The church rightly focuses on the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. His name is the only name under heaven by which men are saved. His sacrificial substitution on our behalf absorbed the wrath of the Father so that we might be justified. But we also don’t want to relegate Christ’s work to the resurrection. Christ is the eternal Son of God. He existed before the incarnation, and of course, he is now seated at the right hand of the Father.
We say that Jesus Christ “preexisted” eternally. Of course that’s just in reference to the incarnation, hence the “pre-.” In his preexistent state, Christ was often present as the angel of the Lord throughout the Old Testament. Also, Paul says that Christ was the rock that Moses struck to give the Israelites water. But what about now? What’s Christ doing now, as he sits in authority at the right hand of the Father? That leads us to today’s definition. Exaltation of Christ. noun. Beginning with his resurrection, Christ received all authority and power. After a period of 40 days, Christ ascended to the Father in his glorified body and to exercise dominion. His exaltation will result in his return to earth to finalize the defeat of sin and death. We may not often wonder what Christ is doing right now, but Scripture does not keep it from us. He is our greatest intercessor. He prays for his church, that we might not fall away. And because that is the prayer of the Son, we can be assured that the Father will do what the Son asks. Hebrews 4:14-16 says, “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Christ is our great high priest. Because he was tempted like us but without seeing that temptation through to evil behavior, he can satisfactorily be our perfect priest before God. He has truly earned the right to mediate between God and sinful man. Isaiah 49:5-6 says, “And now the Lord says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him; and that Israel might be gathered to him—for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, and my God has become my strength—he says: ‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.’” Israelite priests were just priests for Israel. Old Testament prophecy about Christ made statements like that that did in fact say that the nations would be saved through the servant that God would send, or, the messiah, the anointed one. In fact, how amazing is it that God says “it is too light a thing” that the messiah would be just for Israel. God is in the business of doing amazing things, so why not save a few nations while he’s at it? Luke 24:50-53 says, “And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.” The final act of Jesus was to bless his disciples. As he ascended and was exalted to the right hand of the Father, the Son of God began his ministry of prayer for them. And he continues that ministry of prayer for us. We may at times be discouraged with the state of affairs in which we find ourselves. Sometimes it’s because of our own doing, and sometimes it’s because stupid people are promoted to the highest level of incompetence, thereby making life hard on everyone. Either way, we often don’t know what to say. We worry that because we’ve made our own lives such a wreck or because other people have made life so hard in general that we’re at a loss for words. The exaltation of Christ means many things, but one of them is that even as you stare into the void and have no words to say to God, even as you try, your great high priest, who was tempted like you and was faced with the same kind of discouragement, is seated next to our Father and having a prayerful conversation. The exaltation of Christ also means that he is returning. The coming age is an earthly age, where heaven descends, the new Jerusalem comes out of heaven to the new earth, and Christ rules eternally. The nations are being converted and discipled so that the elect of the world will one day enter into the heavenly city.
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