Christ does not merely return from death; he leads death captive in his own triumphal procession. He carries with him those who had been waiting in faith, and he ascends “higher than all the heavens,” past every principality and power, to the right hand of the Father. The vertical axis of reality, fractured by the fall, is now reunited in his person. He has filled the whole universe with himself, leaving no realm untouched, no captive unliberated, no corner of creation outside the reach of his lordship.