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NASB | John 3:13 "No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | John 3:13 "No one has gone up into heaven, but there is One who came down from heaven, the Son of Man [Himself--whose home is in heaven]. |
Bible Question: If God and Jesus are one, then how can Jesus sit at the right hand of God? |
Bible Answer: Intersting question. Sounds like a young persons question. This, of course is the mystery of the Trinity. In our feeble human minds it is difficult to understand how 3 can be 1 and 1 can be 3. A common analogy is water. As a liquid, a vapour and a solid (ice) it is always water nevertheless. Or Time - past, present and future. Take away anyone of them and it no longer makes any sense. Or Space - the 3 dimensions of the physical universe - height, width and depth. The text "sitting at the right hand of God" refers to several things : 1. In mid-eastern culture the right hand is the hand is used for designating dignity, power, strenth etc.. If you greet someone in bible lands with your left hand it would be viewed as an insult by many. Therefore when the bible uses this kind of language to explain the authority and dignity of Christ it uses "the right hand of God" - there being no greater power or dignity than that. 2. The text refers to Christ's physical being which rose to heaven literally, as being on the right hand of the Fathers throne. Yet, there are other verses which state that He is seated with the Father on the Fathers throne. Rev. 3:21 - "To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne." So there again we have the mystery of the trinity or even just omnipresence - how can God be everywhere at once and yet still be said to be sitting upon the throne of the universe? To which the answer is simple - if He is everywhere then He is necessarily also on that particular place called the throne of God. 3. It may also be viewd symbolically as a reference to the authority, dignity and power of Christ - as being God the Son, yet submitted to the Father in all things. There are other scholars who think these words, and many like them, are actually what are called anthropomorphisms - which means the application of human words and terms to the divine. Things that could not elsewise be understood since so many divine things are laregly inconceivable by flesh and blood. A complete bible study of the "right hand" and the human/divine nature of Christ would be in order here. Hope this helps. ;-) |