WE ARE - SEATED WITH CHRIST. Ephesians 2:4-6 Undoubtedly, the Ephesians whom God had saved by His grace, Jews and Gentiles, were amazed at God's grace and grateful for their deliverance from the consequences of sin. I know I am. I can't find the words to express my desire to be seated with Christ in heavenly places. This makes the things going on here on earth of little value to those who are in the kingdom of God. Our position in Christ is made plain in the beginning chapter of Ephesians.
The beginning verses of this chapter make plain who we are in ourselves. In ourselves, we were dead to God. Sin was in us and working against us in every way. Satan is working in every way to defeat God's purposes for us. "But God" has changed everything. What was only gloom and doom has been changed to what is a delight for Him and us. When God, who is extremely wealthy in mercy and full of infinite love, steps in, the whole dark picture that covered our condition changes.
We were dead spiritually because of Adam’s sin. The entire human race would have been eternally separated from God if He didn’t “so love the world” that in mercy, He grants new life when He saves those who believe in “His only begotten Son.” He loved us even when we were enemies of His by our wicked works. His great love delivers us from His wrath.
His love reached us when we were dead in our sins and has made us alive in Christ by His grace – His undeserved favor. That great love has also raised us up with our Lord Jesus and placed us in heavenly places where we can share in His victory over our spiritual enemies. We belong to heaven now. His kindness in saving us from our sins and eternal condemnation demonstrates the riches of His grace now and will continue to do that in the ages to come.
This has all happened because of His grace to us, and it becomes ours when we put our faith in Him. He saved us from our sins and made us holy and acceptable by God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Our efforts of any kind: self-imposed suffering or self-denial, religious activities personal or public, financial sacrifices or sacrifices of any kind do not in any way add to or earn salvation. The good things we may do for others give us nothing to boast about, nor do they obligate God in any way to give us salvation.
We are not talking about some kind of idol god who needs people to beg for money so He can do what He wants to accomplish. God is not a poverty-stricken God. The riches of His grace are "exceeding riches." They go far beyond any and all acts of man's grace to man. God is rich in glory. He does not need our explanations of His excellence when we are made aware of Him.
Those who don't know God try hard to give explanations as to the marvels of the atom and the designs of nature that God created. They spend billions of dollars trying to discover what the children of God already know. God's glory is evident in everything from the galaxies of the universe to the intricacies of the human body. The riches of His mercy are a display of another characteristic of God's nature that we have nothing to compare within our human experience. His mercy keeps those things that we deserve from happening to us. It is of His mercies that we are not consumed. Those "mercies of God" motivate believers to present their bodies to Him to be used as a "living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God."
Salvation is a work of God – “We are God’s workmanship.” God has made us what we are now. Even our faith came to us by hearing the word of God that spoke to our conscience and awakened our souls. God still speaks to those who have never read the Bible through conscience, creation, the goodness of God, and many other means He uses to leave people “without excuse.” He has created believers a new creation with a new birth and a new nature. We are able to do the good works that God intends us to do right from the beginning of this new life.