There’s so much more in Ephesians’ glorious first paragraphs! Not surprisingly, since Paul is expressing the vision of the ultimate, we find him enthusing about heaven. The big surprise comes in what he says about it. Once again, it isn’t the way we usually think.
Maybe the most surprising thing comes in 2:6. Look at it: for Paul, the `heavenly realms’ aren’t just where we go when we die; they are where we believers are right now. Paul rejoices here – and here comes the surprise, to me anyway – that already, now, we are `seated in the heavenly realms in Christ’. Since we started the whole new existence of being, as Jesus says, `born again` (John 3:3), we are `seated’ once and for all with Jesus in the invisible realm, the real-est universe! Isn’t this clear from the past tenses in this verse – `And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms`? These unseen `realms’ do include more than we conventionally mean by `heaven’; they contain warfare too, 6:12 (cf 1 Cor 8:5 or Gal 1:8). But we have a specific, utterly secure place in this unseen, real-est universe; already, now, we are `seated` there `in Christ’. Can we dare to believe what God is saying here, that already (ie since were `born again`), we have one foot on earth, with all its issues, but also we are seated in the glory of heaven?
We don’t sense it, of course; most of the time, anyway. Our five senses are firmly attuned to this world; so – most of the time; apart from odd minutes, hints, glimpses in our lives’ best moments, that we sense and then they are gone – we don’t actually experience the `heavenly realms’. But vital things are happening there; and right now we share Christ’s unseen authority there (2:6, 1:20-21), far above all the principalities and powers. And that is why we can pray `in Jesus’ Name’. (It’s a vital point in many two-thirds-world countries, where it’s crucial that in Christ we’re set far above the reach of all powers of darkness.) `All the spiritual blessings’ that, according to Paul, we already possess, have likewise to do with our position in these `heavenly realms’ (see 1:3) that we must grasp by faith.
This is one reason why death will be the supreme, joyous adventure. Right now we’re like people walking through the woods with a noisy walkman. Outside the birds are singing, but there’s too much other noise pumping into our ears, and we can’t hear them at all. Then suddenly the batteries go dead… and for the first time we hear what’s really there! So when the old heart stops, and we close our eyes for the last time to this world, and open them to the eternal universe… we shall suddenly see where we’ve been living, see the forces that matter, that overwhelming cosmos of angels and demons, God and Satan, powers of heaven and hell that we’ve been wandering blindly amongst all this time. It will undoubtedly come as a shock; we’ll see what misdirected priorities, concerns and fears we had! But it’s going to be good; for above all we’ll see Jesus…
We’re seated securely with Christ, then, in the `real-est world’; remembering that let’s return to 1:13-14, because it takes us a step further. God’s Spirit who came to live in us when we were `included in Christ’ (or `born of the Spirit’ as Jesus describes this moment, John 3:8), is himself the `deposit’ or foretaste of heaven, in the sense that we usually mean it (Eph 1:14). God has a glorious future `inheritance’ for us; but that radiant `heaven’ also has a bridgehead inside us now, from which its transforming powers break into our decaying world. One day – at death or the second coming – they will sweep through us completely; but the foothold’s there already. Graham Kendrick’s song had it right – `Heaven is in my heart!’ When we were born again, we entered into heaven, and heaven entered into us. We are with God, he is with us; we are `seated’ with Christ now, and also heaven is in us now! (Thankyou, Lord, for both placing your Spirit in me, and seating me now `above… with Christ in God’; please help me get some real grasp of what this `heaven’ means for me, help me to `set my mind’ and loyalties there!)
Paul draws out the implications in a related passage in Colossians 3:1-4: `Since, then, you have been raised with Christ — set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God! Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things! For you died` [this is when we were “born again” – and see Romans 6:6-10,14 for some more wonderful implications; there’s a series about them on https://petelowmanresources.com/category/bible-introductions-3/romans-to-philippians/ ], — `Set your mind on things above… For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God! When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory!`
Wow. Summarizing then!!: first, Eph 2:6, God has seated us securely and eternally with Jesus in the `heavenly realms`; or, put the other way round, he has set the bridgehead of `heaven’ in us right now. And second, still more, the wonder of `heaven’ in the sense we conventionally mean it is where he’s lovingly bringing us; and there he will employ the coming ages to show us, astonishingly, how much he loves us! (Look at 2:7; that’s what it says!) Paul has a whole lot on his heart about the glory, love and oneness that will fill this heavenly cosmos of the future. So, there’s more profound revelations awaiting us here, with practical implications in a hundred directions! More then next week……..
