[in] which he wrought in the Christ [in] raising him from among [the] dead, and he set him down at his right hand in the heavenlies,
Paul prays that believers would know how great God's power is toward them. To show it, he points not to the stars but to a tomb and a throne. The verse answers two questions: how great is that power, and where is the risen Man now seated?
Paul could have measured God's strength by the making of the world. He chose a different scene.
In Ephesians we have what the power of God is. The Apostle prays that we may know it. To see a sample, we look not at creation but at the grave of Christ. At creation the Word of God made everything out of nothing, and no enemy appeared. But at the grave of Christ, death, the great enemy, had swept the scene. Even Christ, in grace, gave way to it and died for sins. The power of God raised that blessed Man from the dead and put Him in the highest place at God's right hand. So God displayed a power that no enemy could withstand.
People often gauge God's power toward them by their own faith or feelings. This verse sets the standard somewhere else.
The exceeding greatness of God's power toward us who believe has its measure in the working of His own mighty power. He put that power to work in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places. The measure of the might is divine. If we try to gauge this work by our faith, or feeling, or intelligence, we never lay hold of it. The measure is outside ourselves.
God did more than bring Him back to life. He gave the risen Man a place above every other power and name.
God raised Him from the dead. He set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, according to His merits and the dignity of His Person. There He is far above every rule, authority, might and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. So God has raised Man, in the Person of Christ, above everything except the throne that raised Him. And is He alone? No. The same power raised Christ and set Him at the right hand of God. That surpassing greatness of power, which raised the Man who was dead to the right hand of God, works with the same might in everyone who believes.
The phrase runs through this letter. It also sets Ephesians apart from Romans and Colossians.
The 'heavenlies' mark out this letter: compare Eph. 1:3, 20; Eph. 2:6; Eph. 3:10; Eph. 6:12. Romans takes up man as alive in his sins, and grace meets his need. Ephesians shows God's life-giving power for those dead in sins, seen in His raising Christ up from among the dead. Colossians views believers as risen with Christ, but still on earth with their hope in heaven. Ephesians seats believers in Christ in the heavenly places.
So where did God put this power to work? Not first inside the believer.
All of us alike, Jews and Gentiles, were dead in trespasses and sins... What takes place? God gives them life. Is it by a work inside their souls? No, but in a completely different way — "together with Christ."... What is in view here is not a work done in certain people at particular times. It is the work of God, according to the might of His strength. Where and when? "In Christ, when He raised Him from the dead." The power is "toward" us, but the operation itself took place in Christ.
So what does that seat mean for the believer now?
Christ has received a higher dignity, and He holds that place in present association with us while we are here. It is One who not only owns us and is kind to us, and uses the greatness of His glory for our good, but far more. The head of a vast empire can turn his throne to the good of his subjects and to the honour of those he wants to honour. But there is no real, direct, personal association with him. This is what the Christian has with Christ. Nothing less than to be one with Christ is what we have here.
- The sample — God shows His power not at creation, where nothing opposed Him, but at a grave, where the great enemy had done its worst.
- The measure — the standard of this power lies outside us. Our faith and feelings cannot gauge it.
- The Man — God set the risen Man above every rank and title, higher than all except the throne that raised Him.
- The place — "the heavenly places" runs through this letter. It is where Christ sits, and where believers sit in Him.
- The reach — the act happened in Christ, the power flows toward us, and the end is not distant kindness but being one with Him.
above every principality, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name named, not only in this age, but also in that to come;
God's power did not stop at raising Jesus from the dead. It carried Him past every rank of authority in the universe and seated Him at God's right hand. Two questions follow: who are the powers He now towers over, and what does His place there mean for us?
Verse 21 stacks title on title. One writer weighs whether "far above" claims more than the Greek does:
The meaning is clear. Whatever the rank or dignity of any of the heavenly orders or beings, God has set Christ as the glorified Man above them all. Among the vast number of heavenly beings He is absolutely supreme. The rendering "far above" may not be exactly justified by the word used. But we cannot doubt that our translators seized its spirit. They sought to express that there was no second to the glorified Christ, and that His exaltation is so far beyond words that all the highest ranks of angelic beings are far beneath His feet.
Rule, authority, power and dominion are not human offices. They name ranks in the unseen world, and the sweep takes in all of them:
Chapter 6:12 shows that principalities and powers (or authorities) belong to the spiritual realm — angelic beings, evil in nature in that case. But chapter 1:21 includes all spirit beings, good or evil.
Heaven is not man's native place. That is what makes this seat so startling:
Nothing declares the majesty of God's power and the sovereign supremacy of His will to the whole intelligent creation so strongly as this: the Man Christ Jesus lifted to the throne of heaven. For the natural place of man is earth. The first man was not heavenly. He was of the earth, made of dust... He stood on a level essentially different from, as well as lower than, the heavenly beings. Angels are greater in power and might than man. But Jesus is now made higher than the heavens. God gives Him not only supremacy of place, but supremacy of name as well. The name of Jesus is now named in heaven as well as in the church below, with the worship due to God alone.
Why is the language so strong? One writer points to what had to be beaten first:
Scripture uses no such strong expressions when it is a question of raising the millions who will share the bliss of the first resurrection. The reason, no doubt, is that raising them is a simple matter. It is not complicated by all those tremendous questions of sin, death and Satan's power that were at work in the case of Jesus. Then the real battle was fought. Then every opposing power, whether human or satanic, rose to its highest expression and combined in one last effort to hold the Saviour in the dominion of death. Then the might of God's power rose up. It flung back every assault, confounded the full power of the enemy, and raised Him from the dead, and up until, seated at His own right hand, He is above — and not only above, but "far above all principality and power."
What does "not only in this age but also in the one to come" cover?
The distinction this verse draws between the present age and the age to come is very marked. It is not a comparison of time with eternity, but of one limited period with another. The subject here is the appointed supremacy of Christ, and this relates in a special sense to the present age and the age that follows it at once. This description of Christ's position at the right hand of the Father presses one truth on our minds. God has given Him a name and place of such universal pre-eminence that every claim to independent power or action takes on the definite character of rebellious enmity against God. Whether He is confessed or denied, He is "the Head of all principality and power."
The passage does not stop with Christ's own glory:
In that place of conferred glory, the church is associated with Him. He is not only "head over all things" but "head over all things to the church." The very same power that worked in Christ to set Him on high works in us to set us along with Him there.
- Power — the strength that broke death's hold also carried Him past every rank above.
- Place — "far above" leaves no second; the highest created beings are beneath His feet, not beside Him.
- Person — a Man sits there, with a place earth's first man never had and a name honoured in heaven itself.
- Period — His supremacy covers this age and the age to come. So every claim to independent power now is open rebellion.
- Partners — He is head over all things to the church, and the power that seated Him is at work to set His people with Him there.
and has put all things under his feet, and gave him [to be] head over all things to the assembly,
Paul has just prayed that believers would grasp the power that raised Christ and seated Him above every rank of authority. Verse 22 finishes the picture and raises two questions: how is everything already under His feet when the world shows otherwise, and why is this rule over all things given to the church?
Paul is not coining a new phrase here. He is quoting an older Scripture.
The truth that matches the lifting up of Jesus is the subjection of all created things to Him as Lord of all. This is now stated by a quotation from Psalm 8, a passage mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament for a similar purpose (1 Cor. 15:27; Heb. 2:8). The subjection spoken of here is by the same hand that raised up Jesus from the dead.
Hebrews says that we do not yet see everything under Him. One writer answers this by separating what God has settled from what we can see.
So the writer of the letter to the Hebrews explains the eighth Psalm to his readers and says, We see now that this has not yet been fulfilled. This is not a contradiction of Ephesians, where the same Psalm is quoted. In Ephesians we have the counsel of God. That counsel is that all things are to be put under the feet of the glorified Christ, and when God takes a counsel it is as good as accomplished. But here in Hebrews 2 the writer speaks about the time aspect. So he says that at present the Lord Jesus is at the right hand, as in Ephesians, but we do not yet see all things put under His feet in a visible, practical way.
The verse holds two different relationships together. He is Head of a body, and He is Head over a universe.
Notice here two headships of a very different character. That He is the Head of the Church is obvious, because the Church is spoken of as His body. But besides this, God presents Him to the Church as "Head over all." God has already exalted Him and set Him in the highest place at His own right hand. God will make Him Heir of all things, the acknowledged and undisputed Head of the whole universe. In this character, as Head over all things, He has joined the Church to Himself. She is not part of the realm over which He reigns, but part, so to speak, of Himself — "the Church, which is His body."
If His rule is absolute, the phrase cannot be narrowing it.
But the apostle says, "Head over all things to the Church": why and how "to the Church"? That cannot mean to limit what is absolute. No, this headship over all shows the fulness of His resources for that to which He is Head in such a way that it is His Body. The Head over all is Head to a people so united to Him by the Spirit that they are one with Him as a body is with its head.
Asked whether the verse should read that God gave Him to the church, one writer refused to separate the giving from the relationship:
It does not make much difference. He gave Him to the church, that is, gave Him as Head to the body. That, at any rate, is the sense of it. It is the character in which He has been given.
The church is not counted among the things placed under His feet. The picture reaches back to Adam.
The church is not to be a glorious people only, over which Christ is to reign. We are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ — not just heirs under Christ, but heirs with Him. This matches the picture given at the very beginning of man's history. Adam had the glory of being head over this lower world, and his wife shares the dominion because of her union with him. The church is the spiritual Eve of the Lord Jesus, the bride of the last Adam.
This has an effect on the church today.
The church exists today, and her Head is the One who — though "over all, God blessed forever" — is over all things, the ascended and glorified Man. So the church does not have to wait to receive gifts. They are hers today, and have been hers since she came into being. They have reached her from her exalted Head. Every one of them exists to maintain His interests and to do His work in the world, and this world is the scene of the enemy's power. Every one of them is a witness to the triumph of our Head.
- Exalted — The words about all things under His feet come from Psalm 8. The hand that raised Jesus is the hand that puts everything under Him.
- Titled — In Ephesians the subjection is God's settled purpose. Hebrews adds that we do not yet see it carried out. The title is certain before the sight is.
- Given — God gave Him as Head over all things to a body. The phrase does not shrink His rule. It opens His resources to those joined to Him.
- Joined — The church is not part of the realm He rules. She is part of Himself: joint-heir with Christ, as Eve shared Adam's dominion because of her union with him.
- Supplied — Because the Head already holds that place, His gifts already reach the church. Each gift is a witness to His triumph.
which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all
Ephesians 1 ends by naming what the church is to the exalted Christ: His body, and His fullness. Two words carry the weight: "body" speaks of union, and "fullness" says the glorified Man is not complete without her.
Christ's authority over all things is not held apart from His people. God gives it with them in view.
It does not say head over the church, but head over all things to the church. Nothing could show the riches of God's grace more fully than this: it pleased God to join the church with Christ. The church here means all saints from Pentecost until the Lord comes. And Christ is the Man of His purpose, His own blessed Son, the One in whom is all His pleasure. Every believer indwelt by the Spirit is united to Christ, the living Head, as a member of His body, and the Lord regards him as a part of Himself.
"Body" is a figure, and it says more than obedience. A ruler commands from a distance. You cannot separate a head from its own limbs.
The figure of the body shows how close the church's connection with Christ is — "the church which is His body." This is not the relationship of subjects to a ruler, though it is also true that the church is subject to Christ. But this striking picture carries a wonderful truth. God's eternal purpose is not fulfilled unless the church is joined to the Risen Man in the place of glory where He is exalted.
"Fullness" here means that which fills up or completes. Commentators are careful about the sense in which Christ could lack anything.
The Church is "His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." It is the complement — that which fills up Christ, seen as man risen from the dead. As Son of God He needs nothing, of course, to complete His glory. But as man He does. Without the Church He would be no more complete in His resurrection-glory than Adam would have been without Eve.
The same writer adds a caution about whose fullness this is.
"The fullness of Him who fills all in all" — this is not the fullness of God the Father, which the Church is not and cannot be. It is the fullness, or complement, of Christ, seen as the glorified heavenly man, whose body we are.
The answer reaches back to the garden, where God formed Eve out of Adam's own body.
The Church is His fullness. According to Lightfoot, this word means "the filled condition of a thing, whether a tear to be mended, an idea to be realized, a prophetic plan to be fulfilled". How can we accept the idea that so glorious a Being needs anything to complete Him? Part of the answer, at least, is that Christ is here a Man. The quotation from Psalm 8 confirms this: "all things under His feet." It brings us close to this thought: in God's counsel it was not good that man should be alone, and God took Eve out of his body. In becoming man, Christ accepted this too — that He needs the Church to be His body, and later His bride.
The last clause describes Christ, not the church. The church's dignity is that she belongs to the One who fills everything.
The body is complement to the Head; it is in this sense its fullness. Christ fills all in all: this is His glory. It is He who divinely fills the whole universe — the church is the body of Him who does it.
The "church" here is not a building or a denomination. It has a definite beginning and a definite end.
The church is His body and so His fullness — the body in which He is properly expressed. This passage clearly views the church in its largest and widest sense. It is the sum total of the saints of this present age: those called out between the coming of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost and the coming again of the Lord Jesus.
That body is not only a future arrangement. One Spirit forms it now.
Baptised by one Spirit into one body, we have the Head and the body joined together. The Head is at the right hand of God in heaven, joined to the members. The power of the Holy Spirit forms them into a body down here on earth. Scripture calls that "the church."
- Head — Christ is not just head over the church. He is head over all things to the church, and God's grace joins her with Christ Himself.
- Body — the link is living union with the risen Man in glory, not the distance between subjects and a ruler.
- Fullness — the word means complement. As Son of God He needs nothing. As the glorified Man, He would be no more complete without the church than Adam without Eve.
- Formed — this body exists now. One Spirit's baptism joins the Head in heaven to members on earth, from Pentecost until the Lord comes.
- Filled — the church belongs to the One who fills the whole universe. She is the body in which He is expressed.