The Creed, Article 6: Ascended into Heaven

"And ascended into Heaven." The Book of Acts describes it plainly: "while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight." The Ascension is the completion of the great arc the Creed has been tracing. The Son who "came down from Heaven" in Article 3 now returns to Heaven — but not as He left it. He goes up as a man, with a real, glorified human body, taking our nature into the presence of God. Human flesh now has a home in heaven.

The two angels at the Ascension add a promise that reaches to the end of the Creed: "this same Jesus… shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go." The going-up already points to the second coming, which the next article will confess. Christ is not absent from His Church; He is enthroned, and He will return.

"And sits at the right hand of the Father." St. Mark records that "he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God." The right hand is the place of honor and shared authority — not a spot in the sky. To confess it is to confess that Jesus reigns as Lord over all things, and that He does so as the God-man, never laying aside the humanity He took from the Virgin.

The tradition also hears in this session Christ's unending high-priesthood: enthroned in glory, He still bears His wounds and intercedes for us before the Father. The Symbol of Faith thus ends this stretch of the Creed on a note of hope — the One who suffered and was buried now sits in glory, and our nature sits there with Him.