We Believe: He is Seated at the Right Hand of the Father
Each week, churches around the globe confess their ancient faith, faith once delivered, passed down through saints, martyrs, reformers, and weary sinners who clung to it in the dark. The Nicene Creed is both the most universally accepted statement of Christian doctrine and the most comprehensive summary of it. A key phrase, often uttered without thought, is this: “He is seated at the right hand of the Father.”
That line of the Creed is a cosmic announcement: Jesus Christ reigns. Not later, not symbolically, and not “in your heart” or in a little corner in heaven. He reigns as King of kings and Lord of lords, enthroned, active, and triumphant now in space-time and history. In a world that’s decaying by inches, where children starve, nations tremble, and modern man snickers at the very notion of monarchy, it might seem like madness to say anyone, least of all a 2,000-year-old Jewish carpenter, is running the show. Yet the Creed insists, Scripture declares, and the Church must believe: the throne is not empty.
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This article will unfold this reality in three movements:
- Christ’s ascension as the vindication of his victory
- Christ’s session as the Exercise of his kingship
- Christ’s intercession as the heart of his reign
We will then consider what all this means for your Monday morning, and why this ancient phrase still wrecks idols and rules empires.
I. Christ’s Ascension: The Vindication of His Victory
The Nicene Creed builds its sequence intentionally. Christ is crucified, buried, and raised. And he doesn’t stop there. “He ascended into heaven,” we proclaim, “and is seated at the right hand of the Father.”
Ascension is not retirement. This is not Jesus taking a backseat after the hard work is done. He does not look at his 11 Apostles, brush his hands off, and take the escalator up to his La-Z-Boy. This is the crowning event of his sacrifice. The ascension of Christ is the divine vindication of His earthly humiliation. Philippians 2 gives the whole arc in compressed glory:
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name…
Philippians 2:8–9
That “therefore” is doing all the work. It is because he humbled himself that he is now exalted. He is not just metaphorically “lifted up.” The ascension of Jesus is a physical, visible, locational event. The same body that touched lepers, washed feet, and bore Roman nails is now seated in glory.
Luke tells us:
While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.
Luke 24:51
And again in Acts:
And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
Acts 1:9
Spiritual Politics
This is not poetry. It is, for lack of a better word, spiritual politics. Jesus, the once-crucified carpenter, doesn’t disappear into the mist. He is lifted before witnesses, ascending like the returning king in a victorious procession (to use St. Paul’s metaphor), stepping into the heavenly throne room.
Psalm 24 dramatizes this reality in liturgical fashion:
Lift up your heads, O gates!
Psalm 24:7
Be lifted up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
“Who is this King of glory?” the psalmist asks. We can provide an answer: Jesus Christ. The Lord, strong and mighty. The One who just crushed death, ransacked hell, and rose with the keys in his hand.
The early Church knew this. The apostles didn’t treat Jesus’ departure as a sad farewell. They preached it as the exaltation of the King to his throneroom.
Peter declares in Acts 2:
This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God…
Acts 2:32-33
The ascension is the enthronement of the Son. It is Heaven’s shout of victory. It is the Father saying, “My beloved Son, come sit down and rule.”
II. Christ’s Session: The Exercise of His Kingship
We now come to that glorious phrase: “He is seated at the right hand of the Father.”
We know this in theology as the session of Christ. It’s one of the most neglected doctrines in modern evangelicalism, but the Church Fathers, Reformers, and Puritans all knew its gravity. To say that Christ is seated is not to say he is resting. That is to say, he is reigning.
In the ancient world, thrones were not for lounging but for ruling. When a king sat down, he rendered verdicts, passed judgment, issued decrees, and oversaw his kingdom. Jesus now does that on a cosmic scale.
Psalm 110, the most quoted psalm in the New Testament, says:
The LORD says to my Lord:
Ps. 110:1
“Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.”
That word “sit” isn’t casual. It’s royal. It’s courtroom language. It echoes all through the letter to the Hebrews:
But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God…
Heb. 10:12
Christ is seated because the priestly work is finished, seated because the kingly rule has begun.
A Reign Over All Things
We have to pause here. Many of us hear these words and, without thinking, relegate them to a spiritual reign (whatever that actually means). Christ is king, yes, of heaven, but we shudder if anyone tries to press us on what that actually looks like. We dare not defang this. Christ is not “reigning in our hearts” alone. He reigns over all things. He:
- “is the head over all rule and authority.” (Col. 2:10)
- “upholds the universe by the word of his power.” (Heb. 1:3)
- “must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.” (1 Cor. 15:25)
Modern man scoffs at monarchy, but the cosmos was built for a King. Eden was the original temple/throne room, guarded after the fall. Revelation ends with a throne at the center again, this time surrounded by worship and light. In that throne room, the Lamb stands “as though it had been slain” (Rev. 5:6), but he stands “on the throne.” The bloodied Lamb is also the conquering Lion.
To confess Christ’s session is to confess his lordship over every sphere of life. There is no neutral ground. As Abraham Kuyper put it:
There is not a square inch in the whole domain of human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, “Mine!”
Education is his. Government is his. Art, technology, economy, your own weary heart are all his. Not hypothetically. Now.
III. Christ’s Intercession: The Heart of His Reign
If we stopped there, we might think of Christ as merely a cosmic CEO: powerful, enthroned, but distant. The Creed points us beyond sovereignty to sympathy. The One seated on the throne is not just King. He is also Priest.
[He] always lives to make intercession for them.
Heb. 7:25
Christ’s priestly intercession is not passive remembrance. It is an active representation. He stands before the Father with the marks of the cross still visible. He is eternally pleading his own finished work on our behalf. This means that you are never alone. You are never unrepresented. You are never unprayed for. Every time you pray, you are not approaching a cold monarch. You are heard because the Son is speaking your name. He prays when you are silent, advocates when you are accused, and bears you when you stumble.
This priestly reign is why Paul can say:
Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
Rom. 8:34
The throne room is not a courtroom with a hostile judge. It is a home with a beloved Son standing in your place. This is not just comfort. It’s power. Christ reigns not with tyranny, but with tears. Not by crushing you, but by carrying you.
IV. So What? Living Under the Reigning Christ
Confessing that Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father has world-shattering implications.
First, it demands allegiance. Jesus is not one of many options. He is the enthroned Lord of glory. His claims are not suggestions. His kingdom is not a spiritual hobby. Every knee will bow, either in joyful worship or in judgment (Phil. 2:10-11). To confess the Creed is to declare yourself in rebellion against the pretender powers of this world. You’re not a Roman. You’re not an American. You are a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, and your King is already crowned.
Second, it gives comfort. In a world of chaos, you are not adrift. The throne is not vacant. The King is not unaware. The one who reigns is the one who bled. He knows, sees, and governs. Nothing comes to you without first passing through nail-scarred hands.
Third, it compels mission. Because he reigns, we go. The Great Commission is grounded in present-tense authority:
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore…”
Matt. 28:18-19
We do not evangelize for a losing cause, disciple under a question mark, or plant churches on enemy soil. The soil is already claimed. We are not inviting people to vote for Jesus: we are declaring the King.
Lastly, it points us forward. The Creed continues: “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.” The One who reigns now will return openly. The throne that is currently in heaven will descend in power. We live in the in-between, the now and not yet. But the reign has already begun. The victory is not pending. It is announced.
Final Word: A Throne That Will Not Be Toppled
Let the world rage, the nations plot, and the kings of the earth take counsel together.
The Lord laughs (Psalm 2:4). Why? Because the King is already installed: “I have set my King on Zion, My holy hill” (Psalm 2:6).
When the Nicene Fathers wrote that Christ is “seated at the right hand of the Father,” they weren’t composing fluff. They were staking a claim. In the face of Arians, Caesars, and death itself, they declared that Jesus reigns.
And we say it still.
Not as history, but as reality.
Not with doubt, but with joy.
He is seated.
He is reigning.
And he is not getting up until every enemy is crushed beneath his feet.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash.
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