and raised us up together, and seated us together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
Truth to Learn
God’s grace produces in us life, resurrection, and a seat.
Behind the Words
The words “raised us up together” are translated from a single Greek verb, sunegeirō. This is made up of sun, meaning “together” and egeirō, meaning “to rise up” as one would rise from a sleeping position to a standing position. Egeirō is the word used in the gospel accounts of God resurrecting (raising up) Jesus from the dead. Thus, in today’s verse Paul says that God has “raised us up together.”
“Seated us together” is translated from a single word as well. It is the verb sugkathidzō, which is made up of sun, meaning “together” and kathidzō, meaning “to cause someone to sit.” Thus, Paul says that God has “seated us together” or “made us sit together.” The Greek word for “us” does not actually appear in this verse, but that idea is carried over from the previous verses.
“Heavenly places” is from epouranios, which we saw back in Ephesians 1:3. It is composed of epi, meaning “on, above, or over” and a form of ouranos which refers to “heaven.” Epouranios means “that which pertains to heaven” or “the heavenly realm.”
Meaning Explained
Once again, to get the full impact of this verse we need to combine it with the previous two verses. And, to make it a little more understandable, we will also remove the parenthetical expressions. Then we have:
But God, being rich in mercy, … made us alive together with Christ … , and raised us up together, and seated us together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
We can see from this that God who is rich is mercy did three things for us. First of all, He made us alive. Next, He raised us up. And thirdly, He made us sit in the heavenly places. We pointed out in the first verse of this chapter that the writers of the Bible sometimes describe an action which will occur in the future as if it has already happened. The reason is that to God there is no distinction of time, since He is everywhere (and everytime) present. So, even though these three things will happen in the future, to God they have already occurred. Let’s look at these three things individually.
He made us alive. In other words, God gave us spiritual life. One day our life on this earth will end; we will die (physically), then we will face God’s judgment. Those who have rejected Christ will be cast into the lake of fire. This is spiritual death, or the second death (Revelation 21:8). Christians, on the other hand, will live eternally (spiritually and physically).
He raised us up. It wouldn’t do much good for us to have eternal life and be stuck in the grave. Therefore, God raised us up; that is, God will resurrect our frail, earthly bodies and will turn them into perfect, eternal, heavenly bodies.
He made us sit. We saw back in Ephesians 1:20 that Jesus has been resurrected and seated at the right hand of the father. Only those with the highest honor are allowed to sit in the presence of Almighty God. Jesus has that honor, and because of God’s great mercy, we will have that honor as well.
Application
When was the last time you thanked God for His mercy by which He promised you eternal life, a perfect body, and the honor of sitting in His presence?
Copyright © 2015 Will Krause. All rights reserved
