The article "Sat Down" by Don Fortner addresses the doctrine of the exaltation of Christ, emphasizing His identity as the God-man seated at the right hand of God the Father. Fortner presents key arguments regarding the significance of Christ's ascension and completed work of redemption, asserting that His position in glory assures believers of their acceptance before God. He supports his claims with Scripture references such as Hebrews 1:3, which emphasizes Christ’s role in purging sins and His authority, and other passages like Isaiah 9:6 and John 1:1-3, which affirm Christ's divine nature. The practical significance lies in the assurance this doctrine provides to believers, as it underscores their positional unity with Christ and their access to salvation through Him.
Key Quotes
“This Man is no ordinary man. This Man is himself God. He is the God-man.”
“Since there is a Man in glory accepted of God there may be another and another and another.”
“He has by himself purged our sins...thereby abolishing them completely and forever.”
“There sits the Man Christ Jesus and all his elect in him.”
Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; - Hebrews 1:3“Sat Down”
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!
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