Where Do You Sit at Church?
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
Do you have a spot that you like to sit in at church? I don’t mean like the same general area, but I mean like if somebody gets there ahead of you, it throws you off because you can’t sit where you always sit?
What about at the movies? Now that it’s all reserved seating and I can buy my ticket in advance, I’ve switched movie times before if I couldn’t get the seat I wanted.
Seating is important. It can change your entire experience. Sitting on a rock next to a dead alligator gar will give you a different perspective of the Ohio River than sitting up at a restaurant eating some steak. Same river. Same weather. Different smell.
This section of Ephesians is a big deal. It views the world and history and our lives from a perspective that is exempt from time. It might not make complete sense to us, but that doesn’t make it untrue.
When we were dead in our sin, God made us alive in Christ. The moment we turned to Jesus and had faith that He is the Son of God and died on the cross for our sins, our sins were taken away. They were put on Jesus, on the cross, in 33ish A.D. and we were raised up and seated with Him in Heaven. Now that we are seated in Him, in those heavenly places, we live out our lives to show off God’s grace.
Ever since Pentecost, the Holy Spirit has been helping Christians live out this dual citizenship. We are living out our lives around here. We work and we are hungry and we sin can have an effect on us. But at the same time, the Holy Spirit is in us while simultaneously seated on the throne in Heaven as part of the triune God.
Note that it’s past tense in Ephesians. God loved us. God made us alive together with Christ. God raised us up with Jesus. This remarkable miracle of salvation has already been done. Right now is the show-off time to the world, so they might come to believe in Jesus too.
So whether we’re at church, or at the movies, or at work, we’re sitting in Christ. We’re sitting in the Glory of God. We don’t worship Him to “enter into His presence” because we’re already there. He is where we are and we are where He is all at the same cosmic time.
So when someone takes our seat, we rejoice. We want as many people seated in Christ as we can get!
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