Blessed – Chapter 1:3
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,” (Ephesians 1:3–ESV)
This is the first of the four heavenly realm corner posts that Paul gives. This corner post tells us that our spiritual blessings are anchored in heaven, and going further connects them to the life work of Jesus Christ.
I have never seen Jesus nor have many people this side of the grave. But after Jesus came out of his grave he walked, ate, talked; he taught many before bodily departed the earth. The men who walked with Jesus garnered much from what he expressed and taught. One of Christ’s themes was that of another place. He spoke to his disciples of leaving the earth and heading there where he would be with his Father. Jesus did not merely depart the earth. He left for another place.
Jesus did not limit his “other place” discussion to his associates but even shared that reality with his earth-judge: Pilate. If you recall, while speaking to this Roman, Jesus said that his kingdom was not of this world. What Paul writes in this early Ephesian verse ties in well with the life of the normal-born apostles and this pre-crucifixion experience.
Closely connected with the discussions Jesus had with his disciples regarding his departure was the arrival of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit would stand in for Jesus being to the disciples a teacher, a reminder, an active participant in the life of heaven in the place of earth.
Our spiritual blessings may be rooted in another realm, but we live in this one. God’s ways are not earth’s ways, but they can be lived on the earth. We have been raised up with Christ, given the Holy Spirit, and taught ways of godliness. Our connection to all that God intended is well established.
Seated – Chapter 2:6
“and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” (Ephesians 2:6–ESV)
“…Buried with him in death and raised to newness of life…” That phrase, or something like it, is what our pastors say during the ceremony of baptism. That ceremony is an expression of what happens in the larger, spiritual realm at salvation. On accepting the offer of salvation one is transferred from the Kingdom of Darkness to the Kingdom of Light1. Such an event raises us from the death of Satan’s dominion to the life of Christ’s.
I sit on a hospital committee called the Peer Review Committee. In those meetings, we consider the medical and surgical judgments which have been made by members of our hospital staff. Sometimes we invite the doctors who are being reviewed to come and explain the choices and decisions that they made. When they come to our boardroom we are all seated and while they are one of us they initially stand until we welcome them and direct them to a chair.
If you want a Bible example think back to Queen Esther’s defining moment. Her uncle Mordecai divulged the impending genocide planned for the Persian Jews. The only person who could freeze Haman’s edict was the king himself, but to go unbidden before the king was to risk execution. By now as your memory unfolds that scene ask yourself this question, “Did she go in and plop down in a chair? Did she sit?” Of course not. She entered and stood before the seated king.
Not only do the anchor lines of our blessings stretch from earth to heaven.
Our souls also sit there.
What does Paul say happens after our entrance into God’s kingdom? We sit. When we are raised with Christ we are seated with him. Don’t miss the bigness of that. The realm Paul writes of is God’s realm; heaven; God’s house. There is no higher place, and to be seated there is a stamp of incomparable approval. Our bodies are still alive on the earth, but our souls are seated with Christ. Our eternal home is settled; there is the permanence, finality that the human heart wants.
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