Without controversy, the mystery of godliness is great: God was revealed in the flesh, Justified in the spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the nations, Believed on in the world, And received up in glory.
Received up in glory ... This has been construed as "received up into glory," and so it may be understood; but as the text stands, it appears rather as a reference to the glorious nature of his ascension.  Three great [Greek: parabola] passages of the New Testament deal with this, namely,  Philippians 2:5-9; Eph.  4:8,9,2 Corinthians 8:9.  The doctrine of the ascension of Christ is in view here, as well as in the other passages cited.  The Scriptural accounts of the ascension, or of the "going up" of Christ, seem to have been preliminary to the actual ascension into the spiritual realm above, leading to the unfortunate view that such accounts are contradictory, which, of course, they are not.  Christ apparently "went up" from his disciples more than once; and it may be doubted if the actual ascension itself was witnessed by mortal eyes.  Like the resurrection, it was announced by angels; and their testimony verified the fact; but the actual ascent was probably too glorious for mortal eyes to have endured the sight of it.  The ascension is very properly included among the elements of the great mystery, for there are certainly corollaries of it that shall never be known by men until the saints are caught up to meet the Lord in the air.