📖Scripture:
“But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved! And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might display the surpassing riches of His grace, demonstrated by His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”
Ephesians 2:4–7
🔎Examination:
The Apostle Paul does not describe bad people becoming better; he proclaims dead people made alive with Christ. The grammar is monergistic: God made us alive, God raised us, God seated us—with Christ. The prepositional refrain (σὺν Χριστῷ / ἐν Χριστῷ) signals resurrection union as the divine engine of salvation and sanctification. The center of biblical theology is God’s relational presence; here that presence is not a vague feeling but the concrete union of the saints with the crucified and risen Lord. Identity is not achieved but bestowed: the elect are co-raised and co-seated now, in hiddenness (Col 3:1–3), awaiting revelation in glory. Therefore, obedience flows from location: we live from the throne room, not clawing toward it.
This devastates the false notion of performative religion. Decisionism says, “I made my move; now God responds.” Paul says, “While you were dead, God acted.” Sacramentalism says, “The church’s ceremonies transfer grace irrespective of faith.” Paul locates grace in God’s sovereign act of union with Christ, not in human manipulation. Cults peddle ladders to heaven—extra scriptures (Book of Mormon, Watchtower literature) or secret knowledge (Gnostic/NAR flavor). Paul exalts the once-for-all work of Christ, mediated to us by the sufficient apostolic Word, not by progressive mythmaking.
Union also defines ecclesiology. If God raised us together (συνήγειρεν), then the church is not a voluntary club but the regenerate Body and Bride sharing one life. The saints do not gather to recharge moral batteries; we gather because we are limbs animated by one Head (Eph 1:22–23). Thus, obedience is not wage-earning but life-expressing. We “walk” (2:10) not to become seated, but because we are seated. Works are not currency; they are craftsmanship prepared by the Father to display His grace through a people who already share the Son’s status.
This text confronts the “self-improvement gospel.” If you were dead, your strategies cannot raise you. Psychology can describe symptoms; it cannot resurrect. Politics can restrain evil; it cannot enthrone the saints with Christ. Only the God who spoke light from darkness can call life out of tombs (2 Cor 4:6). And He has. Therefore, our cravings, our holiness, and our mission arise from this granite reality: in Christ. The saints are not climbing; we are walking downstream from a mighty fountain of union—grace that trains us (Titus 2:11-14) and propels a life of gathering, growing, giving, and going for the fame of our King.
🤺Action:
Test yourself (2 Cor 13:5): Do I relate to God as if I’m on spiritual probation looking for loopholes, or as one already co-raised and co-seated with Christ?
Replace self-reliance with doxology: write “With Christ” above today’s schedule. Live from that status.
Read Romans 6:1–11; Colossians 3:1–4; Titus 2:11–14. Realize that obedience flows from union, not toward union.
🧠Reflection:
Born-again saints, the tomb is behind us, and the heavenly realm is our new address in Christ! Therefore, we walk as those who already share His life, His favor, and His mission.
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Blessings & love,
Kevin M. Kelley
Pastor
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