Metaphor 27 - The Right Hand of God

But where is Christ? He went away to prepare a place for those who are "in" Him through the immersion of the Holy Spirit of God into their spirits.

But where is that? In the New Testament, there is a metaphor for this place that is sort like a metaphor that we use today. We say that Tom is Harry’s "right hand man." Tom is therefore a person so indispensable to Harry and so authoritative under Harry that he can in fact act for Harry in Harry’s name. This is sort of like the idea of an executive officer in the Navy. The Captain of the ship remains in his cabin and leaves the daily enforcement of his orders up to his executive officer.

So the Record speaks of the Son with respect to the Father as

"Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high..."

And the Record speaks of the Father with respect to the Son as having

"set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come."

And the Son makes a promise to those He indwells through the Holy Spirit of God

"To him that overcometh [by the Holy Spirit of God] will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne."

Startling as it may be to consider, these metaphors are telling us that to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God - to be "in Christ" - is nothing less than to be brought into the fellowship of the "Persons" of the Godhead, to become part of their eternal love of each other, and to partake of their eternal joy of happiness in each other. Or as the Record reads:

"That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." [Footnote 25]

So, let us consider the long road we have taken. Let us consider some of all the forms of human happiness there can be, great and small. The bright in-breaking of glorious sunshine after a dark cloudy rain storm. The satisfaction of a sharp hunger or thirst by good food and good drink. The ultimate moment of the finest piece of music. The satisfaction of ambition. One’s first true love. The bright face of a new baby.

Let us also consider all the kinds of human happiness that we may have missed out on in life that in some of us, are the cankers of life that haunt our every waking moment.

The Record reads that

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."

What this says is that every true (and not false) human happiness has its source in God, and is therefore a mirror, in some way, of what He is like. But, being creatures in time and space, these gifts of happiness are mediated by time and chance, and are developed through processes, and often stained with the sin of a fallen creation. [Footnote 26]

But suppose for a minute, that there might be an unprocessed happiness, or an abstract of happiness, if you will, or even a distillation of happiness, in which all the little processes have been eliminated, along with the passing of time that attenuates it, and the chance that might take it from us, and that what you instead have is a full, complete, uninterrupted, unvarnished, but mediated happiness that lasts for all eternity.

This is the fellowship of the Persons of the Godhead. Or as the Record puts it

"But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn [i.e. Christ, the Second Adam of the new creation], which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men [humans] made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling [His blood, which eternally cleanses]"

This is what you were looking for when you started viewing this blog book. This is where happiness is to be found and that eternally. Eternal happiness is in the fellowship of eternal God. It is a thing Christ requested of the Father for His students:

"And this is life eternal, that they might know [i.e. experience] thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. " [Footnote 27]

And when you find this happiness, you will find to your surprise that you are grasped by it and not the reverse, as Christ said in His metaphor of the Good Shepard:

"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one." [Footnote 28]
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(25) The Holy Spirit of God is not mentioned here because He indwells the ones having this fellowship and is the living medium of that fellowship.
(26) The Record says that the creation we live in now is actually a fallen version that fell when Man, the head of it, lost his relationship to his creator: "the creature [creation] itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." Imagine what it will be like when the children of God receive their glorious liberty.
(27) Again, the Holy Spirit indwells the ones being prayed for as the living medium of that eternal life.
(28) The Holy Spirit of God is in both the keeper, and the ones being kept.