Your Seat is Waiting for You Now

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. [….] But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 1:3-6; 2:4-7)

Everyone wants to be blessed. To be blessed denotes a sense of having favour that is beyond our working and control. Blessing happens to us. We also can ‘bless’ others but again the recipient of the blessing has no control over being blessing other than receiving it or not! (Whenever you are blessing remember that you are joining in with the very character and nature of God. If you are being blessed always accept it because then you are allowing others to be obedient in being a blessing.)

The most amazing thing is we do not fully comprehend the full extent of the depth and scope of God’s blessing over us. It is something that can be pondered and discovered our entire lives. However, Paul writes that we have been blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. (Eph1:3)

Now, what good are heavenly blessings when we are stuck here on earth sometimes feeling a million miles away from any sense of favour, blessing and the attention of God? Well, the truth of God’s word says that we are not stuck here on earth. God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. (Eph2:6) This has enormous implications if we but choose to comprehend the magnitude of this truth.

Not only are we blessed in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, we are also seated with him in the heavenly realms. That means we have full access to the full blessing of God through Christ Jesus right now. This is appropriated through faith. Heb 11:1 says Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

So we can proclaim with confidence ‘I am blessed' because I am in Christ Jesus. I have access to the unmerited favour of God because I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me’ (Gal 2:20). It is not by our own merit that we can say this because ‘it is by grace you have been saved’ (Eph2:8). It is said that when Martin Luther (1483-1546) read these words it revolutionised his faith and his theology. He realised it was all God’s doing and not conditional on what he could do. If anything, the understanding of the grace-filled saving work of God through Christ magnifies the work and favour of Christ in our hearts and minds and spills out into our earthly lives.

We see another amazing reality. This state of blessing has been part of God’s plan all along. Paul uses the term ‘predestined’ (Eph 1:5) [Gk=Proorízō = to determine an outcome before it happens]. We stare down the barrel of a great paradox. Has God decided before eternity began and for all eternity just who is going to be saved and who is not? How is this the God of love and justice? Where is the place of our own free will to choose Christ or even to be blessed or not? Are some doomed to not find Christ before they were born? Where is the justice in that?

There is no simple answer but we can try to gather to our understanding the character and nature of God and the nature and character of humanity and see where are the intersection points. This is the strength of Systematic Theology as we attempt to balance our understanding with the entire revelation of scripture.

All of humanity has a potential predestination as we are made in God’s image (Gen1:26) therefore we are all predestined for the possibility of a relationship with God. When we recognise the redeeming work of the Cross of Christ for ourselves and surrender to it, we step into our fore-ordained destiny. The ‘free will’ part is whether we humble ourselves and recognise Jesus is the centre of the universe (Genesis 1, John 1, Col1:16-17) and not us. In walking into this destiny we are also walking into all the blessings that are in Christ Jesus. These blessings are fore-ordained as part of God’s created order (everything apart from God’s own being is created by Him).

When the Bible talks about ‘seated’ it is important to realise what this means. Teachers in Biblical times sat down to teach. This was a sign of their authority. In Hebrews it is explained that Jesus offered the one perfect and satisfying sacrifice and then he sat down at the right hand of the Father (Heb10 esp v12). The writer shows us that the Old Covenant required continual sacrifices because they are not truly satisfying. Therefore the priests stand in the presence of God continually making offerings. Jesus made his offering of Himself which was satisfying and then sat down because it was completely satisfying, there was no more work to be done.

Now read Ephesians again with a new understanding: God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. We are now seated. There is nothing more to do. You cannot add to it or take from it. You can’t earn it you just have to receive it. There is a seat for us if we choose to sit in it. This seat comes with EVERY spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus (Eph 1:3).

The question for us is are we willing to a) believe there is a seat for us? and b) are we going to sit down and receive that which we do not deserve simply because we are invited in Jesus?

There is a seat for you full of incredible favour and blessing. Come and join me up here the view is amazing!

Blessings

Fraser