15/07/2023
2.0 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He Loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, He made us alive together with Christ (By grace you have been saved), and raised us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourself; it is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them Ephesians2:4-10nkjv.
Previously we have seen that when people are banished out of God’s presence, they live according to the course of this world and according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedient.
The course of this world is the standard set and accepted by men on earth. In other words, they are ways of this world that helps men to live their lives on earth apart from God. These world systems are structured following human knowledge and wisdom and they are weak to save man from sin, death thus both spiritual and physical deaths, Satan, the lust of the flesh and mind and the consuming wrath of God. This fallen condition of man puts man out of God’s presence where they cannot hear His word, they have no time to sit under His feet to learn and if they happen to learn, they acquire only head knowledge. They cannot obey His voice which they hear from the word of God read or heard when taught and they do not practice that which they have learned from Him, thus keeping His covenant as Abraham did Exodus 19:3-6; Gen17:1-8. They are disobedient and they are banished out of His presence and are kept for His wrath. Therefore, world wisdom cannot bring man back to God and besides world wisdom cannot save from sin and the penalty thereof which is eternal death- separation from God’s presence.
As the father chastises errant child so is God to us when we disobey Him. He banishes man from His presence as He did to the first man Gen3:6-7, 9-11, 20-24.
Therefore, in verses 4 and 5 Paul the apostle resumes to explain the thesis in his main clause, the main idea of his massage. “And He made you alive” but here he repeats this main idea using the proper noun changing the subject the personal pronoun He and changing the object from the second person You to the first person Us including both Jews and gentile believers as God made us alive together with Christ
2.1 In these verses he introduces them with adversative conjunction But and followed with God’s attributes of mercy and love that expresses His feelings and emotions to the fallen condition of man, following His judgment that will fall on the unbelieving world and given that there is no salvation in the world wisdom.
Paul, the apostle says that God is rich in Mercy and God has great Love for the lost world that no one should perish or be lost away from His presence. The love and mercy of God were shown us on the cross of Calvary. At the cross He took our shame and reproach. He was rejected even when He cried, was not heard. Jesus had taken on Him the sins of the whole world that suffered Him to be killed. What hanged on the cross was this physical body as a demonstration that this body of death has been destroyed completely and removed from our presence by burial. This death sends to us a massage that in the earthly tent with it, it is impossible to appear in heaven before God. Jesus first descended at the Lower parts of the earth in Hell, where He met all the departed Old Testament saints who were waiting for Him to come and die for the sins of the world, to take away sin as the Lamb of God Ephesians 4:8-10; Romans 4:7-8; John1:29. The Old Testament sacrifices did not take away sin but covered them. This implies that sins that were covered by the blood of animals, existed. And because of this, all who died before Jesus Christ came on the cross, were taken at the lower parts of the earth, waiting until when He would come and die on the cross and take away the sins of the world Luke 16:19-31. Sin is the only thing that banishes man from God’s presence.
In Hell is a place known us Hades in Greek and Sheol in Hebrew which connotes the place of torment. The bosom of Abraham was removed and transferred to heaven. Here all who die without believing in the saving work of Jesus Christ at the cross, are taken there. This place still exists and people are being taken there even at this hour who reject the massage of Christ. They die, their soul is transported there and their body returns to the dust of the ground waiting to be resurrected and their souls be returned in their body of death and be thrown whole in the Lake of fire burning with Sulphur and brimstone, the eternal death away from the presence of God Rev14:9-11.
2.2 Because of His great love with which He loved us, made us alive together with Christ.
The predicate made us alive together with Christ implies two fold senses and these are:
First in itself makes the sense of spiritual resurrection which denotes to be brought back into the presence of God the father who had banished us from His presence because of Sin. This speaks about our reconciliation. Jesus is the first fruit to resurrect or say to return into God’s presence and has reached out His hand to us who have put our faith in Him and has brought us back into relationship with God because he paid for our death penalty and now we hear Him always, we obey Him always and practice that which He teaches thus putting our faith into action and now we rule over sin, death, Satan and the lust of the flesh and secondly,
It makes the sense of a physical or bodily resurrection, connoting that our body of death was given life and that those who live when He comes their bodies will be changed 1Thess4:13-18; 1Cor15:50-54 and those who die in the lord before Jesus comes for the rapture of the church, they have hope for bodily resurrection when He comes to rescue the church before the unbelieving world season of God’s wrath, the great tribulation 1Cor15:20-24; Romans8:18-25.
When Jesus rose from the dead, He bore a spiritual body and being the first to come out of the grave, He was followed with those who were at the Lower parts of the earth in the bosom of Abraham whose body resurrected after His resurrection and who bore their spiritual bodies as Jesus did and went together with them in the Holy city, Jerusalem and appeared to many Matth27:51-53; 1Cor15:1-8 and afterward, He took them in the presence of God after forty days when He ascended on High Acts1:1-10. Therefore, we infer that there are people who resurrected and bore heavenly body and now are in heaven with Christ in their glorified body. Therefore, those who believe in Christ, even if they die before He comes for rapture then their hope is not perished for we are saved by grace and not as the unbelieving world, the others who die without putting their hope in Christ who have already perished 1Cor15:12-19. Therefore, even when we are still in our trespasses, God’s love reaches out to us that we may put our faith in Christ that he may impute to us His life and that we may appear in God’s presence.
2.3 And raised us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus
Here we can see the repeated use of copulative conjunction and which denotes the sense of adding a statement on top of a statement. Besides resurrection he adds the metaphor to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
When Christ ascended on High, He was exalted at the right hand of God the father, where He was made our eternal high priest Heb9:6-15. In this text we find out that He ascended on high after having obtained our eternal redemption with His own blood. He appeared in heaven with a cup of His own blood to show in His father’s presence that His life had been taken away to pay for our death penalty and now the sins of the whole world have been taken away. Therefore, now the way to heaven has been opened to all who believe in Christ after His ascension, the church. At the same time, He presented to God all who were with Him even Adam and Eve were there, Abel was there, Abraham and Sarah were there, Moses and Elijah who had just appeared to Him some days before He died on the cross when He was transfigured were there, Aaron was there, David and Solomon were there, Isaac and Jacob were there, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Jeremiah prophets were there and name the endless list. All these people for the first time they saw the face of God. How happy were they to finish their race for faithfully representing God on earth and ending up into the presence of God.
1 Now that He assumed His role of eternal priesthood when he ascended on High and given that in Him we who are still alive in the flesh, we sit together at the right hand of God the father in the office of His high priesthood and God has made us priests to serve our God before we depart. We are here to represent God through defusing to the world the fragrance of the aroma of the gospel to those who believe and are saved and reconciled to God and even to those who does not believe, the gospel to them the gospel is the fragrance of the aroma of death.
2 When He ascended on high, He was exalted and was made the King of kings and Lord of lords. Given that He overcame the world and now rules over Death, Sin, Satan and the lust of the flesh and mind, therefore we sit together with Him ruling as kings over Sin, Death, Satan and the Lust of the flesh and mind when we sit under His feet to hear from Him, obey His voice and practice that which He teaches us, the Bible. Finally, we shall rule with Him in the millennial kingdom.
3 When He ascended on high, He was exalted and made our eternal Judge. Therefore, God has made us judges with Christ to make known His Justice on earth through teaching and preaching. The laws of God are in His word the Bible and heavenly courts are our Churches where His Judgments and final decisions are declared and we are warned and punished for transgressing God’s word. Therefore, we are Judges together with Christ and we shall sit with Him judging nations in the millennial Kingdom.
3.0 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus
In the years to come, may refer to the period when grace is given to those who believe in Christ to defuse the fragrance of the gospel of Christ that the kingdom of Christ be filled with men and women of every tribe and race on earth. All tribes and all tongues of the earth will be gathered in. All will speak one language and will belong to one tribe both Jews and gentiles. Earthly tribes will no longer be but only the tribe of God. When all have come in and everyone has pressed into the Kingdom of God, then God will have shown His kindness toward us in Christ.
The word Kindness lexically denotes to show interest in the happiness of others. Therefore, God will have shown His interest in our happiness when we appear in His complete presence. Those whom Jesus presented to God after resurrection, entered into eternal happiness and Joy and were satisfied because of the fear of God they had while on earth, then we shall enter into His everlasting happiness and Joy and be satisfied in God’s presence. Proverbs19:23. World wisdom can never satisfy but leads to vanity for it can never give eternal life but only the wisdom of God, the Bible when studied, understood, believed, obeyed and applied in life, will give satisfaction to those who fear God, the everlasting life.
We are saved by grace not by anything we have done in the name of our religion, not at all but by putting our faith in the son of God, Jesus Christ. Faith is the gift of God to us. First we hear Him in His word speaking to us as His children, we obey His voice and practice what he has taught us. This is how saving faith is demonstrated when we put this faith into action. However, Human wisdom produces self-righteousness which cannot save. Earthly judicial and legal systems give self-righteous even though has their foundation in God’s law but this foundation has been destroyed and therefore Solomon cries out that when the foundation is destroyed what can the righteous do? The righteous can do nothing because justice is never given when God’s word is rejected on earth but people are oppressed and persecuted by the lawless one.
But faith in Christ produces Godly righteousness. How is this obtained, it is obtained by willing to sit under Christ and hear Him, understand Him, obey Him, and practice that which He has taught us. The processes of practicing make Christ to be King and lord over us. Jesus is King and Lord over those who apply God’s word in their life and the image and His likeness is formed in them. Then we are now created in Christ into a new creation for we are His workmanship in Christ and these are the very works of God that He prepared beforehand that man should live in them. We are obligated to hear and obey His voice, practice what He instructs us and keep His covenant and by these He makes us into a special treasure on earth above all people for the earth is His and as this we rule with Him over Sin, Death, Satan and the lust of the flesh and mind.
