THE ASCENSION OF JESUS: IT MATTERS (Phil 2:9-11)

In some of my posts, I have objected to a characteristic of pop-level Christianity that focuses almost exclusively on the death of Jesus (unfortunately as penal substitution) and not on the whole salvific work of Christ.  Of course, in worship services, the Resurrection is celebrated as well as Pentecost.  But, unless one belongs to a highly liturgical church tradition, Thursday, May 14 of this year passed by without distinction.  It was Ascension Day, the day Christians celebrate Jesus’ ascension.  It is important.  Those who recite the Nicene Creed, affirm it each time: “He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.”

The Ascension
Luke gives us two complementary accounts of Jesus’ ascension.  Luke closes his first NT volume, the Gospel of Luke, with a post-Resurrection appearance and with mention of Jesus explaining the Scriptures to his disciples, how preaching in his name would begin in Jerusalem and how the disciples would be clothed with power; and then Luke gives a brief account of Jesus’ ascension (Luke 24:36-49 and vv. 50-52).  Luke opens his second NT volume, Acts, with a continuation of those themes and a more detailed account of the Ascension (Acts 1:1-8 and vv. 9-11). 
     The significance of the Ascension to the early church is alluded to in the long ending to Mark that became canonical (16:9-20): “and he sat down at the right hand of God” (v 19) and is further demonstrated in what is apparently a very early church hymn, Phil. 2:6-11.  The first half of this hymn or poem beautifully expresses the Incarnation of Jesus: though possessing the nature of God, he emptied himself, took on human likeness, and was obedient to death (vv. 6-8).  The second half expresses the significance of the Ascension, without direct mention of the Resurrection¹:

Therefore, God also highly exalted him
     and gave him the name
     that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
     every knee should bend,
     in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
     that Jesus Christ is Lord,
     to the glory of God the Father. (Phil. 2:9-11 NRSV)

      The metaphorical language of being “highly exalted” and of “being seated (or sitting) at the right hand” communicates that Jesus returned to His position of highest honor with shared power and sovereignty with God the Father.  Interestingly, “being seated” can imply not just the power of enthronement but also of a king or a god returning to the throne after an act of creating order or peace.  An allusion to the Ascension with this mind is also what the author of Hebrews was thinking when he wrote, “having accomplished purification of sins,² he [the Son] sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb 1:3b; see too 10:12; 12:2, and Rev. 3:21).  Moreover, the author of Hebrews, viewing Jesus also as an eternal high priest seated at the right hand, understands Jesus, still in His humanity, as our perfect intercessor (see the combination of Heb 2:17-18; 5:7-10; 7:23-25; 8:1-2).  Also, although the Gospel of John understands Jesus’ glorification to include the Cross, the Resurrection, and the Ascension, it is Jesus’ act of returning to the Father that is mysteriously necessary for the coming of the Holy Spirit who empowers Christians (e.g. John 16: 5-7).

Application
The whole work of Christ matters, from creation (e.g. John 1:3) to being seated at the right of the Father as our High Priest and intercessor.  The recognition “Jesus died for me,” although essential, is only one aspect of the much grander work of Christ on our behalf.³  Each aspect of Christ’s work deserves recognition, reflection, gratitude, and praise – including the Ascension. 

Jesus, guide me as I reflect on your Ascension.  Deepen my comprehension and appreciation.  Deepen my love for you.  Amen.
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1) The concept of the Resurrection possibly is implied in the verb hyperupsoō that means literally to “raise up over/beyond/above,” and refers to exalting someone to the position of highest honor.  However, this verb is not one of the words used for Jesus being raised in the Resurrection.

2) The author of Hebrews correctly uses the Israelite temple atonement language in which, after God had responded to confession with forgiveness, there was still a need for a sin/purification offering of blood to cleanse the altar or Mercy Seat to remove all impediments between the people and God.  See Romans 8:7 where Paul refers to Jesus as that “sin/purification offering.”

3) See the entry, “What Does ‘Jesus Died For Us’ Mean?,” February 10, 2026.

ADVENT: INCARNATION: A PARALLEL ACT TO CREATION, John 1:4-5

John’s prologue to his gospel of Jesus (1:1-5) is set within the theological context of Genesis 1, “In the beginning” (1:1).  That context is important for understanding John.  (See “Advent: And the Word Was God?” 11/30/25.)  John’s narrative proper begins at v. 6 with the introduction of John the Baptist with his announcement of the Incarnation at v 14, when God’s Utterance (the Logos/Word) became flesh.  I have been thinking about 1:4-5 in this prologue:

“In Him [referring back to the Utterance] was Life and the Life was the Light of all people.  And the Light in the darkness shines, and the darkness did not overcome it.”

It strikes me that with the Utterance becoming flesh a parallel act of creation to that of Genesis 1 has taken place.

Proper context
To explain, I have to set to one side a popular doctrine, that of creation ex nihilo (out of nothing).  It was important to the early Church Fathers to espouse creation ex nihilo in order to counter a couple of popular notions of their day, that the cosmos was eternal and that there had always been opposing forces of good and bad or spirit and matter.  They needed to teach, rightly, about God as the Creator who was sovereign.  However, that teaching is not found in the narrative of Genesis 1 and should not be read into it.
    Genesis 1 begins with the same starting point as the earlier ancient Near Eastern creation accounts of the Israelites’ culture, accounts which the biblical writers adopted and then adapted to speak the truth about God and reality.  Those accounts start with the reality that all humans face, chaos that constantly seeks to overpower life.  Illustration: before one can farm land, one must bring order into the physical chaos of the land; and, once one has planted a crop, one constantly has to fight the forces of chaos that would consume the garden.  Survival is a struggle against physical forces of chaos as a well moral chaos.  
    Genesis 1 begins with three elements that are contra life: a topsy-turvy “earth,” that is encased in a watery deep and surrounded in utter darkness (Gen 1:2).  However, God speaks, and the Spirit that breaths out the Utterance of God, speaks light into darkness, order into the chaotic watery deep and topsy-turvy earth, and brings forth life. This is what John is thinking about. 

Application
John is thinking about Jesus as the God’s Utterance by which all things came into being (1:3).  But as John is thinking about how the Utterance (logos) became flesh (1:14), he is recognizing in verse 4-5 how that Utterance will/does function as the Life who is the Light of all people (see, too v. 9).  In other words, it seems to me that John is thinking of the Incarnation as a parallel creational act of God.
    The reality of life as we face it is full of chaos and darkness, physical and moral, just as the “world” was before God began to speak light, order, and life into that chaos in Genesis 1.  In this new beginning work of God, the Incarnation, the Utterance of God became flesh and dwelt with us bringing light, order, and life into our existence which constantly struggles with that which is contra life.  Jesus is this Light, and the forces of chaos, darkness, and death cannot overcome the Light.  Rather, the Light exposes all that is of darkness and done in darkness so that people do not have to walk in darkness (e.g. 8:12).  The Light offers eternal life to those who receive Jesus and entrust themselves (“believe into”) Jesus (1:12).  The Utterance become flesh parallels the work of God in Genesis 1.

Lord, before surrendering to Jesus, I walked in darkness.  Darkness, chaos, and sin still envelop my world, yet by the Light you guide me.  Darkness cannot overcome your Light.  Help me to always desire to stay in the Light.  Amen.

 

 

 

LENT: WHY HUMAN FRAILITY IS GOOD

Lent is a good time to be frail.  Jesus is God become frail.

The frailty of Jesus.  My church has been preaching a series on the humility of Jesus using the first part (vv 6 – 8) of an early church hymn/poem (vv 6 – 11) in Philippians 2:

Who [Jesus], being in very nature God,
        did not consider equality with God
            something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
        by taking the very nature of a servant,
        being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
        he humbled himself
        by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross! (Phil. 2:5 - 8 NIV)

[Note:  The introduction to the hymn, verse 5 is a command, not a suggestion: “Have this disposition in you as Christ Jesus!”]

The humility Paul commands here, which is found in Christ, is not what people generally extol as the “virtue” of humility, a mere non-prideful attitude.  The humility of Jesus means that he accepted frailty.  What do I mean by frailty?  It is the opposite of the self-reliance and self-effort toward self-motivated ends.  The acceptance of frailty is the recognition of absolute weakness apart from God.  The Incarnational, self-emptying of the essence of God in Jesus meant that he shared in human frailty.  However, in the frailty of human form and nature, Jesus was completely obedient.  Jesus became dependent on his Father.  In doing so, Jesus became the “new Adam” (Paul’s analogy in Rom 5:15; 1Cor 15:45) who ushered in a new era of God’s life and grace.  In the frailty of human form and nature, Jesus conquers sin and death.

Application:  Why is humble frailty a good disposition?  It leads us to dependence on God and obedience.  Following this hymn/poem of 2:8 - 11, Paul reminded his “saints at Philippi” that in their obedience God was enabling them to will and act according to his purposes (2:12 – 13).  That is what I want in my life.

The “test” of life is whether I live for my own desires by my own strength or whether I live as a created person dependent on my Creator.  This test is not a final examination; it plays out daily.  I read a statement a few days ago, “The greatest teacher of God’s presence in our life is our life.”*  What struck me in reflection is that my life is a constant testimony to me – as much or more so as to anyone else.  When I accept my frailty, I seek to be near my God.  I experience increased order in my life, the peace that comes from the Presence of God.  I witness it.  When in my “strength” I seek my own way, there is more chaos in my life.  I can testify to that as well.

For Paul frailty was quite personal:  At one point in his life, Paul pleaded for God to take away some physical frailty, a “thorn in the flesh” (2Cor 12:7 – 8).  In response, God told Paul: “Sufficient for you is my grace; for [my] strength is made complete in weakness” (2Cor 12:9).

Lord, help me to see clearly and accept fully my frailty so that you might enable me in my weakness through your Spirit to be of real service in your Kingdom.  Amen.

*James Finley as quoted in Rohr’s Daily Meditations, 3/15/24.

CHRISTMAS: THE SELF-HUMILIATION OF GOD

 Salvation begins with the self-humiliation of God.

Salvation does not begin with the Cross or the Resurrection.  The Cross is God’s ultimate act of redemption and atonement once and for all.  The Resurrection – Jesus, the first-fruit of the promised resurrection of the dead -- is the confirmation of the inauguration a new age of the Kingdom of God, of victory over sin and death, of life in the Spirit.  However, the Incarnation is the actual inauguration of that new era of the Kingdom of God.  And, it starts with God’s self-humiliation.

God's self-humiliation is this: The Creator of the cosmos condescends to offer a relationship with the lowly creatures of humanity.  In the beginning, God offered to “walk” and “talk” in the Garden of Eden with the Man and the Woman.  God offered Godself in relationship to Abraham as a way to create a people who would bless the world.  God offered Godself to the Hebrew slaves of Egypt to become God’s people.  Through multiple acts of merciful forgiveness and new starts, the Creator condescended to offer humanity a relationship with Life.  That is where salvation begins.

God's ultimate self-humiliation was to become Immanuel, “with-us-God,” in the flesh, in low esteem and lowly status, to live a life beneath other humans in order to lift them up toward that very salvation.  Christmas, the Incarnation, is when God’s rule and Kingdom was inaugurated in a new way, coming to us in utter weakness and humility.  Christmas is the ultimate Holy Day.

“Here am I, O God, of little power and of mean estate, yet lifting up heart and voice to Thee before whom all created things are as dust and a vapour. Thou art hidden behind the curtain of sense, incomprehensible power; yet here I speak with Thee familiarly as child to parent, as friend to friend. If I could not thus speak to Thee, then were I indeed without hope in the world….  But because Thou art my Father, I am not afraid. Because it is Thine own Spirit that stirs within my spirit's inmost room, I know that all is well.”*

Thank you, Lord Jesus.  Amen.

John Baillie, A Dairy of Private Prayer, Day 9, morning.

JESUS IS NOT THE SOLUTION -- THE SCANDAL OF THE INCARNATION

I dislike billboard slogans like, “Jesus is the solution” of “God will fix your problems.”  What sorry, cheap theology!  As we are coming up to Advent in a little over a week, I am thinking about the scandal of the Incarnation.

“…who being the expression of God’ essence… emptied himself and took expression as a slave, becoming in appearance human… humiliated himself, being obedient up through death, the death of a cross” (Phil 2:6-8)

No one in their imagination creates a suffering, humiliated god who makes himself a slave.  Particularly charlatan Christians and prosperity preachers want nothing to do with a god who willfully puts himself at the bottom of human ranking.  They preach a god who makes people (themselves) rich and makes all one’s problems magically vanish.

That is not Jesus.  Jesus understands suffering and humiliation.  Jesus entered the chaos of human existence.  He does not remove it.  However, he still enters it.  As the Risen-Incarnate Jesus, he embraces us and walks with us through the brutal side life.  In creation, God breathed order into the midst of chaos and brought about life that exists within chaos (Gen 1).  In the same way Jesus breathes order and Life into the midst of the chaos of our lives.

I need to clarify that I need no sympathy.  My life has been easier than over 99% of the world’s population.  Still, I know that at those times of chaos, Jesus was there.  Also, I tend to believe beneath our active imaginations that would create a god who is above it all, we essentially long for One who comes down to us.  I do.

The Incarnation is a glorious scandal!

Lord, help me this coming Advent season to evermore appreciate your Incarnation.  Amen.

OBEDIENT ONE UNTO DEATH

My devotional reading today quoted Phil 2:5-8.

        Have the same mindset toward one another that Christ Jesus had:
            Who existing in the form/essence of God,
                    did not regard equality with God to be grasped,
                    but he emptied himself,
            having taken the form/essence of a slave,

            having become in the likeness of humans,
                    and having been found in the state of a human,
                    he humbled himself,
            having become an obedient one unto death – death of a cross!*

What caught my attention was “having become an obedient one unto death" (v 8).  (The death of loved ones is always a horror, bringing shock and fear of living with the loss.  So, that is another topic.)  But one’s own death, that is different.  Of course, none but Jesus follow his path of divine humiliation and incarnation carried through to obedience to death.  However, as God’s creature, I, too, am called to be an obedience one unto death.  "Obedience unto death" does not proclaim or rest upon resurrection faith.  I think it is a "deeper" faith -- if that makes sense.  Obedience to death has its grounding in a right relationship with God today; that is, we trust God unto death.  ("My flesh and my heart fail, but my heart's rock and my portion is God, forever!" Psa 73:26.)  That is “righteousness,” the right relationship.  That is faith sufficient for today.

Lord, you are my Creator to whom I belong.  In you I trust.  May I walk in obedience to you today and tomorrow and unto death.  Amen.

*My tentative translation.  Notes: 1) I awkwardly use “form/essence” for morphe, because the better choices, "quintessence" or "quiddity," are not used much.  2) Most translations render the aorist participles as present participles, possibly because this is poetry or out of conformity to older translations, but I have tried to capture the “pastness” of the actions (e.g. “having taken the form” rather than “taking the form”).  3)  In the last line, the phrase is often translated, “being obedient,” but since the phrase is parallel to “having become in the likeness of humans,” I think the adjective is being used nominally, “obedient one,” a rendering which to me emphasizes Jesus’ obedience as a human.  4) I have also tried to capture the poetic, balanced, thought-structure.