• Reading: Acts 1:1-11; Luke 24:44-53

Of the Ascension, CFW Walther said, "Christ's ascension is like staring at the sun: the more closely a person looks into it, the worse his eyes become and finally he cannot see anything at all. This work of Christ is for those who do not need to investigate but who simply want to believe with childlike faith what Scripture says about it. The more simply we regard the biblical description of this event, the more it strengthens our faith."

At His ascension, Christ was seated at the right hand of God. But this description is not a description of geography. When Scripture uses the phrase, "right hand of God," it is a reference to the divine majesty. What we see in the Ascension is the divine majesty of omnipotence, omnipresence, dominion, eternality, etc. being bestowed upon the human nature.

In His state of humiliation, Christ possessed these attributes, but they were not fully evident to all those around Him. They were hidden, as if by a veil, like the reflected Glory of God was covered by a veil over Moses' face. But at His ascension, Christ revealed His glory to the disciples and the divine attributes were fully seen in His humanity.

Walther continues, "Christ left the world. He would no longer walk among us as a mortal man, natural, visible, tangible, and spacial as He once did with His disciples. But let us not conclude that Christ is the King of a kingdom from which He is separated and which He can rule only at a distance. He spacially departed from the disciples. With His glorified body, He raised Himself higher and higher until the disciples could no longer see Him. But as soon as the gate of clouds closed behind Him, He entered into a state of divine majesty, appearing full of glory to all angels and saints who were welcoming Him with their hymns of triumph. Then, as Man, He commenced His almighty and omnipresent dominion over heaven and earth and all creatures."

What is important is that we realize that Christ rules and reigns for us in glory as one of us. He still remains fully God and fully Man in one indivisible person. This is an incomprehensible reality, but a reality none-the-less. Now, ascended into heaven, "Christ, appearing as the true High Priest before God in heaven, ... prays without ceasing for His own, and He rules them, cares for them, and protects them so that the gates of hell cannot overpower them."