And He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together [giving us joint seating with Him] in the heavenly sphere [by virtue of our being] in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One).
Ephesians 2:6, AMPC
Years ago when Jenny and I were first married, I worked long hours on the night shift at a dialysis clinic, while she worked during the day at a surgery center. In those unbalanced months, we would go days sometimes without seeing one another, except the occasional “ships passing in the night” at 6 or 7:00 in the morning when I would arrive home and she would be leaving for work.
During those unforgettable days, oftentimes my only outlet for bodily exercise was to go on a brisk walk from our apartment to a nearby park and back before my shift started in the afternoon. Many times, I would walk through a local cemetery in order to save time and to enjoy the quiet surroundings (weird, perhaps, but it sure was quiet!).
During those walks, my thoughts often turned to the bodies of the many people that lay in the earth below me as I respectfully walked through that cemetery. Imagine my surprise if, on one of those walks, I had been greeted by a corpse who dug himself up and offered me his bony hand! Do you know how many corpses I saw walking around during those walks? Zero! They were nothing but hollow shells; just physical reminders of the precious spirits and souls who occupied the bodies during their time on Earth.
It is significant to note that corpses, once dead, stay dead¹. When a person dies and begins their life in eternity, the physical shell that remains on Earth is left to decompose or be recycled back into the natural realm some way or another. You don’t see corpses walking around in real life, no matter what the movies you watch portray!
Through these (and many other) passages of scripture, the Holy Spirit wants us to fully apprehend the implications of the following statement in Ephesians 2: “[God] has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
“Hath raised us up together,” or synegeirō, means to be raised up from the dead. When we accepted Jesus’ payment for our sin by His completed work on the cross, we immediately experienced the matchless power of God (Ephesians 1:20) and were raised up together with Him.
The “old nature” that we were born with was suddenly crucified vicariously through Jesus’ death. Dead. Done. In the grave, never to rise again, like the bodies that lay peacefully beneath my feet as I walked by. Thank God for that!
But there’s more. He raised US up from the dead. So our old nature was killed, but the REAL YOU and ME were the things He raised up. This means that the REAL YOU is your identity in Christ. This means that you do not have an old sin nature (as some proclaim); neither do you have some inner, hidden sinful identity that has been covered up with the Blood; no, that old sin part of you has been permanently, completely, and fully been killed off by the power of God.
So now, the Holy Spirit says, “You [your name here], have been raised up together with Jesus when He was raised up, and you are now seated together with Jesus in heavenly places in Him.”
My goal today is to remind you about the permanent deadness of your sin nature (so all this business about “dealing with the old self” is a bunch of hoopla–your nature and identity has been permanently changed. You still have to deal with the flesh, but your flesh is no longer inherently evil–that is, it is not controlled by the devil any longer, if you are a born-again child of God. You and I are in the process of renewing our minds to the Word of God and submitting our natural flesh to the things of God. This is not the same as being a lowly worm; unrighteous and unworthy before God. If you are born-again, God sees you as righteous and holy as He sees Jesus! That is the GOSPEL!) so that you may take up your rightful seat of authority in the heavenly places with Jesus as He intends you to.
Praise God for His holy Word. Thank God for the Holy Spirit, Who brings light and revelation to our spirits through the Word of God.
I’ve said a lot today, and I encourage you to meditate on these things and allow the Holy Spirit to teach you and reveal these truths directly to your heart. I am thrilled more today than I ever have been about my purity in Christ; the holiness and righteousness that was purchased for me; and with that confidence I can boldly speak to the powers and authorities of Satan and command them to cease and desist in the Name of Jesus, because I have the God-given authority to do so.
1. Regarding my statement above that “corpses, once dead, stay dead.” Of course, I am referring to a person who finally gives up the ghost and moves on to eternity for good. Certainly there are plenty of examples of the dead being raised in scripture and all around the world as we speak. Glory to God, that He raises even the dead to life! But at some point, we all will move from the physical body into our eternal, immortal bodies.
[…] Lord. This is part of our seat of authority that God has given us through raising us up in Him (see What Does it Mean to Be Raised Up Together With Jesus?) that we received when we accepted […]