Dawson: "Our feeble humanity now wears the Word of God, not only as our bridal gown, but as our eternal marriage gift."

"That Jesus ascended to heaven evokes contemplation of the corollary: he descended from heaven. Who is he, then, that came down to be where we are?...Hyppolatus (against the modalists, d. 236 a.d.) asserts that the eternal relationship between the Father and his Son in the Spirit did not change but rather continued when the Son, the Word, became flesh. The oneness in their being endures unabated by the incarnation, when the Word was dispatched to the earth, yet without leaving Heaven. The Word's return to heaven still incarnate, however, created a scandal for Hyppolatus' Greek readers, from which he did not shy away. He baldly affirms that flesh is now in heaven. Before the incarnation, this could not have been true. But now, the Word made flesh, offering himself to his Father, has ascended to heaven. The Son came down to earth as a man while yet remaining in heaven The person of Jesus, then, is both the Son of Man with a ‘common and current’ name, and the Word of God who was from the beginning. The hinge for this understanding is Jesus’ declaration of his ascension, which demands both a descent from heaven and a continuing presence there.

“…The eternal Son of God came from the ‘ends of heaven’ to find his bride, humanity, and united himself to her. He descends as the Son of God and assumes the frailty of the flesh, espousing it to himself. Then, he ascends as the Son of Man, returning to this bride-chamber in heaven fully united to his beloved. Our feeble humanity now wears the Word of God, not only as our bridal gown, but as our eternal marriage gift. The ‘mutual connection’ between God and man, Word and flesh, in the one Jesus Christ is not only vividly illustrated through his unique descent and ascent, but also dynamically enacted with all its saving implications for us.

“…the ascension illuminates the person and nature of Christ. Christ went up to heaven in our flesh. But Jesus said the Son of Man would be ‘ascending thither where He was before’. There was no flesh in heaven before the incarnate Son ascended. Yet his coming to the Father was not a new trip; it was a return. Only God could have been with God. So, when we look upon Jesus, we are seeing ‘God descended thence’, the fully human, fully divine one.

…The essential narrative of the Son of God in relation to humanity depends on his descending to us and then ascending with us. The days of Jesus on earth, so ordinary in terms of their brief span, are extended into eternity when we understand that the man Jesus is, in one person, also the Son of God. No one witnessed the descent; it occurred in the secrecy of Mary’s womb. Yet the ascension was visible and attested by many…

“…The person of Jesus is our hope. Redeeming and transforming our nature, he has taken it to heaven where he bears it now faithfully before his Father, in our name and on our behalf. He has come and claimed – reclaimed – the glory intended for humanity but lost in the Fall. Jesus ascended is himself the promise and the hope that we will share in that glory, now in part but one day in full. All depends on our union with his person…

“…not only does Jesus continue now in our flesh, he continues in his divinity. The fully human Jesus is and ever shall be fully God. The Son of God from eternity, in the fullness of time, took our humanity up into himself as he became incarnate in Jesus. Now, he will keep our humanity in himself beyond all time.” – Gerrit Scott Dawson, Jesus Ascended, pp. 77-81, 90, 91