CHAPTER VIII

ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN

THE sixth article of the Creed is: ascended into heaven. This has remained essentially the same, only the Latin and modern translations substitute the indicative for the participle. Irenæus in his first form has: "and the assumption (ávámv) in the flesh (evσapkov) into heaven of the beloved Christ Jesus our Lord"; in his second form: "and was received in glory."

Tertullian varies his verb: in the first form, receptum; in the second, resumptum; in the third, ereptum; in all, into heaven. The Nicene and other Eastern Creeds use ἀνελθόντα.

The ascension intervenes between the resurrection and the session at the right hand of the Father, and in itself is involved in these two redemptive acts of Christ. It is implied, sometimes in the resurrection, sometimes in the session; the former usually, in St. Paul's Epistles. Indeed, the resurrection implies the ascent from Hades and the ascent to heaven; the whole process may be considered a resurrection, and often is, by St. Paul. Thus Eph. 120: "when He raised Him from the dead, and made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenly (places)." If the ascension is seldom mentioned in the New Testament, it is implied both in the resurrection and in the ses

sion. Indeed, there could be no session at the right hand of God without the enthronement, which is itself the goal of the ascension.

The ascension is specifically mentioned in Mark 1619; Luke 2451; Acts 12, 9-11; and foretold, John 662, 2017.

All the passages which report Christ as coming from heaven in a second Advent, imply the ascension to heaven. The ascent is frequently implied in the Pauline Epistles, though seldom stated; cf. Eph. 48-10, possibly I Tim. 316.1

The ascension is in order to the enthronement which it implies. As Jesus said in His parable, Luke 1912-27: "A certain nobleman went into a far country, to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return," etc. Rev. 5 gives the scene: the ascending Lord appearing in heaven before the throne, and welcomed with the worship of all heaven and the new song:

"Worthy art thou to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with Thy blood of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, and madest them unto our God a kingdom of priests, and they shall reign upon the earth."

St. Peter says: "Him did God exalt at His right hand (to be) a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel and remission of sins" (Acts 581).

The passages quoted from the New Testament vary. The most of them make God the Father the agent of the ascension, and the Son passive. But the Creeds make the Son active. This is the usage

V. Briggs, Messiah of the Apostles, p. 229.

of the Gospel of John, and occasionally elsewhere. The exact phrase of the Creed, however, is not found in the New Testament.

The ascension of Christ begins the reign of Christ over His Messianic kingdom; upon it depends the advent of the divine Spirit at Pentecost, which may be regarded as His coronation gift to His kingdom.

It is just because He is the second Adam, incorporating a new humanity in Himself, that His ascension is their ascension. So Eph. 24 seq.: "But God, being rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, quickened us together with Christ-and raised us up with Him, and made us to sit with Him in the heavenly (places) in Christ Jesus"; cf. Eph. 13; Col. 31-3; I Peter 13-5.

The inheritance of the first Adam, with its entail of sin, guilt, death, and corruption, is put away by the Christian, who through the ascension of Christ has secured in heaven an inheritance of everlasting grace and glory in the second Adam.

CHAPTER IX

ENTHRONED AT THE RIGHT HAND OF THE

FATHER

THE seventh article of the Creed is: and seated on the right hand of the Father.

Irenæus does not give this clause, but combines it with the previous one. Tertullian, in his three forms, has the clause, only varying in the forms of the same verb.

The original Nicene Creed, as the Creed of Eusebius, has it not, but the Constantinopolitan has it. The received form of the Apostles' Creed has been enlarged, so as to be: "sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty." It is evident that God the Father Almighty has simply been taken over from Article I, and has exactly the same force and meaning here as there.

The Biblical passages at the back of this article of the Creed are numerous. St. Paul is especially rich in them: "For He must reign, till He hath put all His enemies under His feet" (I Cor. 1525). "Wherefore also God highly exalted Him, and gave unto Him the name which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of (things) in heaven, and (things) on earth, and (things) under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that

Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 29-11).

"Made Him to sit at His right hand (xaioas) in the heavenly (places), far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come: and He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all" (Eph. 120-23; cf. also Col. 31, and Heb. 13-4, 726, 81, 1222-24).

Jesus said to the high priest before the Sanhedrim: "Ye will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power" (Mt. 2664; Mark 1462; Luke 2269). Jesus tells his disciples (Mt. 2818): "All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth." Mark 1619 has: "was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God."

St. Peter at Pentecost tells the people: "Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God hath made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified" (Acts 236).

The Gospels, Ignatius, and the principal Eastern Creeds have ex değiv after the Greek of Psalm 1101; the Epistles and Western Creeds, and some Eastern Creeds, év defia; the same variety of usage as in Hebrew, and , without difference in meaning. The terms of the Creed are nearest to Col. 31.

It is quite probable that the earliest form of the Old Roman Creed was at the right hand of God, as in the New Testament. The phrase right hand of the