Back to Ephesians chapter 2, and begin with verse 6 and picking up the flow with verse 4.
Ephesians 2:4-6a
"But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us. Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together,..."
That is, after God, who is rich in mercy has made us alive within Christ, by virtue of the Last Supper on through the work of the Cross and Christ's ascension. Remember when He died, we died, and when He rose from the dead it was by that same power we've also been raised out of deadness. The revelation of our being placed by God in what we've called our first estate at the moment of conversion into redemption. Remember when we talked about the 3 circles that shows our makeup. Remember in our center circle we are born into the human family dead spiritually (separated from God), with a sin nature which is the engine of all carnal activity. Now looking at the third circle we find that now as believers the old Adam has been crucified, the sole purpose of the Holy Spirit's indwelling us and His taking us through to what we've called the crisis. Where we find ourselves as bankrupt and the revealing of sins utter sinfulness is laid open or revealed to us and He then reveals our way of escape, death. He then awaits our choosing of death, the taking of the Lords yoke or to remain wonder Satan's yoke in the wilderness of sin under the Law. If we have chosen death by our own free will He then causes us to be given a new nature. Through the circumcision of the heart, a working of God's hand not mans. We have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and now we're a completely new person. This is all a process called working out of our own salvation. Why working, when we've not labored but rather waited under God listening. The Learning of Christ. All the time learning the mystery of Christ or learning of Him. It takes great pains to cause a deadness to come to the flesh and the taking of every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. To loose ourselves freely into His hands and Loving Rule. Both areas of Satan's strength as the circles reveal.
Now we still have the old nature to fight with, and we have to keep him or it under control, and to let the new nature control our activity. That's why from time to time Christians fail and behave like they're not Christians. That's when they let that old sin nature, self, that old Adam, raise his ugly head and take over their lives for a little while. That can happen to any of us, but that doesn't mean that we have lost our salvation. Now reading verse 6.
Ephesians 2:6
"And hath raise us up together, (he has given us resurrection power, the Spirit of Holiness in Eternal Life the power hidden in Christ) and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:"
Here we have Romans chapter 1 and verse 4 revealed and by its being revealed here in this way so we can see again how scripture just dovetails together. When we first started sharing this Book of Ephesians what did we say, the prepositional phrase was throughout this whole little book? In Him, In Whom, In Christ, which was a positional thing. We are in Christ as a result of our salvation experience, our having chosen death over life as we knew it, it's a work of God. The mystery of the Lord's Supper coupled with the cross and His ascension as one action, the culmination of the Jewish Age. Along with everything else that happens the moment we believed this Gospel. Such as He has redeemed us, justified us, sanctified us, made us Holiness onto Himself but He has also placed us positionally into the Body of Christ. It's purely a work of God, and we take it by faith. We mean, you can't lay out a diploma and say, "See this is what God gave me." But rather we just simply take it in by faith. The Book says that it has happened and we believe it. And when we believe it we receive it into our selves as Jesus prayed in John chapter 17. So in verse 6 we find that Paul writes that we're in the heavenliest, but we're still on the earth. But positionally we are in Christ Jesus in the heavenliest. All of a sudden a verse just comes to mind. We're living in such crucial days, and let's let some of the Scriptures just thrill our hearts. Turn to the Book of Titus chapter 2 for a moment, and let's look at verses 12 and 13. This goes right along with what we've been saying, that now because of the Grace and mercy and Love of God we've been brought out of that life of desire to live in the nature of Old Adam. Now this is what we've been translated to.
Titus 2:12-13
"Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, (desires) we should live (instead) soberly, righteously, and godly, (not when we get to heaven, but where?) in this present world: (that's to be our lifestyle. Now here's the verse that came to mind. We are at the same time) Looking for that blessed hope; and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ;"
Now here Jesus Christ is claiming to be the great God, and we know this flies in the face of people who claim that Christ never claimed to be God. Yes, He did. Paul claims He was by inspiration, and this is what we can be looking for. "The glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ." This with what John reveals of Christ Jesus in chapters 1 and 3 ties Him to Genesis 1:1-3 again. It also ties Him to the promises or covenants given or spoken over Abraham, Isaac and then Jacob who became Israel when He swore by none greater than Himself, which simple means that He is the subject of and the receiver of the promise or covenants. This is the trusting of Faith to Himself that Jesus as the Son of man brought to light and life through Himself. In other words Jesus trusted His Faithfulness to His word even though it was spoken through a Prophet, as God speaking. What a hope we have. And why can we do it? Because in verse 14 it tells us that.
Titus 2:14
"Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."
This is also what was said in like fashion to Israel but they never received its revelation, for they were told that they were to be a peculiar people unto God. This can also be seen in scripture in the following places: Exodus 19:5; Deuteronomy 14:2, 26:18; 1 Peter 2:9. Now coming back to Ephesians chapter 2, and we'll read verse 6 again.
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