CHRIST AT GOD’S RIGHT HAND

F. C. Mutton

Hebrews 1: 1–3; 8: 1, 2; 12: 1–3

We were affected in the reading today by the Lord’s words in Luke 22: 69, as He stood before the council of the elders, chief priests and scribes—“But henceforth shall the Son of man be sitting on the right hand of the power of God”. The Epistle to the Hebrews engages our thoughts with the present position of Christ; indeed, we are to be constantly occupied with it. In Exodus 17, during the fight with Amalek, while Joshua and Israel were engaged in the conflict Moses was on the top of the hill engaged in intercession and support. Similarly, we are left here below, but yet, moment by moment, are to be aware of Christ’s position exalted at the right hand of God, in the place of supremacy and power—power that is exercised in relation to us and is in our favour—indeed is in favour of all men. Jesus is not sitting there in judgment, but in glory and blessing, and is available to all men. Our second scripture shows us the greatness of the Person who is in that position in the heavens, who is our High Priest, and the third presents to us that same Person set down at the right hand of the throne of God to be our object and the source of encouragement and power as we run the race here.

How often we return to the opening of Hebrews 1, one of the grandest utterances in the whole of Scripture. I would touch on the end of verse 3, “who … having made by himself the purification of sins, set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high”. This epistle was written for the benefit of Jewish believers and, for their help, it dwells on the offerings and the priesthood in the Old Testament types. It shows the contrast between those priests of old who were constantly offering sacrifices, and what we come to in Christ. On any given day a priest would be constantly offering sacrifices for various sins. When one day’s service was completed he knew that he must return the next day to resume his service, a service that must go on throughout his life. And when he reached the age of final retirement others would carry on that same repeated order of sacrifices. Hebrews shows, then, the contrast between that order of priesthood and Christ’s, throwing into glorious relief the uniqueness of Christ’s “Having made by himself the purification of sins”. That statement sums up His great work, involving His atoning sufferings, His death, the shedding of His blood. Thus did He make the purification of sins. The work also involved His burial and resurrection, and then He set Himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high. Never again shall there be a sin-offering! There has been one sacrifice for sins (Hebrews 10: 12). We need to contemplate the grandeur, the glory, the finality of His work in every aspect of it.

Christ was contemplated by us earlier as we viewed Him drawing nearer and nearer to the time when He would be the sin bearer and would be forsaken, when His soul would be made an offering for sin, and when the wrath of God would come upon Him, our Substitute. We were impressed by what Jesus suffered so patiently and meekly from the hands of men. What those sufferings meant to the spirit of Jesus—to be mocked and beaten, to be rejected by the leaders of His own people, for He came to His own and His own received Him not. What all that meant to His holy and infinitely keen sensibilities!—but, far beyond even that in its awfulness, to be forsaken by His God! What sin was to Him, yet He was made that very thing—“Him who knew not sin he has made sin for us, that we might become God’s righteousness in him”, 2 Corinthians 5: 21.

Jesus was prepared to go on steadfastly in devotion to God and in love to men. The believer in Jesus can say with Paul, “The Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”, Galatians 2: 20. Think of the love, the sacrifice, the sufferings, that entered into it!—and every believer can say, ‘It was for me’, and love and praise Him for it.

Then we can contemplate His magnificent action when, having accomplished redemption, He

“set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high”. He entered into the very presence of God, that action demonstrating the glory of a finished work. The same Person who shortly before had been made sin now sets Himself down there. Every trace of sin has been removed; everything that had been required of Him has been done and completed in such a way that His is the glory of it. How worthy of that place on high He is—His alone the right to take it!

Now He is the great Administrator of blessing and is set forth by God “a mercy-seat, through faith in his blood”, Romans 3: 25. Divine power is operating on the basis of the work which Christ has done for God. He is undoing the works of the devil, operating throughout the world in the glad tidings to liberate men from sin, extricating them from its power and condemnation and securing them for God.

In Hebrews 8 we find that this same Person is our High Priest. The previous chapter tells us that He is “priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedec” (Hebrews 8: 17). His is an unchangeable priesthood, never to be transmitted to another. So here we have a precious summary; not only is Christ High Priest, but ‘ we have such a one high priest’. Jesus was not a priest on earth, though, of course, He ever acted in a priestly way; but in heaven He is now High Priest—what a Priest He is!—and in what a place of power—“sat down on the right hand of the throne of the greatness in the heavens”. It is the place of supremacy and exaltation. And it is for us— we have such a One. Old Testament saints might well boast of such a one as Aaron and the glory of his office; our boast is that we have such a One as our High Priest in the solitary greatness of His Person and of His place there. The law constituted men high priests who had infirmity, but our High Priest is a Son perfected for ever (Hebrews 7: 28).

How comforting this is! Whatever our experiences, our need, or our frailty, the glory of this Person, and His position, never change—He is there for us, sustaining all. We are carried upon His shoulders and on His breast. He is “minister of the holy places”. His first concern is that all shall be maintained for God. The holy places of old included the holy place and the holy of holies. He is there to sustain us so that we can answer to what the holy places suggest.

In the holy place there were the pure table and the shewbread—the saints before God in Christ; the lampstand—speaking of the glorious outshining of God in Christ, and the saints, by the Holy Spirit, answering to it; then the golden altar, figurative of the intercession of Christ. Our High Priest has charged Himself with the maintenance of the service in the holy places. Within the veil was the ark and the mercy-seat and the fragrance of the holy incense—speaking of the

presence of God, where He rests in Christ and is served by His people. We might feel unequal to all this. A brother under much pressure and in a very small locality might on occasion doubt whether he could sustain the service of God. But whatever the fewness and isolation, Christ is there to sustain us, so that we are enabled to answer to what the holy places suggest. We can count on His grace and support to maintain what is due to God in the sanctuary.

Christ is also “minister … of the true tabernacle, which the Lord has pitched, and not man”.

He maintains the whole system, extending outward, in the type, to the court and its hangings of twined byssus. Tomorrow, if the Lord will and we live, we take up our responsible paths in the world. As we appear before men we need to be maintained in a christian walk, in righteousness. For that we can count on His grace, His sympathy, His power and resource, so that everything required in testimony is maintained for God’s pleasure.

In Hebrews 12 we have the same Person spoken of as “Jesus the leader and completer of faith”. The setting is significant. Chapter 11 gives the great line of faith. Honoured Old Testament figures come before us and the chapter ends with a concentrated section including many deeds and sufferings of unnamed persons not recorded elsewhere in Scripture. It is the distinguished line of faith, all divinely noted and recorded in this roll of honour. In the verses read they are spoken of as a living “cloud of witnesses surrounding us”. Their faith encourages us, for they also were in difficult and dangerous circumstances, and they overcame. So the exhortation, is “Let us also therefore … run with endurance the race that lies before us”. In that sense we are to be worthy of those who have gone before, men and

women of faith right down to our own times, including for many of us our own parents. It is a challenge, and yet an encouragement, to lay aside “every weight, and sin which so easily entangles us”. No athlete would tolerate being weighed down. We are to discern what the weights are. Any of them would hinder us gravely. Let us discern the working of sin that so easily entangles us in the christian race. These things are to be discerned by the Holy Spirit, so that we run with endurance. And how do we run? as “looking stedfastly on Jesus the leader and completer of faith—who, in view of the joy lying before him, endured the cross, having despised the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God”.

Jesus has been through the same path as that on which we are set, facing opposition immeasurably greater than we have to face. He initiated and completed faith. He completed His pathway on that great principle, filling out as a dependent Man that life of faith. Through grace we have been called into the path. As the footnote to verse 2 shows, we are to look away from other things, fixing the eye exclusively on one, that is on Jesus. This is practical deliverance. The overcomer is one who looks steadfastly on Jesus—not like Peter when he looked at the elements and began to sink, but looking on Jesus installed in that glorious position “at the right hand of the throne of God”. Let us weigh each word of that. The whole power of Christ is for us; He said, “All power has been given me in heaven and upon earth”, Matthew 28: 18.

This chapter goes on to speak about chastening. We are not to faint under chastening, and we are to “lift up the hands that hang down, and the failing knees; and make straight paths for your feet” (Hebrews 12: 12, 13). May we be greatly encouraged and may

souls who are exercised in this country and elsewhere be strengthened to look steadfastly on Jesus so that “that which is lame be not turned aside; but that rather it may be healed”. May we thus be preserved for the glory and pleasure of God until the Lord Jesus comes, for His name’s sake.

Preaching at Cape Town
13 November 1977