Charles Ellicott Commentary Ephesians 1:20

"which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly [places]," — Ephesians 1:20 (ASV)

Which he wrought in Christ.—The reality of the work of God upon us is insured by the reality of that work upon the true Son of Man, whose members we are, in His resurrection, His ascension, His exaltation over all things at the right hand of God, and His headship of the Church. It is notable that, while it is on the spiritual meaning of the resurrection of Christ that the chief stress is laid in the earlier Epistles (1 Corinthians 15:12–22; 1 Corinthians 15:50–57), in these later Epistles the Apostle passes on beyond this, as taken for granted , and dwells on “Christ in heaven,” exalted far above all created things, but yet vouchsafing to be in a peculiar sense the head and life of the Church on earth.

See, for example, Philippians 2:9–11; Colossians 1:14–19; and compare the pervading conception of the Apocalypse. In this advance of thought he approaches the idea of our Lord’s own great intercession (John 17:5 and following), constantly connecting the unity of His Church in Him with the glory which was His from all eternity, and to which He was to return—“Now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. ... I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory.”