Where is Jesus now?

JesusIn theological review

The short answer

Jesus is in heaven, bodily risen and ascended, seated at the right hand of the Father. From there he intercedes for his people, rules over all things, sends his Spirit, and waits for the day he returns. Seated means his saving work is finished; it does not mean he is inactive.

The fuller answer

Forty days after the resurrection, Luke says, Jesus was taken up before his disciples and a cloud hid him from their sight. The ascension is not a disappearance or a symbol for Jesus dissolving into heaven. The same embodied Jesus who ate fish with them in Jerusalem rises, and the angels promise that he will return in the same visible way that he left them.

After He had said this, they watched as He was taken up, and a cloud hid Him from their sight. They were looking intently into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.”

Acts 1:9-11 (BSB)

Stephen, dying under the stones, sees what the ascension means from the other side: heaven opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. The right hand is the place of highest honour and authority in ancient royal language. Jesus is not waiting in heaven as an honoured guest. He reigns there as the installed king, and his standing to welcome Stephen shows a king who notices his servants.

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature, upholding all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

Hebrews 1:3 (BSB)

Hebrews uses the language of finished work. After making purification for sins, the Son sat down, as a priest sits only when the offering is complete and nothing remains to be added to it. Yet the same letter shows the seated Christ constantly active, living forever to intercede for those who come to God through him, sympathising with them and securing their welcome with the Father.

Therefore He is able to save completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them.

Hebrews 7:25 (BSB)

Paul tells the Colossians to set their minds on things above, where Christ is seated at God's right hand. So the practical answer is this: Jesus is bodily in heaven, reigning and praying for his people now, present with his church by his Spirit, and personally absent in body only until the return he promised. Christian hope has an address, and it is a throne, not a memory.

Sources

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

Review status: in-theological-review. Every Contend page passes a human theological review against the Statement of Faith before it is published as approved teaching. This section is in that queue.

Dig deeper

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Will Jesus come back?Yes. Jesus promised to come again, the angels at his ascension confirmed it, and the New Testament ends with his promise and the church's prayer for it. His return will be personal, visible and glorious, bringing resurrection, judgement and the renewal of all things, though its date is not given.Is Jesus God?Yes. The New Testament calls Jesus God in plain words, shows him doing what only God does, and records him receiving the worship that belongs to God alone. That is why the church at Nicaea confessed him as very God of very God, of one substance with the Father, and why Chalcedon confessed him as truly God and truly man in one person.Who is the Holy Spirit?The Holy Spirit is God himself, the third person of the Trinity, not a force, a feeling, or God's power in the abstract. He is there at creation, hovering over the waters. He speaks, teaches, and can be lied to, and when Peter confronts Ananias he says the lie told to the Holy Spirit was a lie told to God.Bible Character: JesusThe Son of God, born of Mary in Bethlehem, who preached the kingdom of God, was crucified for our sins according to the Scriptures, and was raised on the third day.Bible Character: StephenThe first martyr of the church: one of the Seven chosen to serve the widows, full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, who traced Israel's history to the council's face, saw heaven opened, and died praying for his killers.On the map: JerusalemFind it in the Lands of the Bible, with the verses that place it there.