This is the 13th in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon.com. 

---

Reading Acts 1, it’s hard to imagine the apostles’ thoughts as they gaze upward, watching Jesus ascend from the Mount of Olives and then vanish from view. Jesus had come unassumingly, born to a teenage mother in a Middle Eastern village. He lived his life humbly, refusing to be crowned king on numerous occasions, hiding his identity as Messiah until just the right moment, and then surrendering his life on a Roman cross. 

Jesus’ resurrection three days later proved his messianic claims and sealed his identity as Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36). He culled dozens of disciples until there were only twelve close followers – one of them a betrayer, as Jesus well knew. And he sought to prepare them for just this moment, when he returned to the Father and passed the gospel torch to his newly commissioned apostles.

But now he’s gone, his glorified body rising into the air, enveloped in a heavenly cloud, to assume his place at the Father’s right hand. The apostles still have questions, doubts, and apprehensions. They aren’t ready to be left alone. And that’s how it must have felt – left alone – with Jesus bidding them farewell. 

They know it isn’t quite like that. Jesus had assured them he would always be with them (Matt. 28:20). And he promised to send the Holy Spirit – another counselor, comforter, and advocate just like him. But would they really see him again? If so, how soon? And how would they carry on an earth-bound ministry with Jesus in heaven?

They don’t have to wonder long. Luke records:

While he was going, they were gazing into heaven, and suddenly two men in white clothes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you have seen him going into heaven.”

Acts 1:9-11

The two men in white clothes likely are angels. They urge the eyewitnesses to take on the mantle of their apostolic calling. Equally important, the angels remind the apostles that Christ’s absence from the earth is temporary. The Lord is returning one day, even if the day and hour are hidden from them. 

This same Jesus – the resurrected and glorified God-Man – is coming back to set things right. Further, he’s coming back in the same way: personally, physically, visibly, powerfully, and to the same location.  

Followers of Jesus are not to stand idly, gazing into the heavens and watching for his return. We’re to be busy, engaging in the gospel ministry he has entrusted to us. So, let’s look at what it means for Jesus to return “personally” one day. In this column, we’ll see what the angels mean when they say, “this same Jesus.” In the next column, we’ll explore the phrase “in the same way.”

This same Jesus

First, we need to guard against a woodenly literal understanding of the angels’ words to the apostles. We are not to expect the return of Jesus to be like a video replay in reverse, with the Lord wearing the same clothes, touching the same spot on the Mount of Olives, and appearing privately to the eleven apostles. Quite the contrary.

While Jesus ascends in the common clothing of his day, he returns in a robe dipped in blood (Rev. 19:13). While he ascends carrying no weapons, he returns with a sword proceeding from his mouth – the same divine word by which he created all things (Rev. 19:15; cf. Gen. 1-2; Ps. 33:6, 9; John 1:1-3; Heb. 11:3). While he ascends alone, he returns in the company of holy angels and redeemed people (Luke 9:26; cf. 1 Thess. 4:14ff; 2 Thess. 1:7). While he ascends in the presence of a few eyewitnesses, he returns so that every eye sees him (Rev. 1:7; cf. Zech. 12:10). And while he ascends without great fanfare, he returns like lightning, which flashes across the sky (Luke 17:23-24). 

So then, who is “this same Jesus” the apostles see ascending into heaven and vanishing from their gaze? Why do the angels emphasize the sameness of the Savior? It may be a reminder to the apostles, and to us, who Jesus really is and what he accomplished throughout his earthly ministry. In addition, it may be a call to be alert for counterfeit Christs.

Jesus is the same person both before and after the Incarnation. As the writer of Hebrews notes, Christ is the same “yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8). The difference is that before the Incarnation, Jesus had but one nature (divine). In the Incarnation, he adds a human nature, one that exists together with his divine nature. While the incarnate Christ suffers death, he emerges from the tomb in glorified immortality. As such, Jesus’ humanity never suffers the ravages of time.

There are several key attributes that make Jesus unique and ensure that he – “this same Jesus” – must return to fulfill his promises:

1.  Jesus is the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Trinity.  

2. Jesus is the God-Man, fully divine and fully human.

3. Jesus is the Son of Man, the unique divine being in Daniel 7 who receives a kingdom from the Ancient of Days.

4. Jesus is the Messiah, or Christ – the anointed one.

5. Jesus is the resurrected Savior.

These truths dispel any doubts that the returning Christ is “this same Jesus.”

Next: In the same way