‘Raised Bodily’ – What Jesus’ Ascension Means to Us

By Neil Earle

May 17 is Ascension Day. But first, I have a confession to make this morning.

For years I taught and wrote publicly that at the resurrection Jesus was changed from flesh to spirit.

And yet in his writings the disciplined Scottish theologian, Tom Torrance (pictured) mentions how on his last visit with the legendary Karl Barth in 1968, Barth leaned over to him and said very forcefully, “Mark well, bodily resurrection.”

Barth was alluding to the fact I was missing all those years. I was unaware of the Biblically-revealed nature of Jesus Christ’s resurrection body, what Christian teachers have explained over the centuries as Jesus’ “glorified body.” You can read that in Philippians 3:20-21 and see it described as a “spiritual body” in 1 Corinthians 15:44.

What is going on here, and why is this important?

‘The glorified state’

It is important because what we are going to look like in the future is very much like Jesus Christ in his glorified state. Not exactly, to be sure but close enough for John to write that “we shall see him as he is for we shall be like him” (1 John 1:2).

Secondly, when Jesus ascended into the highest heavens and passed through the veil into immortal existence once again, he was changed. He returned to heaven as God plus Man. He continues to bear human flesh as he serves as our high priest in heaven. In Revelation 1:13 he is described in visionary state as “one like a Son of man.” And like the lamb that had marks of slaughter on it in Revelation 5:6, Jesus still bears the imprint of the Roman nails in his hands and feet. As our Mediator he is plainly called “the man Jesus Christ” (1 Timothy 2:5).

This is one reason he is described as our “forerunner” in Hebrews 6:20. And that, we shall see, makes all the difference in the world.

Let’s unpack these statements.

The Triumphant Lord

If Psalm 22:1 – “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” can be read as a prophecy of Jesus’ crucifixion, then Psalm 68:1-3 can be without much effort seen as prophesying his resurrection and ascension. As Professor Tom Torrance reminds us, church doctrine all holds together. The events surrounding Jesus’ death and resurrection were anticipated in this powerful Psalm which burst with the energy of godly triumph:

“May God arise, may his enemies be scattered, may his foes flee before him...as wax melts before the fire, may the wicked perish before God. But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God” (Psalms 68:1-3).

Early church writers saw this whole passage as describing the events surrounding Jesus’ glorious resurrection. The Romans and the Jewish leaders were stymied and put to flight – the guard at the tomb scattered, the chief priests forced to concoct lies to explain the empty tomb away. But… the cowering disciples were gloriously exuberant.

Psalm 24 also figured into this Ascension-in-advance inspired writing. Handel wrote a beautiful piece of music from this psalm. The lyrics depicted the resurrected King of glory reentering into heaven. “Lift up your heads O you gates…that the King of glory may come in.” Heaven is exalted when Jesus Christ returns from completing his work on earth. Then the heavenly chorus prompts the response: "Who is this king of glory?” The response comes back: “The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.”

When we flash back to Psalm 68 we read “when you ascended on high, you led captives in your train” or as the KJV puts it more forcefully, “you led captivity captive.” That captivity is a reference to death, and some of the early Christians saw it as Jesus leading the saints of old from their afterlife state into the glories of heaven, thus indeed giving gifts to men. These are quite possibly “the just men made perfect” in Hebrews 12.

A Friend in High Places

Now this is high octane stuff and lest you think I’m making all this up here’s a few quotes from those early Christians. As people often facing martyrdom in the 100s and 200s they quite naturally drew upon these passages for inspiration.

Irenaus of Lyon about 200 AD wrote: “As our species went down to death through a vanquished man (Adam), even so we may ascend to life again through a victorious one; and as through a man death received the palm of victory against us, so again by a man we may receive the palm against death.”

A little later, Tertullian said that “heaven lies open to the Christian because there is no way to heaven but through him to whom heaven lies open...and that way of ascent was leveled by the footsteps of the Lord and an entrance thereafter opened up by the might of Christ.”

Maximus about 461, wrote that Christians have “in Christ penetrated the heights of heaven, and have gained still greater things through Christ’s unspeakable grace than we had lost though the devil’s malice…For us…the Son of God has made members of himself and placed at the right hand of the Father.”

Thus, he is not ashamed to call us brethren (Hebrews 2:11).

During the Reformation, John Calvin saw the same truth:

“The whole of Scripture proclaims that Christ now lives in His glorious life in our flesh, just as surely as it was in our flesh that he once suffered…and life is restored to us in the same way by Christ’s opening up to our human nature the Kingdom of God from which it had been banished and by his giving it a place in the heavenly habitation.”

In our day, Gerritt Dawson, from whose book these quotes have been taken, summarizes: “A human hand will greet us as we make our way into heaven. We shall be greeted by a face – the face of Jesus – that has a form we recognize. The incarnation continues, and so we are included in the life of God. That is the essential meaning of the ascension…Jesus has gone before us in a way we may follow…the way is in his flesh, in his humanity, Jesus is himself the new and living way” Jesus Ascended, page 7).

There are Christian preachers who treasure the teaching of Romans 8:3 that by coming in sinful flesh Jesus redeemed all human flesh and was not ashamed to wear glorified humanity at his resurrection and ascension. Second Corinthians 5:14 says he died for all and then rose for all, thus redeeming the entire human race, even if most are unaware of what was done. Ephesians 1:5-7 shows that in heaven we are clearly accepted through the beloved Son. And as our Representative, the God made Man, he has gained for us in our stead the victory over the forces of sin and death (Romans 5:18-19).

This kind of teaching encouraged the church to endure in it’s first few centuries. They endured dungeon, fire and sword until the brutal Roman Empire became eventually the Holy Roman Empire.

He is a Person

So can we focus it even more? What does this do with us and our fellow human beings?

First, Jesus retains human flesh, though glorified, as our Forerunner and Representative.

Second, this means Jesus has united humanity with God (Hebrews 2:10-13) and he takes us to heaven with him (Hebrews 6:19-20). The apostle Paul said in Ephesians 2:6-8 that we now already sit in the heavenly places. That is quite a paradox, one worthy of Einsteinian physics, but, trust me, God can do it.

Third, Jesus is a person, not a Ghost. He is a Person who is also our Advocate and Public Defender in heaven.

Fourth, this means we are assured of a royal welcome into the heavenly places. As Gerritt concludes: “Our High Priest has made the way. He is the forerunner. He has gone before us. And so we have hope. This hope, we are told, is an anchor for the soul. But more, this hope runs ahead of us and enters the place where Jesus is on our behalf.”

Where is there better news than that?