By Stephen Leonard
“…and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.” Ephesians 1:19-21
Jesus ascends into a cloud, disappearing from His followers’ sight. So where did He go? Where is He today? Numerous texts testify that Jesus, God’s Son, went to the place of His Father’s right hand. What does that mean? Do you know what it means to be “at God’s right hand?”
Well, as defined in Ephesians 1:19-21 and elsewhere, “at God’s right hand” is the place of highest honor and majesty, a place signifying equality with God the Father, a place of supreme authority and power. As Jesus told us immediately prior to His ascension, “All authority in heaven and earth has been given unto me; therefore go….” Matthew 28:16-20.
Being at the right hand of God means Jesus is fully apart, one of three persons of the “Three in One” Godhead. He is truly God, as is the Father and the Spirit. But Jesus is also the eternal mediator and interceder for all those for whom He has atoned on the cross, all those whom He will never lose from the palm of His hand. Those are secured within the salvation He has already won!
Jesus, as He told His disciples in John 14, departed from our sight for a time to return to His Father, whom He had left before to be born in a manger, in a body just like ours. Now He is in heaven, whose location is still a mystery to us.
It may well be within our midst, just as the real world of the spiritual realm is constantly near us. Perhaps it is just a “shift of molecules” from our presence. All existence is physical or spiritual, and both are very real, though one is invisible to our physical sight.
The Spirit of God was sent by Jesus with the expressed mission of bringing the Son and the Father to “make their home in us” (John 14:23). Strange, but true! Jesus and His Father are not at a distance from you, but actually in your “heart”; In your conscience, in your mind, and in the seat of your emotions.
Faith brings their presence into your reality; if you do not always recognize their presence, they are nevertheless there, if you are “born again,” by the Spirit of God. For where the Spirit is, so are the Son and the Father. The Spirit indwells every believer. When you are “born again,” the Spirit comes immediately to live in you.
Spiritual realities are still very much of a mystery to mortals; you “see” now by faith, through dim, smoky glasses, but one day it will be crystal clear. As your faith is strengthened in this life, the cobwebs dissipate by degrees, but never completely, on this side of the river. But across the river, faith becomes sight.
Keep on, keeping on! Persevere in righteousness, becoming ever more like Christ; for He says, “to the one who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life which is in the paradise of God.” (Revelation 2:7)
Encouragement
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