The Resurrection and Ascension

Resurrection

New Testament Evidence.  The Gospels contain abundant testimony to the resurrec­tion of Christ.  In addition to these detailed narratives in the four gospels, the book of Acts is a story of the apostles’ proclamation of the resurrection of Christ and of continued prayer to Christ and trust in him as the one who is alive and reigning in heaven.  The Epistles depend entirely on the assumption that Jesus is a living, reigning Savior who is now the exalted head of the church, who is to be trusted, worshiped, and adored, and who will someday return in power and great glory to reign as King over the earth, the book of Revelation repeatedly shows the risen Christ reigning in heaven and predicts his return to conquer his enemies and reign in glory.  Thus, the entire New Testament bears witness to the resurrection of Christ.

The Nature of Christ’s Resurrection.  Christ’s resurrection was not simply a coming back from the dead, as had been experienced by others before, such as Lazarus (John 11:1-44), for then Jesus would have been subject to weakness and aging and eventually would have died again just as all other human beings die.  Rather, when he rose from the dead Jesus was the “first fruits” (1 Corinthians 15:20, 23) of a new kind of human life, a life in which his body was made perfect, no longer subject to weakness, aging, or death, but able to live eternally.

It is true that two of Jesus’ disciples did not recognize him when they walked with him on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-32), but Luke specifically tells us that this was because “their eyes were kept from recognizing him” (Luke 24:16), and later “their eyes were opened and they recognized him” (Luke 24:31).  Mary Magdalene failed to recognize Jesus only for a moment (John 20:14-16), but it may have been still quite dark and she was not at first looking at him, she had come the first time “while it was still dark” (John 20:1), and she “turned” to speak to Jesus once she recognized him (John 20:16).

On other occasions the disciples seemed to have recognized Jesus fairly quickly (Matt. 28:9, 17; John 20:19-20, 26-28; 21:7, 12).  When Jesus appeared to the eleven disciples in Jerusalem, they were initially startled and frightened (Luke 24:33, 37), yet when they saw Jesus’ hands and his feet and watched him eat a piece of fish, they were convinced that he had risen from the dead.  These examples indicate that there was a considerable degree of continuity between the physical appearance of Jesus before his death and after his resurrection.  Yet Jesus did not look exactly as he had before he died, for in addition to the initial amazement of the disciples at what they apparently thought could not hap­pen, there was probably sufficient difference in his physical appearance for Jesus not to be immediately recognized.  Perhaps that difference in appearance was simply the difference between a man who had lived a life of suffering, hardship, and grief, and one whose body was restored to its full youthful appearance of perfect health: though Jesus’ body was still a physical body, it was raised as a transformed body, never able again to suffer, be weak or ill, or die; it had “put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:53).   Paul says the resurrection body is raised “imperishable … in glory … in power … a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:42-44).

The fact that Jesus had a physical body that could be touched and handled after the resurrection is seen in that the disciples “took hold of his feet” (Matt. 28:9), that he appeared to the disciples on the road to Emmaus to be just another traveler on the road (Luke 24:15 – 18, 28-29), that he took bread and broke it (Luke 24:30), that he ate a piece of broiled fish to demonstrate clearly that he had a physical body and was not just a spirit, that Mary thought him to be a gardener (John 20:15), that “he showed them his hands and his side” (John 20:20), that he invited Thomas to touch his hands and his side (John 20:27), that he prepared breakfast for his disciples (John 21:12-13), and that he explicitly told them, “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39).  Peter said that the disciples “ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead” (Acts 10:41).

It is true that Jesus apparently was able to appear and disappear out of sight quite suddenly (Luke 24:31, 36; John 20:19, 26).  Yet we should be careful not to draw too many conclusions from this fact, for not all the passages affirm that Jesus could sud­denly appear or disappear; some just say that Jesus came and stood among the disciples.  When Jesus suddenly vanished from the sight of the disciples in Emmaus, this may have been a special miraculous occurrence, such as happened when “the Spirit of the Lord caught up Philip; and the eunuch saw him no more” (Acts 8:39).  Nor should we make too much of the fact that Jesus came and stood among the disciples on two occa­sions when the doors were “shut”‘ (John 20:19, 26), for no text says that Jesus “passed through walls” or anything like that.  Indeed, on another occasion in the New Testament where someone needed to pass through a locked door, the door miraculously opened (see Acts 12:10).

Luke 24:31, which says that after Jesus broke bread and gave it to the two disciples, “he disappeared from their sight” (NIV). The Greek expression used here for “disappeared” (aphantos egeneto) does not occur elsewhere in the New Testa­ment, but when found in Diodorus Siculus (a historian who wrote from 60-30 B.C.), it is used once of a man named Amphiaraus who, with his chariot, fell into a chasm and “disappeared from sight,” and the same expression is used in another place to talk about Atlas who was blown off a mountaintop by high winds and “disappeared.” In neither case does the expression mean that the person became immaterial or even invisible, but only that he was moved to a place hidden from people’s sight.” So in Luke 24:31, all we can conclude is that the disciples no longer saw Jesus, perhaps the Spirit of the Lord took him away (as with Philip in Acts 8:39), or perhaps he was just hidden again from their sight (as with Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration, Matthew 17:8, or as with the heavenly army around Elisha, 2 Kings 6:17, or as with the disciples walking past the prison guards in Acts 5:19-23; 12:6, 10).  In neither case, do we need to conclude that Jesus’ physical body became nonphysical, any more than we need to conclude that the disciples’ bodies became nonphysical when they walked past the guards (Acts 5:23; 12:10) and escaped from prison. So, Luke 24:31 does not say that any transformation happened to Jesus’ body; it merely says that the disciples could no longer see him.”

With regard to the nature of Jesus’ resurrection body, much more decisive than the texts about Jesus’ appearing and disappearing are the texts that show that Jesus clearly had a physical body with “flesh and bones” (Luke 24:39), which could eat and drink, break bread, prepare breakfast, and be touched.  Unlike the texts on Jesus’ appearing and disappearing, these texts are not capable of an alternative explanation that denies Jesus’ physical body.  But what were these physical appearances intended to teach the dis­ciples if not that Jesus’ resurrection body was definitely a physical body?  If Jesus rose from the dead in the same physical body that had died, and if he repeatedly appeared to the disciples in that physical body, eating and drinking with them (Acts 10:41) over forty days, and if he ascended into heaven in that same physical body (Acts 1:9), and if the angel immediately told the disciples that “this Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11), then Jesus was clearly teaching them that his resurrection body was a physical body.  If the “customary form” of his resurrection body was nonphysical, then in these repeated physical appearances Jesus would be guilty of misleading the disciples (and all subsequent readers of the New Testament) into thinking that his resurrection body remained physical when it did not. If he was customarily nonphysical and was going to become nonphysical forever at the ascension, then it would be very misleading for Jesus to say, “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39).  He did not say, “… flesh and bones, as you see that I temporarily have”!  It would have been wrong to teach the disciples that he had a physical body when in his customary mode of existence, he really did not.

If Jesus had wanted to teach them that he could materialize and dematerialize at will, then he could easily have dematerialized before their eyes, so that they could clearly record this event.  Or he could easily have passed through a wall while they watched, rather than just suddenly standing among them.  In short, if Jesus and the New Testament authors had wanted to teach us that the resurrection body was customarily and essentially nonmaterial, they could have done so, but instead they gave many clear indications that it was customarily physical and material, even though it was a body that was perfected, made forever free from weakness, sickness, and death.

Finally, there is a larger doctrinal consideration.  The physical resurrection of Jesus, and his eternal possession of a physical resurrection body, give clear affirmation of the goodness of the material creation that God originally made: “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31).  We as resurrected men and women will live forever in “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13).  We will live in a renewed earth that “will be set free from its bondage to decay” (Romans 8:21) and become like a new Garden of Eden.  There will be a new Jerusa­lem, and people “shall bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations” (Revelations 21:26), and there will be “the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month” (Revelations 22:1-2).  In this very material, physical, renewed universe, it seems that we will need to live as human beings with physical bodies, suitable for life in God’s renewed physical creation.  Specifically, Jesus’ physical resurrection body affirms the goodness of God’s original creation of man not as a mere spirit like the angels, but as a creature with a physical body that was “very good.”  We must not fall into the error of thinking that nonmaterial existence is somehow a better form of existence for creatures: when God made us as the pinnacle of his creation, he gave us physical bodies.  In a perfected physical body, Jesus rose from the dead, now reigns in heaven, and will return to take us to be with himself forever.

Doctrinal Significance of the Resurrection.

Christ’s Resurrection Ensures Our Regeneration: Peter says that “we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).  Here he explicitly connects Jesus’ resurrection with our regeneration or new birth.  When Jesus rose from the dead he had a new quality of life, a “resurrection life” in a human body and human spirit that were perfectly suited for fellowship and obedience to God forever.  In his resurrection, Jesus earned for us a new life just like his.  We do not receive all of that new “resurrection life” when we become Christians, for our bodies remain as they were, still subject to weakness, aging, and death.  But in our spirits, we are made alive with new resurrection power.”  It is through his res­urrection that Christ earned for us the new kind of life we receive when we are “born again.”  This is why Paul can say that God “made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him” (Ephesians 2:5-6). When God raised Christ from the dead he thought of us as somehow being raised “with Christ” and therefore deserving of the merits of Christ’s resurrection.  Paul says his goal in life is “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection …” (Philippians 3:10).  Paul knew that even in this life the resurrection of Christ gave new power for Christian ministry and obedience to God.

Paul connects the resurrection of Christ with the spiritual power at work within us when he tells the Ephesians that he is praying that they would know “what is the immea­surable greatness of his power in us who believe, according to the working of his great might which he accomplished in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him sit at his right hand in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:19 – 20).  Here Paul says that the power by which God raised Christ from the dead is the same power at work within us.  Paul further sees us as raised in Christ when he says, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life… You also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:4, 11).  This new resurrection power in us includes power to gain more and more victory over remaining sin in our lives, “sin will have no dominion over you” (Romans 6:14) even though we will never be perfect in this life.  This resurrection power also includes power for ministry in the work of the kingdom.  It was after Jesus’ resurrection that he promised his disciples, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).  This new, intensified power for proclaiming the gospel and working mira­cles and triumphing over the opposition of the enemy was given to the disciples after Christ’s resurrection from the dead and was part of the new resurrection power that characterized their Christian lives.

Christ’s Resurrection Ensures Our Justification: In only one passage does Paul explicitly connect Christ’s resurrection with our justification.  Paul says that Jesus “was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25). When Christ was raised from the dead, it was God’s declaration of approval of Christ’s work of redemp­tion.  Because Christ “humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8), “God has highly exalted him …” (Philippians 2:9).  By raising Christ from the dead, God the Father was in effect saying that he approved of Christ’s work of suffer­ing and dying for our sins, that his work was completed, and that Christ no longer had any need to remain dead.  There was no penalty left to pay for sin, no more wrath of God to bear, no more guilt or liability to punishment, all had been completely paid for, and no guilt remained.  In the resurrection, God was saying to Christ, “I approve of what you have done, and you find favor in my sight.”

This explains how Paul can say that Christ was “raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25).  If God “raised us up with him” (Ephesians 2:6), then, by virtue of our union with Christ, God’s declaration of approval of Christ is also his declaration of approval of us.  When the Father in essence said to Christ, “All the penalty for sins has been paid and I find you not guilty but righteous in my sight,” he was thereby making the declaration that would also apply to us once we trusted in Christ for salvation.  Christ’s resurrection also gave final proof that he had earned our justification.

Christ’s Resurrection Ensures That We Will Receive Perfect Resurrection Bodies as Well: The New Testament several times connects Jesus’ resurrection with our final bodily resurrection. “And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power” (1 Corinthians 6:14).  Similarly, “he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence” (2 Corinthians 4:14).  But the most extensive discussion of the connection between Christ’s resurrection and our own is found in 1 Corinthians 15:12-58.  There Paul says that Christ is the “first fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20).  In calling Christ the “first fruits” (Greek aparche), Paul uses a metaphor from agriculture to indicate that we will be like Christ.  Just as the “first fruits” or the first taste of the ripening crop show what the rest of the harvest will be like for that crop, so Christ as the “first fruits” shows what our resurrection bodies will be like when, in God’s final “harvest,” he raises us from the dead and brings us into his presence.

After Jesus’ resurrection, he still had the nail prints in his hands and feet and the mark from the spear in his side (John 20:27).  People sometimes wonder if that indicates that the scars of serious injuries that we have received in this life will also remain on our resurrection bodies.  The answer is that we probably will not have any scars from injuries or wounds received in this life, but our bodies will be made perfect, “incorruptible” and raised “in glory.”  The scars from Jesus’ crucifixion are unique because they are an eternal reminder of his sufferings and death for us.  The fact that he retains those scars does not necessarily mean that we shall retain ours.  Rather, all will be healed, and all will be made perfect and whole.

Ascension into Heaven

Christ Ascended to a Place.  After Jesus’ resurrection, he was on earth for forty days (Acts 1:3), then he led them out to Bethany, just outside Jerusalem, and “lifting up his hands, he blessed them.  While he blessed them, he parted from them, and was carried up into heaven” (Luke 24:50-51).

A similar account is given by Luke in the opening section of Acts:

And when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.  And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Gali­lee, why do you stand looking into heaven?  This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:9-11)

These narratives describe an event that is clearly designed to show the disciples that Jesus went to a place.  He did not suddenly disappear from them, never to be seen by them again, but gradually ascended as they were watching, and then a cloud took him from their sight.  But the angels immediately said that he would come back in the same way in which he had gone into heaven.  The fact that Jesus had a resurrection body that was subject to spatial limitations (it could be at only one place at one time) means that Jesus went somewhere when he ascended into heaven.

It is surprising that even some evangelical theologians hesitate to affirm that heaven is a place or that Jesus ascended to a definite location somewhere in the space-time universe.  Admittedly we cannot now see where Jesus is, but that is not because he passed into some ethereal “state of being” that has no location at all in the space-time universe, but rather because our eyes are unable to see the unseen spiritual world that exists all around us.  There are angels around us, but we simply cannot see them because our eyes do not have that capacity: Elisha was surrounded by an army of angels and chariots of fire protecting him from the Syrians at Dothan, but Elisha’s servant was not able to see those angels until God opened his eyes so that he could see things that existed in that spiritual dimension (2 Kings 6:17).  Similarly, when Stephen was dying, God gave him a special ability to see the world that is now hidden from our eyes, for he “gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God'” (Acts 7:55-56).  And Jesus himself said, “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?  And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:2 – 3).

We cannot now say exactly where heaven is.  Scripture often pictures people as ascending up into heaven (as Jesus did, and Elijah) or coming down from heaven (as the angels in Jacob’s dream, Genesis 28:12), so we are justified in thinking of heaven as somewhere “above” the earth.  Admittedly the earth is round and it rotates, so where heaven is we are simply unable to say more precisely, Scripture does not tell us.  But the repeated emphasis on the fact that Jesus went somewhere, and the fact that the New Jerusalem will come down out of heaven from God (Revelations 21:2), all indicate that there is clearly a localization of heaven in the space-time universe. Those who do not believe in Scripture may scoff at such an idea and wonder how it can be so, just as the first Russian cosmonaut who came back from space and declared that he did not see God or heaven anywhere, but that simply points to the blindness of their eyes toward the unseen spiritual world; it does not indicate that heaven does not exist in a cer­tain place.  In fact, the ascension of Jesus into heaven is designed to teach us that heaven does exist as a place in the space-time universe.

Christ’s Ascension Has Doctrinal Significance for Our Lives. Just as the resurrection has profound implications for our lives, so Christ’s ascension has significant implications for us.  First, since we are united with Christ in every aspect of his work of redemption, Christ’s going up into heaven foreshadows our future ascension into heaven with him.  “We who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17).  The author of Hebrews wants us to run the race of life with the knowledge that we are following in Jesus’ steps and will eventually arrive at the blessings of life in heaven that he is now enjoying: “Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2).  And Jesus himself says that he will one day take us to be with himself (John 14:3).

Second, Jesus’ ascension gives us assurance that our final home will be in heaven with him. “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?  And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:2-3).  Jesus was a man like us in every way yet without sin, and he has gone before us so that eventu­ally we might follow him there and live with him forever.  The fact that Jesus has already ascended into heaven and achieved the goal set before him gives great assurance to us that we will eventually go there also.

Third, because of our union with Christ in his ascension, we are able to share now (in part) in Christ’s authority over the universe, and we will later share in it more fully.  This is what Paul points to when he says that God “raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6).  We are not physically pres­ent in heaven, of course, for we remain here on earth at the present time.  But if Christ’s session at God’s right hand refers to his reception of authority, then the fact that God has made us sit with Christ means that we share in some measure in the authority that Christ has, authority to contend against “the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12) and to do battle with weapons that “have divine power to destroy strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4).  This sharing in Christ’s authority over the universe will be made more fully our possession in the age to come: “Do you not know that we are to judge angels?” (1 Corinthians 6:3). Moreover, we will share with Christ in his authority over the creation that God has made (Hebrews 2:5-8).  Jesus promises, “He who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, I will give him power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received power from my Father” (Revelations 2:26 – 27).  He also promises, “He who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne” (Revelations 3:21).  These are amazing promises of our future sharing in Christ’s sitting at the right hand of God, promises that we will not fully understand until the age to come.