All Hail The Power of Jesus Name

All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name

After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high . . .

(Hebrews 1:3)

Imagine that moment when Jesus first sat down on heaven’s throne. 

Having taken on our full flesh and blood, and lived among us, and died sacrificially for us, and having risen in triumph, defeating sin and death, and ascended to heaven, and pioneered our way, as human, into the very presence of God his Father, Jesus stepped forward toward the throne, all heaven captive with history’s great coronation, a ceremony so glorious that even the most extravagant of earthly coronations barely reflect it.

Crown Him Lord of All

The first chapter of Hebrews gives us a glimpse into this coronation of Christ, this moment when the God-man is formally crowned Lord of all. Verse 3 sets the scene: “After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” 

Verse 5 then quotes from Psalm 2, which was a psalm of coronation for the ancient people of God: “You are my Son,” God says, “today I have begotten you.” It was on the day of his ascension to the throne that the new king of God’s people formally became his “son” in the sense of serving as his official representative to his people. The coronation was the day, so to speak, that God begat the human king as lord over his people.

To Him All Majesty Ascribe

Next, verse 6 mentions “when [God] brings the firstborn into the world.” What world? Is this a reference to the incarnation? It is not. Hebrews 2:5 clarifies by referencing “the world to come, of which we are speaking.” In other words, “the world” in the context of Hebrews 1 is not our earthly, temporal age. Rather, the world into which God brings his firstborn here is the heavenly realm, what is to us “the world to come.”

The setting is indeed the great enthronement of the King of kings. And as Jesus, the victorious God-man, enters heaven itself, and ascends to its ruling seat, God announces, “Let all God’s angels worship him” (verse 6). Him: God and man in one spectacular person. 

Originally God had made man “a little lower than the heavenly beings” (Psalm 8:5). But now the angels, the hosts of heaven, worship him, “the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). So great is he, as a genuine member of our race, that he not only eclipses and bypasses the race of angels, but in doing so, he brings us with him. No redeemer has arisen for fallen angels. “Surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham” (Hebrews 2:16). Angels no longer look down on humanity but up. We now experience firsthand “things into which angels long to look” (1 Peter 1:12).

This new king of the universe is indeed fully man, and fully God, and addressed as such in verse 8 (quoting Psalm 45): “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.” Verse 10 (echoing Psalm 102) restates the glory — “Your years will have no end” — which is the climactic expression of (and even better than) saying, “Long live the king!” (1 Samuel 10:24; 2 Samuel 16:16; 1 Kings 1:25, 34; 2 Kings 11:12; 2 Chronicles 23:11).

Bring Forth the Royal Diadem

Finally, the grand finale, in verse 13, sounds the great oracle of Psalm 110. Again the Father speaks: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” For generations and centuries, the people of God had waited for the day in which great David’s greater son, his lord, would ascend to the throne and hear these sacred words from God himself. Then, at long last, captured for us in the sketch of Hebrews 1, the great enigmatic vision of Psalm 110 was finally fulfilled. 

Having finished the work his Father gave him to accomplish, God’s own Son (not merely David’s) has ascended to the throne — not a throne on earth but the throne of heaven. The Father himself has crowned him King of all the universe. He has called forth the royal diadem and crowned him king of every kindred, every tribe.

Join the Everlasting Song

We who call him King and Lord will not only gather one day with “yonder sacred throng” to fall at his feet, but even now, he gives us the dignity of participating in heaven’s ongoing coronation ceremony. We crown him with our praises, especially as we gather weekly with our new kindred and tribe in worship. 

The glorious enthronement of Christ has not ended but continues. We see it now and experience it by faith, and participate with our praises, and one day soon, with all his redeemed, we at last will join in the everlasting song that has not ended, and will grow only richer and sweeter for all eternity.