“…and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,”            --Ephesians 2:6

        One of my favorite traditional hymns says, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine!” I would not be surprised to learn that these words were inspired by today’s text. God has bestowed upon us, not only the honor of being in relationship with Him, but also the honor of being seated in the heavenly places in Christ.

Now, it is obvious that we are not currently in heaven. We live on the earth. But Paul is speaking of the future with such certainty that it may as well as have already taken place. And in a sense, it has. Practically, we are living on the earth. Positionally, we are already seated with Christ in heaven. And someday, our positional truth will be our practical reality.

Even though our text does not specifically state that we are seated with Christ, I made that statement because of what it means to be in Christ. The phrase “in Christ” speaks of our union with Christ. and Dr. Gary Derickson of Western Baptist College taught me that this union is difficult to comprehend. The only tools we have to help us understand it are illustrations. One illustration we might use is from steel fabricating. Steel fabrication requires a lot of welding. When two pieces of metal are welded together, they form one solid piece. And if you have a good weld, those two pieces will not come apart. In fact, I have heard that one of the two original pieces can break or bend before the weld will ever break.

Our union with Christ is similar. We are united with Him in a spiritual bond that can never be broken. It is because of this union that we can say we have been seated, not just in the heavenly places, but seated together with Christ in the heavenly places. Furthermore, in Revelation 3:21, Jesus said, “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”

Think of it. What a great honor God has given us. He has made us alive with Christ, so that we might be in relationship with Him. And then He has also given us position with Christ in heaven, causing us to sit right by His side. This is not a far-fetched dream. This is not pie-in-the-sky thinking. This is our positional truth which will someday be our practical reality.

What is the practical application of this while we are living down here on earth? Well, consider your prayer life. When you pray, do not think of yourself as praying to a God who is somewhere out in the furthest reaches of the galaxy. Consider yourself within the very throne room of God. And not only that, but you are sitting right by His side. You can lean over and whisper in His ear. You can speak to Him as a close friend, or better yet, as the loving Father that He is. He invites you to share with Him the secrets of your soul and the burdens of your heart. He is attentive to hear and to answer your requests and petitions.