Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
He that descended is the same also that ascended.
The eternal union in the person and work of the Redeemer
I. There was union between the greatness of Christ’s person and the greatness of His obedience. He was so great that He could not be greater. There was no possibility of His going higher. That is what Jesus Christ did in coming to the world--“He descended.” He not only assumed human nature, body and soul, into union with His Divine Person; but more than that--“He descended.” The Divine Person came down--the Divine Person was in the manger--He, the whole of Him, was made under the law.
II. There was union between the greatness of the obedience and the merits of the sufferings. Here again there must be no dividing. The sufferings without the obedience would not have been an atonement; and the sufferings and the obedience would not have given satisfaction without the greatness of the Person. And though He rendered perfect obedience in life, yet He could not be a Saviour without suffering--without shedding His blood. In hell there is suffering, but no obedience; in heaven there is obedience, but no suffering; but here, in one place, we behold both obedience and suffering.
III. There is union between the merits of the sufferings and the height of the exaltation (ascension). “He who descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens.” He could not ascend without descending first, and descending lower than the earth. All the riches of the Godhead as Creator would not pay our debt. He must give Himself as our ransom.
IV. There is union again between the height of his exaltation and his work in filling all things to the end of time: “that He might fill all things.” The Bible teaches us that He could not fill the Church without ascending up far above all heavens. Whilst here in poverty and bondage, working out our salvation, He was out of His poverty enriching those who came into contact with Him; but now He is rich in mercy, and from the throne He administers forgiveness. His great work on earth was to fill the demands of heaven; and His great work in heaven is to fill the demands of earth. From the earth He filled heaven with obedience; and from heaven He fills the earth with forgiveness. From the earth He filled heaven with satisfaction; and from heaven He fills the earth with peace. From the earth He filled heaven with atonement; and from heaven He fills the earth with holiness. (Lewis Edwards, D. D.)
The contrasted humiliation and exaltation of Christ
I. The circumstances of the Saviour’s depression from His original state.
1. The incarnation of Christ may be thus expressed.
2. This form of language may denote the death of Christ.
3. This style may be intended to intimate that burial to which He yielded.
4. The separation of the Redeemer’s Body and Spirit may be described in these words.
II. The glory of His subsequent exaltation.
1. It is in itself an absolute expression of love. To descend to all this humiliation and suffering could not be agreeable to any other end, save an achievement of mercy.
2. It justifies an expectation of surpassing benefits. Whatever was the quality of the act, it must answer to the act itself. Nothing little can it involve. If this be an errand of mercy, how great must be that mercy!
3. The act regulates and secures its own efficiency. The Messiah did not send His word to save us. From on high He did not direct the scheme of salvation. He “descended to the lower parts of the earth.” This showed His infinite intentness,
4. This act is to be regarded as of incomparable worth and excellence. Never were so combined, and never could so unite, the jealousy of the Infinite Honour and the commiseration of human woe.
III. The reciprocal influence of these respective facts. “The same” was He who bowed Himself to these indignities, and who seized these rewards. And this identity is of the greatest value. Surely it is much to understand, much to be certified, that He who was manifest in flesh--taking our very nature, seen in the relationships of our life--full of tenderness and compassion--the comforter of mourners and the friend of sinners--is none other than the Supreme over all things, guiding and administering all his prerogatives and powers to the very end for which he was incarnated and crucified. This is what the text affirms. (R. W. Hamilton, D. D.)
The ascension of Christ above all heavens, that He might fill all things
Theascension of Christ (His resurrection completed) sums up, according to Paul, the whole gospel, and stamps it with the seal of heaven. Aristotle tells us of Plato’s dialogues that they were but beautiful dreams without rational foundation or conclusion, ingenious stories to embody his spiritual instincts rather than to furnish a rational ground capable of sustaining the sublime hopes they seek to embody. How different this from the gospel which furnishes us with facts that are not only capable of sustaining the hopes of the world, but of inspiring hopes which infinitely transcend the highest imaginations of man’s unaided powers to conceive, and which daily in our midst prove their Divine source by quickening dead souls, cleansing polluted hearts, and breaking the chains of evil habits!
I. The ascension of Christ looked at in the light of its previous and preparatory history. That the Son of Man ascended from the deepest depth of human history and experience, from the lower parts of the earth, up above all heavens, presupposes His descent. “That He ascended, what does it imply but that He descended,” and that His original home was above the heavens? He ascends to no height from which He did not descend. In short, to use his own words, that “He came out from God and came into the world” before He could again leave the world and enter upon His inheritance of the Father’s glory. “He who was rich became poor, that we, through His poverty, might be rich.”
II. We have now to look at this fact of our Lord’s ascension in the light of its declared purpose--“That He might fill all things,” which will reveal its connection with the vaster and ever-enlarging history of the world subsequent to His leaving the earth and His being carried up above all heavens. Let us, however, briefly consider it, first of all with respect to the new heavens and the new earth; then with respect to our nature and history; and lastly, with respect to the providence and government of God--as parts of the great whole to be filled from the fulness of the ascended Son of Man.
1. With respect to the new heavens and the new earth, what may we not infer, from the ascension of Christ in the full integrity of His nature, as to the conversion, transformation, and ennobling of the material of our earthly sphere? The nature and history of His person clearly reveal the relations between heaven and earth, the material and the spiritual, God and man. We cannot for a moment look upon the transformation and exaltation of Christ’s nature as an isolated fact, or as dissociated from “the restitution of all things.” The gospel, therefore, contains a gospel for nature as well as for man, the prediction of the day when the strife of elements shall cease, when the powers of darkness shall be swallowed up of light, when the lion shall lie down with the lamb, when the tares shall no longer grow with the wheat, when creation, now so weary, shall lift up her head and rejoice in the redemption for which she groans and travails.
2. Having seen what we are taught by the ascension of Christ with respect to the new heavens and the new earth, let us now consider what we should learn from it with respect to man. For if we cannot dissociate the history of Jesus from the history of the earth, much less are we able to do so from the history of mankind. He almost always speaks of Himself as “the Son of Man.” In Jesus Christ the headship of mankind is at the right hand of God with full powers of deliverance and exaltation for all men. By His ascension our nature is endowed with an exalted fulness, and clothed with a glory becoming the Son of God. In Jesus our nature is filled with all the fulness and clothed with all the glory of the Father. And, as such, He is exalted above the heavens on our behalf, as the centre of a new kingdom--a human kingdom--“the kingdom of God and of His Christ.” It is reserved for human nature to constitute the home kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is to be set up in our nature, and to unite the innermost powers of humanity with the innermost powers of Deity. But this kingdom of God is also to be the temple of God, not merely a Divine dominion lying round about and without the immediate presence of the King, and only indirectly and mediately associated with Him, but the sphere of His household presence--His home--the very life of which will be the enjoyment and worship of Himself.
3. Having considered the ascension of Christ in its relation to the new heavens and the new earth, and also with respect to the nature and history of man, let us now look at it, briefly, in its relation to the government and providence of God. If nature is gathered up and crowned in man, and mankind are gathered tip and represented in the Son of Man, who is exalted to the throne of universal dominion, then it is clear that all things are governed and caused to work together in the interests of His kingdom, which centres in His body the Church, which is His Bride; that all things are bent to one purpose, the end to which the whole creation moves. The history of the world and man, of nature, providence, and grace, is thus seen to be one whole of many parts, in which there has been nothing parenthetic or episodical--nothing in vain, but which has been working together for the one foreseen and pre-determined end. Tempest and storm have combined with sunshine and zephyr; anarchy and rebellion have wrought with submission and order; war and peace, slavery and liberty, sickness and health, death and life have all been made to cooperate in bringing about the condition and prospects of the present hour which carries the necessary preparations, and is charged with the necessary powers for the grand consummation of the Divine purpose. The leaven works through all elements; the tree grows through all seasons; the kingdom advances with every age.
III. In the last place, we can but very briefly glance at the method and means by which this purpose, for which the Son of man; is exalted above all the heavens, is to be carried out. It is being fulfilled in many ways; all means are subordinate to this one end. That He might fill all things is the one purpose--“The one far off Divine event to which the whole creation moves.” For this the heavens watch the earth labours, the elements work, and the undesigned strife of human history is carried on. Two things are ours--preaching and prayer, alike our duty and our privilege. By these the Church of 120 very soon over ran the nations, and “turned the world upside down.” By these now will the triumphs of the Church be carried on to her final conquests. (W. Pulsford, D. D.)
Christ filling all things
I. Christ’s life was marked by changes the most unparalleled. He descended from the highest circumstances to the lowest, and ascended from the lowest to the highest again.
II. Amidst all these changes He preserved His identity: “the same.”
1. The same in being.
2. The same in sympathy.
3. The same in purpose.
III. The grand end of these changes was the spreading of the highest influence through the universe. “That He might fill all things.” “Fill all” institutions, books, intellect, hearts, with His system and Spirit. (David Thomas.)
Christ filling all things
I. How Christ fills all things. Not with His body--for as it has been well said, “Christ’s body may be anywhere at any time; but Christ’s Spirit is everywhere at all times.” Of that body of Christ--of spiritual body at all, still more of spiritual body glorified--we know, and we can know, nothing; but, as far as our faculties can reach, body must occupy definite space. How, then, does Christ fill all things”?
1. By His influence. We know that even here a person may occupy a much larger sphere than he actually “fills” with his presence. Carry on that idea of the power of extending influence infinitely, and we shall be arriving at some conception of the way in which Christ can “fill all things.” The effect of such a life and death--the beauty of that unparalleled character--the effect of that upon a world, who can estimate? How it has moulded the mind--how it has raised the tone--how it has determined the conduct of all mankind.
2. But there is more than influence, there is sovereignty and care. The queen fills her realms, and we are always conscious of the power of our queen. How much more does the royal, superintending power and love of Jesus fill the universe; There is nothing so small, that it is below it; and there is nothing so great, that it is above it; nothing independent of it; nothing despised by it.
3. By the presence of the Holy Ghost.
II. What does Christ fill? “All things.”
1. Heaven. Every spirit in heaven reflects Him. Every tongue tells of Him. Every joy is full of Him. Every holiness glorifies Him.
2. And there is a solemn sense in which Christ “fills” hell. A rejected Saviour--nothing else.
3. Christ “fills” all nature. You will miss the sweetness of nature, if you do not feel this. Christ is in the leaf and flower--in the morning blush and the evening glow--in the song of the little bird--in the loneliness of solitude--in the harmony of the landscape.
4. And providence--i.e., the ordered course of human events--it is all Christ. What is providence? The “working together” of all things for the sake of God’s people. Who administers God’s great empire with the delegated power? Christ. “He hath put all things in subjection under His feet.” Is it a sorrow? Christ “fills” that sorrow. Is it a joy? Christ “fills” that joy. And this is the true meaning of life; an inner current of Christ always running along parallel with the flow of events.
5. But, still more, the Church--“the Church, which is His fulness”--because He “fills” it. All ordinances, all gifts, all communications of the Spirit, all prayer and preaching, all our sweet worship, all our blessed sacraments, all our fellowships, all our sympathies, all our diversities, all our oneness--it is all Christ. Nothing would be real without Him. It is as He is there, that anything has power to teach, or to comfort, or to bless.
III. Why does Christ fill all things?
1. That all honours should be to Him in every degree; that all should owe all always to Him; that He should be the light and joy of the whole world.
2. That no man upon this earth should ever find any real satisfaction out of Christ. If you do, the voids will be always greater than the comforts. Other things may promise--but He is truth. Other things may trifle with you--but He loves you. Other things may please--but He “fills.”
3. That there may be always, in Christ, a fulness suited to every man’s want. If we only look high enough, there is the fountain “filled”:--a full pardon--a full Bible--a full smile--a full rest--a full life--and a full heaven.
4. And so it comes at last to pass, that, in everything, it is not the thing, but the Christ that is in it--for He so “fills,” that He becomes the thing He “fills”; and, little by little, the crust drops off--like the shell horn the fruit; or, like the covering from the blossom. The external ceases; the material falls away; the material passes; and the Christ which it contains, stands out alone--the All in all of His servants’ souls: so that we have, and desire to have, in either world, only Him! (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
The humiliation and ascension of Christ
I. Christ’s humiliation and descension. Christ descended according to His Divine nature, not indeed by a proper and local motion; but because it united itself to a nature here below; in respect of which union to an earthly nature, it might metaphorically be said to descend to the place where that nature did reside. And thus much for the way and manner how Christ did descend. We are now to direct our next inquiry to the place whither He descended; and for this we are to reflect an eye upon the former verse of this chapter, which tells us that it was into “the lower parts of the earth”; but what those “lower parts of the earth” are, here lies the doubt, and here must be the explication. I conceive these words in the text to bear the same sense with, and perhaps to have reference to, those in Psa_139:15, where David, speaking of his conception in his mother’s womb, says, that “he was framed and fashioned in the lowest parts of the earth.” In like manner, Christ’s descending into the lowest parts of the earth, may very properly be taken for His incarnation and conception in the womb of the blessed Virgin. I add, that these words, of Christ’s descending and ascending, are so put together in the text, that they seem to intend us a summary account of Christ’s whole transaction of that great work of man’s redemption from first to last; which being begun in His conception, and consummate in His ascension, by what better can His descending be explained, than by His conception, the first part and instance of this great work, as His ascension was the last? So that by this explication the apostle’s words are cast into this easy and proper sense, that the same Christ, and eternal Son of God, who first condescended and debased Himself so far as to be incarnate and conceived in the flesh, was He who afterwards ascended into heaven, and was advanced to that pitch of sublime honour and dignity, far above the principalities and powers of men and angels.
II. Christ’s exaltation and ascension. As for the way and manner how He ascended, I affirm that it was according to His human nature, properly and by local motion; but according to His Divine, only by communication of properties, the action of one nature being ascribed to both, by virtue of their union in the same person. As for the place to which He advanced, it is, says the apostle, “far above all heavens.” But the words of the text have something of figure, of hyperbole, and latitude in them; and signify not, according to their literal niceness, a going above the heavens by a local superiority; but an advance to the most eminent place of dignity and glory in the highest heaven.
III. The qualification and state of Christ’s person. In reference to both these conditions He was the same--“He that descended is the same also that ascended.” Which to me seems a full argument to evince the unity of the two natures in the same person; since two several actions are ascribed to the same person, both of which, it is evident, could not be performed by the same nature.
IV. The end of Christ’s ascension “that He might fill all things.” Now, Christ may be said thus to fill all things in a double respect.
1. In respect of the omnipresence of His nature and universal diffusion of His Godhead. But yet this is not the “filling all things” directly intended in the text; for that was to be consequent to His ascension; “He ascended that He might fill all things”; it accrued to Him upon and after His ascension, not before; but His omnipresential filling all things being an inseparable property of His Divine nature, always agreed to Him, and was not then at length to be conferred on Him.
2. In the second place, therefore, Christ may be said to fill all things, in respect of the universal rule and government of all things in heaven and earth committed to Him as Mediator upon His ascension. All the elements the whole train and retinue of nature, are subservient to His pleasure, and instruments of His purposes. The stars fight in their courses under His banner, and subordinate their powers to the dictates of His will. The heavens rule all below them by their influences, but themselves are governed by His. He can command nature out of its course, and reverse the great ordinances of the creation. The government, the stress and burden of all things, lies upon His hands. The blind heathen have been told of an Atlas that shoulders up the heavens; but we know that He who supports the heavens is not under them, but above them. (R. South, D. D.)
The end and design of Christ’s ascension
1. In the first place, this term “all things” may refer to the whole series of prophecies and predictions recorded of Christ in the Scriptures; which He might be said to fill, or rather to fulfil by His ascension.
2. But, secondly, the term “all things” may refer to the Church; which sense I shall most insist upon, as carrying in it the subject matter of this day’s commemoration. Now, Christ, it seems, would not have the fabric of His Church inferior to that of the universe: it being itself indeed a lesser world picked or rather sifted out of the greater, where mankind is brought into a narrower compass, but refined to a greater perfection. And, as in the constitution of the world, the old philosophy strongly asserts that nature has with much care filled every little space and corner of it with body, there being nothing that it so much abhors as a vacuity: so Christ, as it were, following the methods of nature in the works of grace, has so advantageously framed the whole system of the Church; first, by an infinite power making in it capacities, and then by an equal goodness filling them. Now the Church being a society of men combined together in profession of Christian religion, it has unavoidably a double need or necessity emergent from its very nature and constitution. That is, one of government, the other of instruction; the first agreeing to it simply as a society, the second, as it is such a society. And it is Christ’s great prerogative to fill it in both these respects.
I. As for the time in which it was conferred, this is remarkable in a double respect.
1. In respect of the Christian religion itself, it being about its first solemn promulgation. The beginning of everything has a strange and potent influence upon its duration. And the first appearances usually determine men either in their acceptance or dislike. Had not Christ therefore ushered in His religion by miracle and wonder, and arrested men’s first apprehensions of it by something grand and supernatural; He had hindered its progress by a disadvantageous setting forth, exposed it naked to infidelity, and so rendered it first disputable, and then despised. It had been like the betraying a sublime and noble composition by a low and creeping prologue, which blasts the reputation of the ensuing discourse, and shuts up the auditors’ approbation with prejudice and contempt.
2. But, secondly, the time of Christ’s sending the Spirit is very remarkable in respect of the apostles themselves. It was when they entered upon the full execution of their apostolic office; and from followers of Christ became the great leaders of the world.
II. The manner how it was conferred (see Act_2:2-3). This action exhibits to the world the great means chosen by God for the propagation of the kingdom of Christ.
