… ¹² but He … sat down at the right hand of God, ¹³ waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet.

Seated on the throne, in the position of sovereignty—that’s where the Lord Jesus Christ is now. Turning to Psalm 100, which pictures Christ with what is called a prophetic past-tense (foretelling the future with certainty as though it were already in the past), we are told that Christ has already now taken His seat at the position of highest authority and majesty.

One might think that if Jesus is in fact God, as we believe Scripture portrays Him to be, why would He not be viewed as sitting in the center of the throne, being God Himself, rather than at the right hand? First of all, we do affirm that Jesus Christ is God. We read earlier in Hebrews that, “He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power” (1:3a). Even that passage which so clearly teaches the full deity of Christ (compare with Col 1:19 and 2:9) also portrays Him as seated “at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (1:3b). The two ideas are not incompatible, but rather complementary. Christ retains His humanity even after His resurrection and ascension and continues to be the second person of the Trinity. His position seated at the “right hand of God” does not focus on His being less than God, but focuses rather on His being in the position of authority along with God. One would be hard pressed to use this passage to describe a mere mortal.

So Christ is now seated until the final battle is won. The war motif, while not a major theme in Hebrews, is none-the-less present (see Heb 1:13). The time pictured ahead involves a complete subjugation of those who reject God and work against Him. This is what Paul referred to when he wrote, “At the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:10-11).

Christians can be tempted to turn back to the Law and the Levitical system, but we should resist in light of the fact that Christ has sat down in completion of the task. Why go back to the old ways of human religion, when up ahead Christ is seated on the throne, and all those who reject the message of Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice are pictured as His footstool? Christ is superior to all else, we take that by faith now. But in the end He will be seen by all as superior, the one and only sacrifice acceptable to God for our sins.

Lord, thank You for the hope given us through Your revelation that one day every knee shall bow before Him. To Christ be the glory!