Seated with Christ

Damilare was twenty-seven and had been youth pastor of a growing church in Ibadan for just over a year. He was a gifted preacher, and his favourite theme was the believer’s position in Christ. On Friday nights the young people packed the hall to hear him, and he would stride across the platform with his Bible open at Ephesians 2. “You are seated with Christ in heavenly places!” he would shout. “Far above! Nothing can touch you! You are the head and not the tail, above only and not beneath. When you walk into your office, you are walking in as someone seated above everybody in that building!”

The young people loved it. Some of them needed to hear that God had lifted them, because life had pushed them down for a long time. But the senior pastor had noticed something else. A few of the youth had begun to treat their colleagues and lecturers with a quiet contempt. One young man had told his manager that he did not need to take correction from “someone in the flesh.” So one Tuesday the senior pastor gave Damilare an errand. “Go and visit Mama Sade,” he said. “Take her the communion. Pray with her. And listen to her.”

Mama Sade was eighty-one. She had been a member of the church since before Damilare was born, had buried her husband twelve years earlier, and had suffered a stroke the previous rainy season that left her unable to walk. She lived in one room of a compound in Mokola, cared for by a granddaughter who sold provisions in the front shop. When Damilare arrived, she was sitting in a wooden armchair by the window, with a wrapper over her knees and a large-print Bible on a stool beside her.

He greeted her and asked, in the way young pastors do, “Mama, how are you managing?”

She laughed and patted the arms of the chair. “My son, as you can see, I am seated.” Then she tapped the Bible. “And I am seated with Christ. So I have two chairs. This one is small, and it hurts my back. The other one is very big. I am learning to sit in both.”

Punchline

Damilare told me later that he had preached on Ephesians 2 for twelve months, and that he understood it for the first time in that small room.

What does it mean to be seated with Christ in the heavenly places? It means far more than many of us have dared to believe. It also means something different from what some of us have proclaimed. Paul joins this position to the mercy by which we were saved, and he follows it through to humble good works. Seen that way, it gives us a home without making us superior, and it gives us security without promising that our earthly chairs will always be comfortable.

The same power, the same sentence

Paul’s teaching on our seated position does not begin in Ephesians 2. It begins at the end of Ephesians 1, where he prays that believers would know “the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe” (Ephesians 1:19). He then tells them that this is the power God “wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:20), placing Him far above every rival power and giving Him to be “the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1:22-23).

The chapter division can hide something important. In Paul’s mind there is no break between the exaltation of Christ and the next words: “And you hath he quickened” (Ephesians 2:1). In fact, in the Greek, the main verbs for what God did to us do not arrive until verses 5 and 6. Paul begins a sentence about the dead and finishes it with their resurrection and enthronement. The power that raised Jesus from the tomb and seated Him in heaven is the same power that reached down to us.

The body, Paul has just said, is joined to the Head. Where the Head is seated, the body is seated with Him. That is why our position is not a separate achievement. It is an extension of His.

Notice too the phrase heavenly places. Paul uses it five times in Ephesians, and the range is instructive. It is where God has blessed us “with all spiritual blessings” (Ephesians 1:3). It is where Christ is seated (Ephesians 1:20). It is where we are seated with Him (Ephesians 2:6). It is where “the principalities and powers” are now being shown “the manifold wisdom of God” through the church (Ephesians 3:10). And it is where we wrestle against “spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12), which translates the same phrase.

The heavenly places, then, are not a peaceful retreat far from all conflict. They are the unseen realm where Christ reigns, where our blessings are secured, and where the spiritual battle is fought. To be seated there with Christ is to share His victory in the very sphere where opposition still operates. It is a position of security in the middle of a conflict, not a position of exemption from it.

Where we were seated before

To appreciate the seat, Paul makes us look at where we came from:

And you hath he quickened , who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

The description is unsparing. We were “dead in trespasses and sins.” We “walked according to the course of this world.” We were under the influence of “the prince of the power of the air.” We lived “in the lusts of our flesh,” and we were “by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”

Look at two small phrases. In verse 2, Paul says ye, speaking to Gentile believers. In verse 3 he changes to we all: “Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past.” Paul includes himself. The former Pharisee, blameless according to the righteousness of the law, places himself in the same grave as the idol-worshippers of Ephesus. Then he adds “even as others.” There is no class of humanity that was spiritually alive while the rest were dead. Every one of us, religious or irreligious, was lying in the same cemetery.

This is the foundation for everything that follows. Whatever position we now hold in Christ, we did not climb to it from a slightly higher starting point than our neighbours. We were raised to it from the same death. That alone makes it impossible for the seated believer to look down on anyone.

But God, rich in mercy

Then come two of the most beautiful words in the Bible. “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” (Ephesians 2:4-5).

The initiative is entirely God’s. He is “rich in mercy.” He acts “for his great love.” He moves “even when we were dead.” Dead people do not cooperate in their own resurrection. They cannot reach for the hand that lifts them. Everything in this sentence flows from the character of God.

And right in the middle of Paul’s description of our raising, he breaks off and inserts a parenthesis: “(by grace ye are saved;)” (Ephesians 2:5). He cannot wait until verse 8 to say it. Before he even tells us that we have been raised and seated, he wants us to know how it happened. The seat cannot be separated from the grace. Anyone who talks about being enthroned with Christ without talking about being rescued by mercy has misunderstood the passage.

Then the three great verbs. God “hath quickened us together with Christ... And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:5-6). Each verb carries the prefix syn, meaning together with. We were made alive with Him, raised with Him and seated with Him. What happened to Jesus on Easter morning and at the ascension has been counted as happening to us, because we are in Him.

But together points in two directions. We are seated together with Christ. And we are seated together with each other. Paul never imagines a believer enthroned alone. The us and the we of these verses are plural throughout. The seat is shared.

Finally, Paul tells us the purpose: “That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7). God has seated us with Christ so that His kindness might be on display for ever. When the ages to come look at the redeemed, they will see what mercy can do with dead sinners.

Grace that leaves no room to boast

Paul then draws out the implication with great precision. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

The whole salvation package, including the seat, is a gift. That rules out boasting entirely. You cannot take credit for a position you received while you were dead. And if you cannot boast before God, you certainly cannot boast before other people.

This is exactly where some popular teaching on our position goes astray. Believers are told that being seated with Christ means they are above everyone around them: above their unbelieving colleagues, above their managers, above the people they disagree with. Damilare’s young man who refused correction from “someone in the flesh” had taken a doctrine of grace and turned it into a doctrine of rank.

Paul goes straight on in the rest of Ephesians 2 to show that the seat does the opposite. Jews and Gentiles, once divided by hostility, have been made “one new man” (Ephesians 2:15). Christ “hath broken down the middle wall of partition” (Ephesians 2:14). Former strangers are now “fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19). Being seated with Christ removes the old ranking systems. It does not create new ones.

James saw what happens when a congregation forgets this:

My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool: Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?

The man with the gold ring is told, “Sit thou here in a good place.” The poor man is told to stand, or to “sit here under my footstool.” James calls this partiality and evil thinking. And the irony is sharp. Believers who are themselves seated with the Lord of glory, by sheer mercy, are handing out better and worse seats in His house according to wealth and appearance.

The seated believer must refuse that whole way of thinking. If God gave you your place without regard to your merit, you cannot assign other people their places according to theirs. Paul’s instruction elsewhere fits exactly: “Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate” (Romans 12:16). The truest sign that you understand your seat in heaven is the way you treat the people seated beside you on earth.

Nugget

The seat you have with Christ was given to you when you were dead. It gives you a home in God’s family and leaves you no ground for looking down on anyone.

Seated in order to walk

The paragraph ends with a verse that turns from position to practice. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).

Workmanship translates the Greek poiēma, something made, a work of art or craftsmanship. You are what God has made. And He made you in Christ “unto good works.” Notice the order. Good works did not earn the seat; verses 8 and 9 have already excluded that. But the seat leads to good works. Those who have been raised with Christ are created to walk.

Paul opened the chapter by describing how we once walked according to the course of this world (Ephesians 2:2). Now he closes it by saying we have been created to walk in good works. The same verb frames the passage. Grace has not removed us from the road. It has given us a different road to walk on.

And what are these good works? Paul spends the rest of the letter telling us, and they are strikingly ordinary. Walk “With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love” (Ephesians 4:2). Speak truth to your neighbour. Work with your hands so that you have something to give. Let no corrupt communication come out of your mouth. Be kind and tenderhearted. Husbands love your wives. Children honour your parents. Employees serve with sincerity of heart, as to Christ. Masters give up threatening.

That is what life in the heavenly places looks like at ground level. A seated believer is a kinder colleague, a more honest trader, a gentler parent and a more patient member of the church. If your doctrine of position makes you harder to work with, you have not yet understood it.

Hidden with Christ in God

Paul says something similar to the Colossians. “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:1-2).

Again the position comes first: if ye then be risen, which means since you have been raised. Then comes the call to seek and to set the mind. Because your life is now joined to the seated Christ, your affections are to be drawn upward toward Him.

But then Paul adds a phrase that corrects any idea that our position is already on full display. “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:3-4).

Your life is hidden. It is real, secure and kept with Christ in God, but it is not yet visible. The world does not see a believer seated on a throne. It sees a man in traffic on Ring Road, a woman behind a provision counter, an old widow in a wooden chair. The glory is real, but it is held in reserve until Christ appears. Then, and only then, “shall ye also appear with him in glory.”

Hebrews describes the same tension with honesty:

Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

“But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus.” The writer does not pretend that every enemy has already been visibly subdued. Sickness still strikes. Injustice still flourishes. Death still comes. What we see is Jesus, “crowned with glory and honour,” having tasted death for every man. Our confidence rests on Him, not on the absence of trouble.

Jesus Himself speaks of a future sharing in His throne:

To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

The promise is made to the church at Laodicea, a congregation that thought itself rich and in need of nothing. Christ offers them a seat on His throne, but He attaches it to overcoming, “even as I also overcame.” The pattern of Christ is the pattern for His people: the cross before the crown, faithfulness before display. We are seated with Him now by grace, and the full revelation of that seat lies ahead.

So Paul’s instruction in Colossians continues, without pause, into very earthly matters: put to death immorality and covetousness, put away anger and lying, put on “bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering” (Colossians 3:12). The believer who is hidden with Christ in heaven is busy with kindness on earth.

Seated and suffering

There is one more thing to notice about the letter to the Ephesians. Paul wrote it from prison. He calls himself “the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles” (Ephesians 3:1), “the prisoner of the Lord” (Ephesians 4:1) and “an ambassador in bonds” (Ephesians 6:20). The man who wrote the most exalted description of our seated position in the whole New Testament was writing it in chains.

And he did not think his chains disproved his message:

Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.

Look at how Paul describes himself: “less than the least of all saints.” The apostle who knew he was seated with Christ did not consider himself above other believers. He considered himself beneath them, and he was astonished that grace had been given to him at all.

Then look at the end of the passage: “Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.” The Ephesians were apparently discouraged by Paul’s imprisonment. How could the apostle of a reigning Christ be in chains? Paul tells them not to lose heart. His sufferings were serving their glory. And in the same passage he says that through the church, God’s manifold wisdom is being made known to principalities and powers in heavenly places. Part of that display is a prisoner who rejoices and a church that does not faint.

Being seated with Christ, then, does not promise freedom from earthly suffering. Paul writes to Timothy from a later imprisonment:

It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him , we shall also live with him : If we suffer, we shall also reign with him : if we deny him , he also will deny us: If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.

“If we suffer, we shall also reign with him.” Reigning and suffering are joined. We share His death, and we will share His life. We share His sufferings now, and we will share His reign fully. Paul tells the Romans the same thing: we are “joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together” (Romans 8:17).

This is a vital correction for anyone who has been told that a believer who is truly seated with Christ will never be sick, never be poor and never be troubled. God does heal, and we should pray boldly for healing. God does provide, and we should trust Him for our needs. But a stroke in old age does not mean Mama Sade has lost her seat. An empty bank account in a hard month does not mean you have fallen from the heavenly places. Paul in chains and Mama Sade in her wooden chair are sitting exactly where God has placed them in Christ.

And the final verse of that passage gives the deepest assurance of all: “If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself” (2 Timothy 2:13). Your seat does not depend on the strength of your faith on your weakest day. It depends on the faithfulness of the One you are seated with.

Damilare sat with Mama Sade for nearly two hours that afternoon. He gave her communion, and she held the small cup with a trembling hand and said, “This is the blood that bought my chair.” Then she asked him to read Ephesians 2 aloud, and she stopped him at the parenthesis in verse 5. “Read that one again,” she said. “By grace ye are saved. Do you see, my son? He put it in the middle so we would not forget.”

Then she prayed for him. She did not pray for herself to walk again, though she had prayed that prayer many times and told him she still believed God could do it. She prayed for the young people in his Friday meetings. She named some of them. She had been praying for them by name every morning, though she had never met most of them.

Punchline

“They are seated with Christ,” she said, when she finished. “So teach them to sit well. A person who sits well is not proud. He is grateful. And when he gets up from his chair, he goes to serve somebody.”

The following Friday, Damilare preached Ephesians 2 again. He told the young people about the two chairs. He told them that their seat in heaven was a gift of mercy given to dead people, and that it made them family, not rulers. He read them James 2 and asked them whether they had been handing out good seats and footstools in their hearts. And he told them that the most exalted believer he had met that year could not get up from a wooden armchair in Mokola.

Mama Sade went to be with the Lord the following harmattan. Damilare preached at her funeral. He told me the text came to him easily. “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”

She had sat well in both chairs. Now she had only one.

For reflection, practice and prayer

Teaching Companion

For Reflection

• How has the teaching of being “seated with Christ” been presented to you in the past? Has it ever made you feel superior to others, or has it given you peace and security?
• Why do you think Paul inserts “by grace ye are saved” in the middle of describing our resurrection and seating?
• How does James 2:1-4 challenge the way you treat people of different status in church, at work or in your neighbourhood?
• What does it mean to you that your life is “hid with Christ in God” and not yet on display?
• How can Paul’s imprisonment and Mama Sade’s wooden chair shape the way you think about suffering and your position in Christ?

This Week

Each morning this week, read Ephesians 2:1-10 slowly and pause at the parenthesis in verse 5: “by grace ye are saved.” Thank God specifically for the mercy that raised you. Then, each day, choose one person whom you might be tempted to look down on, perhaps a junior colleague, a domestic worker, a neighbour or someone in church whom others overlook, and do one concrete act of kindness or honour toward them. Let your seat in heaven show itself in how you treat someone on earth.

A Prayer

Father, rich in mercy, thank You that when I was dead in sins You made me alive together with Christ, raised me up together with Him and seated me with Him in the heavenly places. Thank You that this seat is a gift of grace, and that I have nothing to boast about. Keep me from pride and from treating anyone as beneath me. Teach me to walk in the good works You prepared for me. When my earthly chair is hard and my circumstances are painful, remind me that my life is hidden with Christ in You, and that He is faithful. Help me to sit well, to serve gladly, and to wait for the day when Christ appears and I appear with Him in glory. Amen.

Truth received brings freedom. Truth believed establishes the heart.

Scripture quotations are from the King James Version. · Illustrations using first names only are composites unless stated otherwise.