Alive, Raised Up, Seated in Christ
In today’s blog post we’re going to zero in on a few verses in the second chapter of Ephesians.
1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins…
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus
Ephesians 2:1,4-6 (KJV)
Let’s look at each verse individually.
Verse 1: We were dead, meaning our spirits were dead to God. We had none of the life of God in our spirits, therefore we were alientated from God. We had no connection to Him, because our connection to God comes through our spirits.
Verse 4: This is pivotal. It says “But God.” We were dead to God, but because of His great love, the Lord stepped in and interrupted the devil’s plans for us.
Verse 5: God brought us from spirtual death to spiritual life. He quickened, or gave life to, us by Christ Jesus. Notice it says hath, which is past tense. God has already done this. It is up to us to believe it, and accept and receive what has been done for us. When we do, we are born again into new spiritual life.
Verse 6: He raised us up together with Christ, meaning that because we have accepted Jesus, when Jesus died and was raised again, so were we. It made us dead to sin. Sin and death have no more dominion over us. In other words, it cannot dominate us- as long as we say yes to Jesus and no to sin. Because we are raised up with Christ, His victory is now our victory. Wow, this means that we have won over sin, satan, poverty, sickness,death, hell and the grave- anything that is listed under the curse. Jesus exchanged our sin for His righteousness, our poverty for His provision, our sickness for His healing, etc. Our every need is met in Christ, and because of Christ, we are raised up above everything the enemy and the world might throw at us. We will have difficult times, but if we maintain our position in Christ, we win.
Verse 6: The second thing verse 6 tells us is that God has made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ. The work of Jesus Christ is finished, meaning the sin debt is paid in full. Being seated indicates we can now rest with Him in what He has accomplished. We are enthroned with Him and can use the authority He has given to the church to enforce His finished work. The shed blood of Jesus has provided us everything we need to live victoriously. As we wait for the manifestation of what He promised, what He obtained for us, we can rest because we know it will surely come to pass. We wait expectantly because we are certain that His finished work will be accomplished in our lives. What God started, He will finish. Jesus’ completed work assures us of this.
We’ve been made alive, raised up, and seated in Christ. What a huge truth contained in such a small passage of scripture!
