Chapter 26

The Ascension and the Permanent Incarnation

Christ Remains God and Man Forever

Introduction: A Risen King Who Never Stops Being One of Us

We have spent several chapters now examining the devastating problems that physicalism creates for key moments in the life of Christ — His death, His descent to the dead, His resurrection, and His virgin birth. In each case, we have seen the same basic pattern: physicalism, by denying Christ an immaterial human soul, strips away something essential to the coherence of orthodox Christology. But there is one more critical moment we need to examine — and in some ways, it is the most remarkable of them all. It is the ascension.

When Jesus ascended into heaven forty days after His resurrection, something astonishing happened. The eternal Son of God — who had taken on a complete human nature, body and soul, at the Incarnation — carried that human nature with Him into the very presence of the Father. He did not shed His humanity like a garment once it had served its purpose. He did not leave His body behind. He did not dissolve the hypostatic union and return to a disembodied divine existence. No. He ascended bodily. He ascended as the God-man. And He remains the God-man right now, at this very moment, seated at the right hand of the Father.

This is what theologians call the permanent incarnation — the doctrine that the Son of God assumed human nature not temporarily but forever. The Incarnation is not a temporary mission. It is an eternal reality. Jesus Christ is, was, and always will be fully God and fully human, two natures united in one Person without confusion, change, division, or separation. He is "the same yesterday and today and forever" (Heb. 13:8, ESV).

I find this truth breathtaking. The Creator of the universe — the One through whom all things were made and in whom all things hold together — is permanently united to a human nature. He has a glorified human body. He has a human soul. He experiences, even now, the perfected fullness of human life in the presence of the Father. And this will never end. When we see Him face to face, we will see a man — a glorified, radiant, divine man — but a man nonetheless.

But here is the problem. If physicalism is true — if human nature is nothing more than a physical organism, a body without an immaterial soul — then the permanent incarnation creates a series of deep and troubling questions that physicalists have not adequately answered. Where is Christ's physical body right now? What does it mean for a purely physical organism to be "seated at the right hand of the Father"? How does a physical body exist in the heavenly realm? What provides the continuity of Christ's human nature through the radical transformation from His earthly body to His glorified body? And how can the Incarnation be truly permanent if the human nature is nothing more than a physical organism subject to the laws of nature?

In this chapter, I want to walk us through these questions carefully. We will begin with the biblical evidence for the ascension. Then we will examine the doctrine of the permanent incarnation in detail — what it means and why it matters. After that, we will lay out the four major problems that physicalism faces when it tries to account for the ascended, permanently incarnate Christ. And we will see that substance dualism — the view that Christ's human nature includes both a body and an immaterial soul — provides a coherent and beautiful answer to every one of these problems.

The Biblical Evidence for the Ascension

The ascension of Jesus Christ is not a minor detail in the New Testament story. It is one of the great climactic events of redemptive history — the moment when the risen Christ was taken up from His disciples into the presence of the Father, completing His earthly mission and inaugurating His heavenly reign. Let us look carefully at what Scripture tells us.

Acts 1:9-11 — The Bodily Ascension

The most detailed account of the ascension appears in the opening chapter of Acts. Luke, who had already briefly described the ascension at the end of his Gospel (Luke 24:50-53), now gives us a fuller picture:

"And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.'" (Acts 1:9-11, ESV)

Several things are immediately important here. First, this is a visible, physical event. The disciples were "looking on" — they watched it happen with their own eyes. Jesus was "lifted up" — His glorified body moved upward from the earth. A cloud "took him out of their sight" — He passed from their visual range into the heavenly realm. This is not a metaphor. This is not a spiritual vision. This is a real, physical, bodily ascension witnessed by a group of people.

Second, the angels promise that Jesus "will come in the same way as you saw him go." The ascension and the Second Coming are parallel events. Just as Jesus ascended bodily and visibly, He will return bodily and visibly. The implication is clear: between the ascension and the Second Coming, Jesus remains in possession of His glorified body. He did not shed it upon arrival in heaven. He retains it still.¹

Third, the angels call Him "this Jesus." Not "the Logos" or "the divine nature" — but this Jesus. The same Person who walked with them, ate with them, taught them, was crucified, and rose again. The Jesus who ascended is the same Jesus who lived and died and rose. He is identified as a particular, continuous person — not a disembodied divine being who temporarily inhabited a body, but this man, this Jesus, body and soul.²

Luke 24:50-53 — The Parting Blessing

Luke's Gospel account of the ascension is briefer but equally significant:

"And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God." (Luke 24:50-53, ESV)

Notice the physical, bodily actions. He led them. He lifted up his hands. He blessed them. These are the actions of a person with a body — not a disembodied spirit, not a mere spiritual presence, but a flesh-and-blood (or in this case, glorified-flesh) person. And then He "was carried up into heaven." The body that lifted its hands in blessing is the body that was carried up. The ascension is bodily through and through.³

Mark 16:19 — Seated at the Right Hand

The ending of Mark's Gospel gives us an additional detail:

"So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God." (Mark 16:19, ESV)

The language of "sitting down at the right hand of God" is crucial. It connects the ascension to the heavenly session — Christ's ongoing reign at the Father's right hand. This phrase, drawn from Psalm 110:1, becomes one of the most repeated Christological claims in the entire New Testament. We will return to its significance shortly.⁴

Ephesians 1:20-22 — The Heavenly Session

Paul gives us the theological interpretation of the ascension in his letter to the Ephesians:

"...that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church." (Eph. 1:20-22, ESV)

Here the ascended Christ is located "in the heavenly places" — a realm that is "far above" all earthly and angelic authority. This is not a physical location in our universe (like a distant planet or galaxy). It is a distinct realm — the heavenly realm, the realm of God's immediate presence. And yet Christ is there bodily. His glorified body — the body that was raised from the tomb, that ate fish with the disciples, that showed its wounds to Thomas — is now in this heavenly place.⁵

Hebrews 1:3 — The Purification and the Enthronement

The author of Hebrews connects the ascension to Christ's completed work of atonement:

"He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." (Heb. 1:3, ESV)

The "sitting down" language signals completion. The Old Testament priests never sat down in the tabernacle or temple — they stood because their work was never finished, sacrifice after sacrifice, day after day. But Christ "sat down" because His sacrificial work is complete, once for all. And He sat down as a man — the same man who made purification for sins is the man who is now enthroned. His humanity did not evaporate at the cross. It did not dissolve at the ascension. It is the human Christ, the incarnate Son, who reigns.⁶

The Doctrine of the Permanent Incarnation

One of the most stunning truths in all of Christian theology — a truth that many believers have never really stopped to think about — is that the Incarnation is permanent. The Son of God did not temporarily become human. He became human forever. When the eternal Word "became flesh" (John 1:14), He did not take on a human nature for thirty-three years and then set it aside. He assumed it for eternity. Let us trace this doctrine through Scripture and then consider its theological implications.

1 Timothy 2:5 — "The Man Christ Jesus"

Perhaps the most striking text for the permanent incarnation is Paul's statement to Timothy:

"For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." (1 Tim. 2:5, ESV)

Notice the tense. Paul does not say, "the one who was a man." He says, "the man Christ Jesus." Present tense. At the time Paul wrote this letter — decades after the ascension — Christ is a man. He is still human. He is still the God-man. His role as mediator between God and humanity requires His ongoing humanity. A mediator between God and men must be both God and man. If Christ ceased to be human at some point — if He shed His human nature at the ascension or at any time — He would no longer be qualified to serve as mediator.⁷

This is not a minor grammatical point. It carries enormous theological weight. The mediation of Christ depends on the permanence of His dual nature. As Andrew Loke observes, the ongoing humanity of Christ is not incidental to His mediatorial role — it is essential to it. Christ must remain truly human in order to represent humanity before the Father, and He must remain truly divine in order to represent the Father to humanity. The permanent incarnation is the permanent mediation.⁸

Hebrews 7:24-25 — A Permanent Priesthood

The author of Hebrews makes the permanence of the incarnation explicit in his discussion of Christ's priesthood:

"...but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them." (Heb. 7:24-25, ESV)

The word "permanently" translates the Greek aparabaton (ἀπαράβατον), which means "unchangeable" or "untransferable." Christ's priesthood does not pass to a successor. It cannot be transferred. It is His forever. And a priest, by definition, must be taken from among human beings (Heb. 5:1). Christ is our High Priest because He is human — genuinely, truly, permanently human. If He ceased to be human, He would cease to be our priest. But He "continues forever" — His humanity, like His deity, is permanent.⁹

The author of Hebrews ties Christ's ongoing intercession to His ongoing humanity. "He always lives to make intercession for them." The living intercessor is the human Christ — the man who suffered, who was tempted, who wept, who died, who rose — and who now stands (or sits) before the Father on our behalf. As the chapter on the permanent incarnation in Christian Physicalism? notes, the eternal priesthood of Christ requires His eternal humanity, and thus an eternal incarnation.¹⁰

Romans 8:34 — Christ at the Right Hand, Interceding

Paul echoes this theme:

"Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died — more than that, who was raised — who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us." (Rom. 8:34, ESV)

The one who died, the one who was raised, the one at God's right hand, and the one interceding — these are all the same person. There is perfect continuity between the earthly Jesus and the ascended Christ. And the intercession is happening now, in the present tense. Christ is presently interceding, presently at God's right hand, presently exercising His ongoing human role as our advocate before the Father.

Revelation 1:13-18 — The Glorified Human Christ

In the vision of the ascended Christ that opens Revelation, John sees:

"...one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters." (Rev. 1:13-16, ESV)

The ascended, glorified Christ is described as "one like a son of man." He retains His human form. His body is glorified — radiant, powerful, awe-inspiring — but it is still recognizably human. He has a head, hair, eyes, feet. He wears clothing. He speaks. He is not a disembodied spirit, not a cloud of divine energy, not an abstract presence. He is a glorified man — the God-man — still bearing His human nature in its perfected, glorified state.¹¹

Philippians 3:20-21 — Our Glorification Modeled on His

Paul connects Christ's glorified humanity to our own future glorification:

"But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself." (Phil. 3:20-21, ESV)

Christ has a "glorious body" right now — and He will transform our bodies to be like His. His glorified humanity is the template for redeemed humanity. As Michael Wilkinson argues in Crowned with Glory and Honor, Christ is the man par excellence — the paradigm of what human nature is and what it is destined to become. If Christ's glorified human nature includes both a body and a soul, then our glorified human nature will include both a body and a soul. Christ's person-nature constitution is the model for our own.¹²

The Theological Tradition on the Permanent Incarnation

The permanent incarnation is not a modern invention. It has been the consistent teaching of the church from the earliest centuries. The Chalcedonian Definition (AD 451) declares that the two natures of Christ are united "without separation" (adiairetōs, ἀδιαιρέτως) — a formulation that implies permanence. If the two natures cannot be separated, then they remain united forever. The Definition does not say "without separation during the earthly life" or "without separation until the ascension." It says "without separation" — period.¹³

Oliver Crisp makes this point powerfully in his treatment of kenotic Christology in Divinity and Humanity. Crisp observes that one of the most serious problems with ontological kenoticism is that the Incarnation is permanent. If the Son relinquished certain divine attributes at the Incarnation, and if the Incarnation is forever, then the Son relinquished those attributes forever. The relinquishing is not temporary but permanent. As Crisp notes, on a credally orthodox Christology, there is nothing temporary about the assumption of human flesh by the Word — the Word assumes human nature forever. This poses a devastating problem for ontological kenoticism, but it also illustrates the high stakes of the permanent incarnation doctrine. The Son is permanently united to a complete human nature, and that complete human nature must include everything that the councils defined as belonging to it — including a rational soul.¹⁴

Wayne Grudem summarizes the orthodox consensus well: Jesus did not temporarily become man. He lives forever not just as the eternal Son of God but also as Jesus, the man born of Mary, the Messiah and Savior of His people. He will remain fully God and fully man, yet one person, forever. Wilkinson echoes this point, arguing that a temporary or intermittent incarnation would create disastrous doctrinal problems at the intersection of Christology, anthropology, and soteriology.¹⁵

Loke's analysis in A Kryptic Model of the Incarnation also underscores the permanence of the Incarnation. Loke notes that there are theological reasons for believing that Jesus, who is high priest forever (Heb. 7:17), will possess His human nature forever from the point of Incarnation. He then argues that the kryptic model handles this permanence better than kenotic models, because the krypsis (concealment) of divine attributes can be understood as applying primarily during the pre-glorification period — after the resurrection and glorification, the human nature of Christ may have greater access to divine attributes without the krypsis ceasing entirely. The key point is that the human nature persists permanently, body and soul, even as its access to divine attributes may change after glorification.¹⁶

As J. I. Packer explains, the Son was incarnate in order to become the "one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:5). This mediatorial messiahship involves three roles — prophet, priest, and king — and these human roles would not end because the personal relationships between each believer and Jesus Christ would not end. The visions of eternity in Revelation clearly assume that Jesus will always be to His people all that He is now. Christ's glorified humanity, which is the template for our own glorification (Rom. 8:17, 29; 1 Cor. 15:42-54; Phil. 3:21), must go on forever too.¹⁷

The Physicalist Problems with the Ascension and Permanent Incarnation

Now we come to the heart of this chapter. If physicalism is true — if Christ's human nature is nothing more than a physical body with no immaterial soul — then the ascension and the permanent incarnation create a series of formidable problems. I want to present four of them carefully, showing how each one reveals a deep tension within the physicalist framework.

Problem 1: The Location Problem

The most obvious problem is the question of location. If Christ's human nature is entirely physical — if it is His body and nothing more — then where is that body right now?

Scripture says Christ is "at the right hand of the Father" (Mark 16:19; Rom. 8:34; Eph. 1:20; Col. 3:1; Heb. 1:3; 1 Pet. 3:22). This is, of course, metaphorical language — God the Father does not have a literal right hand, since God is spirit (John 4:24). The phrase "right hand of God" signifies the place of supreme authority, honor, and divine presence. But the metaphorical nature of the phrase does not eliminate the underlying reality. Christ is somewhere. He is in the "heavenly places" (Eph. 1:20). He is in the realm of God's immediate, unveiled presence.

But what is this realm? Is it a physical location — a place within our universe? If so, then on physicalism, Christ's physical body is located somewhere in the physical cosmos. Perhaps it is on a distant planet, or in another dimension, or in some corner of the universe we have not yet explored. But this seems deeply problematic. The "right hand of the Father" is not traditionally understood as a physical location within the created universe. It is a spiritual reality — the realm of God's own presence. And God is not a physical being who occupies a physical location. God is spirit. The Father does not have a spatial location in the way a physical object does.¹⁸

So on physicalism, we face a dilemma. Either (a) the heavenly realm is a physical place, and Christ's physical body is located there — which raises the question of where this place is and why it has never been detected — or (b) the heavenly realm is not a physical place, and a purely physical body is somehow existing in a non-physical realm — which seems deeply incoherent on physicalist assumptions. How can a purely physical organism — a body composed of atoms, molecules, cells, and organs — exist in a realm that is not physical? On physicalism, a human being is a physical organism. If the physical organism is in a non-physical realm, then either the realm is not truly non-physical (it is just a different kind of physical space) or the organism is not truly physical (it has been transformed into something beyond the physical). Either way, the physicalist picture is under severe strain.

On dualism, by contrast, this problem has a natural solution. Christ's human nature consists of both a body and an immaterial soul. The soul, being immaterial, is naturally suited to exist in the spiritual realm — it is not bound by the constraints of physical space in the same way that a material body is. And Christ's glorified body has been transformed — it is no longer subject to the limitations of ordinary physical matter. As we saw in our discussion of the resurrection appearances (Chapter 24), the glorified body can pass through walls, appear and disappear, and operate in ways that transcend ordinary physical laws. The glorified body, while real and tangible (Jesus ate fish, Luke 24:42-43; He invited Thomas to touch Him, John 20:27), is not merely physical in the same sense as our current bodies. It has been elevated and transformed.¹⁹

The soul provides the natural "bridge" between the physical and the spiritual. Christ's human soul — being immaterial — can exist in the immediate presence of God without the spatial constraints that would apply to a purely physical organism. And the glorified body, united to the soul and transformed by resurrection power, accompanies the soul into the heavenly realm. The body has not ceased to exist, but it has been elevated beyond the limitations of ordinary physical existence. On dualism, this picture makes metaphysical sense. On physicalism, it is deeply puzzling.

Thomas Torrance argued that the ascension involves a transformation of spatial categories rather than a mere relocation within ordinary space. Christ did not simply travel from one point in the universe to another. He entered a new order of reality — the realm of God's immediate presence. But if that is so, then a purely physical organism would need to transcend its own physical nature to exist in this non-physical realm. The soul, on the dualist account, provides exactly the kind of non-physical dimension that makes such a transition intelligible.²⁰

Problem 2: The Continuity Problem

The second problem concerns the continuity of Christ's human nature through the dramatic transformation from His earthly body to His glorified body.

Think about it this way. Jesus' earthly body was a normal human body. It could be injured. It bled. It grew tired. It hungered. It eventually died. But His glorified body — the body He had after the resurrection and at the ascension — is radically different. It can pass through locked doors (John 20:19, 26). It can appear and disappear at will (Luke 24:31, 36). It is described in Revelation in terms of blazing brilliance (Rev. 1:14-16). It is "imperishable," "glorious," "powerful," and "spiritual" (1 Cor. 15:42-44). The glorified body shares continuity with the earthly body (it still bears the wounds of the cross, John 20:27), but it also has dramatically different properties.

Now, on physicalism, the human nature is the body. There is no soul, no immaterial substance, no non-physical component. The person just is the physical organism. If the body has been fundamentally transformed — if it now has radically different properties from the earthly body — then the question arises: is this the same human nature? On what basis do we say it is the same?

This is not a trivial question. Personal identity — the question of what makes you you over time — is one of the most difficult problems in philosophy. If I replace every board in a wooden ship, is it the same ship? If I radically transform a body — giving it new powers, new properties, new capacities — is it the same body? On physicalism, where the person is the body, these questions cut to the very core of identity. If the body has been so profoundly changed, the continuity of the person is in question.²¹

As we argued at length in Chapter 24, the resurrection itself creates a personal identity problem for physicalism. If Jesus' body died, decomposed (or was at least radically altered), and then a glorified body emerged from the tomb, the physicalist has no clear way to guarantee that the risen Jesus is the same person as the crucified Jesus. Without a soul to bridge the gap — an immaterial substance that survived death and was reunited with the glorified body — the identity of the risen Christ is uncertain.

The ascension intensifies this problem. The glorified body has been taken into a heavenly realm and has presumably continued to exist there for nearly two thousand years. During this time, it has existed in conditions utterly unlike anything a normal physical body experiences. On physicalism, where the body is everything, this extended heavenly existence of a physical body raises further questions about the continuity and nature of that body. Is it still subject to physical laws? Has it been further transformed? If so, is it still the "same" body — and therefore, on physicalism, the "same" person?

On dualism, the answer is straightforward. Personal identity is grounded not in the physical body but in the immaterial soul. The soul is the continuous bearer of personal identity through all changes — through growth, aging, death, resurrection, and glorification. The same soul that was united to the earthly body is now united to the glorified body. The person is the same because the soul is the same. The body has been transformed, yes — but the soul provides the thread of continuity that holds the identity together. The earthly Jesus and the glorified, ascended Jesus are the same person because they have the same soul.²²

This is not to say that the body is irrelevant to identity. On the contrary, the body is deeply important — which is precisely why Christianity insists on bodily resurrection rather than mere spiritual survival. But the body is not the sole ground of identity. The soul provides the metaphysical anchor that the body, by itself, cannot supply — especially through the radical transformations of death, resurrection, and glorification.

Joshua Farris makes a related point in An Introduction to Theological Anthropology, arguing that the substance dualist has a clear advantage over the physicalist when it comes to personal identity through the eschatological transformations of death and resurrection. On dualism, the soul provides a stable metaphysical substrate that persists through all bodily changes. On physicalism, personal identity is tied to the physical organism, and when the organism is radically changed (or destroyed and reconstituted), identity becomes precarious.²³

Problem 3: The Permanence Problem

The third problem is about the very nature of permanence. The Incarnation is forever. On physicalism, this means the Son of God is permanently united to a physical organism. But physical organisms, by their very nature, are subject to change, decay, entropy, and the laws of physics. How can a physical organism persist forever?

Now, the standard Christian answer is that the glorified body has been transformed so that it is imperishable — it will not decay, it will not age, it will not break down. Paul says the resurrection body is raised "imperishable" (1 Cor. 15:42). This is entirely correct. But it raises an important question: what kind of body is this?

A body that is imperishable — that never decays, never ages, never wears out — is not a normal physical body. Every physical body we know of is subject to the second law of thermodynamics. It is subject to entropy. It ages, it breaks down, it eventually ceases to function. A body that is exempt from these universal physical laws is not "physical" in the ordinary sense of the word. It is something more.

Paul seems to acknowledge this when he contrasts the "natural body" (sōma psychikon, σῶμα ψυχικόν) with the "spiritual body" (sōma pneumatikon, σῶμα πνευματικόν) in 1 Corinthians 15:44. The word pneumatikon does not mean "made of spirit" (as if the resurrection body were immaterial) — it means "animated by" or "characterized by" the Spirit. The glorified body is a body that is fully empowered and directed by the Holy Spirit. It is a body that has been raised beyond the limitations of ordinary physical existence. It is real, tangible, physical in some sense — but it is also something that transcends the merely physical. As we discussed in Chapter 24, the "spiritual body" of 1 Corinthians 15 is a body that has been so thoroughly penetrated and transformed by the Spirit of God that it operates in dimensions beyond ordinary physics.²⁴

For the physicalist, this creates a tension. If the human nature is nothing more than a physical organism, and the glorified body transcends ordinary physical limitations, then what is the human nature now? Is it still "physical" in the way the physicalist means? If the glorified body can pass through walls, appear and disappear, and exist in a non-physical realm, then calling it "purely physical" seems to stretch the word beyond its useful meaning.

On dualism, the glorified body makes perfect sense. The body has been transformed by the power of the Spirit, but it remains a body — a real, tangible, physical (though glorified) thing. The soul, however, provides the deeper continuity and the natural connection to the spiritual realm. The glorified body is not "purely physical" in the reductive sense — it is a body united to and animated by an immaterial soul, now fully permeated by the Spirit of God. The permanence of the Incarnation is grounded not merely in the permanence of the body but in the permanent union of body, soul, and divine nature in the one Person of the Son.²⁵

Crisp's discussion of the glorification problem in Divinity and Humanity is relevant here. He notes that even on the krypsis model (which we endorse), the glorified Christ may have greater access to divine attributes than the pre-resurrection Christ. But the human nature — body and soul — persists through this transformation. The glorified body may have capacities it did not previously have, but it is still a body. The soul may have expanded access to divine knowledge, but it is still a human soul. The permanence of the Incarnation is secured by the permanence of both components of the human nature — body and soul — in union with the divine Person.²⁶

Problem 4: The Heavenly Session Problem

The fourth problem is the one I find most theologically rich and most challenging for physicalism. It concerns the heavenly session — the doctrine that Christ is currently "seated at the right hand of the Father," exercising His royal and priestly authority over all creation.

The "right hand of the Father" appears throughout the New Testament. Jesus Himself predicted it at His trial: "From now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven" (Matt. 26:64). Peter proclaimed it at Pentecost: "Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing" (Acts 2:33). Paul affirms it: "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God" (Col. 3:1). The Apostles' Creed confesses it: "He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty."²⁷

What is the ascended Christ doing at the right hand of the Father? He is reigning (1 Cor. 15:25 — "he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet"). He is interceding (Heb. 7:25 — "he always lives to make intercession"). He is exercising His priestly ministry (Heb. 8:1-2 — "we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places"). He is preparing a place for His people (John 14:2-3). He is directing His church by His Spirit (Acts 1:8; John 16:13-14).

All of these activities require personhood — consciousness, will, intentionality, relational engagement. The ascended Christ is not dormant. He is not passively waiting. He is actively reigning, actively interceding, actively ministering. And He is doing all of this as a human being — as the God-man, with a human mind and a human will operating in harmony with His divine nature.

On physicalism, where is the human consciousness that does all of this? If Christ's human nature is nothing more than a physical body, then His human consciousness is nothing more than brain activity — patterns of neural firing in a physical brain. But is there a physical brain "at the right hand of the Father"? Is there a physical organ producing neural activity in the heavenly realm? The very idea seems strange — and deeply inadequate to the magnificent reality that Scripture describes.²⁸

On dualism, Christ's human consciousness is a function of His human soul — not merely of His brain. The soul, being immaterial, can function in the heavenly realm without the constraints of physical neuroscience. The ascended Christ thinks, wills, intercedes, and reigns through His human soul — which is united to His glorified body and to His divine nature. The soul provides the cognitive and volitional life that makes the heavenly session meaningful. Without a soul, the heavenly session reduces to a physical brain somehow operating in a spiritual realm — which is both metaphysically awkward and theologically impoverished.

Furthermore, on the kryptic model that I endorse (following Andrew Loke), the glorified Christ's human soul may now have greater access to divine attributes than it did during His earthly life. During the pre-resurrection period, the krypsis — the concealment of divine attributes at the preconscious level — was more extensive. After glorification, the human soul of Christ may have access to divine knowledge and power in ways that were restrained during the earthly ministry. This is consistent with Jesus' prayer in John 17:5: "And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed." The glorification involves a restoration — not a loss of humanity, but an elevation of the human nature to its fullest capacity, including expanded access to divine attributes through the soul's preconscious connection to the divine nature.²⁹

As Loke notes, this understanding resolves a problem that kenotic models cannot resolve. If the Incarnation is permanent, and if kenoticism says the Son surrendered divine attributes at the Incarnation, then the Son surrendered them forever. But the glorified Christ is clearly described as exercising divine authority, divine knowledge, and divine power. The kryptic model explains this beautifully: the concealment that applied during the earthly ministry was appropriate for the pre-glorification state. After glorification, the concealment is lifted (at least in part), and the human nature has fuller access to divine attributes. The soul is the locus of this access — the point at which divine knowledge and power are mediated to the human consciousness of the glorified Christ.³⁰

The Ascension, the Permanent Incarnation, and the Kryptic Model

I want to spend some time now showing how the kryptic model — which we presented in detail in Chapter 17 — handles the ascension and the permanent incarnation with particular elegance.

Recall the basic structure of the kryptic model: during the earthly Incarnation, the Son retained all His divine attributes (omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence) but concealed them at the preconscious level of His experience. Christ had a single, genuinely human stream of consciousness — He truly grew in wisdom (Luke 2:52), truly did not know the day or hour (Mark 13:32), truly experienced human emotions and limitations. But His divine attributes were not surrendered. They were present "behind the scenes," available when the Father willed their use (miracles, prophecy, knowledge of people's hearts).³¹

Now, the kryptic model has an important advantage when it comes to the permanent incarnation. The concealment (krypsis) is not a permanent feature of the Incarnation — it is a feature of the pre-glorification period. After the resurrection and glorification, the degree of krypsis may be significantly reduced. The human nature of Christ, now glorified, may have far greater access to divine attributes than it did before. The concealment that was appropriate during the earthly ministry — when Christ needed to live a genuinely limited human life, experiencing growth, temptation, suffering, and death — is no longer necessary in the same way after glorification.

This is why the glorified Christ can exercise divine authority and power in ways that the earthly Jesus did not constantly display. The ascended Christ is described as upholding the universe (Heb. 1:3), having all authority in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18), being the one through whom God will judge the world (Acts 17:31). These descriptions indicate that the glorified Christ's human nature has far greater access to divine attributes than the pre-resurrection Christ's human nature did.

Crisp makes a similar observation in his analysis of krypsis. He notes that on the krypsis view, the only change to the exercise of the divine attributes of the Word during the Incarnation is in the human nature of Christ. It is only the human nature, in hypostatic union with the Word, which does not have access to certain divine attributes. The restriction applies to the human nature's access to divine attributes — not to the divine nature itself. And this restriction may be relaxed after glorification. Crisp adds that once resurrected, Christ may have certain properties, like omniscience, that He did not have prior to that time — meaning the human nature may now access what was previously concealed.³²

But here is the crucial point: on the kryptic model, the soul is the locus of this entire process. It is the human soul that experiences the single stream of consciousness. It is the human soul that has divine attributes concealed at its preconscious level. It is the human soul that, after glorification, gains expanded access to those divine attributes. Without the soul, the kryptic model collapses. There is no "preconscious level" in a purely physical brain that can serve as the repository for omniscience. The preconscious concealment of divine attributes requires an immaterial dimension — a soul — that can interface with both the human conscious experience and the divine nature.

The permanent incarnation, then, is the permanent union of the divine Person with a complete human nature — body and soul. The body is glorified but real. The soul is elevated but still human. And the divine attributes, previously concealed, are now more fully accessible through the soul's deepened connection to the divine nature. This is a coherent, beautiful picture that makes sense of everything Scripture tells us about the ascended Christ. Physicalism, by removing the soul from the picture, has no way to replicate this elegance.

Addressing Physicalist Responses

At this point, I want to address several responses that physicalists might offer to the problems we have raised. I want to be fair to these responses — to present them as strongly as possible — before explaining why I believe they ultimately fail.

Response 1: "We Don't Know Enough About the Heavenly Realm"

Some physicalists might respond to the location problem by saying that we simply do not know enough about the nature of the heavenly realm to draw firm conclusions. Perhaps the heavenly realm is a physical place — a part of God's creation that we have not yet discovered or that exists in dimensions beyond our current detection. On this view, Christ's physical body could perfectly well exist in this physical-but-unknown realm.

I understand this impulse, and I appreciate the humility behind it. We certainly do not know everything about the nature of heaven. But this response has several problems.

First, it effectively concedes the argument. If the physicalist must appeal to unknown dimensions, undiscovered realms, or speculative physics to explain how a physical body can exist in the divine presence, then the physicalist picture is no longer simply "a human being is a physical organism." It has become "a human being is a physical organism that might exist in unknown physical dimensions that transcend everything we currently know about physics." At that point, the word "physical" has been stretched so far that it is no longer doing meaningful work. If the glorified body operates in dimensions that transcend known physics, then calling it "purely physical" is misleading.³³

Second, the traditional Christian understanding of heaven is not primarily as a physical place but as the realm of God's immediate presence. Scripture speaks of heaven in terms that emphasize God's presence, glory, and holiness — not in terms of physical geography. God is spirit (John 4:24), and His "dwelling place" is not a location within the created physical universe but a spiritual reality that transcends the physical order. The physicalist's appeal to an unknown physical realm does not match the biblical and theological understanding of heaven.

Third, even if the heavenly realm turns out to have some physical dimension, the question remains: how does a purely physical organism exist in the immediate, unveiled presence of God? The God of classical theism is not a physical being. He is spirit, immaterial, transcendent. The connection between a purely physical human nature and an immaterial God requires a metaphysical "bridge" — and on dualism, the soul provides that bridge. On physicalism, there is no bridge. The connection between the physical and the divine is left unexplained.

Response 2: "God Can Do Anything"

A second physicalist response might appeal to divine omnipotence. "God can do anything He wants," the physicalist might say. "If God wants to sustain a physical body in a non-physical realm, He can do that. If God wants to maintain the identity of a radically transformed body, He can do that too. These are not real problems — they are just mysteries that we accept by faith."

Again, I appreciate the reverence for divine power that motivates this response. And I agree that God can do anything that is logically possible. But this response proves too much. If "God can do anything" is a sufficient answer to every Christological problem, then we never need to do Christology at all. We never need to think carefully about how the two natures relate, how the Incarnation works, or what the hypostatic union involves. We can just say "God can do it" and move on.

But the church has never been satisfied with this approach — and rightly so. The entire history of Christological reflection, from Nicaea to Chalcedon to Constantinople III, represents the church's effort to understand the Incarnation, to explain it coherently, to distinguish orthodox formulations from heretical ones. The councils did not simply say "it's a mystery — God can do anything." They said specific things about how the two natures relate, what the hypostatic union involves, and what must and must not be affirmed. If "God can do anything" were a sufficient theological method, we would not need the Definition of Chalcedon.³⁴

Moreover, the appeal to divine omnipotence does not actually solve the underlying metaphysical problem. Even if God can sustain a physical body in a spiritual realm, the question is whether this picture is coherent — whether it makes metaphysical sense. And if there is a more coherent picture available (as dualism provides), then we have good reason to prefer it. The history of theology shows that coherence matters. The councils rejected Apollinarianism not because it was logically impossible but because it was theologically incoherent — it produced a picture of Christ that did not match what Scripture and sound reason required.

Response 3: "The Glorified Body Is Different"

A third physicalist response might argue that the glorified body is so radically different from an ordinary physical body that the problems we have raised do not apply. The glorified body can do things that ordinary bodies cannot — pass through walls, appear and disappear, exist in a spiritual realm. So, the physicalist might say, the glorified body is a special case that does not raise the problems we have described.

But this response actually strengthens our argument rather than weakening it. If the glorified body is radically different from an ordinary physical body — if it can do things that no ordinary physical body can do — then in what sense is it "purely physical"? The whole point of physicalism is that a human being is entirely constituted by physical matter operating according to physical laws. If the glorified body transcends physical laws, then it is not "purely physical" in the sense that physicalism requires.

The physicalist faces a choice. Either the glorified body is continuous with ordinary physical bodies (in which case the location, continuity, and permanence problems apply with full force) or the glorified body transcends ordinary physical reality (in which case the physicalist is conceding that human nature can include something beyond the merely physical — which is precisely what the dualist has been saying all along).³⁵

Response 4: "The Soul Does Not Help"

A fourth physicalist response might argue that positing a soul does not actually solve the problems we have raised. "You say the soul provides a bridge to the spiritual realm," the physicalist might argue, "but how does an immaterial soul connect to an immaterial God? How does an immaterial soul exist in the 'heavenly realm'? You are just pushing the mystery back one step."

This is a reasonable challenge, and it deserves a careful response. I would make two points.

First, the dualist picture may not eliminate all mystery, but it significantly reduces the mystery. The question "How does an immaterial soul exist in a spiritual realm?" is far less puzzling than the question "How does a purely physical organism exist in a spiritual realm?" The soul, being immaterial, shares something in common with the spiritual realm — both are non-physical. There is a natural metaphysical affinity between the immaterial soul and the immaterial God. This does not explain everything about how the soul exists in God's presence, but it provides a much more natural starting point than the physicalist picture, where the human being is entirely material and God is entirely immaterial, with no shared metaphysical ground at all.³⁶

Second, the Christian tradition has always understood the soul as the natural "point of contact" between the human and the divine. Gregory of Nazianzus, the Cappadocian theologian who gave us the axiom "what is not assumed is not healed," understood the soul as the part of human nature that most directly connects us to God. The chapter on the Incarnation and embodiment in Christian Physicalism? discusses a perichoretic binding relation between soul and body that has deep precedent in the Christian tradition. On physicalism, this perichoretic connection must be between an immaterial divine Person and a purely physical organism, which is metaphysically far more difficult to account for.³⁷

The Ascension and the Chalcedonian Definition

Before we draw this chapter to a close, I want to connect the ascension and permanent incarnation to the Chalcedonian Definition — the foundational statement of orthodox Christology that has guided the church for over fifteen hundred years.

The Definition of Chalcedon (AD 451) confesses that Christ is "acknowledged in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation" (asygchytōs, atreptōs, adiairetōs, achōristōs — ἀσυγχύτως, ἀτρέπτως, ἀδιαιρέτως, ἀχωρίστως). The four adverbs function as guardrails. "Without confusion" — the two natures are not mixed together into a third thing. "Without change" — neither nature is transformed into the other. "Without division" — the two natures are not separated into two persons. "Without separation" — the two natures cannot be pulled apart.³⁸

The last two adverbs — "without division" and "without separation" — are directly relevant to the permanent incarnation. If the two natures cannot be divided or separated, then the hypostatic union is permanent. The Son did not shed His human nature at the cross, at the resurrection, or at the ascension. He retains it forever. The Chalcedonian Definition implicitly teaches the permanent incarnation by insisting that the union of the two natures is indissoluble.

But here is the crucial point for our argument. The Definition also specifies what the human nature consists of. Drawing on the anti-Apollinarian tradition going back to Gregory of Nazianzus and the Council of Constantinople II (553), the Definition confesses that Christ is "truly man, of a rational soul and a body" (ek psychēs logikēs kai sōmatos, ἐκ ψυχῆς λογικῆς καὶ σώματος). The human nature that is permanently united to the divine nature consists of two things: a rational soul and a body. Not just a body. Not just a physical organism. A soul and a body.³⁹

If the Incarnation is permanent, then the Son is permanently united to a human nature that includes a rational soul. To deny that Christ has a soul is to deny that He has the kind of human nature that Chalcedon says He has. And since the Incarnation is permanent, this denial applies not only to the earthly Jesus but to the ascended, glorified Christ. Right now, at this very moment, the Son of God is united to a human nature consisting of a rational soul and a glorified body. This is what Chalcedon teaches. This is what the permanent incarnation requires. And this is what physicalism denies.

As Timothy Pawl has shown in his rigorous philosophical defense of the conciliar definitions, the Chalcedonian framework is logically coherent — the apparent contradictions dissolve when properties are properly relativized to natures. But Pawl's analysis presupposes the conciliar definitions, and those definitions include the soul as a constituent of the human nature. To defend the councils while denying the soul is to defend a building while removing its foundation.⁴⁰

The Ascension and the Christological Anthropology

One final theological connection deserves our attention. We have seen throughout this book — following Michael Wilkinson's argument in Crowned with Glory and Honor — that Christology should norm our anthropology. That is, we should not first decide what a human being is (based on philosophy, science, or cultural assumptions) and then apply that definition to Christ. Rather, we should look at what Christ's human nature is, as defined by Scripture and the councils, and let that inform our understanding of what we are.⁴¹

The ascended Christ is the paradigm of glorified humanity. As Paul tells us, He will "transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body" (Phil. 3:21). Christ's glorified human nature is the template for our own eschatological future. We will be like Him (1 John 3:2). Our resurrection bodies will be modeled on His resurrection body. Our glorified humanity will mirror His glorified humanity.

If Christ's glorified humanity includes a soul — as Chalcedon teaches and as the arguments of this chapter demonstrate — then our glorified humanity will also include a soul. If Christ's permanent incarnation involves the eternal union of a divine Person with a body-soul composite, then our eternal existence will also involve body and soul. The anthropological implications flow directly from the Christological reality.

Conversely, if physicalism is true — if human nature is nothing but a physical body — then Christ's glorified human nature is nothing but a glorified physical body. And our future glorified state will also be nothing but a glorified physical body. There will be no soul to enjoy the beatific vision. There will be no immaterial dimension to our existence. We will be physical organisms in a (presumably physical) heavenly realm, and nothing more.

I find this picture deeply impoverished. The richness of the biblical and theological tradition — the beatific vision, the soul's communion with God, the "inner man" being renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16), the promise that we will see Him "face to face" and "know fully" as we are "fully known" (1 Cor. 13:12) — all of this suggests an eschatological destiny that includes far more than a physical body. It includes a soul that has been perfected, purified, and brought into the fullest possible communion with God. The ascended Christ, with His glorified body and His perfected human soul, is the living guarantee of this destiny.⁴²

As Wilkinson puts it, the incarnate Son remains what He has always been as God the Son according to His divine person-nature constitution, while now He has a human ontology in which He is truly human according to His divine person-human nature constitution. This person-nature ontology — in which the divine Person subsists in both a divine nature and a complete human nature (body and soul) — is the model for understanding all human persons. We too are person-nature beings, constituted by the union of a personal agent with a body-soul nature. Christ is the archetype; we are the ectype. And both the archetype and the ectype require a soul.⁴³

The Ascension, the Second Coming, and the Coherence of Hope

There is one more dimension of the ascension that deserves our attention, and it connects to the hope that lies at the heart of the Christian faith.

The angels at the ascension promised: "This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven" (Acts 1:11). The Second Coming will be bodily, visible, and real — just like the ascension. The same Jesus who ascended will return. The same body. The same soul. The same Person.

This promise requires the permanent incarnation. If Christ shed His human nature at any point between the ascension and the Second Coming, then the promise is broken. The one who returns would not be "this Jesus" — the same Jesus who was taken up — but someone (or something) different. The continuity of identity that the angels' promise presupposes requires the continuity of the Incarnation. And the continuity of the Incarnation, as we have argued, requires the continuity of the human soul.

On physicalism, the promise of the Second Coming faces the same identity problems we have discussed. If Christ's human nature is purely physical, and if that physical body has been in the heavenly realm for millennia, what guarantees that the Christ who returns is the same person who ascended? Without a soul to anchor personal identity through the ages, the continuity is uncertain. On dualism, the soul provides the stable, continuous identity that bridges the gap between the ascension and the Second Coming — just as it bridged the gap between death and resurrection during the triduum mortis (as we argued in Chapter 21).⁴⁴

The Second Coming is not a distant abstract doctrine. It is the living hope of the church — the hope that Christ Himself, the very same Jesus who walked the shores of Galilee, who died on Calvary, who rose on the third day, and who ascended into heaven — will return. "Come, Lord Jesus!" (Rev. 22:20). That cry presupposes that there is a continuous, identifiable person — this Jesus — who can come. And the best metaphysical guarantee of that continuous identity is the soul.

Conclusion: The Word Made Flesh — Forever

Let me draw together the threads of this chapter.

The ascension of Jesus Christ is one of the most significant events in all of redemptive history. When the risen Christ was taken up into heaven, He did not leave His humanity behind. He carried it with Him — glorified, perfected, transformed, but genuinely human. He remains, at this very moment, the God-man. He retains His glorified body and His human soul. He reigns, intercedes, and ministers as the permanent God-man, seated at the right hand of the Father.

The permanent incarnation — the doctrine that the Son of God assumed human nature not temporarily but forever — is a foundational commitment of orthodox Christology. It is taught by Scripture (1 Tim. 2:5; Heb. 7:24-25; Rev. 1:13-18), confessed by the creeds (the Chalcedonian Definition's "without separation"), and affirmed by the overwhelming consensus of the theological tradition.

Physicalism, by denying that Christ has an immaterial human soul, creates four major problems for the ascension and permanent incarnation. First, the location problem: a purely physical organism cannot coherently exist in the spiritual realm of God's immediate presence. Second, the continuity problem: without a soul, the continuity of Christ's human nature through the radical transformation from earthly to glorified body is uncertain. Third, the permanence problem: a glorified body that transcends physical laws is not "purely physical" in the sense that physicalism requires. Fourth, the heavenly session problem: the active consciousness, will, and intercessory ministry of the ascended Christ require more than neural activity in a physical brain — they require a human soul that can function in the spiritual realm.

Substance dualism resolves every one of these problems. Christ's human soul provides the natural connection to the spiritual realm. It provides the continuity of personal identity through all bodily transformations. It provides the cognitive and volitional life of the heavenly session. And it is what the Chalcedonian Definition says Christ's human nature includes.

The kryptic model (Loke) provides an especially elegant framework for understanding the ascended Christ. The concealment of divine attributes at the preconscious level, which characterized the earthly ministry, is relaxed after glorification. The human soul of the glorified Christ has expanded access to divine attributes — explaining the exalted descriptions of the ascended Christ in Revelation, Hebrews, and the epistles. The human nature is not abandoned or diminished; it is elevated and perfected. And all of this requires a soul.⁴⁵

Let me close with a reflection that I find deeply moving. Right now — at this very moment — the eternal Son of God is one of us. Not was. Is. He has a human body. He has a human soul. He knows what it is like to be human — not as a distant memory of a bygone era, but as a present, ongoing, eternal reality. The one who created us has joined Himself to us, permanently and irrevocably. He will never un-become human. He will never dissolve the union. He will never step back from what He assumed. The Word became flesh — and the flesh He became, body and soul, is His forever.

This is the glory of the Incarnation. And this is what physicalism puts at risk. If human nature has no soul, then the permanent incarnation is the permanent union of a divine Person with a physical organism — and all the problems we have traced in this chapter remain unanswered. But if human nature includes a soul — as Scripture teaches, as the councils define, and as the evidence of near-death experiences confirms — then the permanent incarnation is the permanent union of a divine Person with a complete human nature, body and soul, and the picture is coherent, beautiful, and worthy of the God who took it on.

In our next chapter, we will turn to yet another Christological problem for physicalism — the question of Christ's sinlessness, His genuine temptation, and the Pelagian dilemma that physicalism cannot escape. But for now, we can rest in the assurance that our Savior lives — fully God and fully human — forever.

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