Where is Jesus now?
Around two thousand years ago a man named Jesus walked on the earth, lived, died and rose again! For a short while, just over a month he continued to live on earth but then he “was carried up into heaven” (Luke 24:51). Acts 1 records him being lifted up and taken out of sight. He left the earth in his physical body though he has gone somewhere that we can’t see, presumably outside of the physical universe that we know. Now that he has ascended as a physical man where is he? Hebrews 1:3-4 says,
After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
Romans 8:34, Colossians 3:1,
…Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”
Christ is in heaven, next to the father.
What is He Doing?
Enjoying Glory
John’s gospel in particular has a big focus on the Trinitarian nature of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In chapter 17 verse 5 Jesus prays, “Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed”. Jesus is now in glory, he is being glorified and is glorifying the Father. Hebrews 12:2 sees Jesus looking forward to “the joy set before him”. Now where is this Joy? The end of the same verse reads that he is “seated at the right hand of God”. To enjoy God’s glory is joyful. Jesus is happy! Our saviour and king is a happy king! Rejoice!
Sustaining all Things
Hebrews 1:3 “he upholds the universe by the word of his power”, Colossians 1:17, “in him all things hold together”. Jesus is the one keeping us alive and maintaining the universe. There is an order to the universe however fallen it is. Nothing happens without Jesus’ say so and therefore his plans will never fail. He can be trusted to rule even though we may not understand all that happens on this earth. Rejoice!
Made Salvation Certain
Revelation gives us the clearest glimpse of what the scene in heaven must be like, so let us look a little at what is revealed here. Firstly, in the opening of the book (Revelation 1:13-16) Jesus is seen by John as,
..one like a son of man, clothed with a long white robe with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white like wool, as white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.
Wow! Christ is mighty! He is utterly pure, fully glorious, yet also it is worth noting that he says to John in the next verse, “Fear not”.
In Chapters 4 and 5 we see both the Father and the Son together. The Father is on the throne, described like the beginning of Ezekiel, and he is described by the creatures around the throne as “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty, / who was and is and is to come!” (Rev 4:8). Almost the same title is used of Jesus back in 1:8. So in one way they are the same, but we see they are also different. Chapter 5:6 we see Christ as the “Lamb standing as though it had been slain”. Together they are praised in verse 13.
The language is full of imagery here, for Jesus is both lion and lamb, but the sense is clear that Christ physically exists in heaven, next to the Father, that he is God, that he is glorious in splendour but that he is also recognisable as the slain lamb, he still bears the marks of the cross.
Hebrews will help us in understanding more fully this great scene. Hebrews 9:11-12 and 24, show that Christ is the fulfilment of the sacrificial system. He is the sacrificial lamb, pure and holy and is also our eternal high priest. The verses read that he has secured an eternal redemption. His work of redemption, achieved on the cross is finished!
So also he, as our great high priest, intercedes for us, as Hebrews 7:25 wonderfully states,
He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
Jesus Christ being in heaven is a most wonderful thing for us. This is the most holy place of God, and because he has gone there before us, we can go there too. If we trust in Christ then we are assured of complete salvation! We do not need anything else to happen for us to be saved. Christ has already done it, and he intercedes for us. Anyone who says we must do things to achieve salvation, or that we need any other intermediary process is a liar. Christ himself has died for us, he himself intercedes for us, as he sits next to the Father.
When we are aware of how sinful we are we should remember two things: What Christ has done and what he is doing. He has paid the penalty for all our sins on the cross, he has redeemed us, we belong to God. Our status is righteous. Therefore our sins do not count against us. So also Christ intercedes for us. He declares before the father his own righteousness given to us and our sins punished on the cross. Indeed, with similar language to the verse above Paul writes,
Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died – more than that, who was raised – who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
Even Satan can’t bring any word against us before the Father. For any accusation that Satan brings, though he may hold up our sins before the Father, though they are true of us, are cancelled by the cross and forgotten as righteousness is given in their place.
If we feel unable to pray then we are forgetting Jesus’ sacrifice. Jesus did not die and rise from the dead so that we can call ourselves Christians, but so that we could know and have relationship with God, now and forever. He has done and is doing everything needed for that relationship to be possible. Rejoice!
Do we wish for more wonder and grace? Ephesians 2:6, “[God] seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus”. Calvin writes, “we do not await heaven with a bare hope, but in our Head already possess it” (Institutes II.xvi.16).
Rejoice!
Made and Is Making Victory Certain
Psalm 110:1, “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstall.”
1 Corinthians 15 shows that Jesus is ruling until all his enemies are subject to him. The final enemy to be destroyed is death and this will come at the end of this world. Verse 54 reads that then we will say “Death is swallowed up in victory”.
I am unsure as to quite how this subduing works itself out in history. What is clear is that Christ is ruling. The same loving, humble, Jesus who walked on earth is ruling the world, and though he has secured the victory over death (see above about being risen) he has yet to completely fully swallow up death and claim the victory.
As I look at the world, still very far from perfection, and where Satan is still at work we can see that Jesus is not out of control, he is able to stop powers and authorities, both earthly and spiritual. We can have confidence that eventually every power and everything opposed to Jesus will be made to be his footstall and they will not triumph but rather be punished. Evil will be destroyed.
Rejoice!
Making Salvation Spread
It is here that a large discussion on the Holy Spirit and his role in Salvation History and the life of the church may be had. Suffice to say that the Holy Spirit would not be had without Jesus being risen (John 16:4-15). Jesus lives in us and we have become temples of the Holy Spirit. This mighty Jesus, though in heaven, is not far from his people, rather he is closer than any person on earth! Through the ministry of the Spirit the message of the gospel is being spread across the world (see Acts chapter 2 onwards and 2 Corinthians 3).
In Ephesians 4 Paul writes about the church and the gifts given to the church. In verse 8 he writes about Christ having ascended as a triumphant king and he is pouring out gifts to his church in order that it will grow and become strong in faith and large in numbers.
2 Peter 3:9 says “The Lord is not slow to fulfil his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance”. This is Jesus as distinct from the Father who is called God in this chapter (not that it ultimately matters for both are committed to the spread of the gospel), and he is waiting and working to share his glorious gospel with people.
As the gospel spreads the One who is central to that gospel is in control, is sovereign, (Matthew 28:18). Whether our gospel work seems fruitful or not, Christ is ruling, the plan of God to have a people more numerous than the sand on the seashore or the stars in the sky will be fulfilled.
I wish to summarise this and the previous point with the words of Calvin (ibid),
Faith comprehends his might, in which reposes our strength, power, wealth, and glorying against hell. “When he ascended into heaven he led a captivity captive” (compare Eph 4:8 and Ps 68:18), and despoiling his enemies, he enriched his own people, and daily lavishes spiritual riches upon them. He therefore sits on high, transfusing us with his power, that he may quicken us to spiritual life, sanctify us by his Spirit, adorn his church with diverse gifts of his grace, keep it safe from all harm by his protection, restrain the raging enemies of his cross and of our salvation by the strength of his hand, and finally hold all power in heaven and on earth. All this he does until he shall lay low his enemies and complete the building of his church.
Rejoice!
Preparing a House for Us
“In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go and prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:2-3).
Jesus is preparing a permanent dwelling place for us, to be with him, to be with him in glory, to see him, to share his joy with the Father in the most holy place!
Jesus is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (verse 6) and as we trust in him we can expect to one day be with him for all time. Rejoice!
Therefore…
Keep Going
I find it very interesting that nearly every verse that I have quoted above, especially from Hebrews, is used to show how great and complete and fulfilling Jesus is. Both Colossians and Hebrews are written to churches that are facing new teachings and being drawn into new practices. The writers’ response is to hold up Jesus in all of his glory and it seems that as we understand more the awesomeness of Jesus, as saviour, as Lord, then we are kept from being distracted by what isn’t of the gospel or by sin.
The aim is not simply to make us go wow, though I am sure this is a part. The aim of many of these verses is to urge, compel, and drive us to keep following Jesus. They are to make us remember our salvation, to remember who we are, to warn us about turning away, so that we flee from sin, that we endure all suffering and hardship, that we keep going in the Christian life. If we lack motivation or security in our Christian life or in Christian ministry, let us always be turning to gaze on the glory of He who we serve, Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore…be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.”
Colossians 3:1 “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, seated at the right hand of God.”
Colossians 3:5, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you…”
John 14:1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.”
The writer of Hebrews builds a long argument about how Jesus is all we need and I have quoted some of this above. The conclusion comes in 10:19-39. “Therefore…let us draw near to God…Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering…Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.”
2 Peter 3:14, “Therefore…be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace”.
It strikes me that God has given us very great reasons and motivations to continue in our faith, yet we require faith from him in order to trust his voice. We do not see Christ and will only do so upon death or his return, thus we look to our king with the eyes of faith.
Repent
As we understand rightly the times in which we live, between Jesus ascension and coming again, we see that these are the days of his patience, as Paul writes, “now is the favourable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). One day Jesus will return and so now we hold out his great message to all people that they will respond and know Jesus as their sacrificial Lamb who died for them or else the Lion who will devour them.
Rejoice
To find our delight in our God is I believe our heart and soul’s highest blessing.
Jesus is our very precious pearl, and he is the goal of our faith, it is he that we shall receive, he that will welcome us when we die or when he returns. Jesus tells us that he is going to the Father and so we should rejoice, John 14:28,
‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.
As I have spent some time just reflecting and thinking about these verses, gazing on Christ as he presents himself in his word, I do not feel I have words to express the overwhelming joy that it brings me! Jesus is awesome, we are fully saved, we are going to heaven, we have a great, victorious, loving, powerful, saviour! Yet I know I am so little convinced of this, and still so distracted by the things of the world. But our God is gracious, and I rejoice in who he is.
Christ, having been offered once to bear the sin of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Hebrews 9:28
We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf.
Hebrews 6:19-20
In the world of today let us be those who eagerly await our saviour from heaven, with sure and steadfast souls!
