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Ephesians 1:15–21
“[The Father] worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come” (vv. 20–21).
The Lord Jesus Christ ended His estate of humiliation in His burial and began His estate of exaltation in His resurrection from the dead. That exaltation continued, Westminster Shorter Catechism 28 tells us, in Christ’s ascension to heaven and in His sitting at the right hand of God the Father. To our Lord’s ascension and session—His sitting at God’s right hand—we now turn.
Many theologians have observed that the church today frequently overlooks the ascension and session of Christ. This is unfortunate, for the Scriptures emphasize Christ’s ascension and session as the point in our Savior’s work that He is installed as the God-man to exercise what has been called His mediatorial reign. This is His reign over all things for the sake of the church (Eph. 1:22–23), which we will consider in our next study.
Today we will note that the ascension and session of Christ represent the beginning of the aspect of His work that continues today and will not end until His return to consummate His kingdom. Returning to heaven and sitting at the Father’s right hand, the Mediator now possesses an authority that He did not before. But what can that mean? After all, Jesus is God, so He has had full authority over creation from all eternity because He is the Son of God, right?
Two of the church’s greatest theologians will help us here: Cyril of Alexandria and John Calvin. Cyril was an early church father whose writings helped the church express the biblical doctrine of the person of Christ in creedal form. Cyril writes, “Possessing all things as God, [Christ] says that He receives as Man, to whom kingly power comes, not by natural right but by gift.” In His humanity, Jesus had no natural right to exercise authority over creation, for such authority belongs inherently to God alone. Upon the completion of His earthly ministry, however, Jesus reigns over all as the God-man and as a single person. He cannot do this without having the right to rule both in His divine nature and in His human nature, and He receives such authority in His humanity in His ascension and session.
From all eternity, our triune God has reigned over creation, exercising His rule as God. Since the ascension and session of Christ, He has chosen to exercise this rule as God and man through the Lord Jesus. John Calvin comments, “God the Father is said to have raised Christ to ‘his right hand,’ because he has made him to share in his government, because by him he exerts all his power.”
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Amazingly, God granted our humanity a share in His reign over the cosmos by exercising His authority in and through the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing demonstrates more clearly the high value that God puts on human beings. Because God values humanity so highly as to give the man Jesus Christ a share in reigning over creation, we must likewise esteem human beings and work to ensure that the dignity of all people is respected.
For further study
- Psalm 2
- Isaiah 9:6–7
- Luke 1:26–38
- Revelation 11:15
The bible in a year
- Psalms 124–128
- 1 Corinthians 7:25–40