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of glory, begun in the resurrection, was perfected in the ascension. This does not mean that the
ascension was devoid of independent significance. But though the Scripture proof for the
ascension is not as abundant as that for the resurrection, it is quite sufficient. Luke gives a
double account of it, Luke 24:50-53, and Acts 1:6-11. Mark refers to it in 16:19, but this passage
is contested. Jesus spoke of it time and again before His death, John 6:62; 14:2,12;
16:5,10,17,28; 17:5; 20:17. Paul refers to it repeatedly, Eph. 1:20; 4:8-10; I Tim. 3:16; and the
Epistle to the Hebrews calls attention to its significance, 1:3; 4:14; 9:24.
b. The nature of the ascension.
The ascension may be described as the visible ascent of the
person of the Mediator from earth to heaven, according to His human nature. It was a local
transition, a going from place to place. This implies, of course, that heaven is a place as well as
earth. But the ascension of Jesus was not merely a transition from one place to another; it also
included a further change in the human nature of Christ. That nature now passed into the
fulness of heavenly glory and was perfectly adapted to the life of heaven. Some Christian
scholars of recent date consider heaven to be a condition rather than a place, and therefore do
not conceive of the ascension locally.[Cf. Milligan, The Ascension and Heavenly Priesthood of
our Lord, pp. 24 ff; Swete, The Ascended Christ, pp. 8 f.; Gore, The Reconstruction of Belief, pp.
272 f.] They will admit that there was a momentary lifting up of Christ in the sight of the Eleven,
but regard this only as a symbol of the lifting up of our humanity to a spiritual order far above
our present life. The local conception, however, is favored by the following considerations: (1)
Heaven is represented in Scripture as the dwelling place of created beings (angels, saints, the
human nature of Christ). These are all in some way related to space; only God is above all
spatial relations. Of course, the laws that apply in heavenly space may differ from those that
apply in earthly space. (2) Heaven and earth are repeatedly placed in juxtaposition in Scripture.
From this it would seem to follow that, if the one is a place, the other must be a place also. It
would be absurd to put a place and a condition in juxtaposition in that way. (3) The Bible
teaches us to think of heaven as a place. Several passages direct our thought upward to heaven
and downward to hell, Deut. 30:12; Jos. 2:11; Ps. 139:8; Rom. 10:6,7. This would have no
meaning if the two were not to be regarded as local in some sense of the word. (4) The
Saviour’s entrance into heaven is pictured as an ascent. The disciples see Jesus ascending until a
cloud intercepts Him and hides Him from their sight. The same local coloring is present to the
mind of the writer of Hebrews in 4:14.
c. The Lutheran conception of the ascension.
The Lutheran conception of the ascension differs
from that of the Reformed. They regard it, not as a local transition, but as a change of
condition, whereby the human nature of Christ passed into the full enjoyment and exercise of
the divine perfections, communicated to it at the incarnation, and thus became permanently
omnipresent. In connection with the idea that Christ began His session at the right hand of God