The Wednesday Word ~ 05 March, 2025 A.D.

Jesus at the Right Hand. Part II

 by D. G. Miles McKee

There’s a story about a pilot of a small plane who lost his way in a thick fog, and in a state of panic sent out a distress call. “May Day, May Day… can anyone out there hear me?”
The duty officer in a nearby control tower responded, and, after identifying himself, asks, “What is your present height and position?”

“I’m 6 feet tall and I’m sitting in the front seat of the plane!”

Misapplying a literal question can be confusing, but, when reading the Bible, mistaking the figurative for the literal brings, “confusion twice confounded.” This is what happens when we fail to see that the term ‘The Right Hand’ is figurative or more correctly, anthropomorphic language, language that ascribes human characteristics to nonhuman things.

There are several meanings associated with the Right Hand.

 First, the Right Hand is a hand of Blessing. Consider Genesis 48:17-18;  

“And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head unto Manasseh’s head. And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: for this is the firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head.”
 

When we say Christ sits at God’s right hand we are saying, not that God has a literal hand, but that Christ is seated in the place of blessing. 

Furthermore, the Right Hand is a place of cosmic Authority and Rulership. Speaking of Jesus it says,

‘Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him (1 Peter 3:22).

 

The right hand is further seen as the place of Strength. Consider Psalms 98:1,

 

 O sing unto the LORD a new song; for He hath done marvellous things: His right hand, and His holy arm, hath gotten Him the victory.

 

Is the right hand in this verse literal? Did a whopping great hand reach out of heaven and knock the enemy off their horses? Of course not!  But when victory is obtained by the right hand, it means that God’s authority, power and strength achieved this success.

The Right Hand is also a place of Honour:  We read;

“Bathsheba therefore went unto king Solomon, to speak unto him for Adonijah. And the king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself unto her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a seat to be set for the king’s mother; and she sat on his right hand. 1 Kings 2:19.

 

Here, the right hand was literal, not anthropomorphic, and it gives us an example of the honour associated with this term.


The Right Hand is also a place of Power; we read,

And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Mark 14: 62

Spurgeon says,

 “The right hand is the place of power. Christ at the right hand of God has all power in heaven and in earth. Who shall fight against the people who have such power vested in their Captain? O my soul, what can destroy thee if Omnipotence be thy Helper? If the protection of the Almighty covers you, what sword can kill you? Rest secure. If Jesus is your all-prevailing King, and has trodden your enemies beneath His feet; if sin, death, and hell are all vanquished by Him, and you are represented in Him, by no possibility can you be destroyed.”

Romans 8:34; Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, Who is even at the right hand of God, Who also makes intercession for us.
 

Hebrews 8:1. Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such a high priest, Who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;
 

Christ our priest intercedes for us from a position of blessing, favour, honour, power and authority, and as our King applies all the gospel benefits He has obtained for us in His doing and dying.

So, let us summarize.  Many people use Hebrews 10:12 about Jesus being seated on the right hand of God as an excuse for discounting that Christ is God. Now, I don’t want to come across as being frivolous or facetious but think about it.  How could someone sit on someone else’s right hand for 2000 years?  Surely that hand would go to sleep. For Christ, however, to sit on the right hand of God is a declaration that He is God. He is the One seated with cosmic authority and power Who as the God/Man is seated in the place of favour, acceptance, honour, strength and blessing on behalf of His people.

And that´s the Gospel Truth!

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