Jesus exalted to the right hand of the Father is for His Priestly intercession for us. “This is atonement. Atonement means at-one-ment. Atonement restricted only to the cross always leads us astray with inadequate plans of salvation. The atonement starts in the incarnation, and includes: the life He lived, the death He died, the burial He underwent, the resurrection He experienced, the ascension back to the father, His enthronement in heaven at the right hand of the Father, sprinkling the heavenly mercy seat and His present intercession for us. These are all necessary pieces of the atonement. All of these together make our at-one-ment with God. He accomplished this at-one-ment by being at-one with us then and us being at-one with Him now.”
“As Son: He already had full eternal connection to God. As Human: He now has full eternal connection with mankind. Only because He is at-one with us and at-one with the Father can He be our at-one-ment, Advocate and Intercessor.”
(From “The Self-Talk of God”, by H. Lamar Smith)
