When they think about Jesus, many modern Christians picture Him walking the dusty roads of Palestine. Or they don’t think about the question of where He is at all. Early Christians were clear about where Jesus is. The apostles declared to the Jewish religious leaders that “God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins” (Acts 5:31). As he was being stoned to death, the deacon Stephen announced, “Look, I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:55-56). The apostle Paul taught in Romans 8:34, “Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” In Ephesians 1:20, Paul stated that God “raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms.” In Colossians 3:1, he taught, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” Hebrews 1:3 declares, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” The same idea is repeated in Hebrews 1:13, 8:1, 10:12, and 12:2. In Revelation 3:21, Jesus promised, “To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.” Revelation repeatedly describes the throne of God in heaven and the Lamb (Jesus, who died for our sins) next to it (Revelation 5:6,13, 6:16, 7:9-10,17). This consensus is hardly surprising. Jesus had taught this clearly to His followers: “From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Matthew 26:64, Mark 14:62). Jesus told the same thing to the Jewish religious leaders who were about to have Him crucified: “But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God” (Luke 22:69). Jesus said (in Matthew 22:41-45, Mark 12:35-37, and Luke 20:41-44) that this was a fulfillment of Psalm 110:1: “The Lord said to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.’” In his Pentecost sermon in Acts 2:32-36, the apostle Peter repeated this teaching and declared that Jesus had been raised to life and “exalted to the right hand of God.” Mark 16:19 records the simple fact: “After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God.”

Where is Jesus? He is in heaven, ruling the universe with Almighty God and interceding for us. That is, He is the Lamb tempering God’s holy judgement with the promise, “Yes, they are guilty, but I died to pay the penalty they deserve so that we can forgive them.”