3 Reasons for Christ's Ascension
The Saint's Advantage by Christ's Ascension and Coming Again from Heaven by Puritan Christopher Love encourages believers to embrace some of Christ’s most surprising words: “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that I go away. . .” (John 14:7a).
Remember the benefits of having an exalted Savior in this adapted excerpt:
“Why is not enough for us that Christ ascended to heaven spiritually? If His soul is in heaven, why is it so important that His body also was taken up?”
1. To Make Us More Spiritually-Minded
It was necessary for Christ’s bodily presence to go to heaven in order that His disciples would not be so wrapped up in His bodily presence that they would never seek for communication of His Spirit. This is why, in Acts 1:6, the disciples asked Christ, “Lord, when wilt Thou restore the kingdom to Israel?” They expected that Christ would take away the ungodly Roman emperor and establish Himself as king. Commentators say that Jesus’s physical presence needed to be removed because it directed the disciples to stop looking on Him as a temporal king bringing a temporal kingdom and instead to look for the kingdom where He is.
The apostle Paul says something similar in 2 Corinthians 5:16: “Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth, know we him no more.” In other words, “Those who lived in Christ’s time and knew Him (according to the flesh) knew Him as a lovely person. However, we know Him in a spiritual way. Because of Christ, we look up to heaven, seeking salvation by Christ.”
2. To Reward Christ’s Sufferings
Christ’s body must be taken up into heaven as compensation for His sufferings in His body. Philippians 2:8–9: “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name.” Christ obeyed to the point of death on the cross and took on Himself the form of a servant. Because of this obedience, God exalted Christ, raised Him from the dead, and brought Him to heaven.
We see this point illustrated in several other passages. Psalm 110:7 declares, “He shall drink of the brook in the way, therefore shall he lift up the head.” In other words, “because You suffered and died, therefore You shall lift up Your head, and therefore You shall ascend up to heaven.” In Hebrews 2:9: “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” Because He suffered death, He was crowned with glory and honor and taken up bodily into heaven.
3. To Prove that Christ is Truly God
The fact that Christ’s body was taken up to heaven proves to the world that He is true God, not just true man. It plainly declares Jesus’s godhead.
Look at Paul’s argument in Ephesians 4:9–10: “Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.” Christ’s ascension into heaven should compel us to conclude that Christ came down from heaven. Jesus Himself made this argument in John 6:62: “What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?” Ascending to heaven shows that Christ was in heaven before His life on earth. This means that He must be co-equal with God and co-eternal with God the Father.
In summary, Christ’s physical ascension to heaven proves that He is equal with God, that He indeed is God Himself. It also shows us that God is pleased with His sacrifice and has exalted Him as compensation for His suffering, which was experienced in body, not merely in spirit. Lastly, it directs us to commune with Christ spiritually, looking for a heavenly King and kingdom, which are beheld by faith.
