38b. Works of Redemption
25] QUEN. (III, 377): “The term ‘resurrection’ is received either comprehensively, according as it is an official meritorious act, and belongs to both natures, or restrictedly, according as it is 401a change of state of the human nature, resulting form exaltation; not the former but the latter signification has a place here. Just as Christ was nailed to the cross and delivered over to death, not according to His divine nature, which considered in itself is entirely free from suffering but according to His human nature; so He was raised up by God not according to His divine, but only according to His human nature. Yet the divine nature is not, therefore, altogether excluded from this act; for it has imparted to the human nature the power to rise again, and has made its resurrection of advantage to us, i.e., that the resurrection might be victor over death, sin, and hell, and our justifier.”
(Id., 387): “The material is the same body in substance and number that endured the death of the cross, reunited with the soul, the same in number which before had departed from it, but clothed with new qualities, Php 3:21 . . . . When the question is asked, ‘What is the nature of the body with which Christ rose again,’ we reply: (1) Not with a psychical (ψυχικω) body, or one subject to natural infirmities, but with a spiritual (πνευματικω) body, or one adorned with spiritual endowments, namely, invisibility, impalpability, illocality, etc. By virtue of this endowment, Christ penetrated the closed stone of the sepulchre, the closed door, and did not stand in need of raiment and food. “The fact mentioned in Luk 24:43, that He truly ate, occurred not from necessity but from free will; not for the nourishment of His own body, as the body neither stood in need of this nor admitted the same, but for the strengthening of the faith of the disciples. (2) Not with a weak body, but one strong and powerful. (3) Not with a corruptible body (such Christ’s body never was), but with an incorruptible and immortal body, both as to act and as to power. (4) Not with a body having ignominy, but with a glorious body, and hence the body of Christ is called σωμα τησ δοξης αυτου, Php 3:21.” THE DESIGN OF THE RESURRECTION, according to HOLL. (783): “Christ rose again in order to manifest the victory which He had obtained over death and the devil, Acts 2:24; and to offer and apply to all men the fruits of His passion and death.” These fruits are: “The confirmation of our faith concerning Christ’s full satisfaction, 1Co 15:17; the application of the benefits obtained by the death of Christ; our justification, Rom 4:25; the sealing of our hope concerning our preservation for salvation, 1Pe 1:3; our being raised again to life eternal, John 11:25; John 14:19; 2Co 4:14; 1Th 4:14; and our renewal, Rom 6:4; 2Co 5:15.”
[26] QUEN. (III, 380): “The ascension is regarded either in a 402wide sense, in so far as it includes the sitting at the right hand of God, as in Acts 2:33-34; Eph 4:10; or in a narrow sense, in so far as it denotes the visible elevation of Christ on high, as Mark 16:19; Acts 1:9-11. The latter is the signification in this article.”
QUEN. (III, 382): “Of the general goal of the ascension, the passages Mark 16:19 and Acts 1:11 speak. But the heaven into which Christ ascended is not the aerial or sidereal heaven of nature, for to think of this here is irreverent; nor the heaven of grace (HOLL. (785), which is the Church Militant upon this earth, from which Christ has withdrawn His visible presence until the day of judgment); not a glorious state, whether of infinite glory, which pertains to the succeeding article, the sitting at the Right Hand of God, or of finite glory, because He was in this state immediately after the resurrection; but the residence, and home of the blessed, where He presents Himself to the blessed for them to look upon Him face to face, and fills the souls of the saints by His most joyful visible presence with divine and heavenly comfort, John 14:2; Luk 23:43. The goal, properly speaking, is υπερανω παντων ουρανων (above all heavens), Eph 4:10, viz., at the very right hand of God, at which He sat down, where υψηλοτερος των ουρανων γενομενος (He is made higher than the heavens), Heb 7:26. We have a great High Priest, says Paul, Heb 4:14, διεληλυθοτα τουσ ουρανους (that is passed into the heavens).” Concerning the passage just cited, GRH. remarks, “To penetrate the heavens is not to pass through a visible mechanism of the heavens diversified by distinct circuits of spheres, so as to be contained in the last heaven, as though, according to a physical sense, to be circumscribed in a certain place; but, in accordance with scriptural language, to become higher than all heavens, and to enter and take upon Himself divine glory.” We have above proved that Christ ascended to the where of the blessed. But since this is not a circumscribed and physical locality, the ascension itself is not a local and physical passing over to it. Christ is also in heaven, yet not according to local circumscription, but definitively and according to the manner of a glorified body.
GRH. (XIX, 152): “We in no wise affirm that the ascension of Christ was an αφανισμος, disappearance or evanescence; nor any more αορασια [invisibility], just as before by divine virtue He had at different times rendered Himself invisible: but we sincerely believe and confess that Christ’s αναληψις [being taken up] was a τοπικη μεταστασις, a local transfer, a visible elevation, a true and real ascension, by which Christ, on Mount Olivet, was visibly lifted up on high from the earth, and, the infirmities of this life being laid aside, was transferred to heaven, and placed at the Right Hand of 403God, the ultimate goal of His ascension. But what we deny is this, viz., that Christ, when the cloud had withdrawn Him from the eyes of the disciples, by a successive departure passed first through a sphere of fire, and then through circles of planets and the firmament, or the first movable and crystalline heaven, until in the progress of time He came to His Father in the empyreal heaven, in which, residing in a local and bodily manner, He is held restrained from being present upon earth in an invisible and illocal manner before the day of judgment.”
[27] Cf. FORM. CONC., Sol. Dec., VIII, 28. Br. (487): “God’s Right Hand is not any definite place, but the omnipotent power of God itself, which fills heaven and earth, Mat 26:64; Exo 15:6; Heb 1:3; Heb 8:1; Heb 12:2; Eph 1:20-23; Psa 139:10.” HOLL. (787): “To sit at God’s Right Hand means to use fully and incessantly the royal omnipotence and majesty imparted from the Father through the exaltation, for universal and most glorious governing in the kingdom of power, grace, and glory; or, what is the same, to sit at God’s Right Hand is, by virtue of the personal union and the exaltation following this, to govern all the works of God’s hands most powerfully, most efficaciously, and most gloriously, 1Co 15:25-27; Psa 110:1-2; Heb 2:7-8.”
GRH. (III, 509): “(a) The Right Hand of God. The sitting at the Right Hand of God must be understood to be of like nature with the right hand of God. Now the Right Hand of God is not a bodily, circumscribed, limited, definite place, but it is the infinite power of God and His most efficacious majesty in heaven and earth; it is that most efficacious dominion by which God preserves and governs all things. For thus the Right Hand of God is described in Holy Scripture, that it has been magnified in power, and breaks to pieces its enemies, Exo 15:6; Psa 18:35; Psa 44:3; Psa 108:6; Psa 63:8:, etc. From these and similar passages of Scripture such a representation of God’s Right Hand is inferred, as that it is the infinite power of God, everywhere, in heaven and earth, most efficaciously and most powerfully governing, controlling, and administering all things. Hence it is also called the right hand, δυναμεως, of power, Mat 26:64; Luk 22:69; and the right hand of majesty, Heb 1:3; the throne μεγαλωσυνης, Heb 8:1; the right hand of the throne of God, Heb 12:2; the throne of His glory, Mat 25:31. Therefore the sitting at God’s Right Hand is to be explained and understood in such a manner as that through it, participation in divine power, majesty, and dominion in heaven and earth are understood.”
“(b) Sitting at God’s Right Hand. This is most correctly and 404simply explained according to the manner and sense in which Scripture itself explains the sitting at God’s Right Hand. Now Scripture itself explains the sitting at God’s Right Hand as the most efficacious and powerful dominion of heaven and earth. Therefore, etc. The minor premise is proved by a comparison of passages. The apostle, in 1Co 15:25, citing Psa 110:1, infers: ‘He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet.’ What sitting at the Right Hand of God is to David, that the reigning and having all things under Him is to the apostle. Thus Mark 16:19 : ‘The Lord Jesus was received up into heaven, and sat on the Right Hand of God.’ With this passage we compare the expression of the apostle in Eph 4:10. Therefore to sit at the Right Hand of God and to fill all things, i.e., with the presence of majesty, are convertible terms. And because the power and presence of majesty exercise themselves in a special way through works of grace, in the collection, preservation, and protection of the Church, therefore, according to Mark 16:20, the consequence is, the ‘apostles preached everywhere, the Lord working with them,’ and, according to Paul, Eph 4:11, ‘He gave some apostles,’ etc., and Eph 4:8 precedes, ‘He gave gifts to men.’ Peter, likewise, Acts 2:33, states that the miraculous outpouring of the Holy Ghost was a fruit and consequence of this sitting at the Right Hand of God: ‘Being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this which ye now see.’ The emphatic description of the sitting at the Right Hand of God given by Paul, Eph 1:20 sq., and by Peter, 1Pe 3:22, are especially to be noted. Take notice that in the latter words, ‘He gave Him to be head over all things to the Church,’ this presence and power to the Church is not limited or restricted, but by these are described the effect and fruit of the dominion over all things conferred upon Christ. For, as God preserves the whole world because of the Church, so also the divine power and majesty are imparted to Christ, according to His human nature in order that He may be king and protector of the Church. Finally, this also must be noticed, that when Christ shall come in the clouds of heaven to judgment, He will nevertheless sit upon the seat of His majesty, and the Right Hand of God’s power, Mat 24:30; Mat 25:31; Mat 26:64. Therefore, the Right Hand of God is not any finite and circumscribed place in heaven; otherwise Christ coming in the clouds to judgment would no longer sit at the Right Hand of God. Likewise, all men are to be brought before His judgment-seat, and to see Christ as their judge, Zec 12:10; Mat 24:30; Rev 1:7. But if Christ, with His glorified body, personally united to the λογος, 405and taken up to the right hand of God, were so confined to a determinate place in heaven that He could not be present and be seen except in that one place, how could all men, innumerable in multitude, see Him in that one place at one and the same time? If the seat of majesty on which Christ will sit when He comes to judgment has been removed so many miles from earth, how will all men, at one and the same view, be able to see Him?”
It is here to be observed that this sitting at the Right Hand of God is described as the last and highest act of the exaltation; hence CHMN. (Loc. Th.) remarks: “Scripture, therefore, explains Christ’s sitting at the Right Hand of God the Father Almighty, as referring to the exaltation of the human nature in Christ to the highest majesty and power over all things.” Rightly, therefore, QUEN. also, in harmony with all the Dogmaticians, remarks (III, 385): “The subject sitting at the Right Hand of God is the incarnate λογος, Mat 26:64; Mark 14:62; Luk 22:69. The subject by which He sits, is human nature, Rom 8:34; Php 2:8-9; Rev 5:9, Rev 5:12-13. This is proved . . . from the preceding self-renunciation and subsequent exaltation of Christ. According to the same nature, in which Christ was first humbled and afterwards exalted, He sits at the Right Hand of God; but Christ was first humbled and afterwards exalted, not according to His divinity, but only according to His humanity; for only the latter is capable of self-renunciation and exaltation.” It is to this sitting, that the remark of HOLL. refers (788): “Holy Scripture ascribes the sitting at God’s Right Hand, it is true, to Christ’s entire person, but according to His human nature;” i.e., the thing itself, the sitting at the Right Hand of God, is ascribed, indeed, to the entire person; but an exaltation, such as is implied in the conception of “sitting at the Right Hand of God,” can be predicated only of the human nature of Christ, for only this is capable of it. The Dogmaticians are so in the habit of associating the conception of exaltation with that of the “sitting,” that, in this connection, they make a further distinction between “sitting at God’s Right Hand, and reigning.” QUEN. (III, 384): “To sit at the Right Hand of God the Father, is not altogether the same as to reign with God the Father. For (1) Christ while yet ασαρκος [unincarnate] reigned with the Father and Holy Ghost from eternity, yet He did not then sit at God’s Right Hand; for this sitting first began from the time of exaltation. (Christ as God, together with the Father and Holy Ghost, reigns from eternity by means of His essential omnipotence; Christ as man, or according to His assumed human nature, reigns not from eternity, but from the time of His exaltation, through His sitting 406at the Right Hand of God. Mentzer shows this accurately in Anti-Matin, where he admonishes that the major premise [This cannot be understood without a reference to the context of QUEN., a portion of which Schmid here omits. It is this: “Martinius, the Calvinist, argues in this wise: ‘To sit at the Right Hand of God is to reign. But Christ reigns according to both natures. Therefore — ’”] [i.e., ‘to sit at the Right Hand of God is to reign,’ vide note], which receives the word, to rule, in too general a sense, is to be thus restricted: to sit at the Right Hand of God is to reign, namely, in such a manner that the sitting at the Right Hand of God is the cause, manner, and mode of the reign itself, (2) To reign with the Father is an αποτελεσμα [official act] of the royal office, issuing from the power of Christ’s two natures; but to sit at the Right Hand of God the Father is not such a result.”
[Reformed theologians, when not treating the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper, often reach the same conclusions, or closely approach them (as may be seen from the following citations in Heppe’s Dogmatik (1861, pp. 364, sq.): LEIDENER: “The Right Hand of God here cannot be received literally, since God is a spirit, and, accordingly, has not flesh and bones; but is taken metaphorically for the highest degree of glory, to which, after His passion and ascension, Christ was raised by the Father.” RIIS.: “The session at the Right Hand of God can be understood not properly and literally, but figuratively and metaphorically, in order to designate the supreme dignity and power of Christ; the metaphor being derived from the custom of kings, who are wont to put at their right hands those to whom they concede a degree both of honor and power in governing next themselves. This phrase is understood of the nearest degree of honor in 1Ki 2:19, where Solomon, to show his mother especial honor, puts her at his right hand; and in Psa 45:10, the wife of the king, i.e., the Church, is said to stand on the right hand of the Messiah. It is also used of power, or the administration of government, Mat 10:21, where the mother of Zebedee’s sons asks that they may sit on His right and left in His kingdom, i.e., hold the highest offices. Hence, by the session at the Right Hand of God, two things especially are designated: 1. Supreme majesty and glory, whereby God supremely exalted Him, and through which He received a name above every name, Php 2:9-10. 2. Supreme power, which He powerfully exercises towards all creatures, and especially displays in the government and defence of the Church.” HEIDEGGER: “To sit is here a sign of honor and power.” BUCAN: “But did He not always reign with the Father, and thus does He not perpetually sit at the Right 407Hand of the Father? He reigned indeed, but purely as God, without flesh. But afterwards in time, as God clothed in flesh, after the completion of the period of His humiliation, He began to sit at the Right Hand of the Father, i.e., to reign in heaven and earth. When did He begin to sit at the Right Hand of the Father? By right, from the very first moment of the hypostatic union; but actually or in fact, since His passion, resurrection and ascension.”]