CHRIST’S EXPECTATION
But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool.’
Look at these two verses, and see three things:—
I. The work which He has accomplished.—His death was the great purpose of His Incarnation. He came from heaven to die because there was no one else who could possibly have died a sacrifice for sin.
II. The position which He is occupying.—Having accomplished that work, the text tells us He ‘sat down on the right hand of God.’ Is it not strange to think that Jesus Christ ‘sat down’? We look about us to-day, and it is not too much to say that more than one-half of the human race has never heard of that sacrifice which Jesus Christ made upon the Cross. Do you not wonder, then, that He has ‘sat down’? Jesus Christ made that atonement, that sacrifice for sin, because, as we have seen, there was none other who could make it. But God never does what we can do. Here, then, is the awful responsibility which rests upon us—that God has ordained that the work of the Saviour Himself shall be left so far incomplete, because it is the will of your Heavenly Father that you and I shall complete it.
III. Mark, then, the hope that He is cherishing.—He Who is now seated on the right hand of God and waiting, He is expecting. He is ‘expecting until His enemies be made His footstool.’ He is expecting that His Church will be so filled with gratitude because of the sacrifice He made, so filled with compassion because they have caught something of His Spirit—He is expecting that His Church will be so longing for His Coming, that they will hasten to perform His wish, and tell every creature that He has died. Is He to expect in vain?
—Rev. Canon E. A. Stuart.