Ephesians

[lisa]

Pastor Mike,

I have a question about something I read in Ephesians that is very confusing. It is in Ephesians 2:4-6. It says that as believers He has "raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places". Does this mean that somehow our spririts are actually with Him in heaven now? What does that mean for us, if that is true?

Thank you for all of the time you take to answer the questions on this board....I know there's a lot of them!

[Mike Miller]

Thanks for that question. I'm always glad to help.

Ephesians 1 speaks of the blessings we have in Christ. Verse 3 says that God "has blessed us in the Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places," then goes on to talk about those many blessings. We who are in Christ have incredible spiritual blessings that we don't always even realize we have.

In chapter 2, we read that we were spiritually dead (though physically alive) until God made us alive. This does not mean that our souls have departed our bodies, but that we now have new life in Christ. Therefore, in a spiritual sense, we have been raised from the dead. To say that we are now seated in the heavenly places means that we have achieved victory over the "prince of the power of the air" (2:2). We are enthroned, and though we will not fully realize that victory until our resurrection from the dead, we experience it somewhat now and have certainty of it for eternity.