Jesus’s ascension is an excellent time to rejoice in God’s salvation plan. Our path to eternal life aligns itself with Christ’s ascension. This supernatural reality proves God’s remarkable compassion for placing us in heaven.

Before Jesus ascended back into heaven, He spent forty days with His disciples and other believers (Acts 1:3). Christ used this time to teach His disciples the workings of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-8).   

When God ascended Jesus back into heaven, He placed Him at His right hand (Mark 16:19). It’s here at the Lord’s right hand that Christ becomes our intercessor (Romans 8:34). Jesus is the only one who descended and ascended back into heaven (John 3:13). Besides those revelations, His return to God assures us of His second coming (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

The Significance of Christ’s Ascension

Christ’s ascension significantly influences our departure from our current world into heaven. Indeed, our eternal residence isn’t available without His return to God. We know this because the Apostle John recorded Christ’s words concerning this truth.

Jesus said:

In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. (John 14:2-3, ESV)

Here, Christ heightens one of God’s purposes for His return. It shows us that King Jesus prepares our place in the Lord’s house and returns to take us with Him. Indeed, our ascension comes through Christ. Without accepting Christ as God’s Savior, I won’t ascend but will descend to everlasting condemnation (John 3:36).

People in the Church define our ascension as the rapture.

In Apostle Paul’s First Epistle to the Thessalonians, he outlines how the rapture unfolds.

Paul spoke:

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. (1Thessalonians 4:16-17, ESV)

If this doesn’t give me a reason to rejoice in Jesus’s ascension, then I must examine my faith (2 Corinthians 13:5). Those two scriptures show us that God placed us in Christ’s hand (John 17:20-26). This astonishing reality of how we reach heaven is something to rejoice over.

Final Thoughts

As noted above, Jesus’s ascension brings joy to our hearts. Remember, our time on earth in its current condition is temporary. God doesn’t break promises. No, He assures us we will take our seats in eternity through Christ!

How do you see Jesus’s ascension?