This article gets posted the day after Thanksgiving. And if there’s one blessing to be grateful for, it’s the boost God has given us Christians.
Boosted
“and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” – Ephesians 2:6
(Bible verses are from the ESV.)
God has lifted us up to the level of the heavenlies, where Jesus resides. Our circumstances, past or present, can’t compare with what we’ve received in Christ.
I remember the booster seats my kids used in the car when they were little. Although these seats do make children sit higher, that wasn’t their main purpose. Safety was.
Through the work of His Son, God has given us both. As Paul declares in the verse above, our seat is “in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” That’s a supernatural boost! And we’re safe, too. Christ, the resurrected Savior, has defeated our foes; He secures us in every way.
You might have noticed that verse 6 is a sentence fragment. If we want to get the full idea of how much God has elevated us, we have to read the entire statement. Here it is:
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, 5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved– 6and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” – Ephesians 2:4-7
Verses 4-5a describe the depth of our predicament and the greatness of God’s mercy. The Lord loved us, even while we rebelled against Him, but He couldn’t pretend we weren’t sinful. Our transgressions were a real problem that separated us from God. Paul says we were dead. True, we ate, played, went to work, and watched television, but we did all this cut off from the One who is Life.
This short passage summarizes the sad account laid out in the preceding verses:
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience– 3among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” – Ephesians 2:1-3
Spiritual forces governed our lives with the aim of ruination. The devil intended to destroy us, and if the Lord hadn’t intervened, he would have succeeded.
But God has acted on our behalf!
The second half of verse 5 ties into the ideas highlighted in verses 8-9:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” – Ephesians 2:8-9
God wants us to be thankful, but not arrogant. His salvation says more about Him than it does us. In other words, we shouldn’t boast about our boost!
Finally, verses 6-7 refer ahead to verse 10:
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” – Ephesians 2:10
At first glance, this assertion appears mistaken. Verses 6-7 discuss heavenly realities while verse 10 talks about earthly duties. The two aren’t related.
Or are they?
Paul is hinting at the type of work God calls Christians to do.
Think about it. God has saved us and seated us with Christ in the heavenly places. Since Jesus sits at the right hand of God’s throne, so do we. This means we get to take part in the authority the Lord wields.
Our spiritual position is secure in the heavenlies, but we perform our work on earth. We act in this world with the resources of the world above.
The gospel of Jesus Christ has set us free from sin and has brought us to the Father. Our good works, then, involve sharing the good news with others.
Having received God’s grace in Christ, let’s spread it around!
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