Why does Scripture emphasize the right hand of God?
Again and again the Bible places the risen Christ "at the right hand of God" — a phrase drawn from Psalm 110 and picked up by Jesus Himself, by Peter, by Stephen and by the letter to the Hebrews. Why this particular image, and what does it settle for those who trust Him?
A place of power and honour
The phrase is not decorative. It carries a meaning built up across the Old Testament, where the right hand both crushes enemies and hands out blessing.
Norman AndersonThe "right hand" speaks of authority, power, and eminence. According to Exodus 15:6, delivering and subduing power belong to the right hand. In Genesis 48:14 the right hand is the dispenser of sovereign and irrevocable blessing. In the Psalm, David's Lord is invited by Jehovah to sit on His right hand. This is a fundamental truth, used by our Lord in the synoptic gospels as attesting the greatness of His Person. His exaltation thus is hailed in Acts 2:32-36, as indicating God's approval of Him and at the same time reversing man's judgment.
God's verdict on the cross
That seat is God's public reply to two things at once — what people did to His Son, and what His Son did for Him.
An Outline of Sound WordsGod's right hand is the Son's place by right, but it is also His as the mark of the Father's favour. This place of exaltation and glory is God's answer to all that man has done to His Son, but also God's answer to all that the Son has done for Him. Moreover, it is from God's right hand that the Son now carries out the Father's will, and ministers to His own, while waiting till His enemies are made the footstool of His feet.
Seated, because the work is finished
Priests in Israel's tabernacle had no chair; their work never ended. The emphasis falls not only on where Christ is but on the fact that He is sitting.
Hamilton SmithChrist might have done one work for ever, meaning He would never undertake the work again, and yet that work would not be finished. If, however, He has sat down "for ever", or "in perpetuity", it is the everlasting proof that His work is finished. So far as the work of atonement is concerned, He will never have to rise up. Moreover, as He has sat down at the right hand of God, we know that His work is an accepted work.
This has a sharp edge for anyone still trying to finish what Christ finished.
Samuel RidoutWhen one is seated, in that sense he has nothing to do; no need for activity on his part. And I would say to any unestablished soul, If you still feel there is something for you to do in connection with your salvation, you are ignoring, or forgetting, the fact that our Priest is seated.
A Man in that place
The wonder is not that God is glorious, but that a real human being now occupies the highest seat in heaven.
Arend RemmersHow can the One God sit at the right hand of the One God? That is impossible. As Man who was placed lower than the angels, He has now by the glory of God as a recompense for this wonderful work, been lifted up high above every other place and as man crowned with glory and honour and placed at the right hand of the almighty God. There our Lord who suffered for us has been given the place of greatest glory and the greatest honour.
Yet believers are never promised that exact position, however closely they are joined to Him.
George DavisonI understand His being at the right hand of God is to show that as co-equal with God He will carry out everything for the pleasure of God, and this place is unique to Christ in Manhood. We are said to be seated with Christ in heavenly places, but it never says we shall be at the right hand of God.
The centre from which everything is now run
Because all authority is vested in Him there, the real control of world history sits outside this world.
W. H. Westcott"At His own right hand" implies that in Christ God has vested all His power. The right hand signifies the strength, and the power, and the authority of God. In setting Him at His own right hand He has constituted Him the great administrator of His own authority, and His own mind, as well as His own blessing… the power that is going to set the earth right, and put the whole universe in harmony with God, comes from the right hand of God.
Stephen, dying under a hail of stones, found that this distant seat was not distant at all. He saw the Son of Man standing there, and it told him "that he and his circumstances at that very moment were the thought and object of heaven" (J. G. Bellett).
The word "until"
Psalm 110 sets a limit. The seat is not the end of the story but the interval before the kingdom appears.
J. N. DarbyThis kingdom in its public power has been delayed, because Christ has been rejected; and this delay lasts all the time that Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, until the time when He shall arise from the throne of His Father to judge… But when God's appointed moment shall come, the Lord will arise and set up the kingdom, and with His own power will judge the living; and peace and happiness shall be established upon the earth.
Summary
- Place — the right hand stands for authority, honour and the giving of blessing; to be invited there is to be given the highest seat God has.
- Proof — He is seated, and seated permanently; that posture is the standing evidence that the work of atonement is both finished and accepted.
- Person — a Man is there, exalted as the reward of His suffering; commentators note this spot is His alone, though believers are said to be seated with Him in heavenly places.
- Power — all God's authority is vested in Christ there, so the force that will finally set the earth right comes from outside this world.
- Prospect — the word "until" limits the interval; He sits till His enemies are made His footstool, then rises to reign.