Question 32: What do we mean by Christ's exaltation?

By Christ's exaltation we mean his rising again from the dead on the third day, ascending up into heaven, sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and coming to judge the world at the last day.

DAY 1: 1 Corinthians 15:4

“and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,”

In this passage, Paul is writing to his readers about the gospel and what is contained in the gospel. Before he gives us the names and numbers of eyewitnesses to the resurrected Christ, he tells us that He was resurrected. However, it was not just any resurrection. It was not a resurrection like that of Lazarus (John 11:43-44) or the widow’s son (Luke 7:12-16). Both of these resurrections happened because of Jesus Christ, but they were temporary. Both of these men eventually died again. Christ’s resurrection was foretold in the Scriptures.

Psalm 16:8-11 speak foretelling the resurrection of Christ. In this passage David is praising the God of hope. Unlike the gods of the heathen, god is able to protect and to give hope because He is the living and true God. David goes on writing, and it seems unknown to him, about the resurrection in verse 10. He says that God will not leave his soul in hell. The term in Hebrew for hell is Sheol. It would be most commonly translated here as the grave rather than the picture we would get from the word hell. We are also told that God will not allow His Holy One to corruption. The Hebrew word for corruption is defined as “pit, destruction, grave”. It comes from a root word which means to literally sink. The idea communicated in the passage is that though the person spoken of here may perceive or see the grave, He will not be swallowed up by it. In other words death will not have its total work of decay and corruption of the body. Its power will not be permanent upon Him. This however is not spoken of King David, but rather of the Messiah. This was how the apostles themselves interpreted Psalm 16 (cf. Acts 2:29-32; 13:35-37). For David’s flesh saw corruption, but Christ’s was brought forth from the grave the third day, just as He said during His earthly ministry.

Seeing this then, it seems that Psalm 13 is a parallel to the prayer of Jesus in the garden. It seems that Jesus was asking the Father, in submitting to His will that the Father bring Him through the things that were before Him. Jesus trusted the Father to bring Him back from the dead, once He had accomplished His work.

As a matter of fact, Paul goes on in this same chapter of 1 Corinthians 15 to say that the Christian faith is dependent upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If there is no resurrection our preaching and our faith is empty (vs. 14), we are found to be false witnesses before God (vs. 15), we are still in our sins (vs. 17), and we are most pitiable among men (vs. 19). So our faith in God is utterly worthless if Christ is not resurrected. But the truth is that our faith is priceless, because He is alive!

DAY 2: Acts 1:11; Mark 16:19

Who also said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven."

So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.

In both of the passages we see the account of the ascension of Christ. In looking at Christ’s exaltation, let us look at a few things from both of these passages. First, notice that there were men gazing up into heaven at Jesus ascending. They could see His body. This is important, because Jesus, even now, still retains His body. He ascended to Heaven bodily. The passage also contains important implications concerning His return. The angels that accompanied Christ said that the SAME Jesus will so come in like manner as you saw Him go. We don’t know if this is the event with over 500 that Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 15, but we do know that the ones who were there saw Jesus Christ ascend into heaven bodily. The angels are telling us that He will come again and when He does it will be bodily. This is the implication of the phrase “in like manner”. We have had many false prophets who try to cover their false prophecies when their claims of Christ’s return by a certain date don’t materialize. They fall back on a claim that He did return, but only spiritually. Therefore we should be wary of anyone who claims that Christ has returned or is claiming that Christ will return on a certain day.

The ascension is verified by the promise that Jesus made in John 14:16-17, 25-26; 16:7. Jesus promised the disciples that when He left them and went to the Father that the Holy Spirit would come. As we have briefly talked about, the question would be, “Since Satan is the prince of the power of the air, how do we know that Satan didn’t conquer Jesus on His way to the Father?” We know that Christ made it to the Father because the Holy Spirit did come in power on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2). Therefore Christ’s ascension was very much part of His exaltation.

We are told what happened once Jesus made it to the Father. Mark’s account tells us that He sat down at the right hand of God. We have spoken before about the two things mentioned here. First, He sat down. Again, we see that His work was accomplished. It seems redundant, but we continue to contrast Christ with the Levitical priests. While their work was never done, because their sacrifices couldn’t not take away sin, Jesus’ one time sacrifice was offered to God and found to be acceptable (Heb.10:12). Therefore His work was accomplished.

We also see His place of prominence. The place of prominence that Jesus Christ took was at the right hand of God. His is a place of rest. It is a place of ease and pleasure in the accomplishment of His work. When God had finished His work on the sixth day, He took the seventh day and rested. So too, Christ has now finished His work and is seated at the right hand of God resting from His work. Christ is not to be offered in a “Mass” over and over again. He has been exalted. He is to no longer be humiliated, but glorified. He is merely awaiting the Day in which He will return and rule over all the earth and its inhabitants from Jerusalem.

DAY 3: Acts 17:31

"Because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead."

This context is Paul’s famous address in Athens. He is speaking to the heathen idol worshippers and started with their altar to the Unknown God. Although he says they worship Him, he makes clear that they do not have true worship towards God. What is meant by that is that they do realize that there is a supreme being beyond them. It seems that they were even polytheistic in their view which would have been common for the area. However, because they didn’t want to leave a god out and offend him, they erected this altar to the unknown god. Paul begins to introduce them to the true God, the Creator of the world and everything in it. Paul used this approach when dealing with those who did not have the Scriptures. When he dealt with the Jews he would always point them back to the Scriptures in order to evangelize them.

Paul leads them from creation to the fact that they are idolaters and that God is not to be fashioned with our hands out of wood or metal, but that we are indeed made in His image. Paul lets them know that God has overlooked these times of ignorance, but that now He commands all men everywhere to repent. Why? Because God has appointed a Day in which judgment will be passed on all men. God has also appointed a Judge. This Judge is the man whom God has ordained. Who is this man and can we be sure that God will judge men? The man is Jesus Christ and God has given us the assurance of this judgment because He has raised Jesus Christ from the dead.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the only hope that men have in overcoming death. However, it is somewhat ironic that in many churches a lot of lost people make it a point to show up on the Sunday that the resurrection is celebrated. Don’t they understand what they are “celebrating”? The fact is if the Judge is dead, He can’t hold court. However, since He is very much alive, those who come to join in the celebration of the risen Christ are also proclaiming their own doom unless they repent.

Surely Jesus told us about this appointment during His time on earth. Jesus spoke on several occasions about the authority that the Father had bestowed upon Him (cf. John 5:27; Matthew 28:18). Indeed Christ has been exalted to a high position of honor and authority. One day when His name is announced, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:4; Acts 1:11; Mark 16:19; Acts 17:31.