This is a great mystery… but with the authority that the Lord Jesus has been given, and how he’s sitting down at the right hand of the Father, and how that clearly represents his authority. Then we need to think about the fact that some of that authority will also be given to us if we are united to him. And if we’re considering him there in heaven, then part of the application of that has to be some of the authority being given to us too.
There is this explosive verse in Ephesians chapter 2, where the apostle Paul tells us—and this again links to the stuff about union with Christ—that we’ve been raised up with Christ and he has made us sit with Christ in the heavenly places. We sit with him in Christ Jesus. Our bodies and our souls are here right now, but the authority that the Lord Jesus has been given in that most holy place in part is given to us too now. So that we need not be afraid of the devil, for example, and we need not be afraid of the world. We need not even be afraid of our own flesh, which is against us, because we’ve been given weapons that are more powerful than the biggest nuclear bomb you can imagine because we have divine power that can destroy strongholds.[1] We share in Christ’s authority.
Sometimes we can think, “Oh dear, there’s such a lot of hard things in church life, such a lot of difficult decisions to be made.” And it’s right to think that way. It’s right to remember that it’s really tough to think through with wisdom all the decisions that need to be made.
And yet the apostle Paul tells the Corinthians that one day they’re going to judge angels based on this doctrine of the Lord Jesus having ascended and having authority and sharing the authority with us. And so we need to allow that to feed into our mentality. It needs to give us confidence to be willing to make judgments in the church.
But on the other hand, it also needs to give us a sober sense of responsibility and a praying that we would use this authority we’ve been given wisely. Because of course, there’s no end of examples of Christians abusing their authority.
And yet we need to be aware that this is an authority that we do and will share with Christ. Authority over all creation, and authority over every nation. It’s an authority that the Lord Jesus has received from the Father that he shares with us. Because the Lord Jesus says in Revelation chapter 3 that for those who are believers in him—who are part of his church—he will grant us to sit with him on his throne.[2] What a huge thing.
So if we are faithful with little on this earth, we will be given much responsibility on the new earth, which is very exciting. The ascension has all those implications.
[1] 2 Corinthians 10:4
[2] Verse 21.
