Confusion About Christ's Ascension

The vast majority of Christians around the world subscribe to the Apostles and Nicene Creeds. But within them there are some troubling differences. The Ascension of Christ is one. The Apostles' Creed reads,

"On the third day he rose again from the dead.  He ascended into heaven and sits upon the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead." 

The words sound familiar, even to those of us who never repeat these words in public worship as most liturgically oriented churches do each week. Jesus ascended and sits upon the Father's right hand. That's what the Apostle writes in his letter to the Ephesians. The right hand is not a place, but a position of authority and power and dominion.

I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. - Eph 1:16-21 ESV

That settles it, right? No argument, right? Not quite. Questions remains about Jesus' human nature. Is Jesus present everywhere to rule over all things also in his human nature? The answer to that question was hammered out by the church and preserved in the Athanasian creed. Here's what that creed says about Christ,

It is necessary for eternal salvation that one also faithfully believe that our Lord Jesus Christ became flesh.
For this is the true faith that we believe and confess: That our Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, is both God and man.
He is God, begotten before all worlds from the being of the Father, and he is man, born in the world from the being of his mother -- existing fully as God, and fully as man with a rational soul and a human body; equal to the Father in divinity, subordinate to the Father in humanity.
Although he is God and man, he is not divided, but is one Christ.
He is united because God has taken humanity into himself; he does not transform deity into humanity.
He is completely one in the unity of his person, without confusing his natures.

 Eastern Orthodox Christians, Lutherans and Roman Catholics and some others teach that Christ is present now everywhere and at all times,  both as God and as man. The Reformed churches, following the lead of John Calvin, view Jesus' ascension as His return to heaven, some sort of place with a spatial component. There His human nature must remain until the Last Day. But those of us who understand that Christ's two natures are ever and always united in one person do not view heaven as a place and so have no problem with Christ being truly present with His body and blood in the Holy Supper.

There are some Christians who reject both positions, arguing that Christ has but one nature, not two united into one person. They say we have confused things with our definitions.  So Dr. Ronald W. Leigh argues and concludes,

Jesus was neither exactly like the Father in all aspects, nor exactly like other men in all aspects. Thus, in order to describe the characteristics of Jesus accurately we must base our description on the explicit New Testament statements of the characteristics of Jesus rather than on some assumed content of the concept "God" . . . 

In short, not only must we let the New Testament description of Jesus speak for itself, unhindered by previously fixed ideas about the nature of God and of man, but we must also let the picture of Jesus given in the New Testament help determine our understanding of the nature of God and of man. . . The nature of Jesus is determinative for our understanding of the essence of the nature of man, as well as for our understanding of the essence of the nature of God

 Well, I hope I've not confused you unduly. I personally embrace the Lutheran—and historic—position. And I rejoice that Jesus, both God and Man, is my Savior, that He meets me in the Holy Supper and will return on the Last Day to take me and all who believe in His name to be with Him forever.

Jesus, One With The Father, Begotten Not Made

In my last post we began to look at Jesus' hard saying in John 6. We pick this discussion up today.

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever." - Jhn 6:51-58 ESV

Jesus' saying or teaching was stiff, unbending and difficult. Many of his disciples couldn't accept it. It simply made no sense. They joined with the others who were not his disciples to complain about what Jesus said, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

Lets start with Jesus' saying about his flesh and blood, "Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink."

At the beginning of his Gospel, John writes, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). Prior to that John tells us that the Word was God! And that everything was made by Him. In other words, this Word is not a creature of God. No indeed. He IS God. And yet . . . "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us."

This was a great controversy among us Christians in centuries past about Jesus. Just who is he? The whole thing surfaced in a huge fight in the fourth century after Christ's resurrection and ascension. An Egyptian clergyman by the name of Arius taught that Christ is the Son of God, but he did not always exist. Rather, he was created by God the Father. He based this on Jesus' discourse with his disciples prior to his suffering in which he pointed out that his Father was greater than he.

You heard me say to you, 'I am going away, and I will come to you.' If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. - Jhn 14:28 ESV

Obviously this does not appear to square with John's introduction about the Word being God and becoming flesh and blood like the rest of us. So the controversy waged on and on until the church fathers had to get together again and again to solve it—or at least agree as a majority about what the Scriptures teach about Jesus. Various forms of Arianism—the teaching that Jesus is a creature—continue among so-called Christians to this day. For instance, Mormonism, the religion of American presidential candidate Mitt Romney, teaches that Jesus is a creature, conceived by the physical union of God the Father and Mary. They further teach that Jesus is our elder brother who progressed to become a god. By following his example we too can become gods.

The majority of the church's teachers and pastors came to an agreement toward the end of the fourth century in a gathering in Constantinople, the capitol of the Roman empire. There they agreed on the wording of the Nicene Creed, the most universal of all the Christian creeds, accepted by the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox churches, Lutherans and most protestant churches. That teaching is that Jesus is begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.

This teaching comes from the first chapter of John's Gospel as noted above. There we read that the Word became flesh and blood after all things came into being through him.  He is not a creature, but  the only-begotten (monogenēs - Greek) of the Father (John 1:14). That's why the creed says, begotten, not made. To say he was made would suggest that Jesus is a creature or some kind of demi-god as the Mormons teach. 

So back to the hard saying and the question, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" The point made by the church is that Jesus is indeed a man—and will always be a man. BUT! He is also God, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made (see also the Athanasian Creed). So the saying is harder than it first appears. We are dealing with the God-Man, Jesus, the Word made flesh. 

We'll probe this hard saying some more next time.