This is one of the most significant gifts I have received as one redeemed by the blood of Jesus. I did not go back to the previous posts to see if I have said this concerning other attributes of my salvation, but if I have, forgive me. I am including the verses in their entirety because I want to assure you fully grasp what our Lord has done for us. “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”
There are two significant actions taken by God that are listed here. First, he raises us up, then he seats us with him in heaven. I will deal with them separately and then talk about their benefits together. To be raised up in this context is a picture of being removed from danger with no action on my part. Here is how I visualize this. When I was around 9 or 10, I was floating on an innertube in my neighbor’s pond. I was not a strong swimmer and had a bit of a fear of water, so this was the safest place for me. My friend’s father was also floating on an innertube near me and asked if we could swap positions since the tube he was on was smaller and we would both benefit. I agreed. We were making the switch in the middle of the pond and suddenly, I found myself off the tube and rapidly sinking toward the bottom. I am sure it was only 10 or 12 feet deep, but it felt like I would never stop. I did exactly what one should not do in that situation, I panicked. I was a goner, and I knew it. Then I felt a large hand grab hold of me and pull me to the surface as I continued to thrash in my terror.
This is what God has done for us. We are dead in our transgressions and sins. But God, through the redemptive work of Jesus has reached down and grabbed ahold of us and pulled us out of our hopeless situation. Without this action, we could never have gotten to a place of safety on our own.
He did not simply get us to the surface and hope we could keep ourselves safe. Instead, God seated us with Christ in the heavenly realms. We have not just been rescued; we have been rewarded. Again, we did nothing to earn this reward. We need to notice something else about these characteristics of our salvation. They are described in the past tense. This is a completed action not a future expectation.
What does these amazing acts of God’s grace mean for you and me? We are separated from anything that can harm us for all eternity and nestled in the care of the One who loves us so much that he willingly paid with us with his life for the privilege of spending eternity with us. Instead of continual wrath, condemnation, judgement, and separation from God, there is on-going kindness, undeserved, unmerited, unearned, irrevocable, unlimited, and incomparably rich grace.
His grace was not a mere temporary means of getting us to the point of salvation. Paul clearly teaches here that the purposeof God saving us in Christ,was in order thathe might continue to demonstrate the incomparable riches of that grace expressed in Christ. He saved us by grace to continue to lavish his grace on us.
If you are ever tempted to doubt God’s love and grace, just picture yourself sinking to the bottom of a pond with no hope of getting to the surface. And then God’s loving hand reaches down in rescue and puts you in a place a complete contentment and joy. This is who we are in Christ.