Ephesians 1:20, commentary and pictures

God exerted His mighty strength to bring Christ back from death and place Him at His own right hand in heaven. There He is lifted far above every principality and power and name both now and forever, with all things under His feet as head over all things for the church which is His body. That same resurrection power is directed toward those who believe, who are made alive and seated with Him in heavenly places, accepted in the Beloved and loved as God loves His Son. It is known when God gives wisdom and enlightens the eyes of the heart to grasp the hope of His calling and the riches of His inheritance, and it becomes the believer's strength to overcome sin, obey the commandments, and serve as co-laborers with Christ. His exaltation honors His fully satisfactory atonement and gives Him absolute power as Prince of life and Mediator to defend His followers, heal disease, cleanse from defilement, and make them conquerors.

Christ Raised and Exalted

The verse describes God's mighty working in Christ: He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places. That same mighty power, active toward those who believe, was displayed in raising Christ and seating Him in honor beside God in heaven. In that position Christ is exalted far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every rule and authority and name that is named, not only in this world but also in that which is to come. This exalted position above every spiritual authority and dominion establishes that every human being is of consequence with God. All things are put under His feet and He is given to be head over all things to the church, which is His body.

The exaltation honors and glorifies the crucified Christ because His atonement was fully satisfactory. His glorification expresses the Father's joy in receiving Him after His great atoning work. That glory follows the sacrifice He endured to bring many sons to glory.

Christ occupies that rightful position, glorified above principalities and powers and every name that is named, when the rebellion is finally defeated and Satan is fully unmasked in his last effort to dethrone Christ. Then every question of truth and error in the long controversy is made plain, God's justice stands fully vindicated, and the great sacrifice made by the Father and the Son for humanity is clearly presented before the whole world. He reached that exaltation by enduring the cross and despising the shame for the joy that was set before Him, that He might bring many sons unto glory. Inconceivably great as the sorrow and the shame were, yet greater are the joy and the glory, and in that glory He rejoices as He sees the redeemed renewed in His own image. He looks upon them with every heart bearing the perfect impress of the divine and every face reflecting the likeness of their King, beholds in them the result of the travail of His soul and is satisfied, and declares in a voice reaching the righteous and the wicked that they are the purchase of His blood, for whom He suffered and died that they might dwell in His presence throughout eternal ages.

Believers Share His Exaltation

The exceeding greatness of God's power toward those who believe is the same mighty working of the strength of His might by which He raised Christ from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places. That resurrection and exaltation are the measure of the power God directs toward believers, displayed in raising Christ and seating Him in honor beside Himself in heaven. In that place He is exalted far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every rule and authority and name that is named, not only in this world but also in that which is to come, with all things put under His feet and Him given to be head over all things to the church, which is His body. This is one of the privileges of the Christian, and every human being is of consequence with God to know it.

This power, with the hope of His calling and the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, is known when God gives the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him and enlightens the eyes of the heart and understanding. Knowing this is God's purpose for His people, and the chapter is to be studied carefully so that understanding may be enlightened and its assurances of acceptance claimed in all their depth and fullness. That blessed state in Christ, holy and without blame before Him in love, is the condition required of men placed in churches and institutions, and those who seek God with the whole heart will find Him a present help in every time of need, prayed for with thanksgiving for those with faith in Jesus and love to all saints to meet trying times now present.

This power belongs to those chosen to be holy and without blame in love, adopted as children, accepted, redeemed and forgiven through His blood, who hear the gospel, trust in Christ, and are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit as the pledge of the inheritance. Christ's being raised connects with believers being made alive and seated with Him in heavenly places. The power that raised Christ from the dead will also raise and glorify His church with Him, exalting it above every principality, power, and name.

The saints raised when Christ came from the grave were everlasting-life trophies of His victory and a symbol of the final resurrection of the righteous. God's acceptance of the exalted Christ extends to those united to Him in love: they are accepted in the Beloved, loved by God as He loves His Son, and covered by Christ's spotless righteousness covering their defects and transgressions, while Christ stands between God and believers revealing God's glory to them.

Divine Power for Life

The mighty working God wrought in raising Christ from the dead and setting Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places is the ground of His rule and of His power to redeem, to mediate, to defend His followers against Satan and their enemies, to present them to God as loyal subjects, and to make them conquerors through Him. As Prince of life, humanity's Redeemer and Mediator who paid the ransom for the world and calls men to believe and obey, He has absolute power and authority over death and all spiritual powers, so that He can heal physical and spiritual disease. By His death and resurrection an unlimited source of power is opened before every soul to draw from, supplying grace to every sin-sick soul, healing every spiritual disease, cleansing hearts from all defilement as the gospel remedy for the curse of sin, giving victory over even the most objectionable traits of character, uniting human beings with Christ in good works, and enabling them to run in the path of obedience.

Laying hold of that divine strength enables believers as His co-laborers to rightly represent Him to men and to angels, to refrain from sin, to keep the commandments, to proclaim the soon coming of the Saviour, and to reveal God while working in full view of heaven and the whole universe of heaven. In that strength they represent to the world the meekness and lowliness learned from the Saviour.

That same exceeding greatness of power toward those who believe becomes allied to the life of the one who yields the will to Christ, hiding the life with Christ in God, holding fast to His strength, and giving new light, even the light of living faith. Receiving it requires the will to cooperate with God's will and not with the will of associates through whom Satan works to ensnare and destroy, depending on the Lord rather than on human strength or judgment, and seeking God with the whole heart as a present help in every time of need and in the trying times now present. So received, it is the power and grace on which spiritual life and ministry depend, making the truth powerful in converting souls. It is known when God gives the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him and enlightens the eyes of the heart and understanding to know the hope of His calling and the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, a blessed state in Christ, holy and without blame before Him in love, required of men placed in churches and institutions.

This working of the Spirit of God must be sensed and understood with strained mental power. It reveals what Christ is and what God is, establishing Christ as the Center, and its power is felt when fallen upon the Rock and broken, bringing the mind into captivity to the will of heaven under the controlling influence of God and changing character from glory to glory.