Ascent and Descent

EPHESIANS 4:8-10 stairs

LAST WEEK WE LEARNED THAT THE LORD JESUS CHRIST GAVE SPIRITUAL GIFTS to believers. Look with me again at v. 7 of chapter 4…

NAS  Ephesians 4:7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

PAUL WRITES THAT EVERY BELIEVER HAS BEEN GRACIOUSLY GIVEN A SPIRITUAL GIFT for the purpose of edifying the Body of Christ, which is the Church…

“IS IT REALLY TRUE THAT JESUS, WHO ONCE WALKED THE EARTH 2,000 YEARS ago, is now so highly exalted, so glorious, and so richly endowed with authority that He is able to bestow His gifts upon the church and upon its members in lavish quantity? In answer to this question the apostle writes about the ascended Christ and the gifts which He bestowed and is still bestowing.” – Kistemaker/TAR…

THIS WEEK WE WILL LEARN ABOUT JESUS’ RIGHT TO GIVE THESE GIFTS. I think you’ll find it an enthralling story…

NAS  Ephesians 4:7-10 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says, “When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, And He gave gifts to men.” 9 (Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)

I MUST ACKNOWLEDGE AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS BLOG the difficulties in the interpretation of this passage. This is unquestionably a glorious passage, but it is also unquestionably a challenging passage to accurately interpret. Some passages in the Bible are simply difficult. This is to be expected. The Bible is the deepest, most important book in the history of world; we cannot expect it to be simple in every aspect. As God told us in Isaiah 55:9…

NAS  Isaiah 55:9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

I PERSONALLY NOT ONLY EXPECT DIFFICULTIES IN SCRIPTURE, BUT I like the challenges of the difficulties. I always remind myself I am studying ancient manuscripts, emphasis on ancient; ancient manuscripts from different cultures. How can I honestly not expect some difficulties? Great enlightenment comes from studying through these difficulties…

“THE PURPOSE OF THE TEXT IN EPHESIANS 4:8-10 IS TO PROVIDE theological basis for Christ’s work in the church. Application will focus on the expectation and obedience that come from this theological conviction about the lordship of Christ, His incarceration, and His investment in the lives of His followers. If He is the Lord who gives gifts and fills all things, we should expect His involvement in our work and should be ready to obey.” – Snodgrass…

IN VV. 8-10, “PAUL IS SET TO DELINEATE SOME OF THE GIFTS CHRIST HAS GIVEN, but before mentioning specific gifts (– which will be the subject of our study for next week – TAR) bestowed on the whole church, He uses Psalm 68:18 as a comparison passage to show how Christ received the right to bestow those gifts.” – MacArthur…

WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT IT IS COMMON FOR N.T. WRITERS TO CITE O.T. passages without quoting them specifically and even changing the wording to fit their purpose, here is Psalm 68:18…

NAS  Psalm 68:18 Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captive Thy captives; Thou hast received gifts among men, Even among the rebellious also, that the LORD God may dwell there.

PSALM 68 IS A VICTORY PSALM. Look at the opening verses…

NAS  Psalm 68:1-4 For the choir director. A Psalm of David. A Song. Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered; And let those who hate Him flee before Him. 2 As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; As wax melts before the fire, So let the wicked perish before God. 3 But let the righteous be glad; let them exult before God; Yes, let them rejoice with gladness. 4 Sing to God, sing praises to His name; Lift up a song for Him who rides through the deserts, Whose name is the LORD, and exult before Him.

HERE AGAIN, I FEEL COMPELLED TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE DIFFICULTIES involving this passage in Ephesians. The reference t Psalm 68 is just one example. “There are enormous problems in attempting to resolve the various opinions concerning the interpretation of Psalm 68. Many attempts have been made. Beyond the problems involved in trying to discern just how Paul intended the reference to be, Psalm 68 is reckoned ‘as textually and exegetically the most difficult and obscure of all the psalms’ (Dahood).” – Hoehner…

YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED THAT DAVID IN PSALM 68 SAID THAT GOD “RECEIVED” gifts, in contrast to Paul saying in Ephesians 4 that He “gave” gifts”…

“IT IS THOUGHT THAT PAUL ALTERED THE TEXT TO BRING OUT its full meaning.” – Hoehner… I hope that doesn’t alarm you. As I mentioned, this was common in N.T. references from or to the O.T. Please remember that the N.T. writers were guided in their interpretations by no one less than the Holy Spirit of God. The N.T. writers, in perfect harmony with the Holy Spirit, were free to use O.T. passages, words, and analogies for their N.T. situations…

MORE THAN A FEW COMMENTATORS BELIEVE “The apostle was drawing on an ancient oral tradition reflected in the Aramaic Targum on the Psalter and the Syriac Pershitta version, both of which read, ‘Thou hast given gifts to men.’ Early rabbinical comments applied the verse to Moses when he received the Law on Sinai so as to bring it to the people.” – Wood (Expositor’s)…

“IN CONTRAST TO THESE JEWISH LEGENDS, THE SON OF GOD IS THE ONLY ONE who has ever made the ascent and descent.” – NET Notes…

NKJ  John 3:13 “No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.

“AFTER A KING WON A BIG VICTORY HE WOULD BRING HOME THE SPOILS AND enemy prisoners to parade before his people. (We have all seen movies of ancient Rome that include scenes depicting military leaders returning after a victory leading long lines of prisoners in chains – TAR.) An Israelite king would take his retinue through the holy city of Jerusalem and up Mount Zion. Another feature of the victory parade, however, would be the display of the king’s own soldiers who had been freed after being held prisoner by the enemy. They were often referred to as recaptured captives – prisoners who had been taken prisoner again, so to speak, by their own king and given freedom.” – MacArthur…

“THE ESSENCE OF THE PSALM IS THAT a military victor has the right to give gifts to those who are identified with him. Christ, having captivated sinful people by redeeming them, is Victor and gives them as gifts to the Church. Whereas Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 speak of gifts given to believers, Ephesians 4:7 speaks more of gifted believers given to the church.” – Hoehner (B.K.C.)…

SO, YES, THERE ARE DIFFICULTIES WITH PSALM 68 AND PAUL’S USE of this psalm, but I think you’ll agree that engaging those difficulties – even without resolving those difficulties – helps us in our overall understanding of our passage…

NOW WITH THAT BACKGROUND IN MIND, LOOK AGAIN TO EPHESIANS 4:7-10…

NAS  Ephesians 4:7-10 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says, “When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, And He gave gifts to men.” 9 (Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)

NO MATTER JUST HOW THE DIFFICULTIES INHERENT IN THIS PASSAGE ARE dealt with, I think we can say that this passage is a passage that speaks unforgettably of the greatness of the Lord Jesus… Through His “Ascent and Descent” and all that represents, “Jesus gained the right to rule His Church and to give gifts to His Church” (MacArthur).…

“THEREFORE IT SAYS” MEANS “SCRIPTURE SAYS” OR “GOD SAYS”…

“THE PHRASE ‘WHEN HE ASCENDED ON HIGH’ DEPICTS A TRIUMPHANT CHRIST returning from battle on earth back into the glory of the heavenly city with the trophies of His great victory.” – MacArthur…

EVERYONE AGREES THAT THE “ASCENT” REFERS TO heaven. Nothing else really makes sense. “He ascended on high”: “high” is heaven. But what about “Descent”? The text goes on to say, “what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth?” What does that mean? To where exactly did Jesus descend? Or was it Jesus who descended at all? These questions are at the heart of the difficulties of this passage. It is very hard – if not impossible – to know for sure the answers to these questions…

THERE ARE 3 MAIN VIEWS, centering on the phrase “the lower parts of the earth,” and in particular the words “of the earth” (the genitive τῆς γῆς [tace gace]). The word “of” can legitimately be taken in three ways: (1) “into the lower parts, namely the earth” [genitive of apposition]; (2) “into the parts lower than the earth [genitive of comparison]; and (3) “into the lower parts which belong to the earth” [genitive of possession] (from Hoehner, B.K.C.)…

THESE GRAMMATICAL CHALLENGES RESULT IN THREE INTERPRETIVE POSITIONS which may be articulated in these ways: (1) following His crucifixion, Jesus made a spiritual descent into Hades, the underworld of souls who have died; or (2) Paul is referring instead to the descent of the Incarnation; when Jesus was born in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago, it was an obvious descent from His home in heaven; or (3) a descent in the Spirit, that is, the descent refers to the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. “This interpretation sees the descent as subsequent to the ascent, a descent that followed His ascent back to heaven.” – Lincoln…

MAKING THESE OPTIONS OF INTERPRETATION EVEN MORE CHALLENGING IS the fact that there are scholarly debates that deal with variations of each of the three options…

BECAUSE OUR TIME AND SPACE IS LIMITED, I will not attempt to go into these arguments in depth. I will simply say that you can make a good biblical case for all three options. I will also say that there are problems with each option. After studying this problem for years, I humbly support the first option named: I believe the best interpretation of the clause, “what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth?” is that following His crucifixion and before His resurrection Jesus, in the Spirit, went into the lower regions of the earth – what the O.T. terms Sheol and the N.T. calls Hades – and proclaimed His victory on the cross to fallen angels. I tie this position to 1 Peter 3:18-20…

NAS  1 Peter 3:18-20 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; 19 in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, 20 who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.

I THINK THESE DISOBEDIENT SPIRITS ARE ALSO REFERRED TO IN JUDE 6-7…

NAS  Jude 1:6-7 And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.

“HAVING DESCENDED TO THE EARTH IN HIS INCARNATION, CHRIST THEN ‘ascended’ to heaven above – ‘high above all the heavens.’” – Bruce… This is the event we refer to as “The Ascension.” It is recorded in Acts 1:9…

NAS  Acts 1:9 And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.

“HE ASCENDED THERE, WE ARE NOW TOLD AT THE END OF V. 10 in Ephesians 4, to ‘fill all things.’” – Bruce… The Greek tells us that the precise translation would be “that He might fill all things” (ἵνα [hee-na] takes the subjunctive), or “in order that He might fill all things”…

THE LITTLE WORD “THAT” (ἵνα [hee-na]) TELLS US THE PURPOSE Christ ascended. He ascended that He might fill all things. I believe this statement has reference not just to the Church but to the entire universe. “The designation ‘all things’ does not limit Christ’s filling to the church, otherwise Paul would have made the church the object of the filling. The object of Christ’s ascension above all the heavens (the Bible speaks of heaven in the plural “heavens’: Paul spoke of three heavens; rabbinic sources recognize seven heavens. – TAR) was to allow Him to enter into a sovereign relationship with the whole world.” – Hoehner…

THE GREEK WORD FOR “FILL” IS πληρόω (play-ra-o).It means just that: to make full (BDAG)…

“HOW IS THE UNIVERSE FILLED WITH ALL THINGS? It is the benefits of the work on the cross and consequently the ministry of the church to which Christ gave gifted persons who can function in His power. Back in chapter 1, we read that Christ is filled with God’s fullness and as a result Christ fills the church.” – Hoehner/TAR…

NAS  Ephesians 1:23 which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all.

BUT THE CHURCH IS NOT ALL HE FILLS. Yes, the church may be primarily in view, but Paul in Ephesians and elsewhere makes it abundantly clear that “all things” means “all things” including everything in the universe…

NAS  Ephesians 1:10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth. In Him

CHRIST IS HEAD OVER ALL THE UNIVERSE!…

NAS  Colossians 1:17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

CHRIST EMBODIES THE FULLNESS OF THE GODHEAD!…

NAS  Colossians 2:9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,

CHRIST FILLS THE UNIVERSE AND IS HEAD OVER IT!… He is the Head of everything!…

NAS  Colossians 1:18 He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything.

CHRIST FILLS EVERYTHING IN THE HEAVENS AND UPON THE EARTH with His presence and power. “He fills the entire universe with blessing, particularly his church” (MacArthur), as we’ll see clearly in next week’s sermon…

“THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IS SUPREME OVER ALL THE POWERS OF HEAVEN AND earth. There is nothing that is not subject to Him, no place or order of existence where His presence may not be known and felt. Both the ascent and the descent have this purpose” – Foulkes…

 “ASCENT AND DESCENT”: Ephesians 4:8-10, as we’ve seen is a challenging and glorious passage. However we resolve the difficulties, it is clear that Christ’s descent enabled Him to claim and proclaim victory over Satan, sin, and death. His ascent established His right to bestow gifts to His Church and to fill the world with His sovereign glory. Exactly how Christ accomplished these incomparable events, we must take by faith and immense gratitude, rejoicing in the fact He they were accomplished…

PRAISE HIS BLESSED NAME!…

– Professor Thomas A. Rohm