Once you were dead. . . . He gave us life. . . . Heraised us from the dead. . . . We are seated with him. . . .
Devotional Text
“Dead . . . alive . . . raised . . . seated” is the progression of a believer’s position in Christ, according to Ephesians 2. What a glorious revelation to know that we have traveled the entire spectrum from death to being seated with Christ in heavenly places! You were dead in your sins, and yet God still loved you even though you were His “enemy.” By His grace He made you alive, breathing the same life into your spirit that He breathed into Christ’s dead body in the resurrection. Finally, He lifted you up and seated you in a position so special and honored that it can only be described as the “heavenly places.” According to the passage in Ephesians 2, everything that God did for Christ physically, He has done for you and all believers spiritually! Your Christian life will be transformed as you understand your identification with Jesus Christ in His death, resurrection, and ascension. When God looks at you, He sees you not as you were (dead in sin), but exactly as He sees His Son (alive and seated in the heaven-lies). God loves you exactly as He loves Christ! You are in Christ in the same way a tiny baby kangaroo is hidden inside the pouch of its mother. So rise up in your new nature and privileges, for “God saved you by his special favor when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God” (Ephesians 2:8).