Aware that my favorite day in the church year is The Ascension of Our Lord, a friend showed me a cartoon that depicted Jesus ascending into the clouds while one of the disciples cries out that he can’t see him. An arrow points to that disciple with the words “Ascension Deficit Disorder.”[1] That’s hilarious!
What’s not so funny, however, is that there is a sort of ascension deficit disorder that has crept into the church during the last several decades, which has diminished our focus on the necessity of Christ’s ascension for our salvation. This is probably due to several factors. First, Ascension always falls on Thursday, the fortieth day after Easter. Due to its seemingly odd time during the week, attendance is often low for the Divine Service on this day; and I have heard of some churches where it is no longer celebrated. Second, some of the liturgical calendars have changed the name for the Sunday that follows Ascension. In my own synod, prior to 1982 it was called The Sunday After the Ascension; since then it has been referred to as The Seventh Sunday of Easter. If you miss the Ascension service on Thursday, you could theoretically never hear anything about the Lord’s ascension into heaven. Finally, I think that ascension deficit disorder occurs theologically when the ascension of Christ is merely viewed as his departure from earth to heaven. Each of these factors contributes to the decline in the importance of Christ’s ascension, which in turn diminishes our understanding of how God defines our human nature.
In Christian tradition based on Scripture, there are some key examples of the ascension of Christ as necessary for our salvation. Some of the early Church fathers held to a theologically sophisticated view of the ascension. Athanasius[2] and Hilary,[3] for example, believed that Christ’s ascension was just as important as his birth, death, and resurrection. It was Christ’s final work of salvation for us because it accomplished the ultimate goal of our salvation, the exaltation of humanity! This led both of these fathers to effectively declare that in Christ God became man in order that man would become God.[4] The same theology is seen in the creed that bears Athanasius’s name where, speaking of the two natures of Christ, it declares that he is not two but one person, not by his divinity being converted into flesh but by the assumption of his humanity into God. That is the exaltation of Christ! Still, he did not do this for himself but for us, to exalt us together with him, as a necessary part of his great works of salvation that began at his conception and birth, continued throughout his perfect life, intensified at his atoning death and glorious resurrection, and brought to completion with his ascension into heaven and session at the right hand of God. By the ascension of our Lord, we Christians are exalted now by faith; and on the Last Day we will be exalted in our glorified bodies to reign together with Christ on his heavenly throne. This is seen in two of my favorite hymn verses:
Thou hast raised our human nature on the clouds to God’s right hand;
There we sit in heavenly places, there with Thee in glory stand.
Jesus reigns, adored by angels; Man with God is on the throne.
Mighty Lord, in Thine ascension we by faith behold our own.
So at last, when He appeareth, we from our own graves may spring,
With our youth renewed like eagles’, flocking round our heavenly king,
Caught up on the clouds of heaven, and may meet Him in the air,
Rise to realms where He is reigning and may reign forever there.[5]
Most importantly, Holy Scripture teaches this theology which is sometimes referred to as the doctrine of deification or theosis, man becoming divine.[6] In the Old Testament, a few passages indicate a divine status of God’s people. However, prior to the incarnation and exaltation of Christ this divine status is one of function and not essence. For example, the LORD tells Moses that he will be God to Aaron, who would be Moses’s spokesman and prophet, and he would be God to Pharaoh (Exodus 4:16; 7:1). Jesus, quoting Psalm 82:6, says that those during the Old Testament era – to whom the Word of God came – are called gods (John 10:34–35). After the incarnation, the divine status of God’s people is both one of function and of essence because of the assumption of the human nature into God. In Baptism, Christians enter into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19) and, therefore, into a communion relationship with and in the Triune God. Christians are born again/from above by the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit (John 3:5–6; Titus 3:5–6). In Baptism, God makes Christians to be sons of God in the only-begotten Son, Christ Jesus. Thus, their new birth and sonship are divine. Everyone is familiar with Ephesians 2:8–9, “For it is by grace that you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works in order that no one may boast.” However, the prior two verses (Ephesians 2:6–7), which are hardly known, should be understood in the same context, “And He has raised us up together and has enthroned us together in heaven in Christ Jesus, in order that in the age to come He will show the overflowing riches of His grace in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” Notice the tense of the verbs! By grace through faith, we have already been resurrected and have already ascended with Christ to reign with him on his throne in heaven, not physically yet but in our souls. Finally, 2 Peter 1:4 states that Christians are partakers of/communers in the divine nature of the Triune God.[7] The Holy Scriptures teach that by the power of the Holy Spirit working through the Word and Sacraments humans are drawn into Christ and unto the Father who declares us to be his sons in his Son. As Christians, that is our exaltation![8]
Both Scripture and Christian tradition portray the ascension of our Lord as the ultimate goal of humanity. If the Christian message includes the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ but ends there without a strong focus on his ascension, then we are missing out on part of the gospel. Everything that Christ did was for us and for our salvation, including his ascension. It deifies and exalts our human nature, which God intends as the ultimate goal and destiny of humanity.
I pray that the Lord will help more Christians to overcome ascension deficit disorder and regain belief in this very necessary aspect of theological anthropology.
[1] Black, Cuyler. “Ascension Deficit Disorder.” In the Inherit the Mirth web page at www.cuylerblack.com.
[2] Athanisius, Bishop of Alexandria. “Letter LX: To Adelphius.” In Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Volume 4, Athanasius: Select Works and Letters, edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, 575–76. Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994.
[3] Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers. “On the Trinity.” In Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Volume 9, St. Hilary of Poitiers, edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, 59. Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994.
[4] This view acknowledges that, with the incarnation of the eternal Son of God, there is a communion or personal union between the divine and human natures of Christ. As a result, the divine nature is not lowered but rather the human nature is exalted to the status of the divine.
[5] Wordsworth, Christopher. “See, the Conqueror Mounts in Triumph.” In The Handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal, second and revised edition, by W.G. Polack, 163–164. St. Louis: Concordia, 1942.
[6] The terms deification and theosis do not indicate that Christians ever become divine in nature or essence the way that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the only true and eternal God. Rather, by God’s grace and gift received in faith the Christian communes in, shares in, and partakes of the divine nature by having Christ in him and by him being in Christ through the Word and Sacraments/Mysteries. Martin Luther held to this view, as has been demonstrated by Kurt Marquart in his article, Luther and Theosis in Concordia Theological Quarterly, Volume 64:3, July 2000.
[7] This Scripture passage and its teaching is also referenced in The Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, VIII:32–35, Of the Person of Christ.
[8] As Matthew 23:12, Luke 14:11, and 18:14 state, the exaltation of the Christian is only an act of God and never our own doing. In fact, he who exalts himself will be humiliated by God. What God requires from the Christian is self humiliation.