What does it mean to be seated in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6)?

Third, all that God has done He has wrought in connection with Christ. If we have been quickened, it has been together with Christ. If raised up and seated in heavenly places, it has been in Christ. Two prepositions are used, with and in. We have already been actually quickened in the sense of John 5:25, though we wait for the quickening of our mortal bodies. As quickened we live in association with Christ, because living of His life. We have not yet been actually raised up and seated in the heavens, but Christ has and He is our exalted Head. We are in Him, and consequently raised up and seated in Him. Presently we shall actually be raised up and seated with Him.

Shall we now turn to the next passage I read, Eph. 2:6? "And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." So that we are brought not simply through death into resurrection, but we are seated (not with, but) in Christ in heavenly places. What then is my standing? It is there in Christ where He is. Nothing short of it. It is not simply that I am raised together with Christ down here where I am. No, I am carried farther; I am seated in Christ, where He is in the glory. That is my place. Oh, what marvellous grace, that God in mercy should have come down to us, to meet us when dead in trespasses and sins, and have quickened us with Christ, raised us up together, made us sit together in heavenly places in Him! Always before Him, in His presence!

And all this becomes our blessed portion by faith in Jesus Christ. As we believe on Him, we are quickened, that is, we receive life, even eternal life and are saved by grace. Then we are risen with Him. We are now in Him, risen from the dead, the sons of God. Likewise in Christ (not with Christ) we are seated in the heavenly places. Now it is "in Him"; when He comes again we shall be "with Him" and share His glory. Here we have the summit of Christian position. We are not along representatively, but also virtually seated in Christ in the highest glory.

Clearly, we stand as such, before God "in Christ," "accepted in the Beloved." (Eph. 1:6.) Christ in glory, risen from the dead, having finished in our behalf the work of atonement, stands as our representative in the presence of God. So fully, that what He has passed through for us we are accredited with. Thus we are said to be "dead," "buried," "quickened," and "raised up" with Him; and even "seated together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." (Rom. 6:8; Eph. 2:5-6.) His being in heaven for us is thus as if we had actually gone in there and taken possession already of our final home; and there we are, presented to the eye and heart of God as identified with Him who, "when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high."

It is true! We are not yet there physically, but in the apprehension of our souls by the Spirit. "Sitting" carries the thought that we are now in possession of the place and privilege, and have the present enjoyment of it in our souls. "Sitting together" in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus indicates the solving of all the problems between Jew and Gentile as we read further down.

Eph. 2:6: "Raised us up together;" that is, He has raised up Jew and Gentile. "And made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." "We are seated." That is our position, not standing, but seated in restful enjoyment of our present blessings in Christ.

The epistle to the Ephesians goes even further: There the believers are not only seen as being raised with Christ, but as being seated in Him in the heavenly places, that is, in full possession and enjoyment of all the spiritual Christian blessings (Eph. 1:3; 2:6).

The heavens, then, can be opened upon a believer here below, when Christ, the Son of man, is up there. What a thought, what a truth for our heart! Indeed, more than this; for in Ephesians 2 we learn the blessed fact, that God has quickened us together with Christ, has raised us up together, and seated us together in Christ in heavenly places. He has taken His place at the right hand of God: and we are made to sit there in Him, because united to Him who is there. "He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit."

But to make my meaning more clear, I will first refer to the Ephesians. There the saints are seen sitting in heaven - there already - not on the way there; their conflicts and position in general flow from this. Hence they are seen risen with Christ, seated in heavenly places in Him, and this, through union with their Head, by the Holy Ghost sent down; on which last great fact their earthly position also depends.

Ephesians, as is well known, carries us one step beyond this. We are not only risen, but ascended, "made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Here, "with" can no longer be said, as is evident. We are not actually, but as yet only represented, there: it is "the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places."