Ephesians 2:5-6 Even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ, (by grace you are saved;)… I. THE FREE LOVE AND UNDESERVED GRACE OF GOD, AS THE SOLE ORIGIN AND MOVING CAUSE OF OUR DELIVERANCE. II. SEE, THEN, HOW THE PURPOSE OF GOD'S LOVE HAS BEEN EFFECTED. See the Divine precision — the exact adaptation of the means to the end — the finished perfection in the result. III. But we are led on a step higher at verse 6 — WE ARE INTRODUCED INTO "HEAVENLY PLACES." What, then, is the peculiar significance of the expression in that sixth verse — "raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Five times over in the course of the Epistle, you meet with the phrase "heavenly places," or (literally) "the heavenlies." Thus, in Ephesians 1:20, we are told .that after God raised Jesus from the dead, He set Him at His own right hand in the "heavenly places." It was not enough that He should rise out of the grave, however necessary might be His resurrection as one intermediate link in the process. So long as He remained on earth (as He did for forty days), He had not entered on the fulness of His joy. A crowning proof was awanting, and that was not furnished until the hour of His enthronement in the "heavenly places." Then was Jesus in all the glory of His acceptance, in the fulness of His honour! Into "the places" of reward, and enjoyment, and unfading glory, He entered, and there lives an "everlasting sign" that the work for which He visited the earthly places has been perfectly fulfilled. But Jesus is not alone in these "heavenly places." Every true believer is there in Him. "Seated together with Christ," therefore, ought we not now to be made partakers with Him, in some measure, of heavenly blessings? to he sharers here, in some degree, of the joy that fills His heart? Let us see, then, what some of those things are which are now making glad the heart of Christ in heaven, and look at them, that we may ask of God to enter more fully into the power and experience of them. 1. One great joy of His heart in heaven must be in His own deliverance, and in the certainty of the deliverance of His people with Him from the curse of hell, in His having so satisfied the everlasting demands of Divine justice and truth, that the law has now no more any claims against Him, or those for whom He died! And ought not we to share with Him in that joy, by tasting something of the rest, the satisfaction, the quietness and assurance of knowing that in Him we "are justified from all things," and freed from the curse? 2. Another joy of His heart in heaven must be, in seeing the guilt of countless multitudes of human beings (though the sins of each of them be more in number than the sand) daily met ,and taken away by an atonement, whose efficacy is inexhaustible to the close of time. And ought not we to rejoice before Him in that which is the cause of our cleansing in His sight, and continually to make use of it for bringing us and keeping us near to Himself, and for renewing in us the joy of our salvation? 3. Another cause of joy to Christ in heaven is the manifestation of the glory of all the attributes of God, and the vindication of the holiness of His name in a work which has "magnified His law and made it honourable." And should not we who are in Him be enabled to "sing" at once of "mercy and of judgment," to "give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness," as the very bulwark of our safety; and even in the midst of all that is terrible in the execution of His righteous judgments, be preserved in holy calms, as those that are at home with God, dwelling "in the secret place of the Most High," and "under the shadow of the Almighty." 4. Another joy of His elevation to the heavenly places must be in the overthrow of Satan's kingdom, and in the certain prospect of the everlasting fall of every foe. And should not we, who are yet in the midst of the conflict, be encouraged in Him to anticipate certain victory, and be assured that we too shall be made more than conquerors through Him that loved us? (J. S. Muir.) Parallel Verses KJV: Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) |
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