It is not that God is the Lord of all, but that a man by the name of Jesus has been made the Lord of all. God has made Him the Lord of all. He is also the anointed One, the Christ, as well as the Author, the Originator, and the Savior. God has put all things under His feet. He is the Head. Nothing is above Him. Rather, He is above all; all things have been put under Him. He is the Lord of all, the Anointed of God, the Author, the Savior, and the Head of all.
What is the purpose of this? Why has God made Christ all of these things? Very few Christians know the significance of Christ’s ascension. It is clearly revealed in two portions of the book of Ephesians. The first is in chapter one: “Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all” (Eph. 1:20-23).
This portion of Ephesians tells us that God raised up Christ and exalted Him above all, putting all things under His feet, and giving Him to be the head over all things to the church. Therefore, we must see that the ascension is for the church. The ascension is to build up the body of Christ.
Then in Ephesians four we are told that Jesus, in His ascension, firstly received all the gifts from the Father, and then gave these gifts to the church for the building up of the Body. “But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men....And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of the ministry, to the building up of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:7-8, 11-12).
When Christ was inaugurated to be Head over all things to the church, He received all the gifts to give them to men for the building up of the Body. Most Christians have never seen the ascension of Christ in a full way because today’s Christians do not pay much attention to the church. Some feel that as long as people are getting saved, it is good enough. I agree that it is good to be saved, but simply to be saved is not sufficient. Others say that after being saved, we must be spiritual. I also agree that this is good, but to be spiritual still does not reach God’s goal. God’s goal is not merely to have people saved or to be spiritual. God’s goal is to build a Body for Christ.
If we have never been saved, there is no peace until we are saved. We who are saved have all experienced this peace. But after we receive peace through salvation, we find that we are still short. We received peace, but we also obtained hunger. So we begin to pursue after Christ that we may grow. The more we grow, the more hungry we get. It is because we are short of the church. When the Lord finally leads us to the church, we find that the hunger has disappeared. We are satisfied, and we are home! This is God’s goal. When we come to God’s goal, we are satisfied. Before we came into the church, we did not have satisfaction. But today as the church people in the Lord’s recovery, we do have satisfaction. Hallelujah! Here we have the sense within that we have hit God’s goal, the recovery of the proper church life.
The ascension is the inauguration of Christ for the producing and building up of the church. Most Christians think that after the Lord was crucified, He finished His work. That is true. John 19:30 tells us that the Lord said, “It is finished.” But we must realize what was finished. God’s redemption was finished on the cross, but not the building up of the church. We cannot add anything to the redemption that was accomplished by Christ. That was completely finished. But the building up of the church had not started by that time. The Lord has two kinds of work. One is the work of redemption, and the other is the building up of the church. The first kind of work was finished at the cross. But the second was not started until after the ascension, on the day of Pentecost. The Lord finished the redemptive work; therefore He was qualified to be the builder of the church. Only Christ is the right person to build the church. Because He accomplished redemption, He was qualified. So God exalted Him to His own right hand. This exaltation is God’s ratification. God ratified the crucified and resurrected Christ. By exalting Him to His right hand, God fully approved of Him.