the fiber of our lives, every day.

“He ascended into heaven” says the Apostles’ Creed. Through the 40 days since his resurrection, Jesus made appearances to his disciples. Now these visitations came to an end. Three chief biblical passages (Mark 16:19-20; Luke 24:50-53; Acts 1:9-11, the most detailed account) provide differing perspectives. But they all point to this new reality. In his Ascension, Christ’s divine glory is revealed: Jesus was “taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God” (Mark 16:19; cf. John 17:5). The “cloud” that covered Jesus’ ascent (Acts 1:9) flashes us back to the cloud that rested above Israel’s “tent of meeting” in the days of Moses. The cloud was the visible sign to Israel that the “glory of the Lord” was present, covering the tent (Exodus 40:34). Now, as his disciples gazed on Jesus for the last time with their outward vision, they experience a “theophany” — Jesus is shrouded in a cloud of the divine presence!

Jesus’ Ascension was a prelude to Pentecost. Jesus had promised the Holy Spirit would come to his disciples (Acts 1:4-5). Pentecost fulfilled that promise. The disciples received the “power from on high” (Luke 24:49). Now, with the Spirit’s presence, the disciples began their ministries of witnessing to Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah of God (Acts 1:8). Jesus left; and the Spirit came. Now the ministries of the Christian church begin to take shape through those who, by faith, have responded to Jesus’ command: “Follow me” (Mark 1:17). Now union and unity with Christ is by faith as we live with our Lord.

What does Christ’s Ascension mean for us?

Jesus Christ is over us

“Jesus Christ is Lord” is a primary confession of the church (1 Corinthians 12:3). A core Christian conviction is that Jesus Christ holds all power and authority in the universe. We confess this when we end our prayers: “Through Jesus Christ our Lord, we pray.”

Christ’s divine glory is revealed in his Ascension. Now, in heaven, Christ is “seated at the right hand of God.” This is the phrase that follows “he ascended into heaven” in the Apostles’ Creed: Jesus Christ “sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty.” Jesus’ work continues, now from the descriptive place of honor and authority as ruler of all (Matthew 28:18; Philippians 2:9-11). This is Jesus’ “function” — to govern in the name of God. As Karl Barth put it: “Christ holds in his hands the power of God. He governs in God’s name.”

To confess that Christ is exalted over all means the “principalities and powers” of this earth ultimately bow to Christ. For “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation” is more powerful than Christ — and these can never separate us from Christ’s love (Romans 8:38).

“Christ is over us” means, as Barth said, every person “is under the dominion of Christ.” Christ is Lord over all: over the powers of evil that grab at our allegiances so we act against Christ; over all forms of power that grip us — suffering, disease, calamities; and over all leaders and politicians who seek to grasp power and maintain control over nations and people. Jesus Christ is over us. Jesus reigns! Jesus Christ is Lord of all!

Jesus Christ is for us

Jesus is our Advocate and Intercessor who speaks for us, on our behalf, with God (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25; 1 John 2:1-2). This work of Christ is a vital New Testament theme. The ascended Christ constantly represents us before God. As John Calvin put it, Christ turns God’s eyes “to his own righteousness to avert [God’s] gaze from our sins.”

In confessing that Jesus Christ is for us, we realize that out of the depth of love, Jesus Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Now he intercedes for us, opening the way to God so we can approach God without fear. Christ is our righteousness (Philippians 3:9). Christ’s ongoing intercession and advocacy for us means we can offer our prayers to God and know they will be heard and answered. This means we never pray alone. Our prayers are made in and through Jesus Christ, our “great high priest” as the book of Hebrews puts it (4:14). Even when we feel we are all alone in this world and utter a prayer, we are not by ourself nor on our own. The ascended Christ stands by us and for us —advocating and interceding with God for our needs and weaknesses. We have a “sure confidence” in “calling on God” (Calvin). We never pray alone!

Nothing can make us bolder. Nothing can give us greater assurance than knowing the ascended Jesus Christ is continually acting on our behalf — in knowing our needs, in forgiving our sins, in mediating for us in the presence of God. Every day there is meaning and significance to all we do and feel because the ascended Christ is for us!

Jesus Christ is with us

The ascended Jesus Christ is our companion. Jesus is present with us. As Jesus promised his disciples, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

It may seem paradoxical. Jesus transitions from life on earth to his ongoing life in heaven. He leaves his disciples. But yet he is closer to them, more intimately related to them and in union with them — than ever! How can this be?

The answer is that after his Ascension, Jesus is no longer limited by a human body and human history. Paul pointed to this when he wrote of Jesus: “He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things” (Ephesians 4:10). Calvin commented on this, saying that Christ is “removed from us in bodily presence in such a way that he nevertheless fills all things, and that by the power of His Spirit.” Jesus Christ is with us – always – by the power of his Spirit. Jesus is our eternal companion, in the here and now. As the Heidelberg Catechism says, Jesus “is never absent from us” (Q. 47).

We do not have to visit the Holy Land to feel closer to Jesus. We don’t have to visit a “holy place” to be nearer to our Lord. Jesus Christ is with us, wherever we are; and with us always! Calvin noted how beneficial this is to us. He wrote, “Christ left us in such a way that his presence might be more useful to us — a presence that had been confined in a humble abode of flesh so long as he sojourned on earth.” It is “more useful to us” since now the ascended Christ is with us by “his spiritual presence,” said Calvin (quoting Augustine), and adding that “by his Ascension he fulfilled what he had promised: that he would be with us even to the end of the world. As his body was raised up above all the heavens, so his power and energy were diffused and spread beyond all the bounds of heaven and earth.”

Now Jesus Christ is with us. By faith we experience the reality of our Lord’s presence. The English biblical scholar, Henry Barclay Swete, wrote: “While in heaven, he is at the same time with the church on earth, occupying himself with the concerns of every congregation of the faithful. Not only is he the Head and Forerunner of the church, but a Presence immanent in [the church’s] midst.” Jesus Christ is with us as our companion.

Paul wrote to the Colossians: “Seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1). Christ’s Ascension means Jesus Christ is over us, for us, and with us. Let us set our minds on him!

Article courtesy of The Presbyterian Outlook

BY DON MCKIM

PUBLISHED: MAY 10, 2021 |UPDATED: MAY 25, 2023

Reprinted with permission.

Donald K. McKim is a retired PC(USA) minister, seminary professor and editor for Westminster John Knox Press. He and his wife, LindaJo, live in Germantown, Tennessee.