According to Trinitarian theology, how is Jesus God when he sits at the right hand of the true God?
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Through an understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity is the best and seemingly only way to truly understand the mystery. Keeping in mind of course that it is in fact a mystery and will never truly be fully grasped or understood until our eyes and ears are made fully open.
God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Spirit are three coeternal, coequal and consubstantial persons of the one God. This means that each person of the Trinity existed since before time began (as Jesus explains in the Gospel passage you mentioned in your question), are equal to one another because they are all God, and are made of the same substance meaning not physical material but the essence of God (think of the words Nicene Creed here, "Light from Light, very God of very God"). Each person of the Trinity was begotten and not made as the Creed reminds us and this comes from the fact that they exist outside of time and were present before the world was made.
We can say that the three persons of the Trinity defines who God is while the single essence of God defines what God is. In this basic context, God the Father sits at the head while God the Son sits at His right hand. And yet the unifying essence of the Father and the Son are the same as the Holy Spirit and all are one, all are God. That is how Jesus can be God and take his rightful seat at the right hand of the Father which only He as Christ, the Messiah, is worthy to assume.
We cannot think of God as having different parts. Rather, all of the persons of the Trinity are together one and together distinct. There really and truly is not any example of this on earth worthy of fully articulating the doctrine and understanding itself. It is truly something that has been revealed by God in the deposit of faith through Scripture and tradition of the Holy Church. But the doctrine itself illuminates the core of the issue at hand in your question. God is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit together as one in the same living God whom we bend the knee and worship as faithful Christians.
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As per 1 John 4:8, God is love. The concept of the Trinity is confusing and we may never fully understand it. No example in this world can provide the analogy to explain the Trinity perfectly just as no love in this world can explain the love of God.
In order for God to be love, there has to be a second person to whom that can be displayed to be rightfully called. I can't love myself and then say I am a loving person. So the persons of the Godhead have to be plural. There has to be a mediator (Jesus Christ) who can be able to connect sinful humans to the Holy One. In order to make us understand Him, lead, guide, secure, protect, and be a living witness in order to proclaim His word there has to be a third person living with us. Just like a phone should have a battery, SIM card, and the signal range to make/receive a call, likewise a person should be alive, have Holy Spirit, and have the knowledge of the Word continually. The word person is used so to distinguish. These three persons act together to accomplish/achieve and they never contradict. At the end of the day, you and I are human beings but different persons which is similar to God (divine being) who exists as three persons if that makes sense.
When the Bible makes statements that Jesus Christ "sits" at the "right hand" of the Father, it is affirming that He has equal status to the Father within the Godhead. The "right hand" from the Hebrew context signifies authority and power and "sits/seated" indicates the work is finished. In the temple in the times of the Old Testament, there was no seat because the priests' work was never done and so he could never sit down and rest in the fact that he was finished for good (cf. Hebrews 10:11). But Jesus is now seated and there is a seat for us too to sit in right now if you have already repented and trusted in this High Priest (Jesus Christ).
and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus - Ephesians 2:6.
When Jesus Christ said before Abraham was, I am He clearly said that He was existing before Abraham and therefore the Jews threw stones at Him.
...I am going to the father... - John 14:28 speaking about the person and I and the Father are one - John 10:30 speaking about the essence/being.
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The simple answer is that 'God' here is the Father. The Son is at the right-hand of the Father, and this is figurative speech as the Father and the Son are both (with the Holy Spirit) 1 being.
Trinitarians hold that 'God' means different things in different contexts. Sometimes, it means the Father, sometimes the Son, sometimes it is inclusive of the 3 persons of the Godhead.
Upvote:2
1 Cor 15:27-28 NIV
27 For he “has put everything under his feet.”[c] Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 28 When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.
If you read the Genesis creation account and realize Jesus is the "Word of God", you will see that the Father, the Word, and the Spirit were all present at creation. In Rev 4, God is praised for creating. In Rev 5, the Lamb is praised for redeeming. In 1 Cor 15:27-28, you see that Jesus lowered himself, humbled himself, and honors the Father. The Father, the Lamb, and the Spirit, equal as God, but humble as we should be.
Upvote:2
According to trinitarian theology, location has got nothing to do with whether God is God, or not. Nothing binds God or can command him. He created time, this universe, everything in it, and every location. That is why the Bible tells us that nobody can "get away from God", or hide from him, and that the Day of Judgment is coming when every person, great or small, dead or alive, will be caused to stand before God for judgment, when everything hidden will be revealed. All the 'Books' will be opened, wherein everything will be recorded.
I mention this as an introduction, because location has got nothing to do with the Being of God. The One who is God is not constrained or even affected by any location.
This simply means that, if the Son of God (being declared Son by his resurrection from the grave - Romans 1:1-4) IS God, then his location in heaven has no bearing on whether he is God, or not. He can be beside God because that is his rightful place, being God.
The rightful place of the Holy Spirit is also there, both surrounding the throne of God and being the seven eyes of the Lamb who is central (in position) on that throne, as described in Revelation 5:6-14. There are the three Persons of the Godhead central to the one throne of God in heaven. That is why the Revelation speaks of him being "in the midst of the throne", at the center of the throne of God in heaven, all heaven's creatures falling in worship before him who sits on the throne, and the Lamb (the risen Jesus Christ).
When Christ is depicted as sitting beside God on heaven's throne, he is not acting - he is not doing anything apart from waiting ("Sit at my right hand till I make your enemies a footstool for your feet" Psalm 110:1). When Christ is depicted as standing beside God at heaven's throne, he is paying particular attention to a particular something, on action-stations (as Stephen saw him just before he was stoned to death for addressing his prayer to the risen Christ - Acts 7:54-60). When Christ is standing in the middle of God's throne in heaven, where God also is, it is to open the sealed book and to receive heaven's adoration for that:
"And when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb... Thou are worthy to take the book and to open the seals... Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature... said [the same] for ever and ever. And the four living creatures said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever." (Revelation 5:9-14)
In addition, also read Revelation 3:1, 7:17 & 22:1-3. My first paragraph started with the point of the Day of Judgment coming when every person, great or small, dead or alive, will be caused to stand before God for judgment. It is the risen Christ they stand before, to be judged by him, as he told us in John 5:21-29. That makes perfect sense in light of trinitarian theology.
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