Michael Bauman | Politics | The Chronicle of an Undeception

theology \| politics \| economics \| literary criticism \| sports \| about
"The Christian confession of faith in Christ's resurrection, in His ascension, and in His enthronement at God's right hand all testify to the unexpected triumph and exaltation of Christ. They express that strange, fearful, and saving reversal of what appeared to be the final defeat for Christ and all for which He stood. They are statements about what happened after men had done their worst -- and God took over to do His best." Edgar M. Carlson, The Classic Christian Faith	Chapter Seven: “He ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty.” “Ascendit ad coelos, sedet ad dexteram Dei Patris omnipotentis,” "The Christian confession of faith in Christ's resurrection, in His ascension, and in His enthronement at God's right hand all testify to the unexpected triumph and exaltation of Christ. They express that strange, fearful, and saving reversal of what appeared to be the final defeat for Christ and all for which He stood. They are statements about what happened after men had done their worst -- and God took over to do His best." Edgar M. Carlson, The Classic Christian Faith "Thou hast raised our human nature In the clouds to God's right hand; There we sit in heav'nly places, There with Thee in glory stand; Jesus reigns, adored by Angels; Man with God is on the throne; Mighty Lord, in Thine Ascension We by faith behold our own." Hymns Ancient and Modern, for Ascensiontide "Let the very spirit which was in Christ Jesus be in you also. From the beginning He had the nature of God. Yet He did not regard equality with God as something at which He should grasp. Nay, He stripped Himself of His glory, and took on Him the nature of a bondservant by becoming a man like other men. And being recognized as truly human, He humbled Himself and even stooped to die; and that too a death on the cross. It is because of this that God has so highly exalted Him, and has conferred upon Him the Name which is above every other name, in order that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of beings in the highest heavens, of those on the earth, and of those in the underworld, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Philippians 2: 5-11 (Weymouth) From its affirmation of the resurrection of Christ, the creed turns now to his ascension and session. It tells us what happened at the end of the forty days following his resurrection, days during which He repeatedly appeared to his disciples. That is, this portion of the creed tells us where Christ is and what He is doing. It directs our attention both to his condition -- He is in Heaven -- and his position -- He occupies the seat of power at the Father's right hand. Though we are grateful, of course, for the many appearances made by Christ to his disciples after his resurrection, inspiring and instructive as those appearances indeed are, Jesus Himself said that it was to our advantage for Him to go away. This article of the creed begins to teach us some of the theological reasons why that is so. Drawn from the language of Psalm 110: 1, a verse echoed more frequently in the New Testament than perhaps any other (Rom. 8: 34, Eph. 1: 20, Col. 3: 1, Heb. 10: 12, and 1 Pet. 3: 22 etc.), the creed's affirmation that Christ ascended into Heaven and sits at the Father's right hand indicates that Christ has overcome all that was opposed to Him, that He has conquered all hostile powers, both for Himself and for those who are his. That the creed here makes such prominent use of an Old Testament quotation is historically significant because such usage is a tacit endorsement of the Hebrew Scriptures and of the truth that the God of Israel is the Father of Christ, both of which early Gnostic thinkers like Marcion adamantly rejected. This affirmation, in other words, expresses the triumphant result of Christ's sinless suffering and his defeat of death and Hell, on the one hand, and distances itself from a widespread ancient heresy, on the other. Although mentioned also in the epistles of Paul, Christ's ascension is recorded for us in the four gospels only by Luke, who also begins his account of the Acts of the Apostles with the same event, thus making it serve both as the finale to his first book and the preface to his second (Luke 24: 51, Acts 1: 9). In describing it, Luke tells us that the apostles walked along with Jesus out toward Bethany, where He blessed them and was parted from them, being translated bodily into Heaven, into the immediate presence of his Heavenly Father. In ascending to Heaven, Scripture tells us, Jesus also brought with Him all those whom, by his grace, He rescued from the dead. Paul described this rescue as Christ's "leading captivity captive (Eph. 4: 8)." By ascending to his Father, in other words, Christ opened a way for believers into the very courts of Heaven. Just as his humanity was translated into Heaven, so shall ours be. Or, to employ a Pauline image, because the Church is the body of Christ, He is our head. Where the head goes, the body follows. His ascension into Heaven, therefore, reveals the common destiny of all those who are people of faith. He that ascended, Paul wrote, is also the One that descended. By means of this double journey, Christ fills all things with his power, his will, and his presence (Eph. 4: 10). No realm of existence falls outside the purview of Jesus, neither the lowest depths of Hell nor the highest heights of Heaven. The majestic purpose of this upward and downward passage is to bring together all things in Christ, so that He "fills everything in every way" (Eph. 1: 23). Unlike all that the creed has said to this point about what Christ has accomplished or undergone, the word "sits" here is in the present tense. Until now, the creed focused on what Christ did in the past. Here we see what his function and status are at present, and what they shall continue to be until He returns to judge the world and to bring history to its divinely intended completion. This phrase fixes our attention upon what is now the case, and shall be the case, until the end. At this moment in history, in other words, while you are reading these very words, Christ is in Heaven, seated at his Father's side, ruling the universe in righteousness. He directs and governs human affairs for his own good purposes and ultimate ends. That Christ is pictured here as seated implies both that the initial, or fundamental, portion of his redemptive work on earth is completed and that He Himself now wields ultimate authority, for seated is the position both of rest and of power, as in the case of a king who, while his subjects rise to honor Him and to attend his decrees, remains seated upon his throne, robed in royal dignity; or as in the case of a Pope, who sends forth his pronouncements ex cathedra, that is, "from the throne." Christ, in other words, is pictured here as Universal King, enthroned in splendor and clothed with divine majesty and authority. The Son here rests in much the same way He rested after the sixth day of creation, in which instance his rest consisted in ceasing from his labor of making the world and turned to that of sustaining it. When we say that He rests, therefore, we do not mean that He ceases to work altogether. God does not do that; He neither slumbers nor sleeps. The words before us in the creed imply rather that Jesus completed one dimension of his redemptive task, that of defeating sin, death and Hell -- which is partly why, in agony on the cross, He cried out "It is finished" (John 19: 30) -- and then began another, the two-fold task of interceding with the Father on our behalf and of accompanying us to the ends of the earth as we seek to fulfill his parting command to us to bring his message to all persons everywhere. By the words "the right hand of God the Father almighty," the creed designates the prerogatives of ultimate authority and beatitude enjoyed by Christ. By describing Him as enthroned at the Father's right hand, the creed affirms that Christ is the transcendent Lord of all, that He is the Reality and the Power above all reality and power, and that He has taken his rightful place at the pinnacle of glory, honor and dominion. Significantly, the Bible also employs phrases referring to God's "right hand" to describe the destiny of bliss prepared for believers. Here is where obedience, humility and purity lead. This is the destination of faith and of all those who have it. Faith, of whatever sort, leads you to where the object of your faith has gone, in the case of Christians to the throne room of Heaven itself. By contrast, the words "left hand," when used in Scripture in this regard, indicate the place of judgement and punishment (Matt. 25: 31-46). The exercise of such judgement is now the privilege solely of Jesus, as He Himself taught: "The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgement to the Son (John 5: 22). For that reason and others we call Him "the King of kings and the Lord of lords" (1 Tim. 6: 15). He stands in judgement over all persons, regardless of their earthly power or pomp. These words, then, indicate both the future beatitude of believers and the present power and glory of Christ, for at "the right hand of God the Father almighty" is Heaven's place of richest joy and of highest honor. The One who occupies it is Supreme Lord of all things; to Him are subject the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them. When the Father set the Son at his right hand, in other words, Heaven witnessed the coronation of the world's Monarch, of whose kingdom there shall be no end. That Christ is Universal Lord is perhaps the oldest Christian affirmation. Peter, for example, referred to it in his first sermon when, on the day of Pentecost, he told the Jews in Jerusalem that "God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ (Acts 2: 36). By this article the Church declares that Christ, the Bishop of our souls, is the One who rules the world. He does so according to the immutable dictates of mercy and justice. Ultimate authority over the entire universe is wielded by hands pierced with nails for the forgiveness of sin. In the enthronement of the Son at the Father's side, right finally made might, not vice versa. Though sin and sinners still do their worst, they have lost the war with God and good. They are like the chess player who has already made the fatal misplay and whose only course now is to delay the inevitable, which marches inexorably forward and cannot be evaded. Unlike the exercise of earthly power, which often corrupts those who exercise it, heavenly power, because it lies in the hands of the Righteous One, saves and sanctifies all that over which it rules. By means of his divine power and righteousness, Christ will "reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or in Heaven, by making peace through his blood" (Col. 1: 20). Because Jesus Christ is Universal King, his kingdom will continue to increase until the end of time, when He Himself returns to reign over the new heaven and the new earth. Part of that kingdom's increase includes the fulfillment of the commission Jesus gave to his earliest followers -- and to us -- to make disciples of all the nations. Before He left the apostles, as both the account given by Matthew and by Luke indicate, Jesus' commanded them to go to work, to bring all nations into the orbit of Christian faith and obedience, beginning in Jerusalem and Judea, and going from there to Samaria and to every corner of the earth. This task, He told them, arose directly from his lordship over all creation. That is, He said that He had been given all authority in Heaven and earth, and because He had, they were to cover the world with his gospel (Matt. 28: 19). His message, like his lordship, is not a parochial or provincial affair, meant as it is for the entire human race. Christ has a heart with global affections, affections as far-reaching as his all-encompassing divine authority. As the Bible repeatedly affirms, Christ died for the sins of the world, and He wants the world to know it. The disciples in their day, and we in ours, are the feet that carry the message of liberation from sin and death, and ours are the voices that proclaim it. If we do not do it, it does not get done. Getting it done was the last command He gave us on earth. For this very task He has been training us since the time we met Him. For this task He now aids and enables us. Just as He is our Representative in Heaven before our Heavenly Father, we are his representatives on earth before a lost and fallen world. Were it not for his assurance to us, on the one hand, that He has all power in Heaven and on earth, and his corresponding promise to us, on the other hand, that He will be with us everywhere and at all times, global discipleship would be a daunting, perhaps even impossible, task. With the Lord of the world at our side, however, we can, and should, dare to do it. We must by no means overlook the theological importance of Christ's assurance to be with us until the end of time. Among other things, His assurance to us means that the Jesus of history, who to this point has been our continual focus as we worked our way through the creed, is still our focus. Though He has entered into his Father's presence in a way we do not now enjoy, He nevertheless remains fully involved in human history, is still an actor in the drama of human redemption. He is in Heaven, to be sure, but He is not thereby removed from the bounds of time or from the things that happen within it. Just as He did not discard human nature when He returned to his Heavenly Father, He did not discard human history. He who reigns in Heaven, reigns now, as history's Lord. The kingship of Christ is not some distant or remote philosophical speculation. It works actively among us at this very moment in time, and it is growing. It permeates the world like yeast in dough. It will continue to grow until all things are put under his feet and all things are gathered together in Him, until that time when He shall be all in all. His promise of presence means that He is still an active agent in human history. He accompanies us wherever we go. No square inch of ground exists upon which you can place the heel of your foot where He is not with you and in complete control. He is there, and He is Lord. When He walked on earth, He was near only to a few. But now that He has ascended, He is near to us all. He is nearer to us than our closest earthly friend. By means of the Holy Spirit, Christ is not only near our hearts, He is in them. Therefore, we must not think that because He reigns in Heaven at the Father's right hand He is either absent from us or is removed from human history, neither of which is true. That is why Luke begins his second book by telling his reader that the gospel which he wrote is merely an account of what Jesus began to do and to teach (Acts 1: 1). The book of Acts, virtually all of which takes place after the ascension, is Luke's account of what Jesus continued to do among us. The Jesus of history has never stopped being the Jesus of history; He never shall. But here, for safety's sake, we must pause. Language of the sort used in this article of the creed, and of the sort used throughout this chapter, would mislead us if we did not consciously call to mind that it is inescapably anthropomorphic, or humanly inflected. That is, the language with which we here are concerned is earth-bound; it conveys spiritual realities in unavoidably terrestrial terms. Such language must be understood as what it is, figurative. If understood literally, anthropomorphic language of this sort would lead us falsely to conclude that God has hands or arms or feet. But of course He does not; He is spirit. The creed's language here regarding the Son's session at the Father's right hand is non-literal language, as indeed it was earlier regarding his "descent" into Hell and his "ascent" into Heaven, which must not be read as if by the one He journeyed to a place above our heads and by the other to one beneath our feet. While the language employed here is meaningful and true, we must recognize that its meaning and truth are borne figuratively. "When the early Christian said that Jesus sits at God's right hand," wrote Alan Richardson, "he was only saying in the language of his own generation what a modern theologian is trying to say when he talks about the 'cosmic significance' of Jesus Christ" (Richardson, Creeds in the Making 25-26). The creed's assertion that Jesus sits enthroned at the right hand of the Father, in other words, must not be understood as a literal indication of Christ's present physical position or posture. To read it in that way would lead us into rather silly misreadings of both Scripture and the creed. For example, moments before he died Stephen said he saw Christ "standing" at the right hand of the Father (Acts 7: 55, 56), which must be seen as an indication that Christ is ready to aid and receive the faithful, in this case the Church's first martyr, not that He grew tired of sitting and decided to stretch his legs, or that He wanted to get a better view of what was happening and needed to stand in order to get it. When I say that the creed's language in this article is figurative, I am not saying that the disciples did not actually see Jesus rise physically away from them. They did. That event, like all those mentioned to this point in the creed, is an event of history. But what they saw was something R. H. Malden rightly described as "an acted parable." The apostles, as did all people of their day, thought of the earth as the fixed center of the universe, and of heaven as a place situated at some vast distance above it. By disappearing into a cloud [Christ] made them understand that He had gone to heaven . . . The symbolic act fulfilled its purpose. It is not easy to see by what other means the lesson which the disciples had to learn could have been conveyed (Malden, Christian Belief 39). Or, as one wag said, Christ could not very well have indicated to his followers that He was going to his Heavenly Father in order to reign over the entire universe by appearing to sink into the mud. The historical ascension is a visible picture of, or a pointer toward, a spiritual reality, in this case the complete exaltation of Christ, by which He is given the name that is above every name. This is exaltation, not levitation, and certainly not a launching. Jesus Christ is elevated much the same way a prince is elevated when he becomes king, or the way a captain is when he becomes an admiral, or the way an undergraduate is when he gets his degree. The truth of Christ's elevation is communicated to the apostles pictorially, visually. They pass it on to us in figurative language. The figurative language used to convey that fact, therefore, must not be allowed to throw us off the track of truth. Because it has developed on earth and in time, human language is necessarily spatial and temporal. To a great extent, so also are the concepts created according to, and articulated in, such language. Consequently, even we ourselves, though we live many centuries after the apostles and understand much more about the physical makeup of the universe than did they, still find it impossible to speak of spiritual realities without the use of spatial and temporal language, even though some of that to which we refer, strictly speaking, exists outside space and time. Were we so-called moderns to write this account about Jesus, perhaps we would prefer to say He disappeared or was translated into another, in this case heavenly, dimension of being. But "dimension," like "ascended," we must remember, is a spatial word. Regardless of whether we prefer to say that Jesus ascended into Heaven or was translated into the dimension of the Divine, the meaning and historicity of the ascension remain the same and should not be lost in language. My point is simply this: Neither the apostles nor the creed are to be disparaged because they employ spatial and temporal language or concepts. None other is available. This does not mean that the apostles and the creed are hopelessly mistaken or embarrassingly backward, only that they share with all of us the limitations common to humanity and to verbal productions made within spatial and temporal constraints. Having put the language aright, we proceed. We must notice carefully that Christ occupies his position of supreme authority clothed in full humanity, like our own. As the man God became, Jesus Christ now exercises administrative authority over the world. He is the Chief Executive Officer of the universe. Clothed in our humanity, He works on our behalf, remembering all the while our human infirmities and shortcomings, with which as an ancient Jewish man He Himself was intimately acquainted. Our Brother, so to speak, is seated at the Father's right hand, and we may be sure that He will remember his own. His human nature was neither dissolved nor annulled when He accepted the world's reins. Just as God brought Himself down to us in his conception and birth, even so has He brought us up to Himself in the ascension and session. Our humanity reigns with God in glory and power, a pledge and picture of the destiny that awaits us, for we ourselves, the Bible indicates, shall rule over even the angels. The Son of Man now reigns at the right hand of the Father, and attached by faith to Him, so do we. That great fact implies that as Christians our true citizenship is in Heaven (Phil. 3: 20), not on earth, or at least not on earth as it now is. For that very reason, we may suppose, we often find ourselves living as aliens, as pilgrims and sojourners, in a strange land, frequently feeling as much like the proverbial square pegs in round holes as we do the adopted children of God, for, on both counts, such we are. But when we feel that way, we must remember that we are seated together with Christ in heavenly places (Eph. 2: 6), places to where He Himself has gone before us, places which He is specially preparing for us and our arrival. Jesus Christ is preparing the venue of our eternal life with God. If this were not so, He said, He would have told us (John 14:2). We might not think that we fit in well in this fallen world, and perhaps we are right. But there is a place -- the new heaven and earth -- where we do belong, and one day it shall be ours. Clothed in our flesh, still robed in the humanity He wore on earth, the Savior of the World, the Conqueror of Death, the King of Creation, the Architect of our heavenly homes, is also our advocate, our lawyer. He pleads our case before the Father, and upon his advocacy and saving work the Father's approval unendingly rests. Jesus Christ is precisely the sort of attorney we sinful people need. He never loses a case; of all those whom the Father has given him, He has not lost one. In John's memorable words, "If anybody sins, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defence -- Jesus Christ the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2: 1, 2). Or, to change the image from legal to sacerdotal, as did the Old Testament high priest on the annual day of atonement, the day in which he entered into the presence of God in order to make his sacrifice for Israel's sins, Jesus too, in his ascension and session, has passed through the veil that separates us and our sin from the unsullied presence of the Father. He has reconciled us to God. He does this as our High Priest, the one who continually intercedes on our behalf. But unlike the atonement made yearly by the ancient Jewish high priests, the atonement Jesus makes is both full and enduring, for He is not only the priest who offers it, He Himself is the offering that is offered, which is why, when John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him, he cried out in a loud voice, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1: 29).
	Copyright © 2006. Michael Bauman. All rights reserved.	date modified: 5 July 2006 Website Hit Counters

"The Christian confession of faith in Christ's resurrection, in His ascension, and in His enthronement at God's right hand all testify to the unexpected triumph and exaltation of Christ. They express that strange, fearful, and saving reversal of what appeared to be the final defeat for Christ and all for which He stood. They are statements about what happened after men had done their worst -- and God took over to do His best."
Edgar M. Carlson, The Classic Christian Faith

Chapter Seven:

“He ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty.”

“Ascendit ad coelos, sedet ad dexteram Dei Patris omnipotentis,”

         "Thou hast raised our human nature
                  In the clouds to God's right hand;
         There we sit in heav'nly places,
                  There with Thee in glory stand;
         Jesus reigns, adored by Angels;
                  Man with God is on the throne;
         Mighty Lord, in Thine Ascension
                  We by faith behold our own."

Hymns Ancient and Modern, for Ascensiontide

"Let the very spirit which was in Christ Jesus be in you also. From the beginning He had the nature of God. Yet He did not regard equality with God as something at which He should grasp. Nay, He stripped Himself of His glory, and took on Him the nature of a bondservant by becoming a man like other men. And being recognized as truly human, He humbled Himself and even stooped to die; and that too a death on the cross. It is because of this that God has so highly exalted Him, and has conferred upon Him the Name which is above every other name, in order that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of beings in the highest heavens, of those on the earth, and of those in the underworld, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
Philippians 2: 5-11 (Weymouth)

         From its affirmation of the resurrection of Christ, the creed turns now to his ascension and session. It tells us what happened at the end of the forty days following his resurrection, days during which He repeatedly appeared to his disciples. That is, this portion of the creed tells us where Christ is and what He is doing. It directs our attention both to his condition -- He is in Heaven -- and his position -- He occupies the seat of power at the Father's right hand.
         Though we are grateful, of course, for the many appearances made by Christ to his disciples after his resurrection, inspiring and instructive as those appearances indeed are, Jesus Himself said that it was to our advantage for Him to go away. This article of the creed begins to teach us some of the theological reasons why that is so.
         Drawn from the language of Psalm 110: 1, a verse echoed more frequently in the New Testament than perhaps any other (Rom. 8: 34, Eph. 1: 20, Col. 3: 1, Heb. 10: 12, and 1 Pet. 3: 22 etc.), the creed's affirmation that Christ ascended into Heaven and sits at the Father's right hand indicates that Christ has overcome all that was opposed to Him, that He has conquered all hostile powers, both for Himself and for those who are his. That the creed here makes such prominent use of an Old Testament quotation is historically significant because such usage is a tacit endorsement of the Hebrew Scriptures and of the truth that the God of Israel is the Father of Christ, both of which early Gnostic thinkers like Marcion adamantly rejected. This affirmation, in other words, expresses the triumphant result of Christ's sinless suffering and his defeat of death and Hell, on the one hand, and distances itself from a widespread ancient heresy, on the other.
         Although mentioned also in the epistles of Paul, Christ's ascension is recorded for us in the four gospels only by Luke, who also begins his account of the Acts of the Apostles with the same event, thus making it serve both as the finale to his first book and the preface to his second (Luke 24: 51, Acts 1: 9). In describing it, Luke tells us that the apostles walked along with Jesus out toward Bethany, where He blessed them and was parted from them, being translated bodily into Heaven, into the immediate presence of his Heavenly Father.
         In ascending to Heaven, Scripture tells us, Jesus also brought with Him all those whom, by his grace, He rescued from the dead. Paul described this rescue as Christ's "leading captivity captive (Eph. 4: 8)." By ascending to his Father, in other words, Christ opened a way for believers into the very courts of Heaven. Just as his humanity was translated into Heaven, so shall ours be. Or, to employ a Pauline image, because the Church is the body of Christ, He is our head. Where the head goes, the body follows. His ascension into Heaven, therefore, reveals the common destiny of all those who are people of faith.
         He that ascended, Paul wrote, is also the One that descended. By means of this double journey, Christ fills all things with his power, his will, and his presence (Eph. 4: 10). No realm of existence falls outside the purview of Jesus, neither the lowest depths of Hell nor the highest heights of Heaven. The majestic purpose of this upward and downward passage is to bring together all things in Christ, so that He "fills everything in every way" (Eph. 1: 23).
         Unlike all that the creed has said to this point about what Christ has accomplished or undergone, the word "sits" here is in the present tense. Until now, the creed focused on what Christ did in the past. Here we see what his function and status are at present, and what they shall continue to be until He returns to judge the world and to bring history to its divinely intended completion. This phrase fixes our attention upon what is now the case, and shall be the case, until the end. At this moment in history, in other words, while you are reading these very words, Christ is in Heaven, seated at his Father's side, ruling the universe in righteousness. He directs and governs human affairs for his own good purposes and ultimate ends.
         That Christ is pictured here as seated implies both that the initial, or fundamental, portion of his redemptive work on earth is completed and that He Himself now wields ultimate authority, for seated is the position both of rest and of power, as in the case of a king who, while his subjects rise to honor Him and to attend his decrees, remains seated upon his throne, robed in royal dignity; or as in the case of a Pope, who sends forth his pronouncements ex cathedra, that is, "from the throne." Christ, in other words, is pictured here as Universal King, enthroned in splendor and clothed with divine majesty and authority. The Son here rests in much the same way He rested after the sixth day of creation, in which instance his rest consisted in ceasing from his labor of making the world and turned to that of sustaining it. When we say that He rests, therefore, we do not mean that He ceases to work altogether. God does not do that; He neither slumbers nor sleeps. The words before us in the creed imply rather that Jesus completed one dimension of his redemptive task, that of defeating sin, death and Hell -- which is partly why, in agony on the cross, He cried out "It is finished" (John 19: 30) -- and then began another, the two-fold task of interceding with the Father on our behalf and of accompanying us to the ends of the earth as we seek to fulfill his parting command to us to bring his message to all persons everywhere.
         By the words "the right hand of God the Father almighty," the creed designates the prerogatives of ultimate authority and beatitude enjoyed by Christ. By describing Him as enthroned at the Father's right hand, the creed affirms that Christ is the transcendent Lord of all, that He is the Reality and the Power above all reality and power, and that He has taken his rightful place at the pinnacle of glory, honor and dominion.
         Significantly, the Bible also employs phrases referring to God's "right hand" to describe the destiny of bliss prepared for believers. Here is where obedience, humility and purity lead. This is the destination of faith and of all those who have it. Faith, of whatever sort, leads you to where the object of your faith has gone, in the case of Christians to the throne room of Heaven itself. By contrast, the words "left hand," when used in Scripture in this regard, indicate the place of judgement and punishment (Matt. 25: 31-46). The exercise of such judgement is now the privilege solely of Jesus, as He Himself taught: "The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgement to the Son (John 5: 22). For that reason and others we call Him "the King of kings and the Lord of lords" (1 Tim. 6: 15). He stands in judgement over all persons, regardless of their earthly power or pomp. These words, then, indicate both the future beatitude of believers and the present power and glory of Christ, for at "the right hand of God the Father almighty" is Heaven's place of richest joy and of highest honor. The One who occupies it is Supreme Lord of all things; to Him are subject the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them. When the Father set the Son at his right hand, in other words, Heaven witnessed the coronation of the world's Monarch, of whose kingdom there shall be no end.
         That Christ is Universal Lord is perhaps the oldest Christian affirmation. Peter, for example, referred to it in his first sermon when, on the day of Pentecost, he told the Jews in Jerusalem that "God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ (Acts 2: 36). By this article the Church declares that Christ, the Bishop of our souls, is the One who rules the world. He does so according to the immutable dictates of mercy and justice.   Ultimate authority over the entire universe is wielded by hands pierced with nails for the forgiveness of sin. In the enthronement of the Son at the Father's side, right finally made might, not vice versa. Though sin and sinners still do their worst, they have lost the war with God and good. They are like the chess player who has already made the fatal misplay and whose only course now is to delay the inevitable, which marches inexorably forward and cannot be evaded. Unlike the exercise of earthly power, which often corrupts those who exercise it, heavenly power, because it lies in the hands of the Righteous One, saves and sanctifies all that over which it rules. By means of his divine power and righteousness, Christ will "reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or in Heaven, by making peace through his blood" (Col. 1: 20).
         Because Jesus Christ is Universal King, his kingdom will continue to increase until the end of time, when He Himself returns to reign over the new heaven and the new earth. Part of that kingdom's increase includes the fulfillment of the commission Jesus gave to his earliest followers -- and to us -- to make disciples of all the nations. Before He left the apostles, as both the account given by Matthew and by Luke indicate, Jesus' commanded them to go to work, to bring all nations into the orbit of Christian faith and obedience, beginning in Jerusalem and Judea, and going from there to Samaria and to every corner of the earth. This task, He told them, arose directly from his lordship over all creation. That is, He said that He had been given all authority in Heaven and earth, and because He had, they were to cover the world with his gospel (Matt. 28: 19). His message, like his lordship, is not a parochial or provincial affair, meant as it is for the entire human race. Christ has a heart with global affections, affections as far-reaching as his all-encompassing divine authority. As the Bible repeatedly affirms, Christ died for the sins of the world, and He wants the world to know it. The disciples in their day, and we in ours, are the feet that carry the message of liberation from sin and death, and ours are the voices that proclaim it. If we do not do it, it does not get done. Getting it done was the last command He gave us on earth. For this very task He has been training us since the time we met Him. For this task He now aids and enables us. Just as He is our Representative in Heaven before our Heavenly Father, we are his representatives on earth before a lost and fallen world. Were it not for his assurance to us, on the one hand, that He has all power in Heaven and on earth, and his corresponding promise to us, on the other hand, that He will be with us everywhere and at all times, global discipleship would be a daunting, perhaps even impossible, task. With the Lord of the world at our side, however, we can, and should, dare to do it.
         We must by no means overlook the theological importance of Christ's assurance to be with us until the end of time. Among other things, His assurance to us means that the Jesus of history, who to this point has been our continual focus as we worked our way through the creed, is still our focus. Though He has entered into his Father's presence in a way we do not now enjoy, He nevertheless remains fully involved in human history, is still an actor in the drama of human redemption. He is in Heaven, to be sure, but He is not thereby removed from the bounds of time or from the things that happen within it. Just as He did not discard human nature when He returned to his Heavenly Father, He did not discard human history. He who reigns in Heaven, reigns now, as history's Lord. The kingship of Christ is not some distant or remote philosophical speculation. It works actively among us at this very moment in time, and it is growing. It permeates the world like yeast in dough. It will continue to grow until all things are put under his feet and all things are gathered together in Him, until that time when He shall be all in all. His promise of presence means that He is still an active agent in human history. He accompanies us wherever we go. No square inch of ground exists upon which you can place the heel of your foot where He is not with you and in complete control. He is there, and He is Lord. When He walked on earth, He was near only to a few. But now that He has ascended, He is near to us all. He is nearer to us than our closest earthly friend.   By means of the Holy Spirit, Christ is not only near our hearts, He is in them. Therefore, we must not think that because He reigns in Heaven at the Father's right hand He is either absent from us or is removed from human history, neither of which is true. That is why Luke begins his second book by telling his reader that the gospel which he wrote is merely an account of what Jesus began to do and to teach (Acts 1: 1). The book of Acts, virtually all of which takes place after the ascension, is Luke's account of what Jesus continued to do among us. The Jesus of history has never stopped being the Jesus of history; He never shall.
         But here, for safety's sake, we must pause. Language of the sort used in this article of the creed, and of the sort used throughout this chapter, would mislead us if we did not consciously call to mind that it is inescapably anthropomorphic, or humanly inflected. That is, the language with which we here are concerned is earth-bound; it conveys spiritual realities in unavoidably terrestrial terms. Such language must be understood as what it is, figurative. If understood literally, anthropomorphic language of this sort would lead us falsely to conclude that God has hands or arms or feet. But of course He does not; He is spirit. The creed's language here regarding the Son's session at the Father's right hand is non-literal language, as indeed it was earlier regarding his "descent" into Hell and his "ascent" into Heaven, which must not be read as if by the one He journeyed to a place above our heads and by the other to one beneath our feet. While the language employed here is meaningful and true, we must recognize that its meaning and truth are borne figuratively. "When the early Christian said that Jesus sits at God's right hand," wrote Alan Richardson, "he was only saying in the language of his own generation what a modern theologian is trying to say when he talks about the 'cosmic significance' of Jesus Christ" (Richardson, Creeds in the Making 25-26). The creed's assertion that Jesus sits enthroned at the right hand of the Father, in other words, must not be understood as a literal indication of Christ's present physical position or posture. To read it in that way would lead us into rather silly misreadings of both Scripture and the creed. For example, moments before he died Stephen said he saw Christ "standing" at the right hand of the Father (Acts 7: 55, 56), which must be seen as an indication that Christ is ready to aid and receive the faithful, in this case the Church's first martyr, not that He grew tired of sitting and decided to stretch his legs, or that He wanted to get a better view of what was happening and needed to stand in order to get it.
         When I say that the creed's language in this article is figurative, I am not saying that the disciples did not actually see Jesus rise physically away from them. They did. That event, like all those mentioned to this point in the creed, is an event of history. But what they saw was something R. H. Malden rightly described as "an acted parable." The apostles, as did all people of their day,

thought of the earth as the fixed center of the universe, and of heaven as a place situated at some vast distance above it. By disappearing into a cloud [Christ] made them understand that He had gone to heaven . . . The symbolic act fulfilled its purpose. It is not easy to see by what other means the lesson which the disciples had to learn could have been conveyed (Malden, Christian Belief 39).

Or, as one wag said, Christ could not very well have indicated to his followers that He was going to his Heavenly Father in order to reign over the entire universe by appearing to sink into the mud. The historical ascension is a visible picture of, or a pointer toward, a spiritual reality, in this case the complete exaltation of Christ, by which He is given the name that is above every name. This is exaltation, not levitation, and certainly not a launching. Jesus Christ is elevated much the same way a prince is elevated when he becomes king, or the way a captain is when he becomes an admiral, or the way an undergraduate is when he gets his degree. The truth of Christ's elevation is communicated to the apostles pictorially, visually. They pass it on to us in figurative language. The figurative language used to convey that fact, therefore, must not be allowed to throw us off the track of truth. Because it has developed on earth and in time, human language is necessarily spatial and temporal. To a great extent, so also are the concepts created according to, and articulated in, such language. Consequently, even we ourselves, though we live many centuries after the apostles and understand much more about the physical makeup of the universe than did they, still find it impossible to speak of spiritual realities without the use of spatial and temporal language, even though some of that to which we refer, strictly speaking, exists outside space and time. Were we so-called moderns to write this account about Jesus, perhaps we would prefer to say He disappeared or was translated into another, in this case heavenly, dimension of being. But "dimension," like "ascended," we must remember, is a spatial word. Regardless of whether we prefer to say that Jesus ascended into Heaven or was translated into the dimension of the Divine, the meaning and historicity of the ascension remain the same and should not be lost in language. My point is simply this: Neither the apostles nor the creed are to be disparaged because they employ spatial and temporal language or concepts. None other is available. This does not mean that the apostles and the creed are hopelessly mistaken or embarrassingly backward, only that they share with all of us the limitations common to humanity and to verbal productions made within spatial and temporal constraints.
         Having put the language aright, we proceed. We must notice carefully that Christ occupies his position of supreme authority clothed in full humanity, like our own. As the man God became, Jesus Christ now exercises administrative authority over the world. He is the Chief Executive Officer of the universe. Clothed in our humanity, He works on our behalf, remembering all the while our human infirmities and shortcomings, with which as an ancient Jewish man He Himself was intimately acquainted. Our Brother, so to speak, is seated at the Father's right hand, and we may be sure that He will remember his own. His human nature was neither dissolved nor annulled when He accepted the world's reins. Just as God brought Himself down to us in his conception and birth, even so has He brought us up to Himself in the ascension and session. Our humanity reigns with God in glory and power, a pledge and picture of the destiny that awaits us, for we ourselves, the Bible indicates, shall rule over even the angels. The Son of Man now reigns at the right hand of the Father, and attached by faith to Him, so do we.
         That great fact implies that as Christians our true citizenship is in Heaven (Phil. 3: 20), not on earth, or at least not on earth as it now is. For that very reason, we may suppose, we often find ourselves living as aliens, as pilgrims and sojourners, in a strange land, frequently feeling as much like the proverbial square pegs in round holes as we do the adopted children of God, for, on both counts, such we are. But when we feel that way, we must remember that we are seated together with Christ in heavenly places (Eph. 2: 6), places to where He Himself has gone before us, places which He is specially preparing for us and our arrival. Jesus Christ is preparing the venue of our eternal life with God. If this were not so, He said, He would have told us (John 14:2). We might not think that we fit in well in this fallen world, and perhaps we are right. But there is a place -- the new heaven and earth -- where we do belong, and one day it shall be ours.
         Clothed in our flesh, still robed in the humanity He wore on earth, the Savior of the World, the Conqueror of Death, the King of Creation, the Architect of our heavenly homes, is also our advocate, our lawyer. He pleads our case before the Father, and upon his advocacy and saving work the Father's approval unendingly rests. Jesus Christ is precisely the sort of attorney we sinful people need. He never loses a case; of all those whom the Father has given him, He has not lost one. In John's memorable words, "If anybody sins, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defence -- Jesus Christ the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2: 1, 2). Or, to change the image from legal to sacerdotal, as did the Old Testament high priest on the annual day of atonement, the day in which he entered into the presence of God in order to make his sacrifice for Israel's sins, Jesus too, in his ascension and session, has passed through the veil that separates us and our sin from the unsullied presence of the Father. He has reconciled us to God. He does this as our High Priest, the one who continually intercedes on our behalf. But unlike the atonement made yearly by the ancient Jewish high priests, the atonement Jesus makes is both full and enduring, for He is not only the priest who offers it, He Himself is the offering that is offered, which is why, when John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him, he cried out in a loud voice, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1: 29).

date modified:
5 July 2006

Website Hit Counters