Today, at least in the West, most of us do not ordinarily think of spiritual powers influencing nations. Western culture emphasizes human autonomy; we run our own lives. But in Paul’s day, many people envisioned spiritual powers setting the tone for nations’ political, moral and intellectual life in powerful ways. Greeks and Romans thought of guardian spirits of nations; Jewish people viewed these as angels under God’s authority, though often as unruly angels hostile to God’s people.
It is significant, therefore, that in Ephesians 1:20-21, Paul depicts Jesus Christ our Lord as enthroned above all hostile spiritual authorities. (Some attribute Ephesians to a disciple reflecting Paul’s thought. For reasons that would require too much digression here, I think that Paul authored Ephesians more directly.)
Paul wrote Ephesians to believers in Asia Minor, including Paul’s previous center of ministry there, Ephesus. Spiritual power was no merely theoretical matter for his audience; many believers there had experienced deliverance from occult practices (Acts 19:18-19). Ancient sources show us that fear of spirits was widespread and gradually growing, reaching a peak by the third or fourth century.
Many such spirits were “ground forces,” but concern about heavenly spiritual powers also abounded. Many believed that the lowest of the heavens, the “air” realm where birds fly, was full of spirits. On a higher level, however, many also believed that Fate ruled through the stars; astrology was thus growing in popularity.
Jewish thinkers usually taught that the stars could not control the destiny of God’s people, whom God ruled directly and protected through his archangel Michael. Nevertheless, they believed in angels who ruled the nations, an idea already found in Daniel (Dan 10:13, 20) and in the Greek translation of Deuteronomy. Paul refers to these powerful guardian spirits as “rulers and authorities in heavenly realms” (Eph 1:20-21; 6:12).
Yet Paul also emphasizes that Christ is enthroned above these powers (Eph 1:20-21). That Christ is above the angels of the nations would have important ethical implications for the problem of ethnic disunity among believers (a major problem in the Ephesian church—2:11-22).
Although of the Gospels only Luke narrates Christ’s ascension, the rest of the New Testament presupposes it, emphasizing that Christ is at the Father’s right hand; “seated” in Eph 1:20 recalls Ps 110:1: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” He has triumphed over the spirits through his exaltation (also 1 Pet 3:22).
The church in the Roman province of Asia had concrete experience with Jesus’s triumph over the powers. The seven sons of Sceva tried to invoke Jesus’s name like a magical formula, thinking that this was how Paul cast out demons. They quickly discovered, however, that Jesus was no spirit they could manipulate; only someone like Paul, authorized as Jesus’s agent to use his name, could use it with authority. Consequently, many turned from their secret practices and acknowledged Jesus Christ as Lord (Acts 19:13-20). They had discovered that Jesus’s name is genuinely above all names, including every name that is invoked (Eph 1:21). It was not a magical formula to be invoked by those who do not know him.
Ephesians would encourage such believers, and all of us, that we too are enthroned with Christ above such powers. These powers are under Christ’s feet, and Paul emphatically combines this stark image with the image of the church as Christ’s body (1:22-23). Combined, the images reveal that if the powers are under Christ’s feet, they are also under Christ’s body. Paul certainly envisions Christ being seated with his head at the top of his body and the feet at the bottom. It is thus no surprise that in Eph 2:6 Paul declares explicitly that we have been seated or enthroned with Christ in heavenly places! Someday we will be enthroned with him in a fuller sense (Rev 3:21), but we already experience a foretaste of that reality now.
But what does this mean? Does this mean, as some people seem to think, that we can go around ordering heavenly powers what to do? Here is what the context suggests that Paul means. Being enthroned with Christ above these powers, we are no longer subject to their influence (2:2-6), so long as we follow Christ as our Lord. Through the gospel, believers can actually challenge the corrupted arguments and ideologies through which evil powers influence societies (2 Cor 10:2-5).
Sadly, believers often reflect values of our cultures. In the U.S., for example, this sometimes means materialism, racial and class insensitivity, political polarization and harsh rhetoric. But we can rise above those values, if we allow Christ to renew our understanding. We are no longer subject to the old powers—unless we choose to be.