Tomorrow is the Lord’s Day. Thursday was Ascension Day when the Church has historically remembered and given thanks that the Savior returned to his Father and assumed his throne to rule over all creation. Tomorrow our Scripture readings in the morning service as well as the sermon will focus on the theme of Christ’s ascension. If someone objects that the Scriptures do not command us to take any special notice of the Lord’s ascension and question whether this liturgical acknowledgement is a violation of the Regulative Principle, I would point out that we have the same authority to meditate and celebrate Christ’s ascension tomorrow as we do to have Scripture readings and a sermon on the Regulative Principle instead. It is never wrong to give thanks for our Savior’s redemptive work.
Christ ascended to the Father’s right hand, but of course, the Father doesn’t have a “right hand.” God is a spirit, without “body, parts, or passions.” The language of “right hand” is metaphorical, symbolic of the position of authority which Christ has been given because of his victory through death and resurrection. But if the “right hand of God” is figurative, the place Jesus has gone and currently resides is not. Though his divine nature is omnipresent, his human body (and nature) is not. Unlike Lutherans, the Reformed do not believe the humanity of Christ has been “divinized” and achieved ubiquity. The God-Man still has location, and since the ascension, his location is in heaven.
Heaven is a real place, not just an idea. It is a created place, not an eternal domain. God made heaven, just as he made hell (also a real place), the earth, the sky, and the rock we call Mars (in reference to the demon associated with it). Heaven is as real as the grocery store just up the road from my house, but I have it on good authority that heaven is considerably nicer. (I expect their free sample day is better, and the bananas are always perfectly ripe.) Heaven is not imaginary, it is not fairy-land (that is another place), and it is not a metaphorical device. It is a place. Christ is there. The Father’s presence resides there. The saints in their disembodied form are there (having arrived two thousand years ago after Christ’s resurrection and ascension, cf. Psa. 68:18; Heb. 11:39-40). At least two saints are there who are not disembodied. Enoch and Elijah were taken to heaven without surrendering their body and breath to Death. Like Christ, they have a human body in heaven right now, though unlike Christ, their bodies are not yet resurrected and glorified.
Heaven’s current location and configuration is not permanent. At the end of this present world, heaven will come down, and heaven and earth will be one (Rev. 21-22). There will not be some Christians in heaven and others on earth in the eternal state, as the (false) Witnesses of Jehovah claim. Heaven will be united to earth in the consummated new heavens and earth. The new creation that began at Christ’s resurrection will be completed. The earth and its present wickedness will die under judgment and then be made new (2Pet. 3). The universe will be delivered from bondage and resurrected (Rom. 8:18-25), just like the saints. If you think the Grand Canyon, the Rocky Mountains, and the Pacific Ocean are impressive now, wait until you see what they look like in their glorified state.
Men have long dreamed of flying. They tell stories about it, they build machines to try it, and they literally dream about it at night. Why would such dreams be so pervasive in the human race? I think it is an aspect of general revelation, a rarely identified or understood connection to Christ’s ascension when the Last Adam, the true Man, the King of creation, flew up into the heavens to receive his reward and fulfill his destiny of life with God. The first Adam disobeyed God and failed to complete his mission. Rather than flying into the sky, he fell down dead and returned to dust. But where the first Adam failed, Christ has succeeded. The Church does not marvel at, imitate, or worship Superman. We worship the true Man, the One who flew into the sky, the Lord Jesus Christ, not a make-believe comic book hero but the Lord and Savior of the world. O come, and let us adore him! --JME
