Monday, May 2, 2016

Please, Sit Down

The climax of the meritorious work of the Lord Jesus Christ is His glorification, that is, "the seating of the Lord at His (Father God) right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come." (Ephesians 1:20-21) This came about after Jesus had been made sin with our sin; after He had paid the penalty for our sin; after He had suffered unimaginably in spirit, soul and body, so that the demands of justice was fully met and paid for. Once this was accomplished, then Christ, was raised from the dead. We may know these facts but the good news is, we were raised with Him and seated with Him, "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 2:4-7) This was not our doing, but the Father's. The Father declares we are seated together with Christ.

God the Word became flesh, a man (John 1:14); He identified Himself with the human race  (Philippians 2:6-8); He became the substitute for the entire human race (John 3:16); He delivered the human race from the authority of Satan (Colossians 1:13); After He has conquered Satan, death, hell and the grave (Revelation 1:18), He arose from the dead; was reunited with His physical body (Acts 2:27); carried His blood into the Most Holy Place in heaven (Hebrews 9:12); He then sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High making redemption both eternal and available to the entire human race. We have the God Man seated at the Father's right hand as our advocate, (1 John 2:1), our mediator, (1 Timothy 2:5), our representative, our intercessor before the Father. (Hebrews 7:25) This is the crowning event of redemption. Jesus seated at the Father's right hand, and is the head of the new body, the Church. It's no wonder that the Apostle Paul proclaims, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." (Ephesians 1:3) 

Not only are we seated in the highest position in the universe with Christ, we are also blessed with every spiritual blessing that is necessary to maintain our place as members of His glorious body.
In the mind of God, every believer is in Christ now. When we go to the throne of Grace in prayer, it is as though Jesus Himself were going there, for we go in His Name. The Apostle Paul tells us, "For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." (Colossians 3:3) Every believer is  hidden from the adversary, but we are visible to the Father. The writer of Hebrews says, "For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." (Hebrews 9:24) 

Jesus is at the right hand of the Father as our representative, as our Lord, who gave Himself for us. If Christ sat down at God's right hand, it is because the Father accepted Him and accepted what He did for us. The fact that He is seated there is the seal of our acceptance in the beloved. (Ephesians 1:6) This should cause us to see that our Redemption is a completed, eternal, finished thing. So, let us not get caught up in the worry and anxiety that the world would try to conform us to, but let us exercise our faith in the integrity of God's Word and know that as Christ is, "far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come" (Ephesians 1:21) so we are also for we are in Him as we can see, "the Father has put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." (Ephesians 1:22-23) PTL...   

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