Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 141:561 (Jan 1984)
Article: Historical Perspectives on the Doctrine of Christ’s Ascension Part 3: The Significance of the Ascension for Believers
Author: Peter Toon

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BSac 141:561 (Jan 84) p. 16

Historical Perspectives on the Doctrine of Christ’s Ascension
Part 3:
The Significance of the Ascension for Believers

Peter Toon

[Peter Toon, Director of Post-Ordination Training, The Diocese of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich, England]

[Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of four articles delivered by the author as the W. H. Griffith Thomas Memorial Lectures at Dallas Theological Seminary, April 12–15, 1983.]

While Bible students and theologians have done little in exploring what the Ascension meant and means for Jesus Himself, they have generally been eager to explore what it means for the church and the world. The three purposes of this article are (1) to notice two favorite Patristic explanations of what the Ascension means for believers, (2) to summarize what Thomas Aquinas taught on the Ascension, and (3) to examine what the Reformers taught about the ascended Jesus as the believer’s Prophet, Priest, and King.

Patristic Explanations

In the Greek-speaking church the image of firstfruits was widely used of Christ, the Second Adam.1 John Chrysostom (ca. 347–407), the “golden-mouthed” preacher, often spoke of the eternal Logos/eternal Son assuming “the firstfruits of our nature” and taking it up to the Father in heaven. For example:

As it happens in a field full of corn, when a man takes a few ears of corn and makes a small sheaf and offers it to God, he blesses the whole cornfield by means of this sheaf, so Christ has done this also, and through that one flesh and firstfruits has made our race to be blessed. But why did he not offer the whole of nature? Because that is not the firstfruits if he offers the whole, but if he offers a little, preparing the whole to be blessed by the smaller amount.

Then after making reference to Leviticus 19:23–24, which refers to the firstfruits of a new tree, he continued:

BSac 141:561 (Jan 84) p. 17

So he offered the firstfruits of our nature to the Father and so the Father admired the gift, and on account of the worth of the offerer and the blamelessness of that which was offered, he received it with his own hands and placed the gift next to him, and said “Sit thou on my right hand.”2

In another sermon, probably from a disciple of Chrysostom, a further explanation is given of the ascended Jesus as firstfruits.

For today (Ascension-Day) our firstfruits ascended up to heaven, and taking up the flesh from us took possession of his Father’s throne, in order that he might work reconcil...

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