and this mortal must put on immortality." (1 Cor. xv. 50-53.) The future body will not be subject to the wants, the infirmities, or the passions which belong to the present state of existence. " In the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven." (Matt. xxii. 30.) The saints are to be like angels, not in being incorporeal, but as being immortal, and not needing reproduction for the continuance of their race.
The risen body of Christ, therefore, as it now exists in heaven, although retaining its identity with his body while here on earth, is glorious, incorruptible, immortal, and spiritual. It still occupies a definite portion of space, and retains all the essential propertie.R of a body.
The efficient Agent in the Resurrection of Christ.
In numerous passages of Scripture the resurrection of our Lord is referred to God as God or to the Father. The same person who in the second Psalm says, " Thou ?rt my Son," is addressed in the sixteenth Psalm by that Son, " Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell ; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." In Romans vi. 4, it is said, that Christ " was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father ; " so also in Acts ii. 24, " Whom God hath raised up." In Acts xiii. 30, it is said, " God raised him from the dead." So in Ephesians i. 19, 20, we are told that sin- ners are converted by the same mighty power " which wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead." In other passages, however, it is said to be the work of Christ himself. Our Lord speaking of his body said, " Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.'* (John ii. 19.) And again, John x. 17, 18, " I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself; I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." In Romans viii. 11» according to the reading adopted by Tischendorf, the resurrection of Christ is, constructively at least, referred to the Holy Spirit. This diverse reference of the same act to the several persons of the Trinity is in accordance with the common usage of the Scrip- tures. The three persons of the Godhead being the same in sub- stance, the act of the one ad extra^ is the act of the others. Any external divine act, i. e., any act terminating externally, is an act of the Godhead ; and therefore may, with equal propriety, be re- ferred to either of the divine persons. " What things soever he [the Father] doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise." (Jrhn
630 PART m. Ch. XIIL — the exaltation of CHRIST.
V. 19.) All, therefore, that the Scriptures teach on this subject is that Christ was raised by the divine power. The Lutherans hold that Christ rose by the power of his human nature, to which divine attributes had, in the act of incarnation, been communicated. All the miracles of Christ, as before stated, according to their view of his person, were the works of his human nature distinctively, and so of course the crowning miracle of his resurrection.
§ 2. Ascension of Christ.
The next step in the exaltation of Christ was his ascension to heaven. In Mark xvi. 19, it is recorded that after Jesus had spoken unto his disciples, " He was received up into heaven." In Luke xxiv. 50, 51, " He led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven." The most detailed account of our Lord's ascension is found in the first chapter of the Acts. There the last words of Christ to the Apostles are recorded, and it is added, " Wlien he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up ; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel ; which also said. Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? This same Jesus, which is taken up ft'om you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." (Acts i. 9-11.) From these ac- counts it appears, (1.) That the ascension of Christ was of his whole person. It was the Theanthropos, the Son of God clothed in our nature, having a true body and a reasonable soul, who as- cended. (2.) That the ascension was visible. The disciples wit- nessed the whole transaction. They saw the person of Christ gradually rise from the earth, and " go up " until a cloud hid Him from their view. (3.) It was a local transfer of his person from one place to another ; from earth to heaven. Heaven is therefore a place. In what part of the universe it is located is not revealed. But according to the doctrine of Scripture it is a definite portion of space where God specially manifests his presence, and where He is surrounded by his angels (who not being infinite, cannot be ubiquitous), and by the spirits of the just made perfect. It is true that the word " heaven," both in the Old and New Testaments, is used in various senses, (1) Sometimes for the region of the atmos- phere ; as when the Bible speaks of the clouds, or birds of heaven, or of the rain as descending from heaven. (2.) Sometimes for