If Jesus Is Seated At God's Right Hand, Are There Two Gods?

Honest seekers, students of the Bible, and the detractors of Historic Christianity seek clarity/answer to the presence of the ascended Lord Jesus at the right hand of God. The detractors ask questions such as, "Jesus ascended to heaven and sits at the right hand of God. Does God sit next to himself?"1 Seekers and students of the Bible ponder over the narrative of the ascension and ask whether Historic Christianity teaches the presence of two Gods – one being, God the Father, and the other being, the ascended Lord Jesus.

The Bible teaches that God raised Christ from the dead and seated Christ at HIS right hand, "That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms..." (Ephesians 1: 19b - 20, NIV). This, to any lay reader, would appear as two persons – one being God and the other being Christ. Dr. William Lane Craig explains the ascension of the Lord Jesus in his Defenders podcast on the 'Doctrine of Christ':2

...when Christ ascends to the Father's right hand and is exalted, should we conceive of this as a return to his pre-incarnate state or is this exalted state a kind of continuation of the incarnation? The answer to that question is the latter. It is not a return to the pre-incarnate state; rather, Christ always exists from now on in two natures – one human and one divine. That is the lesson of the ascension. Christ did not discard his body and leave it behind. The doctrine of the resurrection is that the same body that was crucified and laid in the tomb was now raised from the dead, gloriously empowered with immortality and incorruptibility and super-human properties, and then ascended into heaven to be exalted to the right hand of God the Father.

So don't think of the ascension and the exaltation of Christ as an abandonment of his humanity. On the contrary, it is the glorification of his humanity. I think this is a precious lesson to us of the worth and value of our human bodies.[6] ...The doctrine of the resurrection and ascension of Christ teaches us that Christ carries his exalted humanity into the eternal state just as we will in the eternal state have human bodies. They will be glorified bodies free from illness, disease, disability, sin, corruption, and mortality, but nevertheless they will be human bodies.

So the...lesson of...the resurrection and ascension is that the incarnation is a permanent condition of the second person of the Trinity, not a merely temporary condition for thirty-odd years to be abandoned by him. Rather it is a permanent incarnation of the second person and therefore an emphasis to us of the value of our material creaturely humanity.

So this is what we understand. Christ in HIS ascended state exists in HIS state of incarnation with two natures – human and divine.

Theologian R.C Sproul helps us to understand 'Christ's seating at God's right hand':3

God's right hand is the place of "highest favor with God the Father" (WLC, Q&A 54), and the phrase is used throughout Scripture to indicate His power and sovereignty (Ex. 15:6; Isa. 48:13). To say that Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father is to say, as John Calvin explains, that "Christ was invested with lordship over heaven and earth, and solemnly entered into possession of the government committed to him — and that he not only entered into possession once for all, but continues in it, until he shall come down on Judgment Day" (Institutes 2.16.15).

In sitting at the right hand of God, Jesus sits on the "throne of his father David" (Luke 1:26–33). He is the Messiah of Israel, "the highest of the kings of the earth" and the fulfillment of the Lord's promise to keep the offspring of David on the throne forever. (Ps. 89:19–37). We are not waiting for Jesus to enter into His messianic reign, He enjoys it now. All of His enemies are being put under His feet as His gospel is preached and His kingdom expands (1 Cor. 15:20–28).