There is a very remarkable and instructive variety in the forms of expression conveying this idea in various parts of the New Testament. We read from His own lips, seated at the right hand of power.' We read usually at the right hand of God.' We read in this Epistle at the right hand of the Majesty of the Highest,' and also at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.' So you see our Lord Himself dwelt mainly on the conception of participation in power. And these other passages which I have quoted deal mainly with the conception of the participation in royal authority and dominion. And these two go together.
Then there is another observation to be made, and that is that this sitting at God's right hand is to be interpreted as purely symbolical. For you cannot localise the right hand of God.' That right hand' is everywhere, wherever the divine power is working. So that, though I, for my part, believe that the human corporeity of Jesus Christ, with which He ascended into the heavens, does abide in a locality, it is not that localisation which is meant by this great symbol of my text, but it is the declaration of a state, rather than of a place--participation in the power that belongs to God, and not a session in a given locality.
There is another remark also to be made, and that is that, according to the full-toned belief of the Christian Church when Jesus Christ in His ascension returned to the Father, from whom He had come, He carried with Him this great difference between His then--that is to say, His present,-state, and the pre-incarnate state, viz., that now He has carried into unity with the Father the glorified manhood which He assumed on earth, and there is no difference between the glory which He had with the Father before the world was, and the glory in which He now sits. Humanity is thus gathered into divinity.
Now, brethren, I am not going to dwell upon these thoughts, for they go far beyond the powers of my speech; but I am bound by my own conceptions of what Christ Himself has taught us, to reiterate that here we have the plainest teaching, founded on His Own express statement, that He is participant of divine fellowship, so close as that it is represented either by being in the bosom of the Father, or by sitting at the right hand of God, and that all power is given unto Him in heaven and on earth,' so as that He is the Administrator of the universe. The hands that were pierced with the nails, and into one of which was thrust, in mockery, the reed for a sceptre, now carry the sceptre of the universe, and He is King of kings and Lord of lords.' He sitteth at the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty in the heavens.'
Now all this should have a very strong practical effect upon us. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek the things where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.' Oh, brethren! if we carried with us day by day into all our difficulties and struggles, and amidst the glittering fascinations and temptations of this earthly life that great thought, and if we kept the heavens open--for we can do so--and keep before our eyes that vision, how small the difficulties, what molehills the mountains, and how void of charm the seducing temptations would then be! Christ seen--like the popular idea of the sunshine streaming down upon a coal fire--puts out the fuliginous flame of earth's temptations, and dims the kindled brightness of earth's light. And if we really, and not as a mere dogma, had incorporated this faith into our lives, how different that last moment, and what lies beyond it, would look. I do not know how it may be with others, but to me the conception of eternity is chill and awful and repellent; it seems no blessing to live for ever. But if we people the waste future with the one figure of the living Christ exalted for us, it all becomes different, and, like the sunrise on snowy summits, the chill heights, not to be trodden by human foot, flash up into rosy beauty that draws men's desires. I go to prepare a place for you'; and He prepares it by being there Himself, for then, then it becomes Home. And if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again, and receive you to Myself, that where I am there ye may be also'--sitting on My throne, as I overcame, and am sat down with My Father on His throne.'
