01.18. The work of Christ in his exaltation.

18. The work of Christ in his exaltation. The benefits, which Christ has acquired for us by his great love, are so rich, that they are almost impossible to enumerate and never to estimate at their full value. They comprise nothing less than complete and total salvation; they consist in the redemption of the greatest evil, sin with all its consequences of misery and death, and in the bestowal of the highest good, communion with God and all its blessings. These benefits will be discussed more fully later, but they must nevertheless be mentioned here, in order to give a better understanding of the deep significance of Christ’s work. Of all the benefits that we owe to Christ’s profound humiliation, reconciliation takes precedence. This is expressed in the New Testament by two words, which unfortunately have been transcribed in the same way in our translation. The first word (or rather different words, but from the same root) occurs in Romans 3:25, Hebrews 2:17, 1 John 2:2, 1 John 4:10, and is the translation of a Hebrew word, which originally means to cover, and then indicates the reconciliation brought about by the sacrifice. The idea is that the sacrifice, or rather the sacrificial blood - for the blood as the seat of life is, when poured out and sprinkled, the actual means of atonement, Leviticus 17:11, Hebrews 9:12 - covers the sin (guilt, impurity) of the sacrificer before God and thus robs him of its power and effect to incur God’s wrath. Because of the pouring and sprinkling of the blood, into which the life, the soul of an innocent and flawless animal, is poured out, God renounces His wrath, changes His disposition towards the sinner, forgives him his transgression and allows him back into His presence and fellowship. And the forgiveness that comes after the reconciliation is so complete, that it can be called an erasing, Psalms 51:3, Psalms 51:11, Isaiah 43:25, Isaiah 44:22, a casting behind the back, Isaiah 38:17, a casting of the sins into the depths of the sea, Micah 7:19, can be called. The atonement removes sins as completely as if they had never been committed; it drives out wrath and makes God’s face shine with fatherly favour and pleasure upon his people. In the Old Testament all this pointed to Christ’s sacrifice in the future; in the New Testament it has all been completely fulfilled in Christ. He is the High Priest who, through his sacrificial blood, covers our sins before God, turns away his wrath and shares his grace and favor with us. He is the means of atonement, Romans 3:25, the reconciliation, 1 John 2:2, 1 John 4:10, who works for us with God as the high priest and atones for the sins of the people, Hebrews 2:17. There are many who reject such an objective reconciliation of Christ with God for us, and say that God is love, that He does not need to be reconciled, and that such reconciliation belongs only to a lower, lawless, Old Testament conception of God, which is precisely condemned and set aside in the New Testament. But they forget, that sin, not first in the Mosaic law, but also before and outside it, and likewise in the New Testament, because of its guilty and unholy character arouses God’s wrath and deserves punishment, Genesis 2:17, Genesis 3:14 ff, Romans 1:18, Romans 5:12, Romans 6:23, Galatians 3:10, Ephesians 2:3; that Christ and his sacrifice are not only a gift and revelation of God’s love, but also of his righteousness, Luke 24:46, Acts 4:28, Romans 3:25; and that the forgiving love of God does not exclude the atonement, but presupposes and confirms it. For forgiveness is always an entirely voluntary and gracious act of God; it is based on the idea that God has the right to punish, and now consists in such remission of the penalty as is in accordance with the maintenance and recognition of that right. To deprive God of the right to punish beforehand, on the other hand, is not only to undermine the guilty and unholy nature of sin, but also to undermine the gracious and forgiving love of God. It ceases to be a personal, voluntary, gracious act and is changed into a natural process. Scripture, however, teaches that Zion is redeemed by right, and that Christ, by his sacrifice, satisfied that right of God and reconciled his displeasure with sin, Isaiah 1:27, Romans 5:9-10, 1 Corinthians 15:18, Galatians 3:13. From this objective reconciliation, which Christ brought about for us with God, is now distinguished that other, which is indicated in the New Testament by a special, second word. This word occurs in Romans 5:10-11, and 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, and originally has the meaning of exchange, substitution, settlement, and in these places it designates the new, gracious disposition which God has assumed toward the world on the basis of the sacrifice made by Christ. Because Christ, by dying, covered our sins and averted God’s wrath, God establishes a different, reconciled relationship with the world and says so to us in His Gospel, which is therefore called the word of reconciliation. This reconciliation, too, is something objective; it is not something that is first brought about by our faith and conversion, but it rests on the atonement made by Christ, consists in the reconciled, gracious relation of God to us, and is received and accepted by us through faith. As God has renounced His hostile disposition on account of Christ’s death, so we are exhorted to renounce our enmity on our part as well, to be reconciled to God, and to enter into the new, reconciled relationship in which God has set Himself apart to us. Everything has been accomplished; there is nothing left for us to do; we may rest with our whole soul and for all time in the perfect work of redemption that Christ has performed; we may accept by faith that God has renounced his wrath and in Christ is a reconciled God and Father to guilty and unholy sinners.

Whoever believes this Gospel of reconciliation with all his heart, receives immediately and in principle all the other benefits that are acquired through Christ. For in the peace relation, in which God places Himself to the world in Christ, all other goods of the covenant of grace are included; Christ is one and cannot be divided, nor taken in half; the chain of salvation is indissoluble: whom God predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; whom He justified, these He also glorified, Romans 8:30. All thus reconciled to God through the death of His Son receive the remission of sins, adoption as children, peace with God, the right to eternal life and a heavenly inheritance, Romans 5:1, Romans 8:17, Galatians 4:5. They have fellowship with Christ, have been crucified, buried, resurrected and put into heaven with Him, and are becoming more and more like His image, Romans 6:3 ff, Romans 8:29, Galatians 2:20, Ephesians 4:22-24. They receive the Holy Spirit, who renews them, leads them in the truth, testifies of their childhood and seals them until the day of redemption, John 3:6, John 16:13, Romans 8:15, 1 Corinthians 6:11, Ephesians 4:30. In this fellowship of the Fathers, the Sons and the Holy Spirit, believers are free from the law, Romans 7:1, Galatians 2:19, Galatians 3:13, Galatians 3:25, Galatians 4:5, Galatians 5:1, and are exalted above all power of the world and death, of hell and Satan, John 16:33, Romans 8:38, 1 Corinthians 15:55, 1 John 3:8, Revelation 12:10. God is before them; who then shall be against them? Romans 8:31. The perfect sacrifice which Christ brought on the cross is of infinite power and dignity, abundantly sufficient for the atonement of the sins of the whole world. After all, Scripture always connects the whole world with redemption and re-creation. The world has been the object of God’s love, John 3:16; Christ came to earth, not to condemn the world, but to save it, John 3:17, John 4:42, John 6:33, John 6:51, John 12:47; in him God has reconciled the world, all things in heaven and on earth, to himself, John 1:29, 2 Corinthians 5:9, Colossians 1:20. As it was created by the Son, so it is also destined for the Son as its heir, Colossians 1:16, Hebrews 1:2, Revelation 11:15. It is the Father’s will that in the fullness of time all things should again be gathered together into Christ as the head, both those in heaven and those on earth, Eph. Times are coming of the re-establishment of all things; according to God’s promise we expect new heavens and a new earth, in which dwelleth righteousness, Acts 3:21, 2 Peter 2:13, Revelation 21:1.

Because of this abundant sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice for the whole world, the Gospel of reconciliation must also be preached to all creatures. The promise of the Gospel is that everyone who believes in Christ crucified shall not perish but have eternal life; and this promise must be preached and presented indiscriminately to all peoples and human beings to whom God sends His Gospel according to His will, with the command of conversion and faith (Dordrecht Doctrines 11 5). Scripture leaves no room for the slightest doubt in this regard. Already in the Old Testament it is said that the Lord has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but in his conversion and life, Ezekiel 18:23, Ezekiel 33:11, and that in the blessings of Israel all nations will one day share, Genesis 9:27, Genesis 12:3, Deuteronomy 32:21, Isaiah 42:1, etc. The missionary idea is already locked up in the promise of the Old Testament covenant of grace. But it is expressed clearly and unambiguously when Christ himself appears on earth and has completed his work. For he is the light of the world, the Saviour, who gives life to the world’s sheep, John 3:19, John 4:42, John 6:33, John 6:51, John 8:12, who has other sheep besides Israel, whom he must bring to them, John 10:16, and who therefore foretells and commands that his Gospel shall be preached to the whole world, Matthew 24:14, Matthew 26:14, Matthew 28:19, Mark 16:15. When the apostles, from the day of Pentecost onwards, bring this Gospel to Jews and Gentiles and found congregations all over the world, it may well be said that their sound has gone out over the whole earth and their words to the ends of the earth, Romans 10:18, that the saving grace of God has appeared to all mankind, Titus 2:11. Even the intercession for all men, and especially for kings and all who are in authority, is therefore good and pleasing to God, because He wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, 1 Timothy 2:4. And the delaying of Christ’s return is a proof of God’s forbearance, since He does not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance, 2 Peter 3:9. This general proclamation of the Gospel has its advantages for the world at large, and also for those who will never believe in Christ as their Savior. Through His incarnation, Christ honored the entire human race and became a brother of all men according to the flesh. The light shines in the darkness and by His coming into the world enlightens everyone; the world was made through Him and remains so, even though it has not known Him, John 1:3-5. Through the call to faith and repentance that Christ sends out to all who live under the Gospel, He bestows many external blessings in the family and society, in church and state, which are also enjoyed by those who do not respond to that call with their hearts. They are under the influence of the Word, are protected from terrible sins, and, unlike the heathen peoples, share in many external privileges. It should also be remembered that Christ, through his suffering and death, also secured the liberation of mankind from the servitude of destruction, the renewal of heaven and earth, the reunion and mutual reconciliation of all things, including angels and men. In Christ the organism of the human race, the world as God’s creation, is preserved and restored, Ephesians 1:10, Colossians 1:20. But however much this absolute generality of the preaching of the Gospel and of the offer of grace must be resolutely maintained, it may not be inferred from it that therefore the benefits of Christ are acquired and destined for all men, head by head. This is already conclusively refuted by the fact that in the days of the Old Testament God let the Gentiles walk in their own ways and chose for Himself only the people of Israel, and that also in the fullness of time, notwithstanding the fundamental generality of the Gospel proclamation, He limited the promises of His grace throughout all ages to a small part of mankind. The general statements which occasionally occur in Scripture, e.g., Romans 10:18, 1 Timothy 2:4, Titus 2:11, 2 Peter 3:9, cannot be understood by anyone in an absolute, and must be understood by all in a relative sense. They are all written under the deep impression of the difference between the division of the Old and the New Covenant. We can no longer imagine it, but the Apostles, who had all been brought up in the private life of Judaism, deeply felt the great change which Christ brought about in the relationship between the nations. They repeatedly spoke of this as a great mystery, which had been hidden for centuries, but which had now been revealed to His holy Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit, namely, that the Gentiles were co-heirs and members of the same body and co-partners of the promise in Christ. The middle wall of separation is broken down; the blood of the cross has made peace; in Christ there is no Jew or Greek, no barbarian or Scyth; all limitations of nation and language, of descent and color, of age and sex, of time and place, have been done away with; in Christ there is only a new creat- sel; the church is gathered from all genders and languages and people and nations, Romans 16:25-26, Ephesians 1:10, Ephesians 3:3-9,Colossians 1:26-27, 2 Timothy 1:10-11, Revelation 5:9, etc. But as soon as the Scriptures deal with the question of for whom Christ acquired His benefits, to whom He gives and applies them, and who therefore actually shares in them, they always relate His work to the church. Just as there was a special people in the Old Testament, whom God chose to inherit, so this idea of a special people of God also lives on in the New Testament. Certainly, this people no longer coincides with the fleshly descendants of Abraham; on the contrary, it is now called and gathered from Jews and Gentiles, from all nations and from all people. But this congregation is the actual assembly of God’s people, Matthew 16:18, Matthew 18:20, the New Testament Israel, 2 Corinthians 6:16, Galatians 6:16, the true seed of Abraham, Romans 9:8, Galatians 4:29. And for this people Christ shed His blood and obtained salvation. He came to save his people, Matthew 1:21, to give life to his sheep, John 10:11, to gather all God’s children into one, John 11:52, to give life to all those given to him by the Father and to raise them up at the last day, John 6:39, John 17:2, to obtain the congregation of God by his blood and to cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, Acts 20:28, Ephesians 5:25-26. As high priest, Christ does not even pray for the world, but for those whom the Father has given Him and who will believe in Him through the word of the apostles, John 17:9, John 17:20.

There is thus the most perfect harmony between the work of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. As many as were chosen by the Father are bought by the Son, and reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Scriptures explicitly tell us that there are many, very many, Isaiah 53:11-12, Matthew 20:28; Matthew 26:28, Romans 5:15, Romans 5:19, Hebrews 2:10, Hebrews 9:28; and it teaches us all this, not that we should limit and shrink this number according to our imperfect understanding and arbitrary measure, but that in the midst of all the strife and waste we should be firmly assured that the work of salvation is God’s work from beginning to end, and therefore, in spite of all opposition, is being continued and completed. The pleasure of the Lord continues happily through the hand of His servant, Isaiah 53:10.

Since the work of salvation is God’s work and his alone, the benefits of Christ could not be ours if he had not been raised from the dead and exalted at God’s right hand. A dead Jesus would be enough for us, if Christianity were no more, and had to be no more for our salvation, than a doctrine that we had to instill in our minds, or a moral precept and example that we had to follow. But the Christian religion is something else and much more than that; it is the complete redemption of all mankind, of all the organs of humanity and of the whole world. And Christ came to earth to save the world in this full sense. He did not come only to acquire the possibility of salvation for us, and then to leave it to our free will whether we should make use of that possibility. But He humbled Himself and became obedient until the death of the cross, in order to make us truly, perfectly and eternally blessed. That is why His work did not end with His death and burial. It is true that in His supreme prayer He said that He had finished the work that the Father had given Him to do, John 17:4, and on the Cross He exclaimed, "It is finished", John 19:30. But this related to the work that Christ had to do on earth, it concerned the work of His humiliation, the acquisition of our salvation. And this work is finished, it is completed and perfect; salvation has been so completely acquired by his suffering and death that no creature can or need do anything more. From the acquisition of salvation, however, the application and distribution are distinct. And this is no less necessary than the other. What use would a treasure of goods be to us, which remained beyond our reach and were never put into our possession? What would be the profit of a Christ who died for our sins, but was not raised for our justification? What would be the profit of a Lord who had died, but was not exalted at the Father’s right hand ? But now, as Christians, we confess and glorify a crucified and also risen Saviour, a humiliated and also glorified Saviour, in a King who is the first and also the last, who has been dead but now lives forever and ever, and who has the keys of hell and of death, Revelation 1:19. In His exaltation He rises and completes the building of which He laid the foundation in His first crucifixion. He is exalted far above all government and power and might, and given to the church as its head, that He might fulfill all in all, Ephesians 1:20-23. He was made Lord and Christ, Prince and Saviour by the resurrection, that He might give Israel repentance and the forgiveness of sins and put all enemies under His feet, Acts 2:36, Acts 5:31, 1 Corinthians 15:25. He is exalted by God and has received a name above all names, that in the name of Jesus every knee of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth may bow and every tongue may confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father, Php 2:9-11. The exaltation of Christ is therefore not an accidental appendage or arbitrary addition to the humiliation which He underwent in the days of His flesh. But it is, like humiliation, an indispensable part of the work of redemption, which Christ has to accomplish; in the exaltation humiliation receives its seal and crown; the same Christ, who came down to the lowest parts of the earth, has also ascended above all heavens, that He might accomplish all things, Ephesians 4:9-10. He must do it; it is His work; no one else can do it. The Father exalted Him" precisely because He humbled Himself so deeply, Phil. He has given the judgment to His Son, because he wanted to become the son of man, John 5:22. And the Son is exalted and continues His work in exaltation, to prove that He is the perfect, true and almighty Saviour. He will not rest until He can hand over the kingdom to God and the Father, completed, and present the congregation to Him as His bride, without spot or wrinkle (1 Corinthians 15:24, Ephesians 5:25). On the completion of this work of salvation hangs the honor of Christ Himself; His own name is involved, His own fame is involved. He exalts His own and brings them to where He is, that they may behold His glory, John 17:24 and He will Himself return at the end of the ages, to be glorified in His own saints, and to become wonderful in all who believe, 2 Thessalonians 1:10. The exaltation of Christ began, according to the Reformed confession, with his resurrection, but according to many other confessions already earlier, with his descent into hell. However, this is interpreted very differently. The Greek Church understands it as meaning that Christ went down to the underworld with his divine nature and his human soul, in order to free the souls of the holy forefathers and to bring them with those of the murderer on the cross to paradise.

According to the Roman Church, Christ really did descend into the underworld with his soul and remained there as long as his body rested in the tomb, in order to free the souls of the pious, who remained there painlessly until salvation was attained, from the state of death, to bring them to heaven and share in the blissful sight of God. The Lutheran Church distinguishes between the actual resurrection of Christ and his resurrection or rising from the grave, and now teaches that Christ, in that brief interval, went to hell specifically, with soul and body both, in order to make known his victory there to devils and the damned. Many theologians, especially in recent times, interpret the Article to mean that Christ went to the underworld before his resurrection, either with the soul or the body, to preach the Gospel to those who had died in their sins and to give them the opportunity to turn around and believe. The great diversity of feelings proves that the original meaning of the words: descended into hell, has been lost. We do not know where the article comes from, nor what was actually meant by it. And the Scriptures know nothing of a literal, real, local descent of Christ into hell. In Acts 2:26, Peter applies the words of Psalms 16:1-11 to Christ: Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, nor deliver up thy Holy One to see corruption; but the annotation rightly notes that hell must be taken here in the sense of grave; although Christ was in paradise for his soul, he was in the grave for his body, and between his death and his resurrection he was in the state of death. In Ephesians 4:9 Paul says that the same One who ascended first descended to the lowest parts of the earth; but this is not a descent into hell, but either the incarnation of Christ on earth, or His death, in which He descended into the grave. And in 1 Peter 3:19-21, the Apostle in no way speaks of what Christ did between His Resurrection, but either of what He did before His incarnation by His Spirit in the days of Noah, or of what He did after His Resurrection, when He was already alive in the Spirit. There is not the slightest basis in Scripture for the doctrine of the local descent of Christ into the underworld or hell. The Reformed Church has therefore abandoned this interpretation of the Article and has either taken it to mean the infernal anguish and pain that Christ suffered before His death in Gethsemane and on Golgotha, or the state of death in which Christ found Himself during the time in which He lay in the grave. Both interpretations find their unity in the Scriptural idea that Christ’s surrender in death was the hour of his enemies and the power of darkness (Luke 22:53). Christ knew that this hour would come and voluntarily surrendered to it (John 8:20, John 12:23, John 12:27, John 13:1, John 17:1). In that hour, when He actually displayed the highest, spiritual power of His love and obedience (John 10:17-18), He seemed utterly powerless; the enemies did with Him what they pleased; the darkness triumphed over Him; indeed, not in a local, but in a spiritual sense, He came down to hell. But the power of darkness was not her own; it was given her by the Father (John 19:11). Christ’s enemies did not understand that they were merely instruments, performing, without knowing or intending to, what God’s hand and counsel had previously decreed should happen (Acts 2:23 and Acts 4:28). Even in His humiliation Christ was the mighty one, who voluntarily gave up His life and gave His soul as a ransom for many. - The hour of the power of darkness was His own, John 7:30, John 8:20; in His death He conquered death by the power of His love, by His complete self-denial, by His absolute obedience to the will of the Father. Therefore it was not possible that He, the Holy One, should be kept from death, or abandoned by God and given up to destruction (Acts 2:25, Acts 2:27). On the contrary, the Father raised Him, Acts 2:24, Acts 3:26, Acts 5:30, Acts 13:37, Romans 4:25, 1 Corinthians 15:14, etc., and Christ Himself rose according to His own right and by His own power, John 11:25, Acts 2:31, Romans 1:4, Romans 14:9, 1 Corinthians 15:21, 1 Thessalonians 4:14, etc., and He is the Son of God. The sorrows of death were, as it were, the travail of his new life, Acts 2:24; Christ is the firstborn from the dead, Colossians 1:18. This resurrection consisted in the quickening of His dead body and in the resurrection from the grave. The opponents of the resurrection are in no small embarrassment with this fact. In the past they tried to explain the story of this event by supposing that Jesus had only been seemingly dead, or that his body had been stolen by the disciples, or that the disciples were suffering from self-deception and imagined they saw him. But all these suppositions have been abandoned one after another, and today many resort to spiritism and see in it a welcome explanation of the resurrection of Christ. They then say that something objective [objectively] occurred; the disciples did indeed see something; they saw an appearance of Christ who had died in body, but who lived on in spirit. The spirit of Christ has appeared to them and revealed itself to them. It is even said that God Himself caused the spirit of Christ to appear to them in order to lift them out of their sorrow and to make them aware of the victory over death and the immortality of life. The apparitions of Christ were then so much as a ״telegram from heaven", a divine message of the spiritual power of Christ. But this whole spiritist explanation is unworthy of the Scriptures and in direct conflict with their testimony. According to all the Evangelists, the tomb was found empty on the third day, and the first apparition took place on that same day, Matthew 28:6, Mark 16:6, Luke 24:3, John 20:2, 1 Corinthians 15:4-5. Without order or full enumeration the Evangelists and Paul tell us that Jesus appeared to the women, especially to Mary Magdalene, to Peter, to the disciples without and with Thomas, and to many others, even to five hundred brethren at one time. The appearances took place first at and in Jerusalem, and later in Galilee, where, as Mark expressly says, He went before them, Mark 16:7. And all agree that Jesus appeared in the same body that had been laid in the tomb. It was a body of flesh and bone, such as a spirit does not have, Luke 24:39; it could be touched, John 20:27, and eat food, Luke 24:41, John 21:10. But nevertheless Jesus made an altogether different impression after His resurrection than before His death; those who saw Him were frightened and fearful, threw themselves down before Him and worshipped Him, Matthew 28:9-10, Luke 24:37, He appeared in a different form than He had shown before, Mark 16:12, and was sometimes not immediately recognized, Luke 24:16, Luke 24:31. There is a great difference between the resurrection of Lazarus and that of Jesus; the former returns from death to his former, earthly life, but Jesus does not return, but continues on the road that leads from his resurrection to his ascension. When Mary thinks that she has regained her Master and Lord from the dead and will renew her former relationship with Him, then Jesus rejects this and says: do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brothers and say to them: I ascend to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God. After his resurrection, Christ no longer belongs to earth, but to heaven. That is why His form has changed, even though He has taken on the same body that He had laid in the tomb. Paul summarizes this by saying that a natural body is sown at death, but that a spiritual body is raised up in the resurrection (of Christ as well as of the faithful), 1 Corinthians 15:44. In both cases it is a body, because spiritual is not opposed to material, but to natural. In the natural (psychic) body received by the first man, however, there is a large area of life that has been withdrawn from the dominion of the spirit and continues more or less independently; in the spiritual body, on the other hand, stomach and food have been destroyed, 1 Corinthians 6:13, and all material things are completely subject to and subservient to the spirit. The bodily resurrection of Christ is not an isolated historical fact, but is inexhaustibly rich in meaning and of the greatest significance for Christ himself, for his congregation and for the entire world. In general, it contains within itself the fundamental victory over death. Death entered the world through a human being; the transgression of God’s commandment has opened the door for death to enter the world of man, for death is the wages of sin (Romans 5:12, Romans 6:23 and 1 Corinthians 15:21). Even if an angel, or the Son of the Father, had descended into the realm of the dead and then returned to heaven, it would not be of any use to us. But Christ was not only the Father’s only begotten, but also truly and fully human, God’s and man’s Son. As a man He suffered, He died and was buried, but also as a man He rose again and returned from the realm of the dead. The resurrection of Christ proved that there was a man who could not be held by death, whom Satan, who had the violence of death, could not control, who was stronger than grave and death and hell. In fact, in principle, Satan no longer has the power and dominion of death; Christ conquered him by means of death, Hebrews 2:14. The gates of the kingdom of the dead, which had been closed behind him, had to be opened at his command. The ruler of the world had nothing on Him, John 14:30.

If this is so, it goes without saying that the resurrection of Christ is about the physical resurrection. A spiritual resurrection would not have been enough and would have been only half, in fact not a victory at all, but a defeat. Then not the whole man, not man as such, in soul and body, would have been removed from the dominion of death; then Satan would have remained victorious in a large area. If He were to prove His strength above death, He could only do so by physically returning from the realm of the dead, and thus revealing His spiritual power in the world of matter. In his bodily resurrection it was first shown that, by His obedience to the cross and the grave, He had completely conquered sin with all its consequences, thus also death, had been cast out of the world of men once more, and had brought a new life to light in immortality. Through a man, therefore, death may have Death entered the world, the resurrection of the dead is also through a man, 1 Corinthians 15:21. Christ himself is the resurrection and the life, John 11:25. With this, the general meaning of the resurrection of Christ is already sufficiently highlighted, but it can also be determined in more detail in particulars. First of all for Christ Himself. If death on the Cross had been the end of Jesus’ life and not followed by resurrection, the Jews would have been right in their condemnation. After all, in Deuteronomy 21:23 it is written that a hanged man is a curse to God, which is cited there as a reason why the corpse of a criminal brought to death may not remain hanging on the wood after his death, but must be buried on the same day; if it were to remain hanging, it would pollute the land that God gave to his people to inherit. Now the Mosaic law does not know the penalty of death on the cross; but when Jesus is delivered to the Gentiles, Matthew 20:19, and at the hands of the unrighteous to the cross, Acts 2:23, then he is, not only after, but already before and in his death an example of the implacable severity of the law and a curse before God’s face. For the Jews, who knew the law, the death on the cross was not only a painful and shameful punishment, but also proof that the crucified one was burdened by God with His wrath and curse. Jesus, the hanged man on the wood, was in the eyes of the Jews an annoyance and anathema, 1 Corinthians 1:23, 1 Corinthians 12:3. But now the resurrection comes and reverses all judgment. He, whom God made sin for us, is the one who personally knew no sin. He who became a curse for us is in himself the blessed one of the Father. The one who was abandoned of God on the cross is the Son in whom the Father has all his pleasure. The one cast out from the earth is the one crowned in heaven. The resurrection is thus the proof of Christ’s Sonship; He, who became of the seed of David according to the flesh, was proved (declared) by it to be the Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness which was in Him, Romans 1:3-4. Christ spoke the truth and made the right confession before Caiaphas and Pontius Pilate, when He testified to be the Son of God. It was not the Jews and the Romans who were right in their judgment and sentence, but Christ is the Righteous One, who was attached to the cross and killed by the hands of the unrighteous. The resurrection is the Divine revision of the judgment, which the world passed on Jesus. In this proof of His Sonship and Messianic nature, however, the resurrection is by no means an end; it is also the entrance for Christ into a completely new state of life, the beginning of His ever-increasing elevation. Not only in eternity, Hebrews 1:5, and at the appointment to the priesthood, Hebrews 5:5, but also at the resurrection, Acts 13:33, God said to him: Thou art my Son, this day have I raised thee. The resurrection is the day of Christ’s coronation; He was already Son and Messiah before He became man; He was so also in His humiliation; but then His inner being was hidden under His servant form. Now, however, He is openly declared by God and proclaimed as Lord and Christ, as Sovereign and Saviour, Acts 2:36, Acts 5:31, Php 2:9. He now takes back the glory, which He had before with the Father, John 17:5, assumes a different form, a different stature and a different way of being, Mark 16:12. He is the Prince of life, the source of salvation, and the ordained of God to judge the living and the dead, Acts 3:15, Acts 4:12, Acts 10:42.

Furthermore, the resurrection of Christ is a fountain of salvation for his congregation and for the whole world. It is the Father’s Amen to the Son’s Accomplishment. After all, Christ was delivered up for (the sake of) our sins, and raised up for (the sake of) our justification, Romans 4:25. Just as our sins and Christ’s death are intimately connected, so too is there a very close relationship between Christ’s resurrection and our justification. Our sins are the cause of His death, and so our justification is the cause of His resurrection. He did not obtain our justification by His resurrection, but by His death (Romans 5:9, Romans 5:19), for that death was a sacrifice, which fully atoned for our sins and provided an eternal righteousness. But because He had obtained the complete atonement and forgiveness of all our sins by His suffering and death, He arose and had to rise. In the resurrection He became Himself and we were justified in Him and with Him; His resurrection from the dead is the public proclamation of our acquittal. And not only that, but Christ was also raised for our justification in this other sense and for this other purpose, that He might personally appropriate the acquittal contained in His resurrection. Without the Resurrection, the reconciliation effected by His death would have remained without effect and application; it would have been like a dead capital. But now Christ has been exalted by his resurrection as Lord, Prince and Saviour, who can make the acquired reconciliation part of us in the way of faith. His resurrection is both the proof and the source of our justification. But if Christ arose for that purpose, in order to personally appropriate the acquired reconciliation and forgiveness for us, then another benefit is immediately included in this. Because just as there is no forgiveness without prior reconciliation, there is also no forgiveness without subsequent sanctification and glorification. The objective (subjective) basis for this inseparable connection of justification and sanctification lies in Christ Himself. For He has not only died, but also been raised; and what He has died, He has died once for sin (in respect of sin, to atone for it and to remove it), so that what He lives, He lives for God, Romans 6:10. Therefore, when Christ grants man the fruits of his death in faith, namely the atonement and forgiveness of sin, he also grants him a new life at that same moment. He cannot divide himself, cannot separate his death from his resurrection; yes, he can only divide and apply the fruits of his death because he himself was raised; as the Prince of Life he alone disposes of the benefits of his death. Therefore, as He died once for sin, so that henceforth He alone might live for God, so He died in His death for all, that those who live (namely, by dying and rising with Christ) might no longer live for themselves, but for the One who died and rose again for them, 2 Corinthians 5:15, Galatians 2:20.

Likewise, from the subjective side, there is an indissoluble connection between the forgiveness of sins and the renewal of life. For he who accepts the forgiveness of sins with a believing heart, has at that same moment, like Christ in his death, broken off all relation to sin. He has ceased to have any fellowship with it, for sin that has been forgiven, and whose forgiveness has been accepted in faith with great joy, cannot but be hated; he has, as Paul says, died of sin, Romans 6:2, and therefore can live in it no longer. He has entered the fellowship of Christ through faith and through baptism as its sign and seal, has been crucified, died, and been buried with Him, that he might walk in newness of life, Romans 6:3 f. To this sanctification is further linked glorification. After all, through the resurrection of Christ the faithful have been born again into a living hope, 1 Peter 1:3. Through it they have received the irrefutable assurance that the work of salvation has not only been begun and continued, but will be completed to the end. In heaven the immortal and immaculate and undefilable inheritance is preserved for them, and on earth they are preserved by faith in the power of God for the salvation that will be revealed in the last time, 1 Peter 1:4-5. How could it be otherwise? After all, God has confirmed his love for us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more, then, after we have been justified by the blood of Christ, we shall be saved by God from His wrath, especially from that wrath which will be manifest in the last judgment. For those who are in Christ, there is no wrath and no damnation, but only peace with God and the hope of His glory. In the past, when they were still His enemies and subject to His wrath, God reconciled Himself to them through the death of the Son; so now that God has renounced His wrath against them and bestowed His peace and love upon them, they will be much more saved through the life which Christ now shares through His resurrection, and in which He is active as their intercessor with the Father. The resurrection of Christ thus continues for all eternity; in due time it brings with it the resurrection of the faithful and the rebirth, the victory of heaven and earth, Acts 4:2, Romans 6:5, and the resurrection of the Holy Spirit. 2, Romans 6:5, Romans 8:11, 1 Corinthians 15:12.

Only when we understand the rich, eternal significance of the resurrection of Christ, can we understand why the apostles, and especially Paul, lay such strong emphasis on its historical character. All the apostles are witnesses to the resurrection, Acts 1:21, Acts 2:32. And Paul argues that without that resurrection the preaching of the apostles is vain and false; the forgiveness of sins, based on the atonement and accepted in faith, has not taken place; and the hope of a blessed resurrection is all but groundless. With the resurrection the divine Sonship and the Messianic dignity of Christ falls away and all that is left of Him is a teacher of virtue. But if the Resurrection has taken place, then Christ has also been openly proclaimed and crowned by the Father as the Redeemer of sins, the Prince of Life and the Saviour of the world. The Resurrection is the beginning of Jesus’ exaltation and is followed after forty-four days by the Ascension. Its event is recounted only in brief words, Mark 16:19, Luke 24:51, Acts 1:1-12. But it was foretold by Christ, Matthew 26:64, John 6:62, John 13:3, John 13:33, John 14:28, John 16:5, John 16:10, John 16:17, John 16:28, and forms a component of the apostolic preaching, Acts 2:33, Acts 3:21, Acts 5:31, Acts 7:55-56, Ephesians 4:10, Php 2:9, Php 3:20, 1 Thessalonians 1:10, 1 Thessalonians 4:14-16, 1 Timothy 3:16, 1 Peter 3:22, Hebrews 4:14, Hebrews 6:20, Hebrews 9:24, Revelation 1:13 etc. Everywhere the Apostles start from the idea that Christ is now in heaven according to his human nature, both in body and in soul. In fact, the forty days that Christ spent on earth after His resurrection were already a preparation and a transition to His ascension. Everything showed that He no longer belonged to the earth. His appearance was different from what it had been before his death. He appeared and disappeared in a mysterious manner. The disciples felt that their relationship with Him was very different from their former relationship. His life no longer belonged to the earth, but to heaven. In the Ascension, therefore, He does not become invisible through a process of spiritualization or deification, but changes place. He was on earth and He went to heaven. He ascended from a certain place, the Mount of Olives, which is only a quarter of an hour from Jerusalem and lies in the direction of Bethany, Luke 24:50, Acts 1:12. Before He separated from His disciples He blessed them; blessing He left the earth and blessing He ascended into heaven; that is how He came, that is how He lived, and that is how He went again; He is Himself the including of all God’s blessings, the acquirer, the possessor and the distributor of them, Ephesians 1:3. His ascension was therefore also his own act; he had the right and the power to do it, he ascended by his own power, John 3:13, John 20:17, Ephesians 4:8-10, 1 Peter 3:22. For in it He triumphs over the whole earth, over all the laws of nature, over the entire gravity of matter. Yes, even more so, His Ascension is a triumph over all the hostile, demoniacal and human powers, which God, in the Cross of Christ, stripped of their armor, exhibited in their powerlessness, bound to Christ’s chariot, Colossians 2:15, and now are carried off by Christ Himself as captives, Ephesians 4:8. Peter expresses the same idea by saying that Christ, after his resurrection, ascended in spirit (the same word is used in Greek for ascending and sailing in 1 Peter 3:20 and 1 Peter 3:22, so that 1 Peter 3:22, with the addition of the words ’to heaven’, explains where he has gone) to heaven, announced his victory to the spirits in prison, and took his seat at God’s right hand, while the angels and powers and forces were made subservient to him. The ascension, which is Christ’s own act, is also a taking up by God into His heaven, Mark. Mark 16:19, Luke 24:51, Acts 1:2, Acts 1:9, Acts 1:11, Acts 1:22, 1 Timothy 3:16. Since Christ has completely fulfilled the Father’s work, He is not only raised up by the Father, but is also admitted into His immediate presence. The heavens are open to Him, the angels go to meet Him and lead Him in, Acts 2:10; He has even passed through the heavens and ascended far above them all, Hebrews 4:14, Hebrews 7:26, Ephesians 4:10, to sit at God’s right hand on the throne of His majesty. The highest place next to God belongs to Christ.

Just as the resurrection prepares the ascension, so it leads to the sitting at the right hand of God. Already in the Old Testament this place was promised to the Messiah, Psalms 110:1. Jesus said several times that He would soon be seated on the throne of His glory, Matthew 19:28, Matthew 25:31, Matthew 26:64, and took possession of that place after His ascension, Mark 16:19. And in the apostolic preaching this sitting at the right hand of God is very often mentioned and shown in its great significance, Acts 2:34, Romans 8:34, 2 Corinthians 5:10, Ephesians 1:20, Colossians 3:1, Hebrews 1:3, Hebrews 1:13, Hebrews 8:1, Hebrews 10:12, 1 Peter 3:22, Revelation 3:21 etc. In the expressions, of which the Scriptures make use at this stage of Jesus’ exaltation, some alternation can be discerned. Just as at the resurrection and ascension, it is also said here, sometimes, that Christ himself has set himself down, Hebrews 1:3, Hebrews 8:1 (is seated, better: has sat down, has set himself), sometimes, that the Father has said to him: sit down at my right hand, Acts 2:34, Hebrews 1:13, or has also put him there, Ephesians 1:20. Sometimes the emphasis is on the act of sitting down, Mark 16:19, and sometimes on the state of being seated, Matthew 26:64, Colossians 3:1. The place where Christ is seated is indicated by the words: at the right hand of power, Matthew 26:64, at the right hand of the power of God, Luke 22:69, at the right hand of the majesty in the highest heavens, Hebrews 1:3, at the right hand of the throne of majesty in the heavens, Hebrews 8:1, or at the right hand of the throne of God, Hebrews 12:2. Usually it is said that Christ is seated there, but sometimes the expression occurs that He is at the right hand of God, Romans 8:34, or that He is standing there, Acts 7:55-56, or that He is walking in the midst of the seven golden lampstands, Revelation 2:1, etc. But always the thought is the same: Christ is seated at the right hand of God, Romans 8:34. But always the idea is the same: Christ, after His resurrection and ascension, has the highest place next to God in the entire universe. This idea, however, is expressed in the form of an image, derived from earthly relations; we cannot speak of heavenly things in any other way than in human terms, in parables. Just as Solomon honoured his mother Bathsheba, by placing her in a chair at his right hand, 1 Kings 2:19, ver. The sitting at the right hand of God indicates that Christ, by virtue of his perfect obedience, has been exalted to the highest sovereignty, majesty, dignity, honour and glory. He not only received back the glory, which He had according to His divine nature with the Father before the world was, John 17:5, but we now see Him crowned with honor and glory according to His humanity, Hebrews 2:9, Php 2:9-11. All things are subject to His feet, except Him, who has subjected all things to Him, 1 Corinthians 15:27. And though we do not yet see that all things are subject to Him, yet He will reign as King until He has put all enemies under His feet, Hebrews 2:8, 1 Corinthians 15:25. His sitting at the right hand of God and His whole exaltation ends and reaches its climax in the Second Coming in judgment, Matthew 25:31-32. In this state of exaltation Christ continues the work that He began on earth. Of course, there is a great difference between the work Christ accomplished in His humiliation and that which He accomplishes in His exaltation. Just as His person appears in a different guise, His work also assumes a different form and a different shape. After His resurrection He is no longer a servant, but a Lord and Prince; and so His work is no longer the sacrifice of obedience, which He brought to perfection on the Cross, but the Mediatorial work of Christ nevertheless continues in another form. At His ascension, He did not enter into an empty rest - after all, the Son, like the Father, always works, John 5:17 - but He now applies the fullness of His acquired benefits to His congregation. Just as Christ, by His suffering and death, was exalted in the resurrection and ascension to the head of the congregation, so must that congregation now be formed into the body of Christ and be filled to the fullness of God. The work of mediation is one great, mighty, divine work, which began in eternity and will continue until eternity. But at the moment of the resurrection it was divided into two halves; up to that moment Chris’ humiliation took place, and from that moment his exaltation began. And both are equally indispensable to the work of salvation.

Thus, in the state of His exaltation, Christ continued to work as prophet, priest and king. As such he had already been anointed from eternity; these ministerial activities he had exercised in the state of his humiliation; and in a modified sense he continues these also in heaven. That He remained a prophet even after His resurrection is immediately evident from the sermon He preached to His disciples until His ascension. The forty days that Jesus remained on earth after His resurrection form an important part of His life and teaching. Usually not enough attention is paid to them here. But as soon as we carefully examine what Jesus did and said during those forty days, we soon realize that they shed a whole new light on his person and his work. Of course we do not realize this as deeply as the apostles, because we live after them and have enjoyed their teachings; but the disciples, who had dealt with Jesus and had lost almost all hope in his death, have become completely different people in that short time and have learned to understand Jesus’ person and work as was not possible before. The Resurrection itself cast such a surprising light on death and on the entire previous life of Christ. But the fact of salvation did not remain isolated; just as it had been preceded, so it was now accompanied and followed by the word of salvation. The angels at the tomb immediately announced to the women who were looking for Jesus that he was not here, but had risen according to his own words (Matthew 28:5-6). And Jesus Himself made it clear to the disciples at Emmaus that the Christ had to suffer and thus enter into His glory, and showed them this from everything that was written about Him in the Scriptures, Luke 24:26-27, Luke 24:44-47. The disciples now get to know Him in a different form than in which He walked with them before. He is no longer the humble Son of Man, who came not to serve but to be served and to give his soul as a ransom for many. He has laid aside the form of a servant and appears in a form of glory and power. He now belongs to another world; He is going to His Father, while the disciples still have to remain here and still have a calling to fulfill on earth. The former confidential relationship no longer returns. Soon, however, there will be another and even more intimate fellowship between Jesus and his disciples, so that they will understand that it was to their advantage for Jesus to go; but it will be a fellowship in the Spirit, entirely different from the one they enjoyed with Jesus before. And now, after the Resurrection, Jesus reveals Himself in such great glory and wisdom to His disciples that Thomas comes to a confession, which had never been made by any disciple before, that Jesus was his Lord and his God.

During these forty days Jesus not only shed light on His own person and work, but He also explained in more detail what the role and the task of His disciples were. When Jesus was buried and everything seemed to be over, the disciples may have planned to return to Galilee in silence and resume their earlier work. But on the third day they heard of apparitions that had taken place, to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, Matthew 28:1, Matthew 28:9, John 20:14 ff, to Peter, Luke 24:34, 1 Corinthians 15:5, to the disciples at Emmaus, Luke 24:13 ff, and then remained in Jerusalem for some time. On the evening of that same day the disciples without Thomas received an apparition, and eight days later they received another apparition, but now in contrast to Thomas. Then they followed Jesus, who had gone before them, to Galilee, Matthew 28:10, and here again several apparitions took place, Luke 24:44 ff, John 21:1-25. But at the same time He gave them the order to return to Jerusalem and witness His ascension. In all these appearances He now revealed to the disciples what their future calling was. They were not to return to their former occupation, but were to act as his witnesses and preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in his name among all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. Mark 16:15, Luke 24:47-48, Acts 1:8. So the apostles receive all kinds of commands, Acts 1:2; they are taught about the things of the kingdom of God, Acts 1:3; their power is described, John 20:21-23, John 21:15-17, and their heart is set on preaching the gospel to all creatures. So now they know what to do; first of all they are to remain in Jerusalem until they are touched with power from on high, Luke 24:49, Acts 1:4-5, Acts 1:8, and then act as His witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth, Acts 1:8.

All this teaching of the forty days is drawn together in the last words which Jesus spoke to His disciples, Matthew 28:18-20. It is true that He had also received that power before, Matthew 11:27, but He now takes possession of it on the basis of His merits and uses it to distribute the benefits He acquired to the congregation, which He bought with His blood. By virtue of that fulfillment of power He then instructs His Apostles to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and teaching them to observe all that He has commanded them. Because He has been given all power in heaven and on earth, Jesus lays claim to the discipleship of all peoples; and He acknowledges as His disciples those who through baptism have been received into the fellowship with that God who in His completed revelation has made Himself known as Father, Son and Spirit, and who now walk in His commandments. And to encourage them He finally adds that He will be with them all the days until the end of the world. Physically He leaves them, spiritually He remains with them, so that it is not they, but He who through their word gathers, rules and protects His congregation.

Therefore, even after His ascension, Christ continues to work as a prophet. The preaching of the Apostles, both orally and in writing in their Letters, is in keeping with the teaching of Jesus, not only with the teaching that Jesus gave before His death, but also with the teaching that He imparted to them in the forty days between His resurrection and ascension. This last point must not be overlooked. It is only by this that it becomes comprehensible that all the Apostles from the beginning were convinced that Christ had not only died, but had also been raised up by God and exalted at His right hand as Lord and Christ, Prince and Saviour, and that especially in the love of the Father, the grace of the Son and the communion of the Holy Spirit, all salvation for the sinner was contained. But the Apostles’ preaching is not only in keeping with Jesus’ teaching, it is also its explanation and expansion. Jesus Himself continued His prophetic activity through His Spirit in the hearts of the apostles. By the Spirit of truth He led them into all the truth, for that Spirit did not speak of Himself, but testified of Christ, made them remember what He had said to them, and also announced to them things to come (John 14:26, John 15:26, John 16:13). Thus the apostles were enabled to bring about the Holy Scripture of the New Testament, which, in connection with the books of the Old Covenant, is a light in the path of the church of all ages and a lamp for its feet. It is Christ Himself who gave this Word to His congregation and through it continually carries out His prophetic ministry on earth. He preserves and spreads it, He explains and clarifies it; that Word is the instrument by which He makes the peoples His disciples, draws them into the fellowship of the triune God and walks them through His commandments. Through His Word and Spirit, Christ is still with us, until the end of the world.

What applies to Christ’s prophetic office also applies to his priestly office. He did not receive it for a time, but exercises it for eternity. In the Old Testament, the eternal character of the priesthood was foreshadowed in the separation of the house of Aaron and the tribe of Levi for service in the Temple. The special persons performing this service died, but were immediately replaced by others; the priesthood remained. The future Messiah, however, would not be an ordinary priest who served for a time and then made way for another, but He would be a priest for all eternity, according to the order of Melchizedek, Psalms 110:4. In distinction to the descendants of Aaron and Levi, who became many priests because death prevented them from remaining forever, Hebrews 7:24, Melchizedek in his mysterious persona gives us a picture of the eternal duration of Christ’s high priesthood. After all, he is a king of righteousness and of peace as well, and stands alone in the history of revelation, without any mention of his lineage, of his birth and his death; in a typical sense he was thereby made like the Zone of God and remained a priest for all eternity, Hebrews 7:3. But what Melchizedek was in example, Christ is in reality. Christ could be an eternal High Priest in the full sense of the word, because He was the Zone of God, who existed from eternity, Hebrews 1:2-3. Although He sacrificed Himself on earth and in time, He was nevertheless from above, belonged in His being to eternity, and could therefore also sacrifice Himself in time through the eternal Spirit, Hebrews 9:14. Inasmuch as Christ as the Zone of God was prepared from eternity to come into the world and accomplish God’s will, Hebrews 10:5-9, He was already a priest from eternity. In view of the accomplishment of God’s will in the days of His flesh, it may be said that the priesthood of Christ began on earth, Hebrews 2:17, Hebrews 5:10, Hebrews 6:20, Hebrews 7:26-28. And this priesthood on earth was a means and a way for Christ to become High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary through His resurrection and ascension, and to remain so for all eternity. It is a curious idea from the letter to the Hebrews that Christ’s life and work on earth are not to be seen as an end, but as a preparation for his eternal priestly service in heaven.

Some have deduced from this that, according to this letter, Christ was not yet a priest on earth at all, but only accepted his priesthood when he ascended into heaven and entered the inner sanctum. They argue that Christ was not a priest on earth because the law required priests who belonged to the tribe of Levi to offer sacrifices according to the law, whereas Christ was not of Levi but of Judah and never offered sacrifices as a priest in the temple in Jerusalem (Hebrews 7:14, Hebrews 8:4). So if Christ was a priest, He could only be so in heaven, and He had to have something to sacrifice there, Hebrews 8:3. And what He offered there was His own blood, with which He entered the heavenly sanctuary, Hebrews 9:11-12. But this inference is without doubt false. For like all other apostolic writings, this letter to the Hebrews also lays the greatest emphasis on the fact that Christ sacrificed himself once, namely on the cross, and thereby brought about eternal salvation (Hebrews 7:27, Hebrews 9:12, Hebrews 9:26, Hebrews 9:28, Hebrews 10:10-14). The forgiveness of sins, this great benefit of the New Covenant, was fully obtained by that sacrifice, and the New Testament, which was founded in His blood, put an end to the Old Covenant, Hebrews 4:16, Hebrews 8:6-13, Hebrews 9:14-22. Sin, death and the devil were put to death by his sacrifice, Hebrews 2:14, Hebrews 7:27, Hebrews 9:26, Hebrews 9:28, and by his blood he sanctified and perfected all who obey him, Hebrews 10:10, Hebrews 10:14, Hebrews 13:12. Precisely because Christ offered this one perfect sacrifice on the cross, He can sit as High Priest at God’s right hand, Hebrews 8:1. He suffers and He no longer dies there, but - sits as a victor on the throne, Hebrews 1:3, Hebrews 1:13, Hebrews 2:8-9, Hebrews 10:12. And a main point, an important point in the apostle’s speech, is precisely that we have such a high priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of majesty in the heavens (Hebrews 8:1). There can be no question of a sacrifice, as Christ did on earth, now in heaven.

Yet Christ is and remains the High Priest in heaven; as such He has been placed by God at His right hand. Yes, in a certain sense one can say with our letter that He first became High Priest there according to the order of Melchizedek and accepted His eternal priesthood, Hebrews 2:17, Hebrews 5:10, Hebrews 6:20. After all, He was the Son and had to be so to be able to become our High Priest (Hebrews 1:3, Hebrews 3:6, Hebrews 5:5), but that was not enough; although He was the Son, He had to learn obedience from suffering (Hebrews 5:8). The obedience which He possessed as the Son, Hebrews 10:5-7, He had to show here on earth as a human being in His suffering, in order to become our High Priest, Hebrews 2:10 ff, Hebrews 4:15, Hebrews 5:7-10, Hebrews 7:28. All the suffering that Christ has endured, the temptations to which He has been exposed, the death to which He has been subjected, everything has served in God’s hand as a means of sanctifying Christ and making Him perfect for the priestly service which He now has to perform in heaven before God. Of course, this sanctification and perfection of Christ is not to be understood in a moral sense, as if He had only gradually become obedient through struggle, but the Apostle is thinking of a sanctification in a strict and ministerial sense. Christ had to maintain his obedience as a Son in the face of all temptations, and at the same time thereby equip himself completely for his eternal high priesthood in heaven. In the way of obedience, Christ also fully obtained this high priesthood at God’s right hand on the throne of majesty. On the basis of His suffering and death, on the basis of the one perfect sacrifice, He is now seated at the right hand of His Majesty in the highest heavens. He entered (not with, but) by His own blood once into the sanctuary, Hebrews 9:12, and is now there, in the true tabernacle built by God Himself, working as a minister (liturgist), Hebrews 8:2. Now He is first fully and eternally a priest according to the order of Melchizedek, Hebrews 5:10, Hebrews 6:20. Just as the high priest in the Old Testament, once a year, on the Day of Atonement, entered the Holy of Holies with the blood of the goat slaughtered for himself and with the blood of the goat slaughtered for the people, to sprinkle it on and before the mercy seat, so Christ, through the blood of His sacrifice on the cross, opened the way to the true sanctuary in heaven (Hebrews 9:12). He does not take the blood that He shed on Calvary with Him to heaven in a literal sense, nor does He offer and sprinkle it there in an actual sense, but through His own blood He enters the true tabernacle; He returns to heaven as the Christ who died and was raised, as the Christ who was dead but is now alive for all eternity, Revelation 1:18, and stands as the slaughtered Lamb in the midst of the throne, Revelation 5:6; He is now in His person the means of atonement for our sins and for the whole world, 1 John 2:2.

Thus his high priestly service in heaven consists in that he appears there before the face of God for our sakes, Hebrews 9:24, in all things that God has to do to atone for the sins of the people, shows himself to be a merciful and faithful high priest, Hebrews 2:17, comes to the aid of those who are tempted, Hebrews 2:18, Hebrews 4:15, and leads his children to glory, Hebrews 2:10. In the way of obedience He Himself has become a guide for all, who go to God through Him. He is the guide of their faith, for He Himself has exercised faith and can therefore bring others to that faith and preserve that faith to the end, Hebrews 12:2. He is the Author of their lives, Acts 3:15 (in Greek this is the same word, which in Hebrew is translated by Author), because He first acquired that life Himself by His death, and now He can give it to others. He is the Author of their salvation, Hebrews 2:10, because He paved the way of salvation Himself, and therefore can lead others there and bring them into the sanctuary, Hebrews 10:20.

Thus, Christ is always and in all things our intercessor with the Father. Just as He prayed on earth for His disciples, Luke 22:23, and for His enemies, Luke 23:34, and in the supreme prayers He commended His entire congregation to the Father, John 17:1-26, so He continues this intercession in heaven for all His own. Of course we must not interpret this as if Christ in heaven was on his knees before his Father as a supplicant, begging him for mercy, because the Father himself loves us and gave us his Son as proof of this love. But it is expressed that this love of the Father is never given to us except in the Son, who became obedient unto death on the cross. Christ’s intercession is therefore not a plea for mercy, but the expression of a powerful will, John 17:24, the Son’s demand that the Gentiles be given to him for his inheritance and the ends of the earth for his possession, Psalms 2:8. It is the crucified and glorified Christ, it is the Father’s own Son, who was obedient but also exalted on the throne of majesty; it is the merciful and faithful High Priest, who himself was sanctified and perfected for this service in heaven, through whom intercession to the Father is sent. In the face of all the accusations that the law, Satan and our own hearts can make against us, He takes up our defense, Hebrews 7:25, 1 John 2:2. He comes to our aid in all our temptations. He has compassion on all our weaknesses. He cleanses our consciences. He sanctifies and completes all those who go to God through Him. He prepares a place for them in the Father’s house, where there are many mansions and therefore room for many, John 14:2-3, and preserves for them the heavenly inheritance, 1 Peter 1:4. Thus the believers have nothing to fear. They may boldly approach the throne of grace, Hebrews 4:16, Hebrews 10:22, and have themselves received from Christ from heaven the Spirit of adoption, which calls in them Abba, Father, and pours out God’s love in their hearts, Romans 5:5, Romans 8:15. As Christ is their intercessor with the Father in the heavens, so the Holy Spirit is the Father’s intercessor in their hearts, John 14:16, John 15:26, John 16:7. An important point in our Christian confession is that we have such a high priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of majesty in the heavens, Hebrews 8:1; a priest, an offering, an altar and a temple are therefore no longer needed on earth.

Christ also continues to exercise the royal office in the heavens after his resurrection. There can be less difference of opinion about this, since Christ, by his resurrection and ascension, has been exalted to the position of Lord and Christ, as Prince (Guide) and Saviour, has been set’ by the Father at his right hand on the throne, and has received a name above all names, Acts 2:36, Acts 5:31, Php 2:9-11, Hebrews 1:3-4. The kingship of Christ comes to light much more clearly in His exaltation than in His humiliation. But in this kingship the Holy Scriptures make a clear distinction. There is a kingship of Christ over Zion, over His people, over the church, Psalms 2:6, Psalms 72:2-7, Isaiah 9:5, Isaiah 11:1-5, Luke 1:33, John 18:33, and there is also a kingship,’ which He exercises over all His enemies, Psalms 2:8-9, Psalms 72:8, Psalms 110:1-2, Matthew 28:18, 1 Corinthians 15:25-27, Revelation 1:5, Revelation 17:14, etc. The first is a kingship of grace and the other a kingship of power. In relation to the church the name of Viscount alternates very often with that of Head in the New Testament. Christ stands in such close relation to the church, which He bought with His blood, that one single name is not enough to give us an idea of its contents. And so the Scriptures use all kinds of images to give us an idea of what Christ is to his congregation. What the bridegroom is to his bride, John 3:29, Revelation 21:2, the husband to his wife, Ephesians 5:25, Revelation 21:9, the firstborn to his brothers, Romans 8:29, Hebrews 2:11, the foundation stone for the church, the foundation stone for the church. Hebrews 2:11, the foundation stone for the building, Matthew 21:42, Acts 4:11, 1 Peter 2:4-8, the vine for the branches, John 15:1-2, the head for the body, all this and much more is Christ for His congregation.

Especially the last image occurs repeatedly. Jesus Himself says in Matthew 21:42 that the word of Psalms 118:22 has been fulfilled in Him: the stone, which the builders rejected, has become the head of the corner. Just as the cornerstone serves to bind and secure the walls of a building, so Christ, although rejected by the Jews, has been chosen by God to be a cornerstone, so that the theocracy, the government of God over His people, may receive its fulfilment in Him. The apostle Peter already repeats this thought in Acts 4:11, but elaborates it in his first letter, by linking it not only to Psalms 118:22, but also to Isaiah 28:16. He presents Christ as the living stone, which God has laid in Zion, and to which believers are added as living stones, 1 Peter 2:4-6. And Paul develops the image in the sense that the church is built on the foundation, which was laid by apostles and prophets in their preaching of the Gospel, and that now Chris himself is the cornerstone of the building of the church, which has risen on that foundation. Elsewhere, Christ himself is called the foundation of the church, 1 Corinthians 3:10. But here, in Ephesians 2:20, he is called the cornerstone; for as the building has its foundation in the cornerstone, so the church has its strength only in the living Christ. But the image of a building, although it already represented Christ as the head of the corner, was still insufficient to express the intimacy of the union between Christ and His congregation. Between a cornerstone and the walls of a building there is only an artificial connection, but the union of Christ and his congregation is a bond of life. Jesus therefore spoke of himself not only as the stone that God had raised up to be the head of the corner, but also as the vine that brings forth the branches and feeds them with his own juices (John 15:1-2). Peter ventures and speaks of living stones, and Paul not only mentions a temple that is being built, and a body that is being built, Ephesians 2:21, Ephesians 4:12, but repeatedly presents Christ as the head of the body of the church.

Each local congregation is a body of Christ, and the members of the congregation stand in relation to one another as members of the same body, who all need and must serve one another (Romans 12:4-5, 1 Corinthians 12:12-27). But also the whole congregation of Christ is His body, over which He has been exalted as the head by His resurrection and ascension, Ephesians 1:22-23, Ephesians 4:15-16, Ephesians 5:23, Colossians 1:18, Colossians 2:19. As such, He is the life principle of the church; He gives it life in the beginning, but furthermore He nurtures, cares for, preserves and protects that life; He makes the church grow and flourish, He makes each member grow to its full maturity, and He also binds them all together and makes them work for the benefit of each other. In a word, He fills her to the fullness of God. In the days of the Apostle Paul there were some erroneous teachers who said that from the depths of the divine being all kinds of spiritual luminaries came forth in descending order, who together made up his fullness (pleroma). But Paul opposes this, saying that the entire fullness of God dwells exclusively in Christ and in Him physically, Colossians 1:19, Colossians 2:9, comp. John 1:14, John 1:16, and this fullness is in turn what makes Christ dwell in the church, which is His body and the fulfillment (the fullness, the body filled by Christ) of Him who fulfills all in all, Ephesians 1:23. There is nothing in the church, no gift, no power, no office, no ministry, no faith, no hope, no love, no salvation and no bliss, or it comes to her from Christ. And with this fulfilment (completion, Colossians 2:10) Christ continues, until the church, in its entirety and in all its members, is completely filled to the fullness of God, John 1:16, Ephesians 3:19, Ephesians 4:13; then the church will be completely formed, and God will be all in all, 1 Corinthians 15:28. But Christ is also called head in another sense. In 1 Corinthians 11:3 Paul says, that Christ is the head of oak man; in Colossians 2:10 he calls Him the head of all government and power, that is, of all angels, because He is the firstborn of all creation, Colossians 1:15 ; and in Ephesians 1:10 he speaks of the intention of God, to gather together in Christ (the Greek word means: to gather together under one head, to recapitulate) all that is in heaven and on earth, in the fullness of time. It is clear, however, that the term ’head’ here has a different meaning than when Christ is called the head of his congregation. In the latter case, Paul is thinking primarily of the organic relationship, of the life relationship, in which Christ stands to his congregation. But when Christ is called the head of man, of the angels or of the world, the idea of sovereign and king comes to the fore. All" creatures are without exception subordinate to Christ, just as He Himself, as Mediator, is subordinate to the Father (1 Corinthians 11:3). While He exercises the kingship of grace over His congregation and is therefore often called its head, He is vested with a kingship of power over all creatures and in that relationship He is rarely called head, but very often King and Lord. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the Chief of all the kings of the earth, and will reign as king until all enemies are put under his feet, 1 Corinthians 15:25, 1 Timothy 6:15, Revelation 1:5, Revelation 17:14, Revelation 19:16. This kingship of power must not be confused with the absolute power which Christ shares with the Father and the Spirit according to His divine nature. The omnipotence to which the Son is entitled from eternity is distinct from all the power of which Christ speaks in Matthew 28:18, and which is specifically granted to Him as Mediator according to both natures. As Mediator, Christ has to assemble, rule and protect His congregation; and to be able to do that, He must already be more powerful than all His and her enemies. But this is not the only reason why the kingship of power was given to Christ. There is also another reason: As Mediator, He must also triumph over all His enemies. He does not approach them or defeat them by His divine omnipotence, but He shows them that power which He has acquired by His suffering and death. The battle between God and His creatures is a battle of right and justice. Just as the congregation is redeemed in the way of justice, so too Christ’s enemies will one day be judged in the way of justice. God will not use His omnipotence against them as He could, but He will triumph over them on the Cross (Colossians 2:15). If God pursued His enemies with His omnipotence, they could not exist for a moment. But He gives them birth and life, generation after generation and century after century, He lavishes His benefits on them, and bestows on them all the gifts which they possess in body and soul, but which they themselves misuse against His name. God can do all this, and does all this, because Christ is Mediator; even though not all things are subject to Him at present, He is nevertheless crowned with honor and glory, and He will reign as King as long as all enemies will pretend to submit to Him. Finally, at the end of time, when everyone looks back on the history of the world and especially of his own life, and notices therein all the material and spiritual gifts that God has given him for the sake of the Mediator, everyone will finally have to make Christ his equals in his own conscience; in His name, willingly or unwillingly, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Christ will also once as the Son of Man pronounce the final judgment on all creatures; and He will judge no one, except him who has been condemned by the Holy Spirit in his own conscience, John 3:18, John 16:8-11.