Honest seekers, students of the Bible, and the detractors of Historic Christianity seek clarity/answer to the presence of the ascended Lord Jesus at the right hand of God. The detractors ask questions such as, “Jesus ascended to heaven and sits at the right hand of God. Does God sit next to himself?”1 Seekers and students of the Bible ponder over the narrative of the ascension and ask whether Historic Christianity teaches the presence of two Gods – one being, God the Father, and the other being, the ascended Lord Jesus.
The Bible teaches that God raised Christ from the dead and seated Christ at HIS right hand, “That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms…” (Ephesians 1: 19b - 20, NIV). This, to any lay reader, would appear as two persons – one being God and the other being Christ.
Dr. William Lane Craig explains the ascension of the Lord Jesus in his Defenders podcast on the ‘Doctrine of Christ’:2
…when Christ ascends to the Father’s right hand and is exalted, should we conceive of this as a return to his pre-incarnate state or is this exalted state a kind of continuation of the incarnation? The answer to that question is the latter. It is not a return to the pre-incarnate state; rather, Christ always exists from now on in two natures – one human and one divine. That is the lesson of the ascension. Christ did not discard his body and leave it behind. The doctrine of the resurrection is that the same body that was crucified and laid in the tomb was now raised from the dead, gloriously empowered with immortality and incorruptibility and super-human properties, and then ascended into heaven to be exalted to the right hand of God the Father.
So don’t think of the ascension and the exaltation of Christ as an abandonment of his humanity. On the contrary, it is the glorification of his humanity. I think this is a precious lesson to us of the worth and value of our human bodies.[6] …The doctrine of the resurrection and ascension of Christ teaches us that Christ carries his exalted humanity into the eternal state just as we will in the eternal state have human bodies. They will be glorified bodies free from illness, disease, disability, sin, corruption, and mortality, but nevertheless they will be human bodies.
So the…lesson of…the resurrection and ascension is that the incarnation is a permanent condition of the second person of the Trinity, not a merely temporary condition for thirty-odd years to be abandoned by him. Rather it is a permanent incarnation of the second person and therefore an emphasis to us of the value of our material creaturely humanity.
So this is what we understand. Christ in HIS ascended state exists in HIS state of incarnation with two natures – human and divine.
Theologian R.C Sproul helps us to understand ‘Christ’s seating at God’s right hand’:3
God’s right hand is the place of “highest favor with God the Father” (WLC, Q&A 54), and the phrase is used throughout Scripture to indicate His power and sovereignty (Ex. 15:6; Isa. 48:13). To say that Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father is to say, as John Calvin explains, that “Christ was invested with lordship over heaven and earth, and solemnly entered into possession of the government committed to him — and that he not only entered into possession once for all, but continues in it, until he shall come down on Judgment Day” (Institutes 2.16.15).
In sitting at the right hand of God, Jesus sits on the “throne of his father David” (Luke 1:26–33). He is the Messiah of Israel, “the highest of the kings of the earth” and the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise to keep the offspring of David on the throne forever. (Ps. 89:19–37). We are not waiting for Jesus to enter into His messianic reign, He enjoys it now. All of His enemies are being put under His feet as His gospel is preached and His kingdom expands (1 Cor. 15:20–28).
Coram Deo
Even now, Jesus is seated on the throne of His father David at the right hand of God. This means that He is ruler over all and that the kings of the earth rule only according to His sovereign permission. As such, Christ alone is worthy of our highest allegiance, and it is to Him that we must render obedience, even if it means, at times, defying the rulers of this world. Jesus’ kingdom alone is eternal, and His rule is above all others.
Pastor John Piper explains that when we see Christ, we see God. But this is not in the sense how a photograph represents a person. Christ is to be seen as the radiance of God’s glory:4
There are two things that might keep you from entering heaven and enjoying the glory of God and all his works. One is if your sins were not forgiven. The other is if you went out of existence and all the works of God went out of existence. So if you are to have a happy future in God's presence, two great works are needed: a work of purification of sins, and work of preservation of your existence…
If we will learn from Scripture how to see ultimate Reality, we will see that we need Christ not only to make purification for our sins, but also to provide preservation to our souls and our bodies. So Christ is doubly worthy of our dependence and trust and love and worship.
When we see him sitting at the right hand of the Majesty it is not only to honor the work of his purification in saving us, but also to honor the word of his power in preserving us. We owe our purification to him and we owe our being to him…
There are two more phrases in the verse to look at, but they are easily combined, and in fact do go together: "He [Christ] is the radiance of His [God's] glory and the exact representation of His nature." Or, as we saw from the original words: "He, being the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his nature . . . sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high."
The difference between this qualification for sitting at God's right hand and the other two is that those described what Christ did, while this describes who he is. What he does is "uphold all things by the word of his power," and "make purification of sins" by the worth of his blood. But what is he? Who is he? That's our last question this morning. Who died for sins? Who rose from the dead? Who upholds the universe by the word of his power? Who is sitting at the right hand of God?
The answer is: Christ is "the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his nature." What does this mean? It's important that we take these two phrases together, because they control each other and keep us on track.
When it says that Christ is the exact representation of God's nature, we are to realize that to see Christ is to see God. Jesus said, "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father" (John 14:9). Colossians 1:15 says, "He is the image of the invisible God." To see what God is like, you see what Christ is like.
But that could be taken in an entirely wrong way. Suppose you take it to mean that Christ represents God the way a photograph or a painting represents a person, or the way an authorized letter represents the king, or the way a wax impression represents a golden ring. That would be totally wrong. And the other phrase here is meant to protect us from that misunderstanding. He is the exact representation of God's nature not the way a painting represents a person, but the way radiance represents glory. Verse 3 says, he is "the radiance of God's glory."
An Analogy of Sun and Sunlight
In other words he relates to God the way radiance relates to glory, or the way the rays of sunlight relate to the sun. Keep in mind that every analogy between God and natural things is imperfect and will distort if you press it. Nevertheless, consider for example,
There is no time that the sun exists without the beams of radiance. They cannot be separated. The radiance is co-eternal with the glory. Christ is co-eternal with God the Father.
The radiance is the glory radiating out. It is not essentially different from the glory. Christ is God standing forth as separate but not essentially different from the Father.
Thus the radiance is eternally begotten, as it were, by the glory—not created or made. If you put a solar-activated calculator in the sunlight, numbers appear on the face of the calculator. These, you could say, are created or made by the sun, but they are not what the sun is. But the rays of the sun are an extension of the sun. So Christ is eternally begotten of the Father, but not made or created.
We see the sun by means of seeing the rays of the sun. So we see God the Father by seeing Jesus. The rays of the sun arrive here about eight minutes after they leave the sun, and the round ball of fire that we see in the sky is the image—the exact representation—of the sun; not because it is a painting of the sun, but because it is the sun streaming forth in its radiance.
While we strive to interpret the Bible, we should understand that the Bible cannot be read and understood literally, all the time. In other words, the Bible cannot be literally interpreted always.
Christ is not literally seated at God’s right hand. In fact, God does not have a right hand!
God is an incorporeal being. HE is Spirit. God does not have hands, legs, eyes, and ears as we do. But the authors of the Bible speak of God in anthropomorphic terms. This is to attribute human characteristics to God. Hence, in this instance, God’s right hand does not literally denote the right hand of God.
Christ seated at God’s right hand is a metaphor that expresses the exaltation of Christ. The right hand symbolizes a position of authority and honor.5
The Bible teaches that Christ rules over everyone and everything because HE is seated at the right hand of God. The right hand of God is a position of power over all other powers, “The right hand of God, therefore, is a reference to both a place of proximity to God the Father and a position of power above all other powers. Jesus the Messiah exists at this right hand of God today, perfectly reigning with God the Father and God the Spirit in community and power.”6
Since God is incorporeal and Christ exists in HIS incarnational state with both natures – the human and the divine, the Bible does not suggest the existence of two Gods. Christ remains the second person of the Blessed Trinity. God’s core divine nature (The Father) is now exercising power through the Son via HIS incarnational state.
Endnotes:
1https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/question-answer/muslim-objections-to-jesus-deity
2https://www.reasonablefaith.org/podcasts/defenders-podcast-series-1/s1-the-doctrine-of-christ/the-doctrine-of-christ-part-7/
3https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/seated-at-gods-right-hand/
4https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/he-sat-down-at-the-right-hand-of-majesty?fbclid=IwAR1TuQy_qJ8f0BjKFYjjxQ6ddtaj-3b4aJRTNWIU1z3blkn5bIbx__v43e0
5https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/question-answer/muslim-objections-to-jesus-deity
6https://www.compellingtruth.org/right-hand-of-God.html
Websites last accessed on 31st January 2019.
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