New Studies in Biblical Theology

The Risen and Ascended Christ

Peter C. Orr, D. A. Carson

• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780830882137
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Systematic Theology & Ethics

Christians usually focus on what Jesus has done (his life, death and resurrection) and what he will do (his second coming and eternal reign). While there has been something of a revival of interest in his ascension, studies of Jesus in his exalted state are relatively rare. However, the Christ that Christians trust in, relate to and love is not only the one who lived, died, rose and will come again: he is also currently seated at God's right hand. Christian faith as well as theological reflection must take into consideration this significant aspect of Christ's person and work.In this New Studies in Biblical Theology volume, Peter Orr attends to this somewhat neglected topic in biblical theology. He explores the New Testament witness to Jesus as he is now, the exalted Christ, through the lenses of his identity, his location and his activity.Addressing key issues in biblical theology, the works comprising New Studies in Biblical Theology are creative attempts to help Christians better understand their Bibles. The NSBT series is edited by D. A. Carson, aiming to simultaneously instruct and to edify, to interact with current scholarship and to point the way ahead.

Chapter One

Introduction

Why this book?

This is a book about Jesus as he is now. In some ways, then, it is an extended application of and meditation on Colossians 3:1–2: ‘If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.’1

Generally speaking, Christians have tended to focus their attention on what Jesus has done (his life, death and resurrection) and what he will do (return and reign). And while there has been something of a revival in the study of Jesus’ ascension,2 there is a tendency to consider Christ’s exalted state simply in relation to the events of his ascension or his parousia. Studies that consider Jesus in his exalted state are relatively rare. However, the Christ that Christians trust in, relate to and love is the Christ who not only lived, died, rose and will come again but also is presently at God’s right hand. Christian faith as well as Christian theological reflection must take into consideration this significant aspect of Christ’s identity.

This book, then, is a study on the exalted Christ. For our purposes, we will consider his ‘exaltation’ to be the process by which, as John puts it, Jesus departed ‘out of the world’ (John 13:1). Generally NT authors focus on the resurrection and the ascension as the events that bring Jesus into his exalted state, though John actually sees the crucifixion as the essence of Jesus’ exaltation (e.g. John 3:14). The exalted Christ, then, is Jesus as he is following his exaltation and before his return.

This book and biblical theology

Considering the exalted Christ – his identity, his location and his activity – may seem to be a subject more obviously suited to systematic theology rather than biblical theology. However, apart from the ongoing need to show the interconnectedness of these two disciplines, considering the temporal structure of the Bible’s revelation helps us to see the relevance of this topic in a series devoted to biblical theology.

There are as many proposed ‘structures’ of the Bible as there are biblical theologians. Graeme Goldsworthy, building on the earlier work of Donald Robinson and Gabriel Hebert, has popularized the schema that is now associated with Moore College.3 He argues that the organizing principle of the Bible is the ‘kingdom of God’, and divides the Bible into four main epochs, which each provides development in the revelation of the kingdom of God: the kingdom of God revealed in Israel’s prehistory (Gen. 1 – 11);4 the kingdom of God revealed in Israel’s history (Abraham to Solomon); the kingdom of God revealed in prophetic eschatology (Solomon to the end of exile); and the kingdom of God revealed in Jesus Christ (the NT).

Goldsworthy further subdivides this final epoch into three aspects:5

(1) What Jesus did for us in the past, historical gospel event in fulfilment of the promises of the Old Testament.

(2) What the word of Jesus and his Spirit go on doing in us as we live in the present our life of faith and in the world as the gospel is proclaimed.

(3) What the end-time consummation with us will be when Jesus returns in glory to judge the living and the dead and to bring in the fullness of his kingdom.

Whether or not we accept Goldsworthy’s overall structure, this delineation of the New Testament era helpfully distinguishes the different aspects of Christ’s work for us. However, in this schema there is a subtle tendency to downplay the ongoing significance of Jesus. Whereas in points 1 and 3 Jesus is presented actively (‘what Jesus did for us’ and ‘Jesus returns’), in point 2 the Spirit and Jesus’ ‘word’ are presented as the active agents.

Certainly the NT affirms the work of the Spirit (e.g. Rom. 8:14) and the power of Jesus’ word (e.g. Acts 6:7); however, it also affirms that Jesus himself remains active. For example, he intercedes (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25), he enables Christians to persevere (Rom. 14:4; 1 Cor. 1:7–8) and he continues to speak through his apostles (2 Cor. 13:3). Yes, the focus of the NT is on the past (and future) work of Christ but it is by no means silent on his present work.

Further, Goldsworthy’s scheme implies that this is a period of Christ’s absence. However, the picture across the New Testament is more complicated than simply saying that Jesus leaves and the Spirit comes. For a start, what are we to make of Jesus’ famous promise in the great commission, ‘[B]ehold, I am with you always, to the end of the age’ (Matt. 28:20)? This age is fundamentally the age of the presence of Jesus. Again, as he concludes his high-priestly prayer in John 17, Jesus expresses the desire that the love the Father has for him may be in the disciples, and that he himself ‘may be in them’ (17:26). Even though Jesus is leaving and sending the Spirit, he himself will ‘be in them’.

However, in the same prayer Jesus affirms that he is ‘no longer in the world’ even while believers ‘are in the world’ (17:11). There appears, then, to be something of a tension between the absence and presence of Christ. So, in 2 Corinthians, Paul can state that ‘while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord’ (2 Cor. 5:6; cf. 5:8) and he can remind the Corinthians in the same letter that Christ ‘is powerful among you’ (13:3). One of the questions this book will focus on, then, is how we are to think of this period in redemptive history between Jesus’ ascension and his return. In this period what is the relationship between Christ’s absence and his presence? If anything, in theological reflection on this question, there is an emphasis on the ongoing presence of Christ. So, König is typical when he states that ‘Christ has not gone away, and his work on earth has not been interrupted. He continues it without break.’6 Or Beverly Gaventa who suggests that ‘Jesus’ ascension does not mean his absence; it simply means that his presence is no longer constrained by place and time’.7 We will see that these suggestions overlook important strands of NT data which indicate that Christ’s absence is more Christologically significant particularly as it relates to his ongoing humanity.

But perhaps the most fundamental question this volume will consider is in what sense, if any, the exaltation of Christ affects his identity. When, for example, Peter affirms that following the resurrection (and ascension), God has ‘made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified’ (Acts 2:36), what exactly does he mean? Does Christ’s exaltation merely reveal his lordship and messianic identity, or does he enter into them in a fuller way following his exaltation?

As such, this book will attend to this somewhat neglected sub-epoch of biblical theology in considering what we can say about Jesus in the present, as the exalted Christ, and so what it means to ‘set our minds’ on Christ as he is seated at God’s right hand.

The plan of this book

This book will examine the exalted Christ through the lenses of his identity (chapters 2–4), his location (chapters 5–8) and his activity (chapters 9–10). In terms of his identity, chapter 2 considers the relationship between the ‘earthly Jesus’ and the ‘exalted Christ’ across the NT, and will particularly consider the question of how the resurrection and ascension affect (if at all) his identity. Chapters 3 and 4 will treat the exalted Christ’s relationship to the Spirit and to the church and will consider arguments that have effectively collapsed Christ into either the Spirit or the church. In considering his location, chapter 5 looks at the relationship between Christ’s exaltation and his absence. Chapters 6 and 7 attend more closely to the relationship between Christ’s absence and his continuing possession of a discrete, individual, localizable human body. For Paul, in particular, Christ’s absence is a bodily absence. In chapter 8 we examine the presence of Christ by examining one of the most important sections in the NT to deal with Christ’s ongoing presence: 2 Corinthians 2 – 4. Here we will see that Christ’s presence is both mediated and epiphanic; that is, Christ is essentially made present. Although this is an essentially passive mode of presence, we will see that this is by no means weak or ineffectual. The final section on the activity of Christ (chapters 9 and 10) is related to chapter 8 in that it portrays Christ’s active presence; that is, where he is presented as an agent. In chapter 9 we look at Christ’s mediated activity on earth, while in chapter 10 we examine his activity in heaven as he responds to prayer and intercedes for believers. In the final chapter I offer a brief summary and some theological and pastoral reflections.

Chapter Two

The identity of the exalted Christ: the exalted Christ and the earthly Jesus

Introduction: defining identity

Defining the identity of the exalted Christ, on the surface at least, appears to be straightforward. NT writers uniformly consider the Christ who is exalted to be the same person as the Jesus who died. So, for example, in 1 Corinthians 15:3–4 Paul maintains that the Christ who died is the Christ who was raised. In Hebrews 1:3 the one who ‘made purification for our sins’ is the one who then ‘sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high’. In Revelation 1:7 the one who is returning is the one who was ‘pierced’.

However, the question of identity is more complex than it appears at first and attempts to define it fully have put bread on the table for generations of philosophers. For our purposes, it is enough to touch on two aspects of identity that have been highlighted in these discussions.1 First, identity as ‘singularity’;2 that is, ‘the specific uniqueness of a person, what really counts about him’.3 What is it that makes a person unique? Second, identity in terms of relationship. That is, personal ‘identity is never merely an individual matter, as though we are what we think’. Rather, it ‘is always a social product, the upshot of multiple perceptions’.4 Our identities are never formed in isolation but are always shaped in relationship with others.5 And so, to ‘tell the story of Jesus is to tell the story of his relationships’.6

These two aspects of identity are helpful for organi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Series preface
• Author’s preface
• Abbreviations
• Chapter One: Introduction
• Chapter Two: The identity of the exalted Christ: the exalted Christ and the earthly Jesus
• Chapter Three: The identity of the exalted Christ: the exalted Christ and the Spirit
• Chapter Four: The identity of the exalted Christ: the exalted Christ and the church
• Chapter Five: The location of Christ: ascension, exaltation and absence
• Chapter Six: The body of the exalted Christ
• Chapter Seven: The location of Christ: Paul and the bodily absence of Christ
• Chapter Eight: The location of Christ: the epiphanic presence of Christ
• Chapter Nine: The activity of the exalted Christ on earth
• Chapter Ten: The activity of the exalted Christ in heaven
• Chapter Eleven: Concluding reflections
• Bibliography
• Search names for authors
• Search items for Scripture references
• Titles in this series
• About the Author
• More Titles from InterVarsity Press