SAT DOWN                      Hebrews 1:3

 

                There is a Man in glory! There is a Man risen, exalted, and seated upon the throne of God. Do you realize what that means? Does not the Word of God ask, “How can he (a man) be clean, that is born of woman?” We read in the Book of God, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” Yet, the Holy Spirit here declares that there is a Man in glory, a Man who, “when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high!”

No Ordinary Man

                This Man is no ordinary man. This Man is himself God. He is the God-man. He became a man that he might redeem men. He lived in this world as the Representative Man, the Representative of God’s elect. He lived the full age of a man in perfect obedience to the will and law of God to establish righteousness for men, even the righteousness of God, by magnifying the law and making it honorable. Then, when his hour had fully come, this Man, the God-man, our Lord Jesus Christ, died upon the cursed tree as our Substitute, “the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” Now, this Man, who as a man put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, is seated upon the very throne of God in glory, accepted as a man, with God! Hear the good news of that fact. --  Since there is a Man in glory, accepted of God, there may be another, and another, and another! Because this Man, the God-man is in glory, “He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him!”

Who is he?

                This man, the Lord Jesus Christ, is “the brightness of God’s glory and the express image of his person.” Christ is both God himself and the singular revelation and expression of the glory of God. “The reference,” Henry Mahan wrote, “is to the sun and its rays. The Father and the Son are the same as the sun and its rays. One is not before the other, and they cannot be divided or separated. He is the perfect revelation and the exact image and character of the Father (Isa. 9:6; John 1:1-3; 10:30; 14:8-10; Matt. 1:21-23).”

What has he done?

                Much needs to be said in answer to this question; but allow me stick with the words of this text, and simply declare that which is the essence of all our Savior did as the God-man, our Mediator. The Lord Jesus Christ has “by himself purged our sins!” The Lord Jesus, of himself, by himself alone, and by the sacrifice of himself, made atonement for all the sins of God’s elect. He took our sins upon himself, bore them and died under the penalty of them, thereby abolishing them completely and forever (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 9:26; Col. 1:19-22; Isa. 53:4-6).

Where is he now?

He is yonder in glory, where, two thousand years ago, “he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.” The “Majesty on high” is God the Father to whom majesty belongs and who is clothed with majesty. His right hand is the place of power, greatness, acceptance, and glory. There sits the Man, Christ Jesus, and all his elect in him. We have been made to sit down with him in heavenly places!

 

“SAT DOWN”

The Meaning Of It------------------Hebrews 1:3

 

                Our Lord Jesus Christ, when he had finished all the work which his Father gave him to do upon the earth as our Substitute, Surety, and Mediator, “sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high!” Let me show you something about what that means. Here are seven reasons why the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, our Mediator and Substitute, sat down upon the throne of grace, on the right hand of the Majesty on high.

 

1.       He sat down because his work was finished (John 19:30; Rom. 8:33-34; Heb. 10:10-14).

 

2.       He sat down because God the Father accepted his sacrifice as our sin-atoning Substitute (Isa. 53:10-11).

 

                The Lord God sees of the travail of his soul and is satisfied. The law and justice of God, the righteousness and truth of God, the holiness and purity of God cannot demand more than Christ paid for the sins of his people! Now, God can be and is, both just and the Justifier of all who believe on his dear Son. He is both “a just God and a Savior”.

 

3.       The Lord Jesus Christ sat down in heaven as our great High Priest upon the throne of grace, because he is now, as the God-man our Mediator, the sovereign Monarch of all the universe (John 17:2; Rom. 14:9).

 

4.       The Lord Jesus took his place in glory at the right hand of the Majesty on high, because this Man is himself God.

 

                The throne of God is his throne! He was given this place as a man; but it was always his as God; and he took it. He “sat down” as the God-man, our Savior!

 

5.       The Lord Jesus Christ sat down upon the right hand of God as the Representative and Forerunner of his people (Heb. 6:20; 1 John 2:1-3).

 

                Yonder, in Glory Land, upon the very throne of God, is a Man, a Man who is himself God, who incessantly pleads our cause with the Father. Because our Forerunner is there, we soon shall be.

 

6.       The Lord Jesus Christ sat down in heaven, because he has now opened the way for sinners to come to God (Heb. 10:19-22).

 

7.       The Lord Jesus sat down in heaven as a mighty Victor, a Conqueror whose enemies shall never rise again, whose enemies must and shall be put under his feet (Phil. 2:8-11).

 

                Because Christ sat down in glory, as the mighty Captain of our salvation, our salvation is a matter of certainty. We are now more than conquerors in him (Rom. 8:28-39).