The "therefore" introducing this glorious affirmation is especially pertinent. One rule of biblical interpretation reminds us: When you come to a "therefore" stop and ask what it is there for. In this case it refers back to the most mind-boggling reference to Jesus in all the New Testament.

The apostle is now ready for his big Therefore. Jesus' exaltation exceeds the depths and excesses of his humiliation -- not only did he take the form of a slave, but he died like a criminal on a cross. So -- or therefore -- "God has highly exalted him" -- the Greek suggests "God super-exalted him." The exaltation far outreaches the humiliation!

In exalting Jesus, God gave him "the name which is above all other names." Verse 11 indicates that the name was Lord. While Jesus is called Lord during his earthly ministry by others, it is at his exaltation that God names him Lord. God declared him to be his Son at his baptism, and to be Lord at his exaltation.

Lordship in this context means he is ruler over all the earth. Verse 10 reveals that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.

What a staggering truth! Every skeptic, infidel, disbeliever will one day bow the knee to Christ! Every Buddhist, Hindu, Moslem will in time -- or in eternity -- confess that Jesus is Lord! Does this mean they will all eventually be saved, or is this part of their retribution? William Barclay, who was a (biblical) universalist, saw in this passage evidence that in the end every one will be saved -- the wicked only after their just punishment. One can argue that whoever confesses that Jesus is Lord -- whether in time or in eternity -- will be saved. Origen insisted that even Satan -- at last -- will be saved! But I don't know if that is the right interpretation of this passage.

This passage refers not to our Lord's resurrection, but to his exaltation. God raised Jesus from the dead, and for forty days he remained on earth during which time he provided "many infallible proofs" that he was indeed risen. He was risen but not yet exalted.

His exaltation was in his ascension. While there are several inferences of the ascension -- such as the passage before us -- only Luke makes direct references to the event, and there appears to be a conflict in his testimony. Lk. 24:51 indicates that Jesus ascended to heaven on the same day he was raised: "Now it came to pass that while he blessed them, that he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven." All the events detailed in Lk. 24 took place on the first Easter Sunday, which, according to verse 51, included the ascension. But in Acts 1:3-11 Luke makes it clear that there was an interval of forty days between the resurrection and the ascension.

It is therefore not surprising that there are variations in the most ancient manuscripts, with some omitting "and carried up into heaven." If it is a case of scribal tampering, it was a sincere effort to avoid what appears to be in conflict with the account of the ascension in Acts. If Luke did include the ascension at this point, as the weightier evidence suggests (virtually all translations include them), it is one more instance of a writer failing to say what he may have intended to say -- such as, "and after forty days was carried up into heaven," or some such words.

This is an example of what I said in my last essay about inspiration. I ventured that the Spirit would protect Luke from material error -- that is, any error that would compromise his message. This conflict doesn't, for it comes through loud and clear that Jesus ascended into heaven after his resurrection. It is not all that important as to precisely when he ascended -- even when we can be reasonably sure that it was after forty days, in spite of the conflict.

While only Luke records the actual ascension, there are several allusions to it, the earliest being 1 Tim. 1:10: "And to wait for His Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come." Then there is Rom. 8:34: "It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us." The doctrine of a second coming implies an ascension, as does the teaching that Christ is at "the right hand of God" -- still another way to describe his exaltation. In these verses the exaltation of Christ follows from his resurrection and ascension.

The symbol of "the right hand of God" is a reference to the exaltation of the Messiah in both Testaments. Heb. 1:3 says, "he has taken his seat at the right hand of the divine Majesty on high," while Ps. 110:1 reads, "Yahweh declared to my Lord, 'Take your seat at my right hand, till I have made your enemies your footstool." Ps. 68:18 even speaks of the Messiah in terms of ascension: "You have ascended on high, you have led captivity captive," which is quoted in Eph. 4:8-10.

The context of Acts 2:36 -- "God has made him both Lord and Christ" -- implies that Jesus' exaltation consisted in his being raised to the status of divine. He is not only the Christ, but Lord -- the name assigned to God (Yahweh) in the Old Testament. If the eternal Logos gave up his glory in becoming man, he regained it -- and possibly more -- in his exaltation. He is now the risen Lord, the victorious Lord who has conquered all his enemies.

Acts 5:31 gives an added dimension in noting that God made Jesus a "Prince" when he exalted him to his right hand. And in Jn.16:7 Jesus seems to say that the Holy Spirit could not begin his mission until he had ascended and been exalted. Acts 3:21 is equally positive in describing Jesus as one "whom the heavens must receive until the restoration of all things."

We today are not to think of our Lord's ascension -- "taken up into heaven" --as a trip through space to some spatial heaven located above the sky somewhere. Some literalists have referred to Jesus as "the first man in space"!! It is true that Jesus' disciples watched as "he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight" (Acts 1:9), but that does not mean that the ascension and subsequent exaltation are to be understood in either temporal or spatial terms.

It may be difficult for us, but we must not think in terms of space or time -- even when such poetic imagery as "the right hand of God" and "carried up into heaven" encourage it. Clearly, God does not literally have a right hand, and there is not "space" beside him for anyone to "sit." These are called anthropomorphisms -- attributing to God human qualities. Neither did Jesus literally pass through several layers of heaven before reaching his spatial destination. We must discipline ourselves to think in spiritual terms. We are talking about what might be called "the spirit world" -- spiritual bodies, spiritual beings, spiritual realities. This does not mean that it is not real, but that it is not physical -- and it is not to be viewed as we view our world.

Our minds sometime give us a clue of this -- when on wings of thought we can go back decades and recall things said and done, "visit" with dear ones long departed, and even take trips around the world, all in a moment. In such reverie we are at the edge of the spirit world. We are even closer when we think of Christ as "spiritually" present, even if absent in body. But that presence isn't spatial or temporal, for he is present with all his people -- in heaven and on earth -- and all the time! Except that there is no time!

When Christ ascended and was exalted he entered the spirit world. In Eph. 1:20 Paul relates the metaphor of "the right hand of God" to the spirit world: "He raised Christ from the dead, and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places." That gets as close as words can get. Christ is with God in "places" -- heavenly or spiritual places. Just as there are both terrestrial bodies and celestial bodies, there are terrestrial places and celestial places.

The glorious news in all this is that we join Christ in his ascension and exaltation. While we will not be exalted as Lord as he was, we are nonetheless heirs with him -- "joint heirs" as Rom. 8:17 puts it. Paul puts it succinctly in Eph. 2:6: "He raised us up together" -- a probable reference to being raised with Christ in our baptism -- "and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" -- a reference to our life of faith in the church. Then he goes on to relate this to the great consummation: "that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding greatness of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."

As Christ was raised up from the grave and exalted, so shall we be raised up and exalted with him. 1 Cor. 15:48 says it a different way: "As we have borne the image of the man of dust (Adam), we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man (Christ)."

Our Lord moved from an ignominious death on a cross to indescribable glory, from shame and rejection to super-exaltation. As heirs with him, we have such hope, however difficult life may get. We have "exceeding great and precious promises" that make us "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pet. 1:4).