If Jesus is God, how could He be at the right hand of God, and is Jesus equal to the Father?


Email Received:

If Jesus is God, how could He be at the right hand of God? I understand that the Trinity is made of 3 Persons who are distinct, but is Jesus equal to the Father? Also, why does Paul say that all authority has been put under Jesus? Shouldn't Jesus already have been had authority because He was God?

I haven't read the whole bible yet, so I don't know every thing about Jesus. About how long does it take to read the Bible?


Ted's Response:

First off, let me just say that no one will be able to understand, completely, the complex relationship between God the Father and God the Son (Jesus) until Jesus returns and explains it to us.  All we can do is to get clues from the Bible, and what we do not understand we must accept by faith.

God is supernatural and is on an infinitely higher level that we cannot totally fathom.  It would take an email too long for me to write to explain to you my understanding of God.  So, in responding to your questions, I will touch on a few topics and give you links to sections at my website, where there is more information.  In those sections, there are also links to other sections, in case you have the interest and time to read further.

As far as the Trinity is concerned, I think the common usage of "Persons" by most Christians to describe the three aspects of God is confusing and makes it more difficult to understand what He is like.  Other religions will say it sounds like we worship three Gods.  I agree that it sounds like that, even though it is not that way at all.

I do not see God as being three different "Persons"; I see Him as being one Person or Entity with three different manifestations or natures.  More details about this can be found in my singular and multiple section.

God made man in His "image" and "likeness" (Genesis 1:26).  That does not mean that we are little "gods"; it means that, somehow, we share a similar nature with Him.  Each of us has a thinking process (mind), emotions (heart), and physical flesh and organs (body).  We think something with our mind, and/or feel something with our heart, and then we put that into action with our physical body.

Similarly, the Father conceived of everything in the universe, the Holy Spirit helped motivate Him to create everything out of nothing, and He used Jesus, His physical manifestation (basically, his "arms" and "hands"), to assemble everything together (Colossians 1:15,16) in the whole universe (Hebrews 1:2).  I see the Father as being the Mind of God, the Holy Spirit as being the Heart of God, and Jesus as being the Body of God.  See the "image" of God section.

One major difference between God and us, though, is that He is able to separate into His component parts, which we cannot do.  So Jesus could be on earth while the Father was in heaven, or Jesus can be at the right hand of the Father in heaven (Acts 2:33).  Jesus also can coexist with the Father in the same space and time.  See more in the Father and Son section, including all of the four subsections in that section.

As for Jesus' authority, Paul did indicate that the Father gave all rule, authority, power, and dominion to Jesus after He was raised from the dead (Ephesians 1:19-21).  Jesus also said that all authority in heaven and on earth had been given to Him (Matthew 28:18).  This simply means that God the Father chose to extend to His only begotten Son, Jesus, the Father's full authority until everything the Father has planned for this Creation is completed.

All of the Father's great plan for this Creation will not be finished until the millennial reign of Jesus on earth has been completed, when all of God's enemies, including death, have been destroyed and Jesus hands the Kingdom and all authority back over to the Father (1 Corinthians 15:24-26).  We know this will be at the end of the Millennium (1,000-year reign of Christ on earth) because that is when death, the final enemy of God, will be thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14).  More information about the Millennium, including six subsections.

I recommend that every Christian read through the Bible, from cover to cover, at least once.  It can be done in one year if the Chronological List of Bible Passages is followed; you can print it out and check off the entries as you read them.  Even if you start with the New Testament and then go to the Old Testament, that would be fine.  Personally, I prefer to read the Old and then the New, and I have done that about 20 times. 


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