Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Peter 3:22
Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.
22. who is gone into heaven ] The parallelism between the substance of this verse and that of 1Ti 3:16, and of both with the closing clauses of the second section of the Apostles’ Creed, leaves scarcely any room for doubt that we have here a precious fragment of the baptismal profession of faith of the Apostolic Church. The train of thought of the previous verse naturally led on to this. This was what the answer of a good conscience towards God involved. In the union of confession with the mouth and belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, in Rom 10:9, we may probably trace a reference to a like formulary. The word for “he is gone” is the same participle as that in 1Pe 3:19 and is important as determining its meaning. If there was a real Ascension into Heaven, there was also a real descent into Hades. St Peter seems to echo the words of St Paul, “Now that he ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?” (Eph 4:9.)
angels and authorities and powers ] Here again the phraseology reminds us of that of the twin Epistles of St Paul (Eph 1:21, Col 1:16). “Authorities” and “powers” are used as comprehensive terms, including the whole hierarchy of heaven, Cherubim, Seraphim and the like; probably also, looking to Col 2:15, Php 2:10, and the manifest sequence of thought from 1Pe 3:19, the powers of evil who had been subdued by the conquering Christ in His descent into Hades.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Who is gone into heaven – See the notes at Act 1:9.
And is on the right hand of God – See the notes at Mar 16:19.
Angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him – See the notes at Eph 1:20-21. The reason why the apostle here adverts to the fact that the Lord Jesus is raised up to the right hand of God, and is so honored in heaven, seems to have been to encourage those to whom he wrote to persevere in the service of God, though they were persecuted. The Lord Jesus was in like manner persecuted. He was reviled, and rejected, and put to death. Yet he ultimately triumphed. He was raised from the dead, and was exalted to the highest place of honor in the universe. Even so they, if they did not faint, might hope to come off in the end triumphant. As Noah, who had been faithful and steadfast when surrounded by a scoffing world, was at last preserve by his faith from ruin, and as the Redeemer, though persecuted and put to death, was at last exalted to the right hand of God, so would it be with them if they bore their trials patiently, and did not faint or fail in the persecutions which they endured.
In view of the exposition in 1Pe 3:1-2, we may remark:
(1) That it is our duty to seek the conversion and salvation of our impenitent relatives and friends. All Christians have relatives and friends who are impenitent; it is a rare thing that some of the members of their own families are not so. In most families, even Christian families, there is a husband or a wife, a father or a mother, a son or daughter, a brother or sister, who is not converted. To all such, they who are Christians owe important duties, and there is none more important than that of seeking their conversion. That this is a duty is clearly implied in this passage in reference to a wife, and for the same reason it is a duty in reference to all other persons. It may be further apparent from these considerations:
(a) It is an important part of the business of all Christians to seek the salvation of others. This is clearly the duty of ministers of the gospel; but it is no less the duty of all who profess to be followers of the Saviour, and to take him as their example and guide. Compare Jam 5:19-20.
(b) It is a duty especially devolving on those who have relatives who are unconverted, on account of the advantages which they have for doing it. They are with them constantly; they have their confidence and affection; they can feel more for them than anyone else can; and if they are not concerned for their salvation, they cannot hope that any others will be.
(c) It is not wholly an improper motive to seek their salvation from the happiness which it would confer on those who are already Christians. It is not improper that a wife should be stimulated to desire the conversion of her husband from the increased enjoyment which she would have if her partner in life were united with her in the same hope of heaven, and from the pleasure which it would give to enjoy the privilege of religious worship in the family, and the aid which would be furnished in training up her children in the Lord. A Christian wife and mother has important duties to perform toward her children; it is not improper that in performing those duties she should earnestly desire the cooperation of her partner in life.
(2) Those who have impenitent husbands and friends should be encouraged in seeking their conversion. It is plainly implied 1Pe 3:1-2 that it was not to be regarded as a hopeless thing, but that in all cases they were to regard it as possible that unbelieving husbands might be brought to the knowledge of the truth. If this is true of husbands, it is no less true of other friends. We should never despair of the conversion of a friend as long as life lasts, however far he may be from the path of virtue and piety. The grounds of encouragement are such as these:
(a) You have an influence over them which no other one has; and that influence may be regarded as capital, which will give you great advantages in seeking their conversion.
(b) You have access to them at times when their minds are most open to serious impressions. Every man has times when he may be approached on the subject of religion; when he is pensive and serious; when he is disappointed and sad; when the affairs of this world do not go well with him, and his thoughts are drawn along to a better. There are times in the life of every man when he is ready to open his mind to a friend on the subject of religion, and when he would be glad of a word of friendly counsel and encouragement. It is much to have access to a man at such times.
(c) If all the facts were known which have occurred, there would be no lack of encouragement to labor for the conversion of impenitent relatives and friends. Many a husband owes his salvation to the persevering solicitude and prayers of a wife; many a son will enter heaven because a mother never ceased to pray for his salvation, even when to human view there seemed no hope of it.
(3) We may learn 1Pe 3:1-2 what are the principal means by which we are to hope to secure the conversion and salvation of impenitent friends. It is to be mainly by a pure life; by a holy walk; by a consistent example. Conversation, properly so called, is not to be regarded as excluded from those means, but the main dependence is to be on a holy life. This is to be so, because:
(a) most persons form their notions of religion from what they see in the lives of its professed friends. It is not so much what they hear in the pulpit, because they regard preaching as a mere professional business, by which a man gets a living; not so much by books in defense and explanation of religion, for they seldom or never read them; not by what religion enabled the martyrs to do, for they may have scarcely heard the names of even the most illustrious of the martyrs; but by what they see in the walk and conversation of those who profess to be Christians, especially of those who are their near relations. The husband is forming his views of religion constantly from what he sees on the brow and in the eye of his professedly Christian wife; the brother from what he sees in his sister; the child from what he sees in the parent.
(b) Those who profess to be Christians have an opportunity of showing the power of religion in a way which is superior to any abstract argument. It controls their temper; it makes them kind and gentle; it sustains them in trial; it prompts them to deeds of benevolence; it disposes them to be contented, to be forgiving, to be patient in the reverses of life. Everyone may thus be always doing something to make an impression favorable to religion on the minds of others. Yet it is also true that much may be done, and should be done for the conversion of others, by conversation properly so called, or by direct address and appeal. There is nothing, however, which requires to be managed with more prudence than conversation with those who are not Christians, or direct efforts to lead them to attend to the subject of religion. In regard to this it may be observed:
(a) that it does no good to be always talking with them. Such a course only produces disgust.
(b) It does no good to talk to them at unseasonable and improper times. If they are specially engaged in their business, and would not like to be interrupted – if they are in company with others, or even with their family – it does little good to attempt a conversation with them. It is the word that fitly spoken that is like apples of gold in pictures of silver, Pro 25:11.
(c) It does no good to scold them on the subject of religion, with a view to make them Christians. In such a case you show a spirit the very reverse of that religion which you are professedly endeavoring to persuade them to embrace.
(d) All conversation with impenitent sinners should be kind, and tender, and respectful. It should be addressed to them when they will be disposed to listen; usually when they are alone; and especially when from trials or other causes they may be in such a state of mind that they will be willing to listen. It may be added, that impenitent sinners are much more frequently in such a state of mind than most Christians suppose, and that they often wonder that their Christian friends do not speak to them about the salvation of the soul.
From the exposition given of the important 1Pe 3:18-21, we may derive the following inferences:
(1) The pre-existence of Christ. If he preached to the antediluvians in the time of Noah, he must have had an existence at that time.
(2) His divinity. If he was quickened or restored to life by his own exalted nature, he must be divine; for there is no more inalienable attribute of the Deity than the power of raising the dead.
(3) If Christ preached to the pagan world in the time of Noah, for the same reason it may be regarded as true that all the messages which are brought to people, calling them to repentance, in any age or country, are through him. Thus, it was Christ who spake by the prophets and by the apostles; and thus he speaks now by his ministers.
(4) If this interpretation is wellfounded, it takes away one of the strongest supports of the doctrine of purgatory. There is no stronger passage of the Bible in support of this doctrine than the one before us; and if this does not countenance it, it may be safely affirmed that it has not a shadow of proof in the sacred Scriptures.
(5) It follows that there is no hope or prospect that the gospel will be preached to those who are lost. This is the only passage in the Bible that could be supposed to teach any such doctrine; and if the interpretation above proposed be correct, this furnishes no ground of belief that if a man dies impenitent he will ever be favored with another offer of mercy. This interpretation also accords with all the other representations in the Bible. As the tree falleth, so it lies. He that is holy, let him be holy still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still. All the representations in the Bible lead us to suppose that the eternal destiny of the soul after death is fixed, and that the only change which can ever occur in the future state is that which will be produced by development: the developement of the principles of piety in heaven; the development of the principles of evil in hell.
(6) It follows, that if there is not a place of purgatory in the future world there is a place of punishment. If the word prison, in the passage before us, does not mean purgatory, and does not refer to a detention with a prospect or possibility of release, it must refer to detention of another kind, and for another purpose, and that can be only with reference to the judgment of the great day, 2Pe 2:14; Jud 1:6. From that gloomy prison there is no evidence that any have been, or will be, released.
(7) People should embrace the gospel at once. Now it is offered to them; in the future world it will not be. But even if it could be proved that the gospel would be offered to them in the future world, it would be better to embrace it now. Why should people go down to that world to suffer long before they become reconciled to God? Why choose to taste the sorrows of hell before they embrace the offers of mercy? Why go to that world of woe at all? Are people so in love with suffering and danger that they esteem it wise to go down to that dark prison-house, with the intention or the hope that the gospel may be offered to them there, and that when there they may be disposed to embrace it? Even if it could be shown, therefore, that they might again hear the voice of mercy and salvation, how much wiser would it be to hearken to the voice now, and become reconciled to God here, and never experience in any way the pangs of the second death! But of any such offer of mercy in the world of despair, the Bible contains no intimation; and he who goes to the eternal world unreconciled to God, perishes for ever. The moment when he crosses the line between time and eternity, he goes forever beyond the boundaries of hope.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 22. Who is gone into heaven] Having given the fullest proof of his resurrection from the dead, and of his having accomplished the end for which he came into the world.
On the right hand of God] In the place of the highest dignity, honour, and influence.
The Vulgate, one copy of the Itala, Augustine, Fulgentius, Cassiodorus, and Bede, have the following remarkable addition after the above words: Deglutiens mortem, ut vitae aeternae haeredes efficeremur. “Having abolished (swallowed down) death, that we might be made heirs of eternal life.” But this addition is found in no Greek copy, nor in any other of the ancient versions.
Angels and authorities and powers] That is, all creatures and beings, both in the heavens and in the earth, are put under subjection to Jesus Christ. He has all power in the heavens and in the earth. He alone can save; and he alone can destroy. None need fear who put their trust in him, as he can do whatsoever he will in behalf of his followers, and has good and evil spirits under his absolute command. Well may his enemies tremble, while his friends exult and sing. He can raise the dead, and save to the uttermost all that come unto the Father through him.
If he have all power, if angels and authorities and powers be subject to him, then he can do what he will, and employ whom he will. To raise the dead can be no difficulty to him, because he has power over all things. He created the world; he can destroy it, and he can create it anew. We can conceive nothing too difficult for Omnipotence. This same omnipotent Being is the friend of man. Why then do we not come to him with confidence, and expect the utmost salvation of which our souls and bodies are capable?
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God: see Rom 8:34; Heb 1:3. This is added as another ground of faith and a good conscience.
Angels and authorities and powers: see Rom 8:38; Eph 1:20,21; Col 1:16; Col 2:10.
Being made subject unto him; viz. by his Father, to whom this subjecting all things to Christ is elsewhere ascribed, 1Co 15:27; Eph 1:22; Heb 2:8.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
22. (Psa 110:1;Rom 8:34; Rom 8:38;1Co 15:24; Eph 1:21;Eph 3:10; Col 1:16;Col 2:10-15). The fruit ofHis patience in His voluntary endured and undeserved sufferings: apattern to us, 1Pe 3:17; 1Pe 3:18.
gone (Lu24:51). Proving against rationalists an actual materialascension. Literally, “is on the right hand of God, havinggone into heaven.” The oldest manuscripts of the Vulgateand the Latin Fathers, add what expresses the benefit to us ofChrist’s sitting on God’s right hand, “Who is on the right handof God, having swallowed up death that we may become heirs ofeverlasting life“; involving for us ASTATE OF LIFE, saved, glorious, and eternal. The Greekmanuscripts, however, reject the words. Compare with this versePeter’s speeches, Act 2:32-35;Act 3:21; Act 3:26;Act 10:40; Act 10:42.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Who is gone into heaven,…. After he had been risen forty days, where he is received, and will remain, until the restitution of all things; and where he appears in the presence of God for his people, and ever lives to make intercession for them; and is entered as their forerunner, and is preparing mansions of glory for them; and will come again, and take them to himself, to be for ever with him, and from hence they expect him:
and is on the right hand of God; where Stephen saw him; and which is an honour never conferred on any angel, or man; and shows that Christ had done his work, and that in a way acceptable to God; the Vulgate Latin version here adds “swallowing up death, that we might be made heirs of eternal life”; but is not supported by any copy or version:
angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him; by “angels” may be meant angels both good and bad, who are all in subjection to Christ; and by authorities and powers, the kings, princes, and governors of this world, who hold their dominions from and under the Lord Jesus Christ; and which is an argument why believers should patiently bear all their sufferings and afflictions, since Christ has the government in his hands, and he rules and overrules all things for good; and when he pleases, he can put a stop to the rage and persecutions of men; and so the apostle returns to his former argument, in the following chapter.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Having gone (). First aorist (deponent) participle (not periphrastic) of .
Being made subject (). Second aorist passive participle of (see 1Pet 2:18; 1Pet 3:1) in the genitive absolute construction.
Unto him (). Christ. See 1Co 15:28.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Gone into heaven. Perhaps with the scene of the ascension in Peter’s mind.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Who is gone into heaven.” Where did Jesus go when he left earth? The answer is “into heaven itself where the Father is.” Joh 14:1-3; Joh 14:14; Act 1:10-11; Heb 9:24.
2) “And is gone into heaven.” Where is Jesus now? He is sitting on the right hand of God, making advocacy, intercession for the redeemed, Heb 1:3; Heb 7:25; 1Jn 2:1-2; Rev 12:10; Rom 8:34.
3) “Angels and authorities and powers.” Heavens host (angelon) the host – all of them are his servants -. authorities (Eksousion) the organized orders of Gabriel and Michael and (dunameon) all their dynamic resources.
4) “Being made subject unto him.” (Gk. hupotagenton) are progressively and continuously under his control, at his disposal. What a Savior, deliverer, and keeper we have! See also Heb 1:14; Psa 34:7; Heb 13:5.
A MARK OF OWNERSHIP
If you have a book which you do not wish to lose you write your name in it. The shepherd brands his name upon his sheep, and every one knows they are his. “From henceforth let no man trouble me, wrote Paul, “for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” And we read in Rev 22:4 for those who serve the Lord, “My name shall be in their foreheads.” The Good Shepherd knows His own sheep by name, and no one can pluck them out of His hand.
–Sunday at Home
KEPT
Kept every day from morn to night, We know His promises are sure, Kept by His truth, His power and might No jot shall fail, while words endure.
Kept all the way from youth to age, Thus far the Lord hath sheltered me. Kept from the fangs of Satan’s rage, Safely we’ll cross life’s troubled sea.
Kept all these years by God’s own hand, To Him be praise and homage given. Kept by H is grace well hope to stand. At evening time, in sight of Heaven,
Kept from the power of hell and sin, Home of the pure in heart we’ll see. Kept by His love well here begin The life that fills eternity.
–Selected
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
22 Who is on the right hand of God. He recommends to us the ascension of Christ unto heaven, lest our eyes should seek him in the world; and this belongs especially to faith. He commends to our notice his session on the Father’s right hand, lest we should doubt his power to save us. And what his sitting at the right hand of the Father means, we have elsewhere explained, that is, that Christ exercises supreme power everywhere as God’s representative. And an explanation of this is what follows, angels being made subject to him; and he adds powers and authorities only for the sake of amplification, for angels are usually designated by such words. It was then Peter’s object to set forth by these high titles the sovereignty of Christ.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
1Pe. 3:22 who is on the right hand of God, having gone into heaven; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.
Expanded Translation
who is on the right hand of God (i.e., in a place of honor), having departed (from earth) and gone into heaven; angels, and (heavenly) authorities or princes, and (heavenly) beings excelling in power being arranged under and in subjection to him.
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who is at the right hand
That is, at a place of power, prestige and esteem.
angels, authorities and powers
The latter part of the verse could very well read: Angelseven those in places of authority and power, were made subject unto Him. The authorities are evidently a certain class of angels or spiritual potentates. The same is also likely of powers. Note how these words, authorities and powers occur in the same order with reference to heavenly beings in Eph. 3:10, Col. 2:10, 1Co. 15:24.
Do not miss the purpose of this verse, for it forms a vital conclusion to the discussion which began in 1Pe. 3:17. Our Saviour, though He suffered, was victorious! He triumphed over sin and the grave! As a result of His sufferings, we have salvation and He has been glorified in Heaven, and all authority has been given unto Him in heaven and on earth (Mat. 28:18).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(22) Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God.This verse (which partakes of the character of a doxology) serves two purposes. First, it carries on the history of Jesus Christ. How carefully, in spite of what seem at first irrelevant digressions, St. Peter holds his threads. Christs passion and death, activity among the dead, resurrection from among them, ascension into heaven, perpetual session in glory, follow one another in due order. The second purpose of the clause runs parallel to the first. St. Peter is teaching the entire conformity of the believer to the Lord. If the believer will but retain his good conscience, he may hope for a precisely similar experience. The Latin and several other good versions, together with several Latin Fathers, add a curious sentence after the words on the right hand of God, which runs: swallowing up death, that we might be made heirs of eternal life; but there is no sufficient authority for the sentence. The first notion of being on the right hand of God, taken, probably, from Psa. 110:1, seems to be that of occupying the highest post of honour possible, next after that of Godi.e., the FatherHimself It is not necessary here to consider what else may be implied in the phrase as to the conditions of our Lords human existence; but when we compare St. Pauls statement, in Eph. 4:10, about His now filling all things, we feel that these pictorial words, such as heaven and right hand of God, are intended to convey the notion that His humanity is now entirely without conditions, though still retaining all that is truly essential to humanity. It may be observed that, assuming (as even most sceptical critics do) the genuineness of this Epistle, we have here at first hand the deliberate evidence of one who had been perfectly familiar with Jesus Christ as man with man. By what stretch of imagination can we suppose that such a person could ever have invented, or have accepted from others this mode of speaking about his former Teacher, had he not been conscious of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus as simply historical facts, of the same order as the fact of His death?
Angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.There can be no doubt that this whole verse is coloured by recollection of the circular letter which St. Paul had sent to the Churches of Asia, which we call the Epistle to the Ephesians. Perhaps the heresy which St. Paul lamented in that Epistle may still have lingered in existence, in cabalistic Jewish circles, among those same Churches when St. Peter thus wrote to them. He may, for the moment, be glancing away from his faint-hearted Hebrew brethren, who, in fear of persecution, were slinking back into Judaism, and turning rather to those Gnosticising Jews who began to abound in Asia, who made genealogies of ons, and gave Christ a place among them. In favour of such an opinion one might appeal to the vivid picture of licentiousness in the next chapter, and the development of the same, manifestly under Gnostic influence, in the Second Epistle and in the Apocalypse. From the expression being made subject, or, literally, having been subdued (or, subjected) we may infer that St. Peter meant evil spirits, this being a crowning triumph of Christ, and not only a mark of His exaltation. We need not think that St. Peter, any more than St. Paul, is distinctly teaching that there are such grades of spiritual beings; he is probably only borrowing the titles from the heretics glanced at, and saying that, whatever unseen powers there are, whatever they may be called, they are now cubdued to Christ.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
22. Gone into heaven At his ascension, to take his place as crowned King, to send the Holy Spirit, and to exercise kingly power in bringing men to God.
The right hand The place of highest honour, to which God exalted him. See notes on Acts 12:55, and Rom 8:34.
Made subject To him, the glorified God-man, as supreme Lord. Whether, as Steiger considers, the authorities be reigning authorities, and the powers acting powers, we know not. But see notes on Rom 8:38; Eph 1:21; and Col 2:15.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Who is on the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being brought into obedience to him.’
And the final stage in this process was Jesus’ enthronement at the right hand of God in Heaven, with all angelic and supernatural powers being brought into obedience to Him. Here Peter does not distinguish good angels from bad. The point is that all heavenly powers are made subject to Him and have to acknowledge His rule (compare 1Co 15:24-25; Eph 1:21-22; Php 2:10-11) because He has gone into Heaven to the right hand of God.
So first we had Noah, ‘a preacher of righteousness’ (2Pe 2:5), who was ‘delivered’ in the time of the condemnation of the rebellious angels, and who proclaimed righteousness to a disobedient and unrepentant people. He and his seven companions (the elect) were lifted up on the water by the ark while the rebellious angels were being put in prison and the race of men was being destroyed. Now through Jesus Christ the Righteous One and through His resurrection, He and His people will be lifted up to God along with Him in His resurrection (compare Eph 1:19 to Eph 2:6), because He too has proclaimed righteousness, in His case to the disobedient and unrepentant angels who were imprisoned after the flood, while at the same time the powers in heavenly places have been made to bow the knee to Him, and have as a result been ‘brought into obedience’ (compare Php 2:10).
Peter got this idea of comparing the flood to the salvation in the end times directly from Jesus. Jesus also saw the Noah and the flood and the ark as illustrations of the end times prior to and leading up to His coming (Mat 24:38-39). ‘As were the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of the Son of Man’ (Mat 24:37). See also Luk 17:26-27.
The expression ‘brought into obedience’ need not necessarily mean that they had previously been in disobedience. It may simply refer to the practise of a newly crowned king receiving the fealty of his subjects, and thereby ‘bringing them into obedience’, some to be subsequently rewarded and others to be subsequently sentenced. But the main point is that whatever the previous situation, all in the heavenly sphere are now in obedience to Him because of His all-conquering power. Thus even among the angels God has been working to bring them ‘unto obedience’. And although it does not say so here, for it is Christ’s triumph not judgment that is finally in mind, the remainder of the world who were not lifted up in Christ, were left to perish in God’s judgment (see 1Pe 4:7; 1Pe 4:17-18) as those in Noah’s world were, as are also the angels who do not become truly and permanently obedient.
By this the persecuted people of God to whom Peter was writing were brought to see that the invisible powers who were responsible for their persecution (see 1Pe 5:8; and compare 1Pe 3:14) were already defeated through His cross and resurrection (compare Col 2:15; and see Col 1:16-17), while all other invisible powers were in submission to Him, and the consequence was that they had nothing else to fear (1Pe 3:6; 1Pe 3:14).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Pe 3:22 . ] This brings to a close the whole train of thought with reference to Christ, from 1Pe 3:18 and onwards, inasmuch as to His sufferings, death, resurrection, and going to the spirits in prison, there is now added, His sitting down at the right hand of God. This expression, which points out the present condition of the glorified Redeemer, occurs likewise in Rom 8:34 , Col 3:1 , and in other passages of the N. T.
] corresponds to , 1Pe 3:19 .
] added in order to give prominence to the unlimited sway of Christ (Eph 1:21-22 ; Col 2:10 ; 1Co 15:27 ; Heb 2:8 ), extending even over all heavenly powers, whatever their name or office.
The expressions and are with the exception of in this passage used only by Paul as names of angels (with , cf. Psa 103:21 ; Psa 148:2 , LXX.); and in the same sequence. is not here the general term to which and ( , equivalent to cum turn) are subordinate, but the three conceptions are co-ordinate, and connected by the repeated copula. This is shown by Rom 8:38 , where, instead of , the name is used. For the various names, comp. Meyer on Eph 1:21 ; Col 1:16 .
. expresses, not enforced, but voluntary subjection.
With regard to the relation of this whole passage to what precedes, shows that in the first instance confirmation is given to the thought that it is better to suffer for well than for evil doing, by reference to the sufferings of Christ, similarly as is done in chap. 1Pe 2:21 . But as the last-mentioned passage passes beyond the limits of the typical, that is, first by the addition of to , and then by the statements of 1Pe 2:24 , the same takes place here. There, reference is made to the redeeming death of the abased Christ; here, to the living work of the glorified Christ. The chief separate points have already been stated. The allusion of baptism appears indeed to be a digression, yet it belongs essentially to the train of thought; for after that mention had been made of Christ’s work among the spirits in prison in His exalted condition, it was necessary to call attention likewise to His redeeming work on earth, the effects of which are communicated through baptism. That Peter speaks of this medium (not that of the word, etc.) is explained by his reference to the deluge as the type of the approaching judgment, and to the water by which Noah and those with him were saved, and which appeared as a of baptism. [230]
[230] Since that which is stated in this paragraph does not keep within the limits of the typical, it may very well in spite of Hofmann’s assertion to the contrary be described as a digression.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
REFLECTIONS
Reader! what a beautiful illustration doth this Chapter afford, of the sweet effects of regeneration? All the relative and social duties arise from the work of grace upon the heart, as fruits from good seed, sown in good ground. And where the hidden man of the heart is found, there will be all the sweet properties of grace, in testimony, that God dwelleth in his people, by his Holy Spirit.
Blessed Lord! diffuse the sweet influences of thy love, in the minds of thy redeemed, and in the ‘contemplation of the example of Jesus; grant that there may be more of that Spirit of the Lord, reigning and ruling among thy people; so that by sanctifying the Lord God in our hearts, we may be always ready to give an answer to every man that asketh a reason of the hope that is in us, with meekness and fear.
Everlastingly be adored and loved, the sinner’s Lord, who died, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. Lord let thy quickening Spirit, be unceasingly working in our souls, to keep alive in us thy grace, in endless communication, until thou shalt bring all thy Church, in body, soul, and spirit, to the everlasting enjoyment of our God in glory. Let there be no prison frame to thy people; but as thou art gone into heaven, and all power thine, for thy redeemed upon earth; let every thought of ours, be subject unto thee here below, as all authorities and powers, are subject unto thee above.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
22 Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.
Ver. 22. Angels and authorities ] Psa 68:17 . The word rendered angels signifieth seconds, as being second to Christ, or next to him. See Dan 10:13 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
22 .] who is on the right hand of God ( Psa 110:1 ), having gone (cf. above, 1Pe 3:19 ) to heaven (i. e. into the place of angels and supramundane powers, but distinguished from them by being Himself at God’s right hand. On the whole subject of Christ’s exaltation, see Hofmann, Schriftb. ii. 1, pp. 370 407), angels and authorities and powers (the whole heavenly hierarchy, as in Col 2:10-15 ) being subjected to Him . And thus is announced the glorious completion of the result of Christ’s voluntary and innocent sufferings: glorious for Himself, and glorious for us, who are by baptism united to Him. And now the practical inference for us follows.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Pe 3:22 . Christ went into Heaven and now is on God’s right hand (Psa 110:1 ) when angels and authorities and powers had subjected themselves to Him in accordance with prophecy (Psa 8:7 ; cf. Heb 2:8 ; 1Co 15:24 ff.). For the orders of angels see also Rom 8:38 ; Eph 1:21 . Clearly they include the rebels of 1Pe 3:19 f. whom Jubilees calls the angels of the Lord (Jub. iv. 15) and Onkelos the sons of the mighty and their children (?) the giants .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
is = having.
heaven. Singular. See Mat 6:9, Mat 6:10.
and. Omit.
authorities. App-172. Compare Eph 1:21; Eph 3:10; Eph 6:12. Col 2:10, Col 2:15. Tit 3:1.
powers. App-172. Compare Mat 24:29. Rom 8:38. 1Co 15:24. 2Th 1:7. 2Pe 2:11.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
22.] who is on the right hand of God (Psa 110:1), having gone (cf. above, 1Pe 3:19) to heaven (i. e. into the place of angels and supramundane powers, but distinguished from them by being Himself at Gods right hand. On the whole subject of Christs exaltation, see Hofmann, Schriftb. ii. 1, pp. 370-407), angels and authorities and powers (the whole heavenly hierarchy, as in Col 2:10-15) being subjected to Him. And thus is announced the glorious completion of the result of Christs voluntary and innocent sufferings: glorious for Himself, and glorious for us, who are by baptism united to Him. And now the practical inference for us follows.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Pe 3:22. , , ) Such is the reading of the version which is by far the most ancient of all. Who is on the right hand of God, after having swallowed up death, that we might be made the heirs of eternal life.[34] This reading is followed by Augustine, Cassiodorus, Fulgentius, Beda, and, as Mill affirms, by all the Latin writers. See App. Crit. Ed. ii. on this passage. Peter derives special uses from the sufferings of Christ, from His death, from His return to life, from His resurrection, from His going into heaven, from His judging the quick and dead; but from His sitting at the right hand of God he either derives no use, or that which is still read in the Latin Version. By His death, Christ altogether destroyed death: but His sitting on the right hand of God presupposes that this death has been once for all exhausted, that He may claim life for us; and it involves a STATE of LIFE which is glorious, eternal, and salutary for us. Act 2:28; Rom 6:9-10; Heb 7:16; Heb 7:24-25; 1Co 15:54; Joh 14:19. The signification of past time in ought especially to be considered.-) after that He had gone.-, angels) To Him angels are subject, and that too of all ranks, whether good or evil; and so also are men.
[34] Qui est in dexter Dei, [deglutiens mortem, ut vit tern hredes efficeremur.] Vulgate in Amiat. and other oldest MSS. Fuldensis MS., however, and others, omit the words in brackets; and they are not supported by Greek MSS.-E.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
angels
(See Scofield “Heb 1:4”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
is gone: Mar 16:19, Act 1:11, Act 2:34-36, Act 3:21, Heb 6:20, Heb 8:1, Heb 9:24
is on: Psa 110:1, Mat 22:44, Mar 12:36, Luk 20:42, Rom 8:34, Eph 1:20, Col 3:1, Heb 1:3, Heb 1:13, Heb 8:1, Heb 10:12, Heb 12:2
angels: Rom 8:38, 1Co 15:24, Eph 1:21
Reciprocal: Exo 25:20 – toward Num 24:19 – Of Jacob Psa 8:6 – put Psa 16:11 – at thy Psa 21:5 – honour Psa 24:7 – shall Psa 68:18 – ascended Psa 91:15 – honour Psa 103:19 – his kingdom Psa 113:7 – out of Psa 148:13 – glory Isa 49:5 – yet Eze 1:26 – over Eze 10:1 – above Eze 21:27 – until Dan 7:14 – given Dan 10:13 – one Zec 6:13 – bear Mat 11:27 – are Mat 28:18 – All Mar 5:13 – gave Luk 2:15 – into Luk 4:36 – they come Luk 9:51 – that Luk 19:12 – to Luk 22:69 – on Joh 3:31 – is above Joh 3:35 – and Joh 5:27 – hath Joh 6:62 – General Joh 13:32 – shall Joh 17:2 – As Act 1:2 – the day Act 2:33 – by Act 5:31 – hath Act 10:36 – he is Rom 10:7 – to bring up 1Co 15:27 – General 2Co 13:4 – yet Eph 3:10 – principalities Eph 6:12 – principalities Phi 2:9 – given Col 1:16 – thrones Col 2:10 – the head 2Th 1:7 – his mighty angels 1Ti 3:16 – received Heb 1:4 – so Heb 1:6 – And let Heb 2:8 – hast Heb 7:26 – made 1Pe 1:21 – gave
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE ASCENDED LORD
Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God.
1Pe 3:22
Let us revisit the Ascension hill. Again we will climb to the crown of Olivet, and walk over field and knoll towards that summit above Bethany; or we will take the high road from Jerusalem, and pass to the same point round the shoulder of the mount. We go out to meditate. And we need not fear disturbance. The city is near at hand; half an hours walking will easily take us back to the walls. But this hill-top is quite apart and unfrequented; we can think, and pray, and believe, and be alone, looking up to the quiet heavens, and resting amidst the starry flowers.
For us He has gone into heaven. What do we know in any detail, from the Word which cannot lie, about the works and purposes of His exaltation?
I. Head over all things.God hath set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places and given Him to be Head over all things to the Church, which is His body (Eph 1:20; Eph 1:22-23). That wonderful Headship is here connected expressly with the historical Ascension. True, there is a sense in which the Lord is eternally all that He is; He rises above time in the virtues of His work. He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, as to the purpose and as to the merit of His blessed historical atonement. But none the less the historical cross and passion were awfully necessary in order to the realisation of the eternal purpose in time at all. Just so, in the covenant of blessing, the Lord has been for ever the life and Head of His saints; but His actual exaltation after death was required that it might be so; and that exaltation, further, was the glorious signal of a manifestation of His headship so great that it made Him Head as coronation makes a king. This at least we know, that He is set before us now as our Head expressly in the light of His victory and majesty. It is expressly as the ascended and enthroned Christ Jesus that He is what He is to His happy limbs. The life He pours into them, the life which He is for them (Col 3:4), is life as He lives it at the right hand of God. The Lord to Whom every member is joined (1Co 6:17) is the glorified, triumphant, infinitely exalted Jesus. His contact with us, His government of us, our union with one another in Him our Headall these things are steeped in the splendour of the Ascension. Such is He to us in His glory, such are we to Him in our humiliation, that we are said to be seated together [with Him] in the heavenly places in Him; with Him as His companions, in Him as His members, in the bright world of His victorious joy. From other and only too obvious points of sight we are, indeed, not there yet. But all the more deliberately and often let us take our view of things from this point. As regards our reunion and communion with Him on Whom we have believed, as regards that oneness of the Head and members which allows St. Paul to say of Him and us, So also is Christ (1Co 12:12); not only is He where we are, but we are where He is.
II. The Mediator of the New Covenant.He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us (Heb 9:12). And now, having obtained it, He is there to administer it. He is, in his ascended glory, the Mediator of the New Covenant (Heb 9:15). He has obtained for you all its blessings by His finished work on that green hill on the other side of Olivet. He has ascended from this green hill to be the faithful Trustee and the ever-willing Giver-out of all those blessings to you His disciple. Your Mediator stands in medioone with the Father, one with you. All the gifts of the everlasting Love lie in His possession, on purpose for you: the abundant pardon, the eternal Spirit, the transfiguring power, the keeping presence, and, in due time, the glory that is to be revealed. He has undertaken all your responsibilities that he may invest you with all His death-won possessions. And He has invested you with them, on the delightful condition that they shall be always inseparable from Himself. You are never to find them anywhere out of Him. In Him, possessing Him in the free grace of Himself to you, you possess them now, you possess them here, you possess them all.
III. The Enthroned Intercessor.Who also maketh intercession for us (Rom 8:34). He is doing it at this moment, and He is doing it as the enthroned Intercessor; as the Priest upon His throne. He is speaking for you. He is your Advocate. He is showering blessing on you as Mediator; He is presenting your name before His Father as Intercessor; as the Lords supreme Remembrancer (Isa 62:6), perpetually making mention of His unworthy members before the everlasting Love. Nay, let us correct the expression, and say not before that Love, but beside it. For where and how is He interceding? Do not think of Him, or speak or sing of Him, as if He were before the Throne. Do not dream of Him as if he were standing priest-like at an altar, pleading a propitiation, while He looks upward to the Power Who is to forgive. Such pictures of our Intercessor are not revelation; they are imagination. He is indeed our Priest, our great and glorious High Priest in heaven. But He is the Priest Who has for ever and ever done the altar-work of the Atonement-day. He has passed now through the veils of Holy and of Holiest, leaving them rent that we may follow in with Him. And behold, he has ascended the very Ark itself; He sits enthroned upon the Mercy-seat; He is crowned with many crowns; His hands have done with their victim-sufferings for ever, and are at work for blessing only. His intercession is carried on by the Fathers side and in the glory of the Father.
IV. King for ever.Once more let us look up, and lift up our heads, to that deep heaven of air which is Gods own symbol of the presence of His glory. Christian, the ascended Saviour of your soul, the Head, the Mediator, the Intercessor, the Priest upon His throneHe is there as King for ever. Let us kneel upon the place of the Ascension, and own this again, as if we had never done so before. Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ. My Lord, O King, I am thine, and all that I have. And as Thou art my King, in all the claims of Thy most sacred and righteous and beatifying autocracy, reigning over my heart and over my life, so Thou art King and Lord of earth and of heaven; Thy Father hath set His King upon His everlasting Zion; all power is Thine. Thou dost reign; Thou must reign, in the predestination of infinite righteousness and love, till He hath put all enemies under Thy feet. And then, for ever, in the holy City, the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; of His kingdom shall be no end.
Bishop H. C. G. Moule.
Illustration
Six hundred years before Christ came Ezekiel saw his grandest vision, the likeness as the appearance of a Man above the sapphire-like throne (Eze 1:26). The prophet saw heaven opened, but the strange vision had to wait long for its full interpretation. The first Christmas Day came, and the first Easter; at last on the first Ascension Day Ezekiels vision became a fact, and the Second Man, the Divine and human Saviour, sat down on the throne of the universe (Eph 4:10). Turn to the fifth chapter of the Revelation and you will see the vision of Ezekiel fulfilled to the letter. Lo, in the midst of the throne stood a Lamb as it had been slain. Heaven places Him in the midst of the throne. Earth crowned Him with thorns and placed Him in the midst among the malefactors. Heaven crowns Him with many diadems, and places Him in the midst upon the throne. Facts are the foundation-stones of the Gospel. Every doctrine is based on a fact. Herein lies its charm. Few men can reason, or understand a system of philosophy. But a fact, something that took place, or was done, or suffered, can be understood by all ages and capabilities. There is many a dry page in theological books. But there are no dry pages in the New Testament. Why not? Because the crucified and living Christ is ever pictured forth before our eyes. It is not Christianity. It is Christ.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
1Pe 3:22. After Jesus accomplished his work on earth for the redemption of man, He ascended to heaven as the great Conqueror. Just before He left the earth he told his apostles that “All power [authority] is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” That truth is here repeated by the apostle, and suggests the beautiful language of David in Psa 24:7-10.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Pe 3:22. who is on the right hand of God. A familiar phrase expressing the regal and judiciary power to which Christ is exalted. Compare such passages as Rom 8:34; Eph 1:20; Col 3:1; Php 3:20; Heb 1:3; and the fundamental O. T. passage, Psa 110:1.
having gone into heaven. The verb is the same as the went in 1Pe 3:19,with the important difference, however, that here the going is not said to have been in spirit or spirit-wise. The phrase is important, as it presupposes, if it does not expressly state, Peters affirmation of Christs Ascension.
angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to him. These terms, and others of a similar kind, are often used, especially by Paul, as designations of the various powers of the heavenly world (cf. Rom 8:38; Eph 1:21-22; Col 1:16; Col 2:10; 1Co 15:27; Heb 2:8). Whether they describe these simply according to their several relations to God and to the world, or according to their several ranks and orders, is not easy to determine. In favour of the latter view, however, appeal is made to Christs own words in Mat 18:10, which are taken by many (e.g. Meyer) to assume differences of rank or class among the angels. The application of these two terms authorities and powers to the angels is peculiar to Paul, the present being the only non-Pauline instance. The three names are used here not with the view of expressing any particular relation in which they stand one to another, but simply as names covering generally all the heavenly powers over which Christ is supreme. It has been supposed that the various clauses of this verse came from some doxology, or from some form of faith professed by candidates for baptism. This, however, is uncertain. The point of the verse is to bring out the heightened power which resulted to Christ from His suffering and death, and thus to crown the train of statement by which the blessing of suffering for righteousness sake is enforced. The particular climax in the verse is lost to the English reader through the inversion of the order of the Greek in the A. V. The order is not, who is gone into heaven and is on the right hand of God, etc., but, as in the R. V., who is on the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, etc. That is to say, Peter first states the fact that He who died in the cause of others is now exalted to the highest place of honour next to God Himself, then explains that He came to this place by passing into heaven itself, and finally adds that being elevated to the place of the heavenly powers He now has all these powers subject to Him and in His service.In the light of this examination of the train of thought and the usage of the disputable terms which occur in this verse, what verdict may now be ventured on the leading solutions of this enigma of the New Testament? Several of these are at once and entirely discredited by the plainest data of the exegesis. This is the case (1) with the idea, which has commended itself to interpreters like Grotius, Dr. John Brown, and (to some extent) Leigh ton, that the preaching affirmed is simply that addressed by the risen Christ through His apostles to men of their own time, who were in bondage to the law or in captivity to sin.This overlooks the fact that Christ Himself, and not Christ through the Apostles, is represented as the preacher. It puts a gloss upon the phrase spirits in prison. It also takes the disobedient of Noahs time simply as types of the disobedient of apostolic times. The same holds good (2) of the view advocated by many distinguished Lutherans, that Christ went and proclaimed judgment, or made a judicial manifestation of Himself, to the impenitent in the world of the dead (of whom those of Noahs time are mentioned as exemplary of all, or as the worst of all), and that this was done not by the soul of the dead Christ, but by the revivified Christ during the interval between His quickening and His actual resurrection. This interpretation, which was that of the old Lutheran theologians, is inconsistent with the usage of the word preached, which denotes not a message of judgment or condemnation, but a message of grace. It is adhered to, in so far as regards the assertion of a descent and message to the world of the dead by Christ after His restoration to life and before His re-ascent to earth, by many exegetes who otherwise differ from each other as to the object of the Descent (e.g. Schott, de Wette, Wiesinger, Huther, etc.). But in all forms it substitutes the Restored Christ, or Christ in His spiritual body, for Christ in a spiritual mode of activity (which is what Peter affirms) as the Preacher who goes with the message. Not less inadmissible is (3) the Patristic view, that in the period between His death and His resurrection Christ went and preached to the righteous dead of Old Testament times in their place of intermediate detention, with the view of perfecting their salvation. This interpretation has been connected by Roman Catholic theologians both with their doctrine of a Limbus Pairurn, and with that of Purgatory. It has been adopted in part by some Protestants of note, including both Zwingli and Calvin; the latter of whom takes the spirits in prison to mean the spirits on the watch-tower, in expectation of Christ. But this view does violence to the sense of the word rightly rendered prison. A different position must be allowed (4) to another line of interpretation which has seldom wanted advocates, and which secures the adhesion of many of the best expositors of our own time, namely, that which discovers here a ministry of grace, in the proper sense of the word, on the part of the disembodied Christ in the world of the dead. This is held in a variety of forms. Some think the passage points to a second grade of probation open to all, righteous and unrighteous, in the intermediate state (Heard, Lange, etc.). Others regard it as meaning that after His death Christ descended to Hades as the herald of grace to the men of Noahs generation, but only to those who had repented at the crisis of their death in the Deluge (Bengel, Birks, etc.). There are those again who see in it a more general reference to the men of the Flood, as men to whom some compensation was made through Christ in the other world for the shortening of their opportunities in the present Bishop Horsley, e.g., believes it to be one of several passages in which we may observe an anxiety, if the expression may be allowed, of the sacred writers to convey distinct intimations that the antediluvian race is not uninterested in the redemption and final retribution. Yet another class of interpreters recognises in it a bona fide proclamation of the Gospel in Hades, either in the form of an offer of grace to those who had it not in this world, or in that of a renewed offer of grace with renewed opportunities of repentance to all. It is supposed, therefore, to furnish some warrant for cherishing the larger hope. At present it is expounded by not a few eminent exegetes in the interest of wider and happier thoughts as to the state of the dead, and in support of the belief that beyond the grave the love which does not will that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, proclaims evermore to the spirits in prison, as during the hours of the Descent into Hades, the glad tidings of reconciliation (Plumptre). There are serious difficulties, however, in the was of this interpretation. Besides the fact that it crosses the analogy of the faith, running athwart the clear and consistent doctrine of Scripture, that the present life is the theatre of human destinies and the scene of probation and grace, it is exegetically faulty at various points. It gives the passage little more than the value of a digression. It introduces into the important phrase in which (1Pe 3:19) a different meaning from its antecedent, making it equivalent not to in which spirit, or in which spiritual mode of being, but to in which disembodied, or quickened, spirit, and thus representing the Preacher not as Christ in a particular form of life and activity (which is Peters statement), but as the disembodied or quickened Christ. It fails to give any adequate reason for the exact specification of the time of the disobedience, and for the mention of the men of Noahs day only. It reduces to something like mere descriptive accessories the details about the building of the Ark, the Divine waiting, and the salvation of eight souls. The preaching which it affirms is one the results of which are in no way indicated, and the introduction of which at this point is in no obvious connection with Peters exhortation. What motive to a life of well-doing and of patience under injury in this world lies in the statement that, in the other world, the disobedient and injurious have the Gospel preached to them through Christs descent to Hades?
There is, however, (5) another method of interpretation, which has been followed more or less since Augustine gave it the sanction of his great name. It has secured the general assent of men like Aquinas, Hugo of St. Victor, Bede, Beza, Gerhard, Turretin, and, more recently, of Besser, Hofmann, Schweitzer, etc. It takes the preaching to have happened not in Hades but upon the earth, not during the period between Christs death and resurrection but in Noahs time. In one point of importance, however, this interpretation required, and has recently received, a precision which it had not in the hands of its older advocates. The Preacher must be understood to be Christ Himself, not Noah or Christ speaking by Noah. What is affirmed, therefore, is a gracious activity on the part of the pre-incarnate Christ, a preaching in the form of the Divine warnings of the time, the spectacle of the building of the Ark, etc. This we believe to be the exposition which best satisfies the condition of the exegesis. The two main objections urged against it are, that the phrase spirits in prison becomes equivalent to spirits now in prison, and that the word went, which implies local motion, is improperly used. But the answer to the latter lies in the Old Testament method of speaking of Jehovah as coming, going, ascending, and in the analogous use of the verb came in Eph 2:17. And as to the former objection, if in this view there is a difference of time supposed between the preaching and the state of imprisonment, in the other views there is a difference of time supposed between the preaching and the disobedience. On the other hand, the arguments in favour of this interpretation are numerous and weighty. It retains the natural sense for all the capital termsflesh, spirit, quickened, preached, prison, etc. It preserves the same Subject all through, namely Christ as the Subject put to death, Christ as the Subject quickened, Christ (not the quickened Christ or the disembodied Christ) as the Subject preaching, Christ as the Subject exalted. It accounts for the definite statement of the time of the disobedience. It starts not with what is obscure in the section, viz. the phrase spirits in prison, but with what is clear and unambiguous, viz. the historical reference to the Flood, and lets that direct the exposition. It seeks the key to the problem of the passage in Peters own writings, particularly in what he says of an activity of the pre-incarnate Christ, or the Spirit of Christ, in the O. T. prophets (1Pe 1:2). It gives an intelligible reason for the details about Noahs time, the building of the Ark being instanced as one of the means by which Christ preached to the men of that generation. It helps us to understand why Peter goes on to notice Christs present position of power and honour at Gods right hand. It bears most directly on the injunction to a Christ-like behaviour under wrong, in relation to which the whole section is brought in. For it points the readers to the graciousness which has always been seen in the case of their Lord, and which He has never failed to exhibit towards even the worst of wrong-doers. The strain of the paragraph, therefore, amounts to this: Be content to suffer. It is a blessing to do so, provided ye suffer for well-doing, not for ill-doing. Look to Christs examplehow He did good to the most unworthy and died for the unjust. Think, too, what the issue of suffering was to Himhow, if He suffered even unto death as regards the mortal side of existence, He was raised thereby as regards the spiritual to a life of heightened power. Look back, also, on the distant past; ere He had yet submitted to the limitations of the flesh, and when He had that supernatural order of being into which He has risen again. Reflect how then too He was true to this gracious character, how He went and preached to that guiltiest generation of the Flood, making known to those grossest of wrong-doers, by the spectacle of the Ark a-building, the agency of His servant Noah, and the varied warnings of the time, His will to save them. And consider that He has the same graciousness still, of which baptism is the figurethat He can still save oppressed righteous ones as He saved the believing souls of Noahs house, that all the more indeed can He now save such, seeing that in His exalted life He has all the powers of heaven made subject to Him.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Our apostle having in the close of the former verse, spoken of the resurrection of Christ, and of the benefits which we receive thereby, he makes mention in this verse,
1. Of his going into heaven, there to dispatch all that remained to be done for the completing the salvation of his people.
2. He is here affirmed to be at God’s right hand. The right hand is the upper hand, the hand of honour; and the right hand is the hand of power; accordingly Christ sitting at God’s right hand, as an enthroned king, imports sovereign honour and supreme power: and that God has exalted his Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to his kingdom in heaven.
3. It is asserted, that angels, authorities, and powers are made subject to him; that is, our Jesus, in whom we hope, believe, and trust, is advanced in heaven to a pre-eminency above, and to a superiority over, all angels and celestial powers, waiting and expecting until all his enemies on earth become his footstool.
For though his victory is yet incomplete and inconsummate, and we see not all things yet put under him, it may suffice at present that we see Jesus crowned with glory and honour, and that’s enough to show that the power of his enemies is broken; and that though they make some opposition still, yet it is to no purpose at all: for refusing to submit to his sceptre, they will fall by the rod of his strength, Angels and principalities in heaven, and all powers and potentates upon earth, being made subject unto him.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Preparing to Suffer
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Verse 22
On the right hand of God; as his vicegerent in the government of the world.