The Ascension Mysteries

Great mysteries surround the Ascension. Whenever we are speaking of Father, Son and Holy Spirit all roads lead inevitably into mystery. You can't get away from this and, really, why would you want to? The endlessly inviting mysteries draw us ever deeper into the great quest of knowing our God. This ensures that we can remain childlike in wonder and fascination all our days on earth and even in heaven to come. Still, some Mysteries seem bigger than others, like the Incarnation, the Resurrection, the Three-in-One and this one.

Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. 1 Timothy 3:16

All scripture citations are from the English Standard Version (ESV) unless otherwise noted.

The Mystery of Full Restoration

When Jesus ascended something shifted. While he was on Earth, He was fully God, but he was (if we could say it this way) primarily human. Jesus had to set the God side apart and keep it apart. How He did that is anyone’s guess, but Paul assures us that this is exactly what He did, and He did it not just at birth, but throughout His time on earth. (See His Miraculous Birth for more on this.)

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. Philippians 2:5-7

This is truly, shockingly, amazing: Jesus “emptied Himself.” He never stopped being God in his nature, but he certainly stopped being able to access His Godward side in His abilities or knowledge. At the very least, this means that He was not omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing), or omnipresent (all everywhere) while He walked the earth. For that He had to depend upon the Father and the Holy Spirit just the same as the rest of us. Had He not done it this way, He would never have been able to be our substitute -- the perfect human at the cross. On the third day, the Father raised Jesus from the dead. Then comes the Ascension and He is somehow marvelously restored to being fully God. How?

The magnitude of this is something like a reversal of the Incarnation. The God who became human, now becomes God again. But without ever not being God when He was fully human, and without being less than human now that He is fully God! If that dazzles your mind (and it should), consider this: How is it even possible for a human being -- even in a glorified body -- to be everywhere at once? How is it possible to remain a Jewish Man and still process the unlimited God-filled understanding coursing through Him now? When Jesus was on Earth, certainly His latent divinity never put a drag on His humanity, but now that He has been raised and fully restored to all His God abilities would not His humanity put a drag on His divinity? Evidently not! Nevertheless, there is a mystery here.

The Mystery of the Moment

Another mystery is when did all of this happen? While Jesus remained on Earth before his Ascension, did He remain fully human with the divine side still set aside? Remember that He hadn't ascended yet to acquire, or rather re-acquire, His God-ward abilities. If this is so, then He was a resurrected, fully human person same as we will be one day. Remember that Jesus on the cross committed His Spirit to God.[1] His divine Spirit went to God. It was not His divine side that died, but His human side. We are speaking of mysteries here, but it would seem that it was the Man, Jesus of Nazareth, who died at the cross, not the Divine Son.[2] This was the death that was needed – the death of a fully human substitute on whom the sins of all humanity could be placed.

Significantly, it is to this Man that the keys were given -- not to Jesus as God, but to Jesus as Man. After all it was Jesus as Man who did the work and won the victory. Furthermore, He seems to have indicated that He held the keys while still with His disciples on the mountain in Galilee -- before the Ascension. Is He not referring here to the keys of “death and hades”?[3] How else could He have received “all authority?”

And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Matthew 28:18

Adam lost the keys. The second, or “last” Adam, Jesus regained them.[4] Then comes the Ascension. At some point upon arrival in heaven, Jesus is raised above every name, restored to full Divinity and seated above all creation as its One and only Lord. It’s a perfectly lovely picture of an extraordinary and mysterious Reality. Catch a glimpse in wonder, before it fades again into Mystery…

The Mystery of the Two Altars

Then, stay a bit longer to ponder the related mystery of His elevation as our High Priest. While on earth Jesus offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice through the terrible ordeal of Good Friday. At the cross, Jesus became both Priest and Victim. This means of course that it was as a fully human priest that Jesus offered Himself as a fully human victim. Only in this way could humanity be fully restored to God.

And indeed every priest stands daily ministering and offering often the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right of God, from then on expecting until His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are sanctified. Hebrews 10:11-14

Because Jesus was the perfect sinless sacrifice, His one offering of Himself will never need to be repeated. Notice that the language is not just about His role as our Victim, but as our Priest who makes the sacrificial offering. That offering was made on earth, but the full exercise of His priesthood didn’t end there. He ascended to heaven, entering that “more perfect tent” which no priest before Him could have entered by his own merits and no blood before His could have cleansed. Jesus entered “by means of his own blood” and cleansed the altar there with His Blood. This is the reality of which the Levitical priesthood expressed the earthly copy.

Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Hebrews 9:23-24

Just as an earthly priest would slay the lamb, then pour its blood upon the altar, so Jesus having been slain on earth, ascended to pour His Blood upon heaven’s altar. We see this pattern even more clearly through the ritual required for the Jewish Day of Atonement. On that one day, the priest, having been thoroughly cleansed, would enter the Tabernacle or Temple carrying the blood of the sacrificial victim. He would then enter the holiest part of the Sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, and apply the blood to the Mercy Seat. By this means alone, atonement was made for the sins of all Israel, at least in temporary form. Jesus fulfilled this Old Testament sign when He entered heaven’s most holy place and placed the Blood of everlasting atonement there.

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. Hebrews 9:11-12

What a high, holy and glorious moment that must have been! A son of Adam (who was also the Son of God) cleansed heaven’s altar. Jesus’ sinless life enabled Him to make the only offering of Blood that could possibly remove the stain of humanity’s sins. Was it at this moment that our earthly priest “after the order of Melchizedek” was elevated to become our priest “forever”? Was it because of this perfect offering that the Father swore His oath, establishing Jesus in His eternal destiny?

So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, "You are my Son, today I have begotten you"; as he says also in another place, "You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek." Hebrews 5:5-6

So far, we have been attempting to lift the veil and peer into mysteries of heaven, mysteries concerning the ascension of the One True God-Man, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. These are genuine spiritual realities and life-giving. There are, however, darker mysteries of ascending abroad in the land. These counterfeit ascension mysteries need to be mentioned next.

A Counterfeit Ascension Mystery

Unquestionably, Jesus is the Master who ascended into heaven. Jesus is the only human who ever lived before being born on earth. He lived as the Eternal Son of God. He freely chose to become one of us through the miracle of the virgin birth, which joined His divine nature to that of ours and united His soul to a body like ours. This God-Man absolutely mastered the art of holy (sinless) living in full submission to the Holy God. He mastered full scriptural knowledge and understanding of divine things. He mastered the miraculous. He did all things well.[5] No one has ever been able to find fault with His life or teachings. He died, rose from the dead, and ascended to heaven. This we know by faith and by the testimony of scripture.

Watch out! Many have come and are coming who claim to be “ascended masters.” Have nothing to do with them. This is a deception that the devil (who seeks to deceive “the whole world”)[6] has been brewing for a very long time. In eastern religions, through the New Age movement and Wicca practitioners, and as a tenant of the occult teachings there is a spurious claim that if one gets enlightened enough, then that “holy” person can ascend to become a god. This is the lie of the Garden![7] This lie – that you can become god – is often also combined with another lie, the lie of reincarnation.[8] Supposedly, one’s past lives may have been preparing them for this ascension.

In the Ascended Master Teachings, Ascended Masters are believed to be spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans, but who have undergone a series of spiritual transformations originally called initiations.[9] Dear reader, there is only One Person who is an ascended master and He didn’t get there by a process of enlightenment. Humanity doesn’t need enlightenment; we need atonement. That’s what Jesus provided as our high Priest and that’s why God raised Jesus to the highest place. All others are pretenders and counterfeits. Jesus is the One and Only Ascended Master!

Explore More about Jesus

His Soon Return  You don’t have to wait for Jesus to return to experience the peace and power of His reign. His Kingdom comes whenever we trust and obey Him as Lord. But even that can’t hold a candle to what it will be like when the Light of the World returns to establish His Kingdom on earth forever. There are incontrovertible signs that the long-awaited Day is closer than you might think. Prepare to be very excited by this…Jesus actually expects us to discern the "signs of the times."

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Endnotes

[1] Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" And having said this he breathed his last. Luke 23:46

[2]  Jesus the Man died in truth, not in fiction, at the cross. The man who died is the One who was raised: If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. Romans 8:11, When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. John 2:22.

[3] When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, "Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. Revelation 1:17-18

[4] Thus it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 1 Corinthians 15:45

[5] And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak." Mark 7:37

[6] And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. Revelation 12:9

[7] But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Genesis 3:4-5

[8] One life is all anyone needs to have their eternal destiny decided and it is decided by our own choices: will we live by God’s truth and by His will and ways, or go our own way:  And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment. Hebrews 9:27

[9] You can go here to confirm the claims they make, but don’t go there to try to become enlightened by their darkness! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascended_master