From OPC Pastor and friend John Mahaffy
“The ascension of Christ implies his prior humiliation, suffering, and death (Paul can’t talk about Christ ascending without also speaking of his first descending into the depths). But that is over. Now you celebrate the triumph of your Lord.
The bodily ascension affirms that Jesus Christ accomplished a salvation for you that involves the real, tangible world in which you live. Your salvation may be a matter of the heart, but it touches far more than just the heart and mind.
The bodily ascension is particularly important for those of us who hold to the Reformed faith. That comes to the surface in how we view the Lord’s Supper. In contrast to the church of Rome, which teaches that the bread is transformed into the physical body of Christ, and even in contrast to the Lutheran view, which teaches an omnipresent physical body of Christ present in the Lord’s Supper, we affirm that the physical body of Christ has ascended into heaven where he sits at the Father’s right hand. That doesn’t mean that Christ is absent from you. But, rather than depending on his physical presence, he is with you through faith, by his Word and Spirit.”
G. Mark Sumpter
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