18 - Heb_8:1
CHAPTER X V I I I. THE CROWNING POINT:
CHRIST THE HIGH PRIEST IN HEAVEN.
JESUS is our High Priest in heaven. This is the crowning-point in which all the previous teaching of our epistle culminates. It is the summary of the apostle’s preceding argument, in the sense that it is the highest and central-point towards which his exposition had constantly tended, and in which all the truths which he had deduced from Scripture are manifested in the clearest and most convincing light. "We have such an High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens." This crowning-point may be perceived already in the very commencement of the epistle; for there the apostle declares, that God has spoken to us in His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, and by whom also He made the worlds; and that Jesus, after having by Himself purged our sins, took His position, according to the prophetic word, at the right hand of God, where He is now in royal power and dignity. If as Son Jesus is at the right hand of God, then it follows of necessity that the whole dispensation connected with the priesthood of Aaron and the first sanctuary has vanished, and that, no longer on earth, but in the Holy of Holies is now the true and eternal High Priest, the Minister of the new and better covenant. Here is the solution of all the difficulties which perplexed the Hebrews; here the only safety and consolation amidst the persecutions and temptations which pressed sorely upon them living in the midst of the Jews, who were still cleaving to that which was vanishing away. The Lord Jesus is our High Priest in heaven. These simple but majestic and weighty words sum up the teaching of the first eight chapters of our epistle. This is the crowning-point of the apostle’s profound and massive argument, Jesus, who suffered and died, is consecrated the priest forever after the order of Melchisedec, after the power of an endless life. He is the minister of the heavenly sanctuary and of the true tabernacle. The apostle seems to a superficial reader to interrupt frequently the thread of his argument, when out of the abundant love, sorrow, and solicitude of his heart he addresses solemn warnings and exhortations to the Hebrews, but he never for a single moment loses sight of that luminous center of doctrine and consolation, Christ, the Priest in heaven; his constant aim is to direct the minds and the hearts of the Hebrews to that perfection which in the glorified Saviour is given to all believers. In the very first verses he sounds the key-note, describing Jesus as the Son, and declaring His royal priesthood. The eternal glory of the Son, His divine power in creation, His central position in the future inheritance, His supremacy over the angels, His session at the right hand of God - all these great truths are brought before us, to show how perfect is the royal priesthood of Him who is on the throne. His true and real humanity, the mystery of His incarnation, is brought before us in the second chapter and for the same purpose; He was made like unto His brethren in all things, that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest. When in the third chapter the Lord Jesus is contrasted with Moses, it is to show that Jesus, the High Priest, is the perfect Mediator, that He, the Son, is greater than Moses, the servant. Our responsibility is indeed greater than that of Israel in the wilderness, yet while it becomes us in our earthly pilgrimage to take heed, to fear, and to labour in order to enter into rest, and while the Word of God is given unto us, that it may judge and discern the thoughts and intents of the heart, we have more abundant reason to hold fast our profession, beholding Jesus, the great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, boldly we draw near to the throne of grace, for He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. (Chap. 4) And after showing how Jesus fulfilled all the requirements of priesthood, being chosen from among men and called of God, and how in the garden of Gethsemane He entered into the lowest depth of human weakness and obtained the victory in the severest test of faith, he reminds the Hebrews that Jesus, being made perfect, both by the obedience which He learned by the things He suffered, and by His resurrection and ascension, was addressed by God an High Priest after the order of Melchisedec. (Chap. 5) Thus he has reached the long-desired and much-loved summit, but before he describes the glorious sanctuary, which opens here to our view his heart fails him by reason of the weak and infantine condition into which the Hebrews had lapsed, and by a most solemn and piercing, yet affectionate exhortation, he entreats them to go on unto perfection, that is unto that which is within the veil, to behold Him who by His death became the High Priest after the order of Melchisedec.
What is implied in this mysterious and comprehensive word, uttered by David when he was in the Spirit, and uttered by him as the solemn declaration and oath of the Most High, is explained in chapter 7, and again in this chapter, in connection with the new and everlasting covenant in which we stand. For if the priesthood is changed, there is of necessity also a change of the dispensation. And this according to God’s counsel. For even Jeremiah, six centuries before the advent of our Lord, had announced that the Lord would make a new covenant with the house of Judah and Israel. The High Priest is in heaven, the covenant is new and eternal, and therefore the sanctuary must likewise be in heaven. And to this latter point our attention is now turned. The old dispensation had a priesthood and an earthly tabernacle. The new dispensation has a high priest and a heavenly sanctuary, and the worship of believers - all of whom are priests - is in spirit and in substance, that is, in heaven itself, in the holy of holies. In no other portion of the new covenant Scriptures is the High Priesthood of the Lord Jesus explained. Hence in this precious and most essential epistle, more than in any other book, stress is laid upon the ascension rather than the resurrection, and upon the fact that Jesus is in heaven. In the book of Revelation also (between which and our epistle are many interesting and instructive points of resemblance and connection) heaven is brought before us; but there it is in connection with the royal dignity and power of our glorified Redeemer. There we behold Jesus, the Lamb that was slain, in the midst of the throne. From Him proceed all the manifestations of the Creator-power and government of God; and all the developments of history, as well as its ultimate consummation, are represented as having their central source in the Son of God, who died once, and who liveth now for evermore. But in our epistle heaven is viewed as the sanctuary, where the High Priest intercedes for us, and whence He bestows upon us all the benedictions of the new covenant in virtue of the blood, by which He entered into the holy of holies.
It has been noticed by attentive readers of the Scriptures that in this epistle, concerning whose authorship there is much difficulty, the doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus is not brought forward prominently, as it is in all Pauline epistles. This remark is perfectly correct, and of great importance. Let me remind you that in all the epistles of the apostle Paul, as well as in most apostolic epistles, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead holds a very prominent position. In this epistle it is mentioned but once, in that beautiful passage where the apostle speaks of the God of peace who brought again (or rather brought up, i.e. to heaven, ἀναγαγὼν) from the grave the great Shepherd of the flock. And here also the reference to the resurrection is more, as leading to the ascension and consummation of His exaltation. In all other epistles, where the apostle speaks of man’s justification, of man’s renewal, and of the headship of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is not the ascension but the resurrection which is represented as the great crisis, and as the foundation. He, who was delivered for our offences, was raised again for our justification. If we believe in our heart that God raised Jesus from dead, we shall be saved. Thus Paul teaches in his epistle to the Romans. "Now is Christ risen from the dead," is his triumphant exclamation in his epistle to the Corinthians, and therefore our faith is not vain, and we are no longer in our sins. Together with Christ - thus he explains to the Ephesians other aspects of this central truth, we, who were dead in trespasses and sins, were quickened, and as the first-born from the dead, Christ is the Head of the Church, is the teaching of the epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians.* How important is the place assigned in them to the resurrection of our Lord in connection with the new life of the believer. As risen with Christ, he is to seek the things that are above, and in the description of the apostle’s spiritual experience, we find that his great and constant desire was to know “the power of Christ’s resurrection.” (* Romans 4:25; Romans 10:9; 1 Cor. 15;Ephesians 1:20; Eph. 2;Colossians 1:18;Php 3:10.) The question naturally arises: "Why is it that in the Epistle to the Hebrews the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is comparatively put into the background, and all the emphasis is laid upon the ascension?" The answer is simple. The object of the Epistle to the Hebrews was to comfort and also to exhort the Jews, whose faith was sorely tried because they were excluded from the services of the temple in Jerusalem; to confirm unto them the great truth, that they had the reality and the substance of those things which were only temporary and signs, and that the real sanctuary was not upon earth but high in the heavens, and that Jesus had gone to be the minister of the holy things, and of the true or substantial tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. Hence all the emphasis must be laid upon this, that Jesus, the Son of God, in human nature, by virtue of the blood which was shed upon Golgotha, has entered above all heavens into the real and true heaven, and on the throne of God, according to the prediction of the 110th Psalm, is a priest now after the order of Melchisedec. But in order to understand more fully what is meant by heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ is now exercising the office of High Priest, let us see with what great clearness the doctrine of the ascension of the Lord Jesus is brought forward throughout the whole of the new covenant Scriptures.
Before the incarnation, the true sanctuary was not yet made manifest; but when the Word of God was made flesh He tabernacled in the midst of us, and we beheld the glory of the Only-begotten. Israel was taught that God, who made the heavens and the earth, was omnipresent, and yet combined with this spiritual conception of the omnipresence of God was the revelation of a heavenly sanctuary, of an eternal throne, of a special locality, in which the presence and the glory of God were manifested, unto which the prayers and offerings of His people ascend, and from which divine blessings and powers descend.* With the advent of the Son of God commenced the full manifestation of heaven. At His birth the angels sang, Glory to God in the highest; for the incarnation of Jesus was the unfolding and the accomplishment of that eternal counsel, in which the glory of God shines forth most brightly. The announcement of Jesus to the first disci ples, whom He gathered, was: From henceforth shall ye see the heavens opened. The kingdom of heaven is come, was the declaration of the Prophet of Galilee. He speaks of the kingdom of heaven and the reward in heaven to the poor in spirit, unto whom He unfolds the blessedness and the character of His kingdom and righteousness. And in that solemn and decisive moment, in which Jesus, the Son of God, the heavenly High Priest, is brought before the representative of the Aaronic priesthood and the old Levitical dispensation, His testimony is, "From henceforth shall ye see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power." (*Compare next Lecture.) Now let us look upon the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ as it is narrated or testified in the Gospels.
I begin with the gospel in which the ascension, as an actual event, is not mentioned - the Gospel of John. The apostle, who dwells so emphatically on the divinity of the Lord Jesus, gives us no account of the ascension. Though not narrated, however, it is frequently alluded to; as in a similar manner the institution of the Lord’s Supper is never mentioned by this evangelist, though his gospel is full of references to, and expositions of, that eating and drinking of which the Lord’s Supper is the outward representation and blessed seal. Let us collect now the testimony of this gospel concerning the ascension. Jesus says to Nathanael, "Ye shall see the heavens open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man," the great Mediator between heaven and earth. He says to Nicodemus, "No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." Jesus here explains, that He had come down from heaven in order to go back again into heaven, to be the source of regeneration and life. Again, in the Saviour’s arguments with the Jews, when they are astonished and offended at His words, especially at His declaration that He is the Bread come down from heaven, and that we are to live by Him, the Lord asks, "Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where He was before?"1 Did He not refer to His ascension when He said to the unbelieving Jews, "Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come?2 Or when on that most solemn last night He spoke to His disciples "plainly" - "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go unto the Father"3 - of His Father’s house and its many mansions, of the place He was going to prepare for us, of His return unto glory, and not merely to the apostles, but before them to His heavenly Father. Lastly, what fuller announcement of the ascension than His gracious and majestic words to Mary Magdalene: "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God."4 When we consider these passages, which belong to every portion of this gospel, from its commencement to its conclusion, which consist of the Saviour’s own words, addressed to inquirers, to opponents, to disciples, and to the Father; when we consider the manner in which the Lord connects in these passages His ascension with His pre-mundane glory, with His eternal relation to the Father, and with His mediatorial work, we feel that although the ascension of our Lord is not narrated by the Apostle John, it is taught by him in the most profound, radical, and comprehensive manner. (1John 6:62.2John 7:34.3John 16:28. 4 John 20:17.) In the Gospel of Mark, which narrates the incidents of the life of Christ in the most terse and graphic style, the ascension of the Lord Jesus is mentioned in one verse, in which everything that is necessary is comprehended; namely, that He was taken away from the earth, and that He took His position at the right hand of the Majesty on high. In the Gospel of Luke the ascension is narrated most fully and circumstantially. Both the place - Bethany, the Mount of Olives - and the manner of His ascension are mentioned. "Jesus lifted up His hands, and blessed them. And while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven." The beloved physician, unto whom it was given to write the gospel of the Son of man, thus describes the ascension of our Lord with most instructive and touching detail. In his account we hear the loving voice and see the pierced hands of our blessed Saviour. In the Gospel of Matthew the ascension is not narrated. It is distinctly implied in Christ’s reply to the adjuration of the high priest: "Tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven."* In this gospel Jesus is chiefly represented as the Messiah, the King of the Jews. The great object is to show that Jesus, though rejected and crucified by His people, is the theocratic Lord; that the stone rejected by the builders is the corner-stone. Hence the conclusion, while implying the ascension in the words, "All power is given unto me in heaven and earth," points to the consummation of this age, to the restoration of Israel, and the Messianic reign. (*Matthew 26:63-64.)
Thus we have the most spiritual and theological account of the ascension in the Gospel of John; the most concise and terse statement in the Gospel of Mark; the most circumstantial and, if I may say so, human description, entering into the affections of our Lord, in the Gospel of the physician Luke; and a statement of the ascension of Christ, with special reference to His theocratic position as the Messiah and King of the Jews, in the Gospel of Matthew.
Now pass we on to that which is, as it were, the neck, the connecting-link, between the gospels and the epistles and Revelation - the Acts of the Apostles, written by the evangelist Luke, the friend and companion of the apostle Paul.
We have in the first chapter of the book of Acts another account of the ascension, and from a different point of view. Let us only bring to the reading of the Scripture a reverential spirit, taking for granted that the men that wrote it, even apart from the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, were men who approached their high task with the greatest solemnity and concentration of mind, whose every expression in the description of the grand events they narrate was based upon deep thought, and who always kept a specific and important purpose in view. In the book of Acts the evangelist Luke wishes to describe to us how the root of that tree that was now to be developed was not on earth, but in heaven. Therefore he shows unto us how, when Jesus parted with His disciples, they asked Him, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" It is not, as it is generally explained, a question of ignorance, or a question of prejudice, but a question of true spiritual insight into the Word of God. They had been taught by our blessed Saviour after His resurrection that it was from not understanding the whole Scripture that they expected the glory of the Messiah to be revealed without or before His sufferings. It was impossible for Christ to enter into glory, unless first He died upon the cross. But now that He had died, that He had offered the sacrifice, and that His glorified humanity had come forth from the grave, what hindered Him to establish the kingdom of Israel? Why should not now the prophecies be immediately fulfilled? If the apostles had asked Jesus the question before His crucifixion, "Wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" the Lord Jesus would have told them, that now it behooved Him to suffer. But now that He had suffered the question of the disciples was a perfectly correct one; nor does Jesus in any way contradict them, but His answer confirms the kingdom. He only tells them that it is delayed, it is postponed: there is a new development. The river has taken a new turn unforeseen by Israel.
Now is the time of the Church, consisting both of Jews and Gentiles in one body. Its characteristic is not rule, but testimony; not power, but suffering; not Israel as a nation, and other nations, converted as such; but from among Israel and all the nations a peculiar people, unacknowledged and unloved by the world, witnesses who are to wait for the coming of the Lord Jesus from heaven. It is in the Acts, and not in the Gospel of Luke, where it would not be in accordance with the scope of the whole book, that the ascension is related from this point of view. Jesus is King of Israel. He is not forgetting the earth, or the promises, which God had given to the fathers, of which He is the minister unto the circumcision. But in the meanwhile the apostles must be witnesses in Judaea, and in Galilee, and in Samaria, and to the uttermost ends of the earth. And finally, this Jesus shall so come in like manner, the angels declare, as ye have seen Him go up into heaven. The first chapter having thus explained the relation of the ascended Lord to Israel, and the earthly promise, and the nature of the intermediate Church dispensation, which does not set aside or take the position of a substitute of the earthly promise of the Christocracy, the rest of the book narrates the acts, not so much of the apostles, as of the Lord Jesus, the glorified Head of the Church. It is to the ascended Lord that Peter attributes the gift of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost. It is of Jesus in heaven, and of His return thence to fulfill the promises spoken of by all God’s holy prophets since the world began (for Enoch, the seventh from Adam, spoke of the coming of the Lord with His saints), that the apostle of the circumcision testifies, after the first miracle in Jerusalem. It is to the ascended Lord Jesus that the prayer of the proto-martyr is directed. The ascended Jesus appears unto Saul of Tarsus, and calls him to be His disciple and His apostle to the Gentiles. The Lord from heaven appears throughout this book as the Head and Ruler of the Church; He guides and blesses His messengers; He opens the heart of Lydia; He comforts and encourages the fainting heart of the apostle Paul in Corinth; His hand is with the evangelists, so that many believe.* The whole life, strength, and victory of the Church are derived from Jesus, seated at the right hand of God, who is in this book called emphatically Lord. (*Acts 2:33; Acts 3:20; Acts 7:56; Acts 9:5; Acts 16:14, etc.)
Let us glance now at the Pauline Epistles. In the teaching of this apostle we naturally expect that the ascension should hold a prominent position; for it was as the ascended Lord of glory that Jesus first appeared unto him, and thus we find in all his epistles the triumphant conclusion, the glorious consummation, of Christ’s life and work on earth. He who was God manifest in the flesh was after His death "received up into glory."*(*1 Timothy 3:16.) In the Epistle to the Philippians we can see more clearly and fully than in any other portion of Scripture the peculiarity of the apostle’s inward life. There is no more vivid and accurate portrait of his spiritual individuality. In other epistles we learn more of his conflicts both before and after his conversion (Romans and Corinthians); here the features of his spiritual countenance are, as it were, in repose, and we behold them in their most real and their most beautiful and placid character. And throughout this epistle we see that Christ in heaven was the apostle’s constant thought, strength, joy, and aim. His experience was different from that of the twelve disciples. In their case there was gradual development. They knew Jesus of Nazareth as their Master and Teacher, as the Prophet of Galilee, as their Friend. Even after recognizing in Him the Messiah, they did not understand the mystery of His sufferings. After three years discipleship Philip asked, "Show us the Father." The risen Jesus taught them the whole counsel of God, and at Pentecost they entered into the full enjoyment of light. Not so with Paul. Jesus, the Lord from heaven, appeared unto him, and beholding Him, he entered into a new region, a new life. Here he beheld God’s righteousness; here he beheld perfection in glory; here he beheld the source of life and strength; here he beheld joy, which no circumstances could cloud, and the hope of the consummation of blessedness. What is earth now to him? What his former righteousness and all the national distinctions in which he used to trust? What are all things compared with the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus?*(*
"To me to live is Christ," "Rejoice in the Lord." "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." "Our citizenship is in heaven, from whence we look for the Lord." "Christ in heaven," this is his aim and hope; to be like Him, even in His glorious body, this is the perfection, heavenly in its character, for which at the return of the Lord he awaits in hope. In the Epistle to the Romans, and in kindred epistles, the object of the apostle Paul is to lead the sinner to God. He begins with man in his present condition. He shows the depth of the fall, the guilt of sin, the helplessness of the flesh; then the propitiation that was made by Christ, the death of the Lord Jesus, the resurrection, and the consequent gift of the Holy Ghost. He goes from earth upwards. Such is not the method of the apostle John. He always goes from heaven earthwards. He begins with God - the life that was with God from the beginning, the Word that was with God, and is now manifested to us. The apostle Paul begins with man, Jew or Gentile - the sinner guilty and condemned, dead and helpless. Now from this point of view the death and resurrection of Christ must needs form the center. There all lines meet, as in the central nexus. Yet the end must always be Christ enthroned in heaven - Christ at the right hand of God. Thus, in answer to the question, "Who is he that condemneth?" his answer culminates in the heavenly exaltation of our Lord. "It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us."*(* Romans 8:34. Compare also the expression, "Who is over all" (Romans 9:5); and the striking passage,Romans 10:6.) In the Epistles to the Corinthians the apostle’s testimony is of Christ, the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, and he brings before us the glorious hope, "As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly."1 He describes the attitude of the believer, living in the spirit and liberty of the New Testament, as with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord; for the Lord Christ, exalted in heaven, is that Spirit.2(1 1 Corinthians 15:48; 22 Cor. 3.)
Look again at his experimental and prophetic epistles. We have already referred to the Epistle to the Philippians, as a comment on the words: "Our citizenship is in heaven."1 To the Thessalonians he writes more fully about our waiting for the Son of God from heaven, and of the descent of the Lord Himself to gather His saints.2 In his Epistles to Timothy he concludes his exulting and rhythmical summary of Christian truth, "Received into glory," the first link of the golden chain being God manifest in the flesh.3(1Php 3:20; 21Thess. 1 and 4.31 Timothy 3:16.)
Again, in the Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians, which we may call Christological, referring chiefly to the person of Christ, the ascension of the Lord holds a very prominent position. In the Epistle to the Ephesians, although Christ is not spoken of as High Priest, yet His exaltation at the right hand of God is represented in the same manner as in our epistle. From the very outset the apostle speaks of all spiritual blessings as in heavenly places in Christ, and of the Lord as exalted by the Father far above all principality and power, and might, and dominion at His own right hand in the heavenlies, in order to be the head over all things to the Church. In like manner he connects in the fourth chapter Christ’s rule over, union with, and gifts to the Church, with His ascension "far above all heavens, that He might fill all things." As in the Hebrews, Christ as High Priest is shown to be in heaven, so here Christ, the Head and Bridegroom of the Church, the Center and Heir of all things. The Epistle to the Colossians contains the same teaching, and with some new aspects and applications. Here the apostle connects the pre-eminence of Christ, as the first-begotten of the dead and as the Head of the Church, with His eternal glory as the Word by whom all things were made. He shows that being risen and exalted with Christ we have been transplanted out of the region of law and earthly elements (touch not, taste not, handle not), out of the region of shadows and types, into the liberty and substance of heavenly realities; hence His exhortation, "Seek the things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God."* How very striking and close the resemblance is here with the teaching of the Epistle to the Hebrews. (*CompareColossians 1:15withHebrews 1:1-3.)
Thus we find in all (the other) Pauline writings the same importance attached to the culminating part of Christ’s first advent - His ascension into heaven.* [*Peter, who was an eye-witness of the ascension (as he was likewise one of the three favoured disciples who were with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration, and thus saw the Son of man coming in His kingdom; compareMatthew 16:28with2 Peter 1:16), declared with joyous emphasis the heavenly exaltation and power of the Lord both in his addresses to the Jews (Acts passim), and in his epistles. "He is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him." "God raised Him up from the dead, and gave Him glory." (1 Peter 3:22; 1 Peter 1:21.) The book of Revelation is from beginning to end a testimony of the ascended Lord.]
It is because the Son of man, who came down from heaven, hath ascended up into heaven, it is because Jesus is at the right hand of God, that He is the true and perfect mediator between God and man. Him we in common with all believers invoke, Him we adore as Lord; to Him, as exalted by the Father, pertaineth the name above every name, and the homage of the whole creature-world; unto Him, as the Lord in heaven, all celestial and earthly power is given, and all angelic orders are obedient to His command. From His throne in heaven He gives repentance and the remission of sins; from thence He gives unto His Church all needful gifts, even as He at first sent forth the Holy Ghost, because He had been exalted by the right hand of God. From heaven He shall descend and gather His saints, changing their vile bodies, that they may be fashioned like unto His glorious body; from heaven He worketh now, and will work, until He hath subdued all things unto Himself.
Christ in heaven this - sums up all our faith.
Here is our righteousness, and our standing before God; here our storehouse of inexhaustible blessings, and of unsearchable riches: here our armoury, whence we obtain the weapons of our warfare; here is our citizenship, and the hope of our glory.
What is meant by the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens? In the first chapter the apostle had used the similar expression, "the right hand of the Majesty," and with evident reference to the prophecy of the 110th Psalm. The expression does not denote the omnipresence of God; as the creed correctly and significantly says, "Sitteth at the right hand of the Father Almighty" Jesus is now on the throne of omnipotence. He ascended into the eternal, highest, and uncreated heaven. The term denotes the rank of equality which our Lord takes in His glory. He has entered into the participation of the sovereign authority. The right hand is the place of affection, as well as of honour and dignity.* Christ is on the right hand of the Father, being His beloved Son, in whom He manifests His glory. The right hand is also the symbol of sovereign power and rule. Christ is Lord over all. (*So we are told in the 45th Psalm that the bride is to stand at the right hand of the King. As the apostle explains in the epistle to the Corinthians, in accordance with this, the husband is the head of the woman; Christ is the head of the Church; God is the head of Christ. The husband is the head of the wife; God is the head of Christ. The wife is the glory of the husband; Christ is the glory of God.)
Great is the mystery of the incarnation - the Son of God in human nature, both before and after His exaltation. It was not the human nature of Christ that suffered upon the cross, but the Son of God in human nature. It is not the human nature that is glorified at the right hand of the Father; but the Son of God in human nature, who humbled Himself, is now exalted above all heavens. Unto Him all power is given; the government of all things is upon His shoulder; Jesus rules now. In the book of Revelation His royal dignity is unveiled. There we behold the First-begotten of the dead possessing the keys of hell and of death; the Lamb, who alone can open the book; the Governor, the Lord; who overrules and directs all events; who controls all storms and tempests, and unto whose kingdom all developments of history, and all conflicts and movements among angels and among the nations on earth must serve; who shall finally be revealed, acknowledged, and obeyed as King of kings, and Lord of lords. The royal aspect of the word, "Sit thou at my right hand," is explained in the Apocalypse, where we behold the Lamb in the midst of the throne; in our epistle, the priestly aspect of the word is unfolded.
Heaven being the locality of Christ’s priesthood, it must needs be perfect, eternal, spiritual, and substantial. What are the things in which Christ is now occupied as a priest? In one respect He rests, because He finished His work upon the earth, and therefore He is described as sitting down on His Father’s throne; His is now the perfect and peaceful rest of victory, for He has overcome. But, on tire other hand, His is now a constant priestly activity. Every single individual that is brought unto God, is brought through His intercession; and day by day Christ is occupied with all His children who are upon earth, bestowing upon them the benefits which He has purchased with His blood, sustaining their spiritual life, and overruling all things for their good.
If Christ is in heaven, we must lift up our eyes and hearts to heaven. There are things above. The things above are the spiritual blessings in heavenly places.1 "Seek those things which are above;"2 faith and love, hope and patience, meekness, righteousness, and strength. The things above are also the future things for which we wait, seeing that our inheritance is not here upon earth. All that is pertaining unto the inheritance "incorruptible, and undefined, and that fadeth not away," belongs unto those things which Christ has now to minister in the tabernacle which God has made, and not man.3 Our transfigured body, our perfectly enlightened mind, our soul entirely filled with the love of God, all the strength and gifts for government (for we shall be called to reign with Christ upon the earth), all those powers and blessings which we have now only by faith and in germ, are in the heavenly places with Christ, who shall bring them to us when He comes again at the command of the Father. (1 Ephesians 1:3; 2Colossians 3:1; 3Compare 1 Peter 1.)
Let us pause here to examine the character of our faith and of our walk in the light of this truth. Our High Priest is in Heaven. The New Covenant Scripture explains to us that there are two kingdoms, two realms, two atmospheres or methods of life. The one shall pass away, and the other shall remain forever. The one is the world and the earth in its present condition; the other is heavenly, and shall abide for evermore. The one belongs to the first creation, and the power of sin and death; the other belongs to the second creation, to the power of redemption and life through righteousness. To believe is to see the things which are unseen and eternal. It is to behold the land that is afar off, and to take possession of it."1 It is to enter into the kingdom2 prepared for us from the foundation of the world, existing at present, and ready to be manifested at the appearing of our Lord. It is to cherish the lively, animating, and purifying hope of the inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading, even the heavenly kingdom.3 It is to be transplanted into this unseen and yet most real world of blessing and of power. It is to mind no longer earthly things,4 and to have the affections set upon the things above. It is to be entrusted with the true riches.5 Such is the nature of faith.6 It is to prefer spiritual things to carnal; eternal things to temporal; real things to things which are mere shadows. [1"Faith is the discovery and conquest of a new country." - J. MULLER.2 Matthew 25:34; 3 1 Peter 1:4;Colossians 1:12;2 Timothy 4:18; 4
"Lay not up for yourselves treasure on earth; but lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven." Hence, the whole aim and purpose of our existence here below, all our endeavour, all our works, all our diligence, ought to be given to this one thing, the kingdom of God, which remains forever. So, while we are occupied with earthly duties, our great object should always be to lay up treasure for ourselves in heaven; to have our affections set upon the things which are above, that thus we may learn Christ in the occupations and discipline of our present life; to be filled with the mind which was in Christ Jesus, who humbled Himself, and obeyed the .Father in love; to be heavenly-minded, as they who have a lively hope, and whose citizenship is in heaven. Such is the Christian life - other-worldly, heavenly. A spurious or superficial conversion dwells rather on the peace of God than on the God of peace, contemplates the cross of Christ and not the Christ of the cross, rejoices prematurely in deliverance from punishment, instead of cleaving in repentance and faith to Jesus, who delivers us from this present evil world, and raises us unto newness of life; heavenly in its character and hope. Wretched and fatal self-deception, to imagine that after a worldly, selfish, self-centered life upon earth we shall be transplanted into the kingdom of glory, into a blessedness of which we have had no foretaste, into an inheritance of which we have received no earnest in the gift of the indwelling Spirit. Jesus, who died on the cross, is now in heaven; it is only from heaven that the blessings of redemption, forgiveness, and the eternal love of God, are now bestowed by Him; He never delivers from the wrath to come without drawing us unto Himself, without separating us by His cross from the dominion of sin and the tyranny of self, without sending into our hearts the Spirit, as the Spirit of life. If our life is now hid with Christ in God, then, when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we also shall appear with Him in glory. Our citizenship is in heaven, and Jesus, whom we now love and serve, will come to receive us unto Himself. From the lowest depth of sin and guilt, of weakness and fear, look up to heaven, and behold there the great High Priest. It is because He finished the transgression, and made an end of sins, and made reconciliation for iniquity, and brought in everlasting righteousness, that Jesus is on the throne of God. Behold in Him the forgiveness of sin, righteousness everlasting, perfect access to the Father, the fountain of renewing grace, of upholding strength, and of endless blessedness. Only believe! Our works and merit are of no avail. Into this height none can ascend. Jesus, who went to the Father, is the way. Faith beholds the great High Priest who died for sinners on the cross, and who as the sinner’s righteousness is now before God; faith beholds Jesus at the right hand of the Majesty on high; and faith can rest, and worship, and say, "The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ is my God and my Father."