Seated in Heavenly Places

Fourth Sunday in Lent: Ephesians 2:1-10

Today’s golden passage has taken on new meaning and taken me to new heights in recent years. Like many, I used to focus on v. 8 as the pinnacle of personal salvation—that glorious Reformation salvo “saved by grace through faith.” See, for example, this treatment from years ago. Today, I see far more going on here. Let’s dig in!

“You were dead through the trespasses and sinsin which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air [Devil], the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient.All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life” (Eph 2:1-10).

First, we see here the Christian life as not just a matter of getting God to forgive my sins, but an ongoing invisible battle against our threefold foe—the unholy trinity of the World, the Flesh and the Devil (v. 1-3). These three prevent humanity from fulfilling our image-bearing task of being God’s co-rulers over creation—the “good works” God prepared for us to do from the beginning (v. 10). Instead of ruling over the world placed in our hands in Eden (Ps. 8), we’re making mud pies in the pit of sin and idolatry, and conspiring with “the spirit [Devil] that is now at work among those who are disobedient” insofar as we are led by “the passions of our flesh” rather than the Spirit of God.

Second, salvation in this passage does not focus on getting us to Heaven when we die, but on being made “alive together with Christ” already now, and being “raised up with him” and “seated with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (v. 5-6) already now! We need a sanctified imagination to begin to entertain the reality being described. This is about being transferred out of one domain of reality and placed into another domain of reality. This is about liberation from life under the sway of the unholy trinity, and elevated to a new life in the power of Heaven’s King. We are positionally raise up with Christ already now, given “power from on high” (Acts 2) in order to live no longer as “children of wrath” (v. 3) but as “children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people” (Phil 2:15).

Reformation theology over the past 500 years has focused so much on atonement theories and personal sin that these larger “kingdom” themes of rescue from the powers, the original human vocation to rule over God’s creation, and a full orbed ascension theology have often been overlooked. This passage has it all—“let all who have ears to hear, listen.”

We find in this goldmine of glory a “God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses” not merely forgiving us, but raising us up to our original role as divine images and co-rulers with Christ, the true image of the invisible God. Christ’s passion story properly understood, says Paul, ends NOT with him going to heaven where he will bring us someday; but rather with his exaltation and enthronement to Heaven’s throne where from Christ is busy establishing and advancing his Kingdom rule “on earth as it is in Heaven.”

How does God’s kingdom begin to take root on earth in the interval between Christ’s first coming and his awaited Second Coming? Answer: Through an active church soaking in the truths of this passage and getting serious about what it means to be already now seated in heavenly places in our relation to this world and its problems. By harnessing the life-giving power of the Spirit already poured out into the Church, we can find ever more ways to “show the immeasurable riches of his grace” and “kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” to a world running low on both grace and kindness these days.