The Life of All Lives - Our Saviour Jesus - 11
What is Christ Doing Now?
We have spent the last ten studies considering what Jesus has done in the past. A later study focuses upon what he is going to do in the future. But what exactly is he doing now?
The letter to the Hebrews gives us a good deal of help with this question. It is perhaps understandable that it should. It was written to people who had been brought up within Judaism. It had been engrained in them. They were mindful of their great history, of the fact that God had chosen them above all nations and that he had revealed himself especially to them. They were used to the sights and sounds of the Temple and the synagogues. It was part of the warp and woof of their lives. But suddenly this had all changed. They had come to trust in Christ, whom the leaders of their people had rejected and crucified. As a result they had to leave all that they had once cherished to follow him.
They had been quite prepared to do that. After all, Jesus had promised to return. They had that great hope to cling to. However, things had taken a terrible turn for the worse. They had started to face severe persecution. It had become a very costly business to be associated with the name of Christ.
Maybe someone listening to these studies is in just that situation now. If you are, it may be helpful for you to know that others have been that way before you. You may even be thinking what they thought: should I give it up and return to the familiar comfort zone?
The answer that was given to these Hebrew believers was – in part – to tell them about what their Saviour was doing for them there and then, even as they endured this suffering on his account. Yes, he had returned to heaven, but that did not mean that he was remote, inactive, aloof from their suffering. The very opposite was true.
The big question in their minds was: is Jesus able to save us? It was easy to be confident about that when everything was going well, but what about now when things are difficult?
Listen to what the writer says in chapter 7: “Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives for ever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.”
Do you notice how the writer shows how Jesus is greater than what they were used to? The priests they had known had many limitations, but one stood out above all of them: they died, and so ceased to be priests. But Jesus was different. He had conquered death, and was therefore able to serve as their Great High Priest forever. Because of that he is able to save them completely. He would surely finish the task, and was actively engaged on their behalf bringing about their final salvation.
They may have asked – and you may be asking now – from what position is he engaged in this task? Is he engaged in a struggle, the outcome of which is yet to be determined?
Listen to what the writer to the Hebrews tells them in chapter 8: “We have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man.”
In case the point had not been made clearly enough, he continues in chapter 10 with these words: “But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.”
What do these statements tell us about what the Lord Jesus is doing now?
Well, first of all they tell us that he is in the position of supreme authority. That is what is meant by the reference to him having ‘sat down at the right hand of God.’ Some Christians are terribly literal folk, and perhaps imagine that the Lord Jesus has been sitting down for the last 2000 years. Of course that is not what it means! It is telling us in vivid but symbolic terms that he now occupies, by absolute unchallenged right, the highest place in heaven.
In his vision described in Revelation chapter 5, John saw ‘a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the centre of the throne.’ Is he standing, or is he sitting? Can they both be true? Of course they can! He is seated; that image representing the fact that he has completed a work. Calvary will never be repeated because it need not be repeated. He has suffered ‘once for all’. But he is also standing in the centre of the throne because he is actively exerting his absolute sovereign power to bring to completion the salvation of his people.
It is a great comfort to all Christians in all circumstances to constantly be mindful that the Lord Jesus Christ is presently and eternally the sole, unchallengeable occupant of the throne of heaven. He is working his purposes out as year succeeds to year. As Paul wrote to the Ephesians in chapter 1, “In him we were chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.’ And everything means everything!
Later in the same letter, Paul speaks of something else that the Lord Jesus is engaged in doing at the present time. In chapter 4 he says: “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says, “When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.”” Paul then goes on to speak of the various gifts that Christ gives in his church – apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers – so that the body of Christ may be built up ‘until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.’
Let me ask you this: can you see in your life a gradual process of growth towards spiritual maturity – imperfect and faltering, but unmistakable? Again, let me ask you: in your church can you see men and women learning (sometimes painfully) to use the gifts they have been endowed with by the Holy Spirit to build up the church? If you can see these things, then rejoice at seeing Christ at work today in his church!