We, who were once held in bondage are now freed so that we can help our brothers and sisters, and free others who will themselves obtain the gifts of the Spirit from their victorious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to continue to bring more and more people to Jesus. Jesus ascended on high to bring us this victory. We read in James 1:17 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
Now what is the meaning ‘he ascended. We see in scriptures that Jesus was both the sacrificial lamb and our High Priest Heb. 4:14-15 14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let’s hold firmly to our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things just as we are, yet without sin. So as our sacrificial lamb His blood had to be offered on the heavenly altar for our sins. During the forty days after Jesus rose, He remained on the earth to prepare His disciples for their work. Acts 1:2-3 says 2 until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had given orders by the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom He had chosen. 3 To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of things regarding the kingdom of God. Jesus did not remain with them continuously but revealed Himself to them repeatedly, concluding His teaching and instructing 40 days after the resurrection, when Jesus ascended finally. Acts 1:9 9 And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were watching, and a cloud took Him up, out of their sight.
“except that he also descended.” Jesus went back to heaven means that He came from there in the first place. Jesus had come down from heaven during the incarnation, His human life on Earth, and returned.
to the lower parts of the earth Traditionally it has been taken to mean parts lower than the earth or under the earth, that is, Christ’s descent into Hades, the realm of the dead, perhaps to allow OT saints to become Christians, as the early Church fathers Tertullian, and Jerome thought it was to give the dead a chance to hear the gospel and be set free. This goes along with the prior verse, which speaks of setting the captives free. We see this apparently being referred to in 1 Peter 3:18-20 18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all time, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; 19 in which He also went and made proclamation to the spirits 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. Apparently, Jesus, between His death and resurrection went to preach to those righteous souls that were captive in Sheol, the grave. Jesus described what happened to people when they died prior to the cross in Luke 16:19-31. Jesus teaching on the rich man and Lazarus indicates that there was a great chasm, or division that existed in Hades prior to the cross which separated the abode of the righteous and the unrighteous. The rich man could see Lazarus and Abraham from where he was, but he couldn’t get out of the bad part of hades to go to them and be comforted. Before Jesus Christ came and died for the sins of the world, there was no admittance to heaven for believers. Their sins were not taken away, but merely atoned for, or covered up until He came. Sin cannot enter heaven, and so they had to wait. Hebrews 10:1-4 For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the form of those things itself, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually every year, make those who approach perfect. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? 3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. But, when Christ, the perfect lamb of God, the atoning sacrifice died for our sins, the barrier between God and humanity was removed by Christ’s sacrifice of Himself on the cross, once and for all. As Hebrews 9:26 tells us For then He would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, He has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
He who descended is himself also he who ascended–The same Jesus who descended is He who ascended. Heb 13:8 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, and forever.
above all the heavens.–Jesus ascended above all the heavens, which denotes His position, just as in Eph 1:20-21 20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. Jesus is ruler over all authorities in the position that He holds. Jesus passed into the highest heavens Heb 4:14 14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let’s hold firmly to our confession. Jesus is exalted above the heavens.
in order that he might fill all things.–It refers to Christ’s glory, power, and sovereign prerogative to dispense gifts, and provide for His bride. Jesus has “passed through the heavens” (Heb 4:14) and even been “exalted above the heavens” Heb 7:26 26 For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens Eph 1:20–23 20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and made Him head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. His perfection, and His all in all was seen in creation. In the Beginning He was God and was With God. John 1:1-4 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. Notice that Jesus filled all in all, but after man’s rebellion, the hearts of men were out of place, outside this filling of all in all.
Jesus Filled the Gap–And so, Jesus filled the gap, became Jacobs’ ladder between Heaven and Earth, so that we could have this connection with God. On the cross He removed the barrier between God and man, symbolized by the ripping of the curtain separating the holy of holies from mankind. And this goes right back to earlier in Ephesians, when we discussed Jesus removing the wall of separation, so that He can be all in all, to all people. Col 3:10-11. 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created it— 11 a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, and free, but Christ is all, and in all. So, Jesus is all, no matter who you are, or what your background, Jesus is willing to be your all in all, and fill the God-shaped hole in your heart. All the things which we have from the Father flow through Jesus. All love and mercy flow from God through Christ the mediator. Nothing is apart from Him. “No man comes unto the Father except by me.”
God Gave Us the All in All-Jesus is the gift to all of us. When God gave us Christ, he did as much as say, “I have given you all things.” Rom 8:32 “He that spared not his own Son, but freely delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”
Jesus is all provision-Jesus is the essence, the substance of all good things that we need. Nothing desirable and good for me shall be denied me. If Christ is yours, all things are yours. John 14:13 13 And whatever you ask in My name, this I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
Jesus is all we need–Christ is all we need, all we desire, and all of good that we can conceive. It is the benefits of the work on the cross and consequently the ministry of the church to which Christ gave us spiritual gifts, so that we can function in His power. Christ is filled with God’s fullness and Christ fills the church with that fullness. This is part of God’s great plan and will. Eph 1:9-10 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He set forth in Him, 10 regarding His plan of the fullness of the times, to bring all things together in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. Christ unites all things under his head (see Col 1:15-18).