There is no conflict between the different postures attributed to Christ.
‘We can on no account imagine the humanity of the Lord as immovable and unchangeable in one place. Standing, for example, expresses readiness to help and to protect, and to receive into the eternal dwelling places (e.g., Acts 7:55-56).’1Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 600; slightly amended.
Angels stand. Priests stand. Christ sat down.
The Work Is Finished
It is right to say that ‘sitting down signifies that the painful labors of Christ’s humiliation are finished’ (Heb 10:11-14).2Beeke, Reformed Systematic Theology, 2:904; emphasis supplied.
Yet the expression’s main force is one of high exaltation (Phil 2:9). The point is that, following his bodily transition from earth into heaven, Christ’s elevation and honour reaches its zenith: ‘after making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high’ (Heb 1:3).
He is now ‘exalted at the right hand of God’ (Acts 2:33; cf. Psa 110:1-7; Matt 22:44; Acts 2:25, 34); for ‘God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Saviour’ (Acts 5:31).
To Receive, and to Exercise
Why did Jesus sit down?
To receive full honour, lordship, majesty and Kingdom power from the Father — and to exercise full authority and command for the Father, ruling over God’s Kingdom on the Father’s behalf.
‘The right hand is the seat of power. … Thus to sit at God’s right hand is for all things to be in the closest communion with his Divine power and might. … Thus Divine authority and Divine power flow over, as it were, into Christ.’3Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 598.
What It Does to People Who See It
In the handful of Scriptural reports in which Christ appears visibly in his current state, it is precisely this — sheer, transcendent Divine majesty — which comes across and overwhelms those who encounter him.
Paul, on the road to Damascus, and John, on the isle of Patmos, were both floored, laid low, overcome, utterly overpowered by the magnificence of Christ.
One fell to the ground, blinded (Acts 9:4, 9). The other ‘fell at his feet as though dead’ (Rev 1:17).
Neither man was a stranger to religious experience. Both went down.
The Detail Everyone Misses
‘Sitting is something other than standing.’4Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 599, who develops this point.
In Scripture, angels are ordinarily depicted as standing in the presence of God (Luke 1:19; cf. Isa 6:2; 1 Kgs 22:19), and priests likewise stand in their service before him (Heb 10:11).
The ascended Christ, by contrast, sat down (Heb 1:3) — a posture that sets him apart from angels and priests alike, and signals a dignity and authority belonging to God alone.
Think about what standing means in a royal court. It’s the posture of the servant, the attendant, the one whose work is never done. Every priest under the old covenant stood, day after day, offering sacrifices that could never take away sins.
Christ sat.
The Judge on the Bench
This sitting, moreover, carries judicial significance.
Several passages associate a seated posture with the exercise of judgment (Psa 9:4; Joel 3:12; Matt 19:28), and Christ’s judgeship is indeed integral to his kingly rule.
Taken together, then, the session of Jesus conveys the kind of sovereignty, authority, power and lordship that belong to the Kingdom of God alone.
Where, Exactly
Most directly and simply, the ascended Lord and Saviour sat down ‘at the right hand of God’ (Mark 16:19; Acts 2:33; 5:31; 7:55-56; Rom 8:34; Col 3:1; Heb 10:12; 1 Pet 3:22).
But the same reality is variously expressed: as ‘seated at the right hand of Power’ (Matt 26:64; Mark 14:62); ‘at the right hand of the power of God’ (Luke 22:69); ‘at [God’s] right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come’ (Eph 1:20-21); ‘at the right hand of the Majesty on high’ (Heb 1:3); ‘at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven’ (Heb 8:1); ‘at the right hand of the throne of God’ (Heb 12:2); and, from the seated Christ’s own lips, ‘with my Father on his throne’ (Rev 3:21).
That Christ sits at God’s right hand signifies more than spatial location. It declares that he reigns as Lord and Saviour; it portrays the dignity, mastery, power and rule inherent in his kingly office.
On What?
One passage pictures the ascended, glorified and soon-returning Lord Jesus seated on a cloud (Rev 14:14), and two others have him riding a white horse (Rev 19:11, 21).
Most relevant statements, however, tell us plainly and unambiguously that Christ is seated on ‘the throne of God’ (Rev 22:3; cf. Heb 12:2; Rev 1:4; 3:21; 4:2-10; 5:1-13; 6:16; 7:9-17; Luke 1:32; 22:30; Acts 2:30; Heb 1:8; 4:16).
Not a throne beside God’s. God’s own.
Session, Defined
Based on the image of Jesus seated at God’s right hand, the present phase of his rule over the Kingdom of God is sometimes called his session — from the Latin sessio, ‘a sitting’.
Christ’s session began when, following his bodily ascension into heaven, he sat down at the right hand of God the Father. It continues now, and will do so until he returns bodily in visible glory to resurrect the dead, judge the living and the dead, and regenerate the world (Matt 19:28).
To be seated on the Father’s right hand means that Christ is supreme in relation to earth, and in terms of honour, influence and privilege second only to the Father himself.
On the basis of his obedience in suffering and death, he now occupies ‘the highest place beside God in the whole universe.’5Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith, 374.