О шестом члене Символа веры
The Sixth Article of Faith
The sixth article of the Creed states that Christ ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father, echoing scripture.
Question 55. What is the sixth article of the Faith? Answer. "And ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father."✦✦✦1
Four Truths of the Ascension
This article reveals four key truths about Christ's ascension: His glorified human nature in heaven, His divine omnipresence, His continued humanity, and His heavenly presence apart from earthly locations.
Question 56. What does this article of faith reveal to us? Answer. This article teaches four truths. First, that Jesus Christ ascended into heaven and sat at the right hand of the Father with glory and honor, in the very same body in which He truly suffered and rose from the dead.✦ Second, that He ascended into heaven only as man; for as God, He has always been in heaven and in every place. Third, it teaches that the human nature which He once assumed from the Virgin Mary He has never laid aside, but with it He will come again to judge, as the angels announced to the Apostles: "This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you have seen Him going into heaven" (Acts✦ 1:11).✦ Fourth, this article teaches that Christ, with His flesh which He bore during His earthly life, is only in heaven, and not on earth.
Christ's Presence in the Eucharist
While Christ's physical body is in heaven, He is mystically present on earth through the transubstantiation of the Eucharist, warranting reverence equal to that given to Christ Himself.
But being present in a mystical manner in the Divine Eucharist, this Son of God, God and man, is present on earth as well by transubstantiation.2 For the substance of the bread is changed into the substance of His Holy Body, and the substance of the wine into the substance of His precious Blood. Therefore, we must honor and revere the Holy Eucharist just as much as we do our Savior Jesus Himself.
Read the original Russian
Вопрос 55. Какой шестой член веры?
Ответ. «И возшедшаго на небеса, и седяща одесную Отца"
Вопрос 56. Что открывает нам сей член веры?
Ответ. Сей член учит четырем истинам. Во-первых, что Иисус Христос вознесся на небеса и сел одесную Отца со славою и честию в том самом теле, в котором пострадал истинно, и воскрес из мертвых. Во-вторых, что Он вознесся на небо только как человек; ибо как Бог, Он всегда был на небеси и на всяком месте. В-третьих, учит, что человеческое естество, которое Он однажды принял от Девы Марии, никогда не слагал с Себя, но с оным опять приидет судить, как Ангелы возвестили Апостолам: «Сей Иисус, вознесыйся от вас на небо, такожде приидет, имже образом видесте Его идуща на небо» (Деян. 1, 11). В-четвертых, сей член научает, что Христос с плотию Своею, которую носил во время земной Своей жизни, находится только на небеси, а не на земле. Но присутствуя таинственным образом в Божественной Евхаристии, Сей Сын Божий, Бог и человек, присутствует и на земле по пресуществлению.
Ибо существо хлеба прелагается в существо Святаго Тела Его, и существо вина в существо драгоценныя Его Крови. Посему Святую Евхаристию мы должны почитать и уважать столько же, сколько и Самого Спасителя нашего Иисуса.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Mark.16.19 — So then, after the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.
- ↩Acts.1.9 — And after he said these things, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.
- ↩Ps.110.1 — The LORD says to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool."
- ↩Mark.16.19 — So then, after the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.
- ↩Acts.1.11 — Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way you saw him go into heaven.
- ↩Acts.1.11 — Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way you saw him go into heaven.
Notes
- 1 ↩The source opens the Creed quotation with « and closes it with a straight ASCII quote instead of ». Treated as a closing quotation mark, not extra wording.
- 2 ↩пресуществление is this Confession's technical name for the Eucharistic change of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ; rendered here as transubstantiation.
Orthodox Confession (Pravoslavnoe Ispovedanie) companion
Rule yourself daily, not just on retreat
Chosen Portion turns the mirror into a daily practice — a short reading and examining question each morning before you lead anyone.
Chosen Portion makes the mirror daily: the ruler-formation questions this collection preserves become a two-minute morning examination in the app.
- A daily formation reading drawn from centuries of counsel to those in authority
- One pointed examination question a day — two minutes, before the meetings start
- Track your practice over weeks and watch the examined life become a habit