The Apostles' Creed

He Ascended into Heaven, and Will Come Again to Judge

Forty days after rising, Jesus ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of the Father, reigning as Lord over all. But the creed does not leave him there. It confesses that he will come again to judge the living and the dead. History is going somewhere: to the return of the King. The one who came in humility will come in glory, and every knee will bow.

Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.Acts 1:11 (KJV)

What this line confesses

Two great truths stand together: he has gone up, and he will come back. The ascension confesses that the risen Jesus was taken up into heaven and seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. The right hand is the place of highest honor and authority; to sit there is to reign. Jesus is not absent but enthroned, ruling over all things and praying for his people as their great high priest.

The return confesses that he will come again to judge the living and the dead, the quick and the dead in the older words. The same Jesus who ascended will appear again, visibly and in glory, to set the world right, to raise the dead, and to judge all people with perfect justice and mercy. His first coming was in lowliness to save; his second will be in splendor to reign.

Its biblical basis

Luke records the ascension in Acts, where Jesus is taken up and a cloud receives him out of the disciples' sight. Then two angels give the promise the creed confesses: This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go. The one who ascended will return in person.

That he reigns at the Father's right hand is proclaimed throughout the New Testament. Peter says God has made him both Lord and Christ. Paul says God set him at his own right hand, far above all rule and authority. And Jesus himself promised to come again, saying that the Son of man would come in the glory of his Father, and that every eye would see him. The creed gathers the church's sure hope of his return.

Why it mattered: keeping both the reign and the return

This line guards the faith against two opposite mistakes. Against those who would treat Jesus as a figure of the past, a good man who lived and died long ago, the creed insists he is alive and reigning now, seated at the right hand of God. He is not a memory but a King.

And against the despair that history is meaningless or that evil will have the last word, the creed insists he will come again to judge. The world is not drifting; it is moving toward the return of its rightful Lord. That coming judgment is good news, for it means that every wrong will be answered, every tear accounted for, and the King who was crucified for us will be the one who judges us. The early Christians did not dread his return; they prayed for it: Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Seated at the right hand: what Jesus does now

The creed says Jesus not only ascended but sits at the right hand of the Father, and that word sits matters. It does not mean he is idle. In the ancient world the right hand of the king was the seat of shared rule, and to be seated there means Jesus reigns now, at this moment, over every power and authority, over history and over your life.

From that throne he is not distant but active. The book of Hebrews says he ever lives to make intercession for us, our great high priest who carried our humanity into heaven and prays for his people by name. He is the head of his church, filling it with his Spirit, and it was from the right hand of the Father that he poured out that Spirit at Pentecost, so that his ascension was not an absence but the beginning of his presence everywhere.

This means the time between his going and his return is not empty waiting. Jesus is reigning and interceding while his gospel goes to the ends of the earth. You are not left to face your struggles alone or to earn your standing with God; you have a friend on the throne who pleads your cause, and a King who is bringing all things, in his own time, under his gentle and righteous rule.

Living between the times

This line places every Christian in a particular moment: after the ascension and before the return, between the times. The King has come and won the victory, yet the world does not yet look fully healed. We live in the overlap, tasting the powers of the age to come while still waiting for all things to be made new. The creed keeps us from two mistakes here, neither pretending the kingdom has fully arrived nor forgetting that it surely will.

The New Testament calls this waiting watchfulness. Jesus told his followers to be like servants ready for their master's return, with their lamps burning, neither anxious nor asleep. To watch is not to stare at the sky calculating dates, which he forbade, but to live each day faithfully, as those who know their Lord is coming and could come at any hour.

This hope steadies the heart. Because Jesus will come again, no injustice is permanent, no grief is the final word, and no faithful act is wasted. The Christian does not face the future with dread but with longing, joining the church's ancient cry, Maranatha, our Lord, come. To confess that he will come again is to lean your whole life forward toward the day when faith becomes sight and the King is seen by all.

What it means for us

Because Jesus reigns, you are never at the mercy of blind fate or raw power. The one who loves you holds the highest place, and he is pleading for you even now. Because he will return, your labor is not in vain and your waiting is not empty. You live between his two comings, in the sure hope that the story ends not in ruin but in his glory.

His coming as judge calls us to be ready, not with fear but with faith, for the judge is the Savior who died for us. To confess this line is to lift your eyes from the trouble of the present to the return of the King, and to join the oldest prayer of the church, longing for the day when he will come again and make all things new.

So lift your eyes. The story you are living in is not drifting toward darkness but moving toward the return of the King who loves you. The One who ascended is reigning now and will come again, and when he does he will wipe away every tear and make all things new. Until that day you are not left to manage alone, for you have a Savior on the throne who prays for you and a sure hope to steady you through every trouble. To confess that he ascended and will come again is to set your heart on the surest future there is, and to join the church's oldest and most joyful prayer, come, Lord Jesus. That hope is offered to you, and the King who is coming invites you to be ready, and to be his.

A note for all traditions: the creeds are not a fourth authority above Scripture but a faithful summary of it. Christians hold them in different ways, some reciting them weekly in worship and others rarely, yet the faith they confess is broadly shared across the church. Where believers differ on secondary matters, the creeds mark the ancient center that unites us: one God, and one Lord Jesus Christ, crucified and risen.

Related: He descended and rose again · I believe in the Holy Spirit · Who is Jesus? · The Christian creeds