1 Peter 3:22

Having gone up to heaven, etc. There is no doubt that all angels and all powers and authorities of the heavenly homeland have always been subject to the Son of God, whom they praise, tremble before, and adore as one God with the Father and …

The connection is as follows: so also baptism, which corresponds to this figure, now saves us, not as a removal of bodily filth, but as an appeal or earnest request for a good conscience before God. For those who are conscious of good in themselves, …

If the advancement of Christ was so glorious after his deep humiliation, let not his followers despair, but expect that after these short distresses they shall be advanced to transcendent joy and glory. Jesus Christ, after he had finished his labours and his sufferings upon earth, ascended triumphantly into heaven, of which see Acts i.

Who is gone into heaven,....

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, honor, and influence.

Literally, "is on the right hand of God, having gone into heaven." The oldest manuscripts of the Vulgate and the Latin Fathers, add what expresses the benefit to us of Christ's sitting on God's right hand, "Who is on the right hand of God, having swallowed up death that we may become heirs of everlasting life"; involving for us A STATE OF LIFE, saved, glorious, and eternal.

LAST Lord's Day morning [#1927—Our Sympathizing High Priest] we considered the humiliation of our Divine Lord and, I think, if one may speak for the rest, that we consciously and deeply felt how very near He came to us in His suffering condition and how very near He still is to us as truly Man. On that happy occasion we had fellowship with Him of the truest kind. The sympathy of His soul toward us awoke our sympathies towards Him. We felt it exceedingly profitable to sit and weep with Him who not only wept but bled for us.

LAST Lord's Day morning [#1927—Our Sympathizing High Priest] we considered the humiliation of our Divine Lord and, I think, if one may speak for the rest, that we consciously and deeply felt how very near He came to us in His suffering condition and how very near He still is to us as truly Man. On that happy occasion we had fellowship with Him of the truest kind. The sympathy of His soul toward us awoke our sympathies towards Him. We felt it exceedingly profitable to sit and weep with Him who not only wept but bled for us. This morning, in considering our Lord's Glorification, I hope we shall feel quite as near to Him as we did on the former occasion, for if He was humiliated for us, He is also exalted for us. If He, Himself, once stooped to come near to us, He now lifts us up from our low estate and brings us near to Himself in His Glory. It is not only that He is partaker of our lowliness, but we are partakers of His exaltation. The fellowship is full and complete, for while He takes upon Himself our fall, we, on the other hand, partake in His rising again! He comes down to us in His Incarnation, but He calls us up to Him in His Ascension. He wears our garb of poverty by bearing our flesh, but He robes us in His splendor as He bears our nature into Heaven. Remember, it is "this same Jesus" whom they saw on earth who also is gone into Heaven and who is to come again a second time. Yes, it is "this same Jesus" and He is no less Man on the Throne of God than He was on the Cross—He is as truly our Brother, now, amid the acclaim of angels as among the weeping women of Jerusalem.

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. […]