SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD

“God who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all -- how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died -- more than that, who was raised to life -- is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.”  (Romans 8:32-24 NIV)

To Jesus the ascension came as the culminating divine assurance that the work He had come to do had been completed to the entire satisfaction of the Father, to whose right hand He had now been exalted. “The right hand of God” is metaphorical language for divine omnipotence. “Sitting” does not imply that He is resting, but reigning as King and exercising divine omnipotence. The doctrine of the ascension is therefore the divine affirmation of the absolute sovereignty of Christ over the whole universe…

For the believer, our Lord’s ascension has blessed implications for us. Though physically remote, He is always spiritually near. Now free from earthly limitations, His life above is both a promise and the guarantee of ours. “Because I live, you shall live also,” He assured His disciples (John 14:19). His ascension anticipates our glorification and leaves us the assurance that He has gone to prepare a place for us (John 14:2).

-- J. Oswald Chambers in “My Utmost for His Highest”

#4314