Ephesians 2:5,6 - God raised us up with Christ

2:5

What did God do? He made us alive in Christ, even while we were dead in our sins. You and I were made alive in Christ, even before we were born. Does that mean that our repenting and believing is of no consequence, or was somehow unreal? Not at all. We may not be able to understand how this can work out, but there are somethings we cannot understand and do not need to understand (Deut 29:29). God made us alive in Christ without any input from us. “It is by grace you have been saved”. Our salvation is a completely unmerited action. The “merit” is to be found only in Jesus.

2:6

God did not merely forgive our sins, but He also raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly places or heavenly realms. Notice that this is something that has already happened. So what does it mean? We fail to understand this because we often have a dualistic view of life. We consider heaven and earth to be completely separate, but Jesus didn’t! Jesus said the kingdom of heaven was near. At the end of chapter 1 it tells us that Christ has been seated at the Father’s right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, and above every name that can be named. So we are seated with Him in this place, and seated there now, not just when we die.So what is the practical implication? We haven’t been whisked away from this earth. We are living in the here and now. It means that when we serve Christ we do so with authority. We are servants with authority. Serving Christ on earth, loving others, is not easy. We may face much opposition. We need to know that we are seated with Christ. We will win!