“Divinity upon ascension”
Did Christ became God or attained His divinity
when He reached the heaven?
Nowhere in the
Bible is it taught that Christ became God or attained divinity upon His
ascension to heaven. On the contrary, the apostles testify that Jesus remained
to be man in nature even when He reached heaven. In verses such as I Timothy
2:5 and Acts 2:22, among others for instance, the apostles directly declared
that Christ is man. Considering the background and context of these verses,
we’ve learned that these were taught by the apostles when our Lord Jesus was
already in heaven. If it were true that Christ attained divinity when He ascended
to heaven, then the Apostles should have taught Him as God when they preached
about Him. But the apostles were consistent in their teaching that Christ is
indeed man, before and even after His ascension to heaven.
Apostle Paul, in
fact, teaches that in heaven, Christ sits at the right hand of God, who is
Christ, is a man, and therefore not another God:
“But this Man,
after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand
of God.” (Heb. 10:12, New King James
Version)
The teaching
that Christ became God when He reached heaven contradicts what the Holy
Scriptures teaches concerning the true God. Christ Himself makes it clear that
there is only one true God who is the Father (Jn. 17:1,3, NKJV). Before His
ascension to heaven Christ even said:
“… I am
ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.” (Jn.
20:17, NKJV)
If Christ became
God upon His ascension to heaven, then there would be two Gods – the Father to
whom Christ ascended (and whom Christ recognizes as His God) and Christ who
ascended to His Father. This is definitely against what Christ Himself teaches
regarding the true God.
While it is true
that the Savior’s body, which was once perishable and mortal on earth, became
imperishable or immortal in heaven (I Cor. 15:50-54), this does not mean that
He became God. Because if He did, then those to be saved would also become
gods, for the Holy Scriptures confirm that their bodies will be like the
glorious body of Christ:
“But our
citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior for there, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his
control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious
body.” (Phil. 3:20-21, New International Version)
The belief or
teaching that Christ became God upon ascension to heaven is therefore
unbiblical.