John Calvin Commentary Acts 1:11

"who also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven? this Jesus, who was received up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye beheld him going into heaven." — Acts 1:11 (ASV)

You men of Galilee, etc. I am not of their opinion who think that this name was given to the apostles in a reproachful manner, as if the angels meant to rebuke the slowness and dullness of the apostles. In my opinion, it was rather to make them more attentive, because men, whom they had never seen before, named them as though they had known them perfectly.

But they seem to rebuke them without cause for looking up into heaven. For where else should they seek Christ than in heaven? Do not the Scriptures also often exhort us to do so?

I answer that they were not rebuked because they looked up towards heaven, but for these reasons:

1. Because they longed to see Christ when the cloud that was placed between them and him kept them from seeing him with their physical senses.
2. Because they hoped that he would return again immediately, so that they might enjoy the sight of him again, when he ascended to stay in the heavens until he should come to judge the world.

Therefore, let us first learn from this that we must not seek Christ either in heaven or on earth, otherwise than by faith. Also, we must not desire to have him present with us bodily in the world, for he who does either of those two will often go further from him.

So this their amazement is rebuked, not simply, but insofar as they were astonished by the strangeness of this matter; just as we are often carried unadvisedly into a very great wonder at God’s works, but we never take care to consider for what end and purpose they were done.

Jesus, who is taken up into heaven. There are two parts in this one sentence. The first is that Christ was taken up into heaven, so that they may not from now on foolishly desire to have him any longer present with them on earth. The other is immediately added as a consolation concerning his second coming.

From these two points, jointly and also separately, a firm, stable, and strong argument is gathered to refute the Papists and all others who imagine that Christ is really present in the signs of bread and wine. For when it is said that Christ is taken up into heaven, the distance of place is plainly noted.

I grant that this word heaven is interpreted in various ways: sometimes as the air, sometimes as the whole celestial sphere, sometimes as the glorious kingdom of God where the majesty of God has its proper seat, however much it fills the whole world. In this way Paul places Christ above all heavens (Ephesians 1:22), because he is above all the world and has the highest place in that realm of blessed immortality, because he is more excellent than all the angels (Ephesians 4:15).

But this is nothing to prevent him from being absent from us bodily, and this word heavens may indeed signify a separation from the world. Let them quibble as much as they will, it is evident that the heaven into which Christ was received is opposite to the frame of the world. Therefore, it necessarily follows that if he is in heaven, he is beyond the world.

But first, we must note what the purpose of the angels was, for by this we shall more perfectly know what the words mean. The angels’ intent was to call back the apostles from desiring the bodily presence of Christ. It was for this purpose that they said he would not come again until he came to judge the world.

And this purpose is served by the assigning of the time, so that they might not expect him in vain before that time. Who does not see that these words manifestly show that he was bodily absent from the world? Who does not see that we are forbidden to desire to have him on the earth?

But they think they get away with that crafty answer when they say that then he shall come visibly, but he comes now invisibly daily. However, we are not here to dispute his form; the apostles are only taught that Christ must abide in heaven until he appears at the last day.

For the desiring of his bodily presence is here condemned as absurd and perverse. The Papists deny that he is present in the sacrament carnally, while his glorious body is present with us in a supernatural way, and by a miracle. But we may well enough reject their inventions concerning his glorious body as childish and frivolous notions.

They invent for themselves a miracle not confirmed by any testimony of Scripture. The body of Christ was then glorious when he interacted with his disciples after his resurrection. This was done by the extraordinary and secret power of God; nevertheless, the angels forbid desiring him afterward in that way, and they say that he shall not come to men in that way (before the last day). Therefore, according to their commandment, let us not try to pull him out of the heavens with our own inventions; neither let us think that we can handle him with our hands, or perceive him with our other senses, any more than we can see him with our eyes.

I speak always of his body. Because they say it is infinite, which is an entirely absurd dream, it is safely to be rejected. Nevertheless, I willingly confess that Christ ascended that he may fill all things; but I say that he is spread everywhere by the power of his Spirit, not by the substance of his flesh.

I grant, furthermore, that he is present with us both in his word and in the sacraments. Nor is it to be doubted that all those who with faith receive the signs of his flesh and blood truly become partakers of his flesh and blood. But this partaking does not agree at all with the delusions of the Papists, for they imagine that Christ is present in such a way on the altar as Numa Pompilius called down his Jupiter Elicitus, or as those witches fetched down the moon from heaven with their enchantments.

But Christ, by giving us the bread in his Supper, intends for us to lift up our hearts into heaven, that we may have life through his flesh and blood. So we do not eat his flesh grossly to live by it, but he pours into us, by the secret power of his Spirit, his power and strength.

He shall so come. I have said before that by this consolation all sorrow which we might conceive because of Christ’s absence is mitigated, indeed, utterly taken away, when we hear that he shall return again. And also the purpose for which he shall come again is to be noted: namely, that he shall come as a Redeemer and shall gather us with him into blessed immortality.

For as he does not now sit idle in heaven (as Homer indicates, that his gods are busied only with their bellies), so he shall not appear again without benefit. Therefore, the very expectation of Christ’s coming must both restrain the persistent desires of our flesh and support our patience in all our adversities; and, lastly, it must refresh our weariness.

But it works this only in the faithful, who believe that Christ is their Redeemer; for it brings to the wicked nothing but dread, horror, and great terror. And however they may now scoff and jest when they hear of his coming, yet they shall be compelled to behold him sitting on his tribunal seat, whom now they will not deign to hear speak.

Furthermore, it would be frivolous to raise any question about the apparel with which he was then clothed, whether he shall come again clothed with the same or not. Nor am I now determined to refute what Augustine, in his Epistle to Consentius, touches on (Augustine, To Consentius, Epistle 146); however, it is better for me to omit what I cannot unfold.