According to Ephesians 2, not everyone who calls themselves a Christian truly is one. A true Christian is a person who was once in the WORST condition (described in verses 1–3) and has been moved to the BEST condition. Furthermore, unless a Christian realizes the depth of their former condition and understands the great work God has done by grace—lifting them from the depths of the WORST to the BEST—they will never be able to live the proper Christian life that Paul teaches from Ephesians 4 onwards.
After seeing the depth of our sinful condition, we are now trying to grasp what God has done by grace in our lives from verse 4 onwards, using the word BEST as our guide. We have already seen B for Benefactor: the author of this change is God Himself. It is God alone. Then we saw the motives, or Enablers, which lay behind that change: His rich mercy and great love.
Today, we come to the letter S in BEST: the System God used to make this change. Let me warn you, this will require full concentration and “mental trekking.” I know summer has started; it’s hot, stuffy, and humid. Some of you stayed up too late last night, have a slight headache, or feel like sleeping. Some may even be grumpy, irritable, or grouchy because you ran around trying to get ready in too short a time, perhaps sharing sharp words with children or spouses, and your mind is still running in a hundred directions.
Now, I am telling you to wake up for some mental mountain trekking. It is difficult to climb a mountain, but only when you climb do you see amazing views. In the same way, spiritual mountain climbing requires mental effort, but once you are up, you will see a perspective of truth that will not only ravish your hearts but transform your whole thinking and your life. Romans 12 says that this is the reasonable worship that pleases God. Transformation in life comes from the renewing of the mind by seeing higher truths.
Sadly, today’s churches often fail to do this. People are mentally lazy, and pastors are lazy, so they simply numb the mind with music for 40 minutes. Then, whatever the pastor says sounds deep, but you take notes and later realize there was no food for thought; it just made you feel something at the time. There was nothing new—just grinding the same floor, pumping up emotions, and making people feel good. People go to church for 10 or 20 years and never learn anything.
Let us not offer such vain worship to God. Gird up the loins of your mind and be ready to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The system God used to save a dead sinner is a glorious topic, but it is a complex and difficult system to grasp. Why? Because our problem was so complex. To save us was the impossible miracle of the universe. God had to perform a multi-organ, multi-layer spiritual operation. Think of the five problems we had:
- First, The Nature Problem: We were Wholly Dead. God had to come as a life-saving emergency doctor. He performs a spiritual life transplant, infusing divine life into a wholly dead body; He performs a spiritual resurrection so that new life senses and responds to God.
- Second, The Blindness Problem: We had Only Worldly Vision, with no concern for our souls and no vision of eternity—only eating and drinking for today. God had to come as the eternal eye surgeon to touch and open our eyes. He has to widen our narrow thinking to make us think about God, heaven, hell, and eternity, thereby awakening an eternal consciousness and lifting our eyes from the temporary currents of this life to the reality of eternity.
- Third, The Spellbound Problem: We were Roped by Satan, held under a witchcraft-like spell of the devil. God had to come as the mighty Deliverer to overcome the god of this world and break the spell. He doesn’t just negotiate for our release; the devil will never negotiate. The only way we can be released is for God to crush his head. God strikes down the power of Satan and transfers us from his kingdom into His own.
- Fourth, The Moral/Heart Problem: we were Slaves to Lust, addicted to our own desires—the heart loved the very things that destroyed us. He has to change our whole internal nature, removing the addiction to lust and replacing it with new desires. As a divine heart surgeon, He transplants a new heart and new affections into us. As a neurosurgeon, He rewires our nervous system so our senses feel pleasure in godly, good, and spiritual things.
- Fifth, The Legal Problem: We were Totally Children of Wrath, standing guilty before a holy law. As the Supreme Judge, God does not simply ignore the law. He has to find a way to satisfy His justice and holy law at the same time, moving us from the status of children of wrath to children of God.
Do you see what a complex work this is? It was a real and pervasive transformation: from death to life, from walking in trespasses and sins to walking in good works which God ordained beforehand, from bondage to liberty, and from wrath to adoption. We are going to see the complex, mind-bending divine system God uses to do all this for us. If the Holy Spirit opens our eyes, we will be filled with eternal awe and praise. You see this system in verses 4–6:
“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.”
You will notice the system or method God used to save us is described in three unique verbs: Quickened, Raised, and Seated (QRS). He quickened us (or made us alive together with Christ), raised us up together with Christ, and made us sit together in Christ Jesus in heavenly places. This is the glorious system that took WORST dead sinners from the deepest pit and lifted them to the highest glory in heavenly places.
Let us understand this divine, complex system under two headings: the Meaning of the three words and the Depth of the three words (MD).
The Meaning of the Three Words
The first word, Quickened (or made alive), basically means to give life to someone who had no life. This is the same word used in John 5:21: “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life…” and John 6:63: “It is the Spirit who gives life.” The Father is the author of life, and He gives life through the ministry of the Spirit. So, the word “quickened” means the impartation of life where there was no life. Quickening is not the strengthening, renewing, or nurturing of an existing life that may be fading or flickering. Quickening is the impartation of new life where there was death. It is bringing life into death from an outside source.
What about the word Raised up? Basically, this means to stand erect from a sleeping or prone position. In Matthew 9:6, our Lord said to a paralyzed man, “Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” When someone is dead, they are flat in the posture of death, but when life is imparted, how is that life manifested? It is manifested by rising. So, rising tells us not only of the impartation of life but the manifestation of that life. When a man is raised from the dead, it becomes manifest that he is a resurrected man.
The third word, Sit together, simply means a sitting position. This is the same word used for our Lord’s session after His ascension when He sat down at the right hand of God. Sitting speaks of the exaltation of life.
So, the three verbs describe the activity of God: Quickening means life is imparted; Raising up means life is manifested; Seating means life is exalted. He not only quickened and raised us, but even seated us in heavenly places.
The Depth of the Three Words
Now, Paul doesn’t say that we have simply been quickened, raised, and seated. He joins these to a little preposition that he puts at the front of each of them. Notice verse 5: “…made us alive together with Christ,” and verse 6: “…raised us up together, and made us sit together… in Christ Jesus.”
He says we have been together quickened, together raised, and together seated. This becomes not only a compound phrase in grammar but a very complex phrase in theology. If Paul had said we were quickened through Christ or by Christ, it would be pretty simple to explain and understand. We could say God used Christ’s power to raise us. But he says “together.” We have been saved by nothing less than being quickened together, raised up together, and seated together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. There is a co-quickening, a co-raising, and a co-seating with Christ.
These are strange words that may baffle us as to their precise meaning. In my preparation, I have seen some simply leave this alone, but when we prayerfully struggle with the Word, a new and wonderful world of truth opens. We are talking about a system that is divinely mysterious and beyond human language. It is a truth that God the Holy Spirit must open to us, and He does not do this for the mentally lazy who continue to live unstable Christian lives. So, I plead with you to concentrate prayerfully, asking God to help me explain and to open your mind to grasp this.
In Ephesians 2:5, “Together with Christ” means that all three of these activities are not only connected with Christ but happened exactly at the time of His greatest redemptive works. The greatest redemptive works of Christ in history are these three: quickening from the dead, rising in resurrection, and ascending. This concept of being quickened, raised, and seated with Christ is found throughout the New Testament, specifically in Romans 6, Colossians 2 and 3, Galatians 2, and 2 Corinthians 5.
To summarize this for us, I want to explain the depth of these principles using my own three words. I call this the Triple A system: Accomplishment, Application, and Attachment.
1. The Accomplishment of our redemption: Everything Christ did on earth and is doing in heaven, He did as my Substitute to accomplish full redemption for me. That is the first principle. Whether it was His finished work on earth or His ongoing work in heaven, He did it as my substitute. Because the three greatest acts in the history of Jesus are His being quickened from death, His resurrection, and His ascension, this covers His entire redemptive history. When He lives, dies, is buried, is raised, and is seated as the Messiah, He is not acting as a private person; He is acting as my representative and my substitute.
Many passages talk about this. Romans 5:12–19 shows that what He did is regarded by God as being done on behalf of His people. Just as Adam stood as the representative of the human race and we fell in his fall, in the same way, Jesus’ quickening, rising, and seating are taken as if He did them in our place.
Our Lord Jesus was very conscious of this from the beginning. Why was He baptized? This has perplexed many, including John the Baptist. It was a ritual for sinners, yet the spotless Lamb came to be baptized. When John questioned Him, Jesus responded, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” What was our Lord doing? He was doing in reverse what happens to us in our baptism. Our baptism is the visible sign of our incorporation into Jesus Christ. His baptism was His official entrance into an identity with sinners like you and me. He says, “In the sinner’s place, I will fulfill all righteousness.” He became one with us, taking upon Himself the debts and obligations we owed to the law and justice of God. He rendered perfect obedience for us and suffered for our law-breaking. He entered that identity at His baptism. On the last night of His life on earth (Luke 22:20), He took bread and said, “This is my body which is given… in your behalf.”
So, all He did was to accomplish my redemption. Paul summarizes this in three acts of substitutionary work:
- His life and death were for me: Romans 5:8 says, “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” His death was in our place. When you read the Gospels, you should see His birth, suffering, and death as things done in your place.
- He rose for us: Romans 4:25 says, “He was raised again for our justification.” You have heard the resurrection story many times, but you must learn to see that spiritually, you were inside that tomb with Him and were quickened together with Him.
- He ascended for us: When He disappeared into the clouds, we must see it as if we went with Him. Hebrews 9:24 says, “For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands… but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.”
Everything Christ did, He did for me and as me.
2. The Application of our redemption: This is the personal application. Every bit of what I experience in salvation comes directly from His accomplished work. We have moved from Christ to the sinner—from redemption accomplished to redemption applied. It is only through this application that I am quickened, raised, and seated. The pattern in which redemption was accomplished becomes the pattern in which redemption is applied. Because Jesus was quickened, raised, and seated, when God takes a dead sinner in hand to save them, He follows that same order.
3. The Attachment (Union with Christ): Now, there is a problem between the first and second principles. The first says Christ accomplished this as my substitute. But the verse says we did it “together.” Christ was born 2,000 years ago; how could I be quickened together with Him when I wasn’t even born? How could He be my substitute when I wasn’t around to be substituted for? How can God’s work in me now be called a quickening or raising “together” with His when 2,000 years separate us?
The answer is Attachment: the glorious system of the Believer’s Union with Christ. This divine system of union binds together the finished substitutionary work of Christ and the experienced application of that work in my life now. Our union with Christ is described by those three verbs: quickened together, raised together, and seated together.
This bond is so amazing that it unites redemption accomplished and redemption applied as synchronous acts, as if time itself doesn’t exist. So intimate is the bond between Christ and the sinner that when God applies salvation through this union, it is as though the sinner is taken in a “time machine” back 2,000 years and placed inside Christ’s body. Just as Christ was quickened, the sinner is quickened. Just as Christ was raised, the sinner is raised. Just as Christ was seated, the sinner is seated. It happened “together” in union, as though time were of no consequence. In this union, there is no time gap; it happened at the same time, which is why the word “together” is used.
How did the Apostle Paul get Christ and us together? Redemption was not only accomplished in our place, it was applied to our life history by attaching the two. This is the Triple A system: Accomplishment, Application, and Attachment.
- Accomplishment shows us how He did it.
- Application shows us how we receive it.
- Attachment shows us the exact nature of being “together in union.”
This is how the Apostle dares to so intimately connect the three great acts of Christ—His quickening, His raising, and His seating—with our own salvation experience. This speaks of our Union with Christ. Look at the parallel passage in Colossians 2:12–13: “…having been buried with him in baptism, wherein ye were also raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead, and you being dead through your trespasses.”
This is not talking about a faceless crowd or a general race of people; it is the individual experience of every believer attached to Christ’s finished work. Every individual believer is quickened, raised, and seated in relationship to Christ Himself. This union is the system God uses to bring the blessings of Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension into our lives. It brings us into living contact with the saving virtue of the Son of God. His very divine life enters us to give us life; the very power that raised Christ from the dead is used to raise us from our WORST condition. This is the greatest invention of the wisdom of God to rescue a dead sinner.
We should learn to say not only “I am saved by Christ,” but “I am saved in Christ.” To be saved by Christ speaks of His objective work, but we can sometimes view that as something external to us. The blessed truth is that we are saved in Christ because God has united us to His own beloved Son. This is the consistent teaching of the New Testament. Romans 6:4 tells us that we were buried with Him by baptism into death so that, just as Christ was raised, we too might walk in newness of life.
The Illustration of the Tree
It is difficult to find a perfect example, but consider the tree.
- The Root (Christ): Two thousand years ago, the root was planted, grew, and was “raised” toward the sun.
- The Branch (You): You did not exist 2,000 years ago, but you are part of that tree now.
- The Togetherness: When God looks at the tree, He does not see the root’s history and the branch’s history as separate. Because the branch is Attached (Union) to the root, the branch is considered to have gone through everything the root went through. When the root was “quickened” from the soil, the branch—hidden in the life of the root—was quickened together with it.
Three Practical Steps to Living in Union
If this union is the predominant teaching of the New Testament, we must learn to see everything through it. I am vitally and inseparably united to the Son of God, body and soul. As real as He is at the right hand of the Father, I am joined to Him. Why do we fail to experience this? Because we often live as if He is “somewhere else.” To move from theory to experience, consider these three steps:
Step 1: Read the Gospels as Your Own Legal History
Stop reading the Gospels as the biography of a stranger; read them as the history of your own redemption accomplished in your place. When you see Christ’s perfect obedience, His agony in Gethsemane, and His suffering on the cross, do not just stand amazed—see Him as your Substitute. He is there doing what you should have done and suffering what you should have suffered.
When the Father says of Jesus, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” you must hear the Father saying that to you in Christ. This kills the “performance trap”—the idea that God only likes you if you read your Bible enough or pray long enough. He is already well pleased because He sees His Son’s perfect record on your account. When you hear Christ’s cry of abandonment on the cross, you can know that because He was forsaken in your place, you will never be forsaken.
Step 2: See Your Life as the Application of Christ’s Power
Learn to see your Christian life as the active flow of Christ’s “Quickening, Raising, and Seating” power. How do you know if this is happening? If you hate the sin you once loved, or if you have a hunger for God that you didn’t create yourself, that is the quickening power of Christ being applied to you.
Do not view this only as a past event at your conversion. Whenever you feel dry or spiritually “dead,” pray: “Lord, help me experience your quickening and raising power today.” View your daily struggles as opportunities for this life to flow through you. You can say with confidence, “Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, and is risen, and is at the right hand of God interceding for us” (Romans 8:34).
Step 3: Practice the Reality of Attachment
If you are seated with Christ, cherish your awareness of this union. God has given us the “means of grace”—Scripture, prayer, and the church—to keep this life-flow open. It is a tragedy when we treat these means carelessly, living as if we were still dead in sin.
Learn to talk to your soul using these truths:
- When feeling dead: “His life is my life; I am quickened.”
- When facing temptation: “His power over death is mine; I am raised.”
- When feeling anxious: “I am not just in Bangalore struggling to reach God. I am in Christ, seated in Heavenly places.”
Take ten seconds in the middle of a stressful workday to internally “sit down.” Acknowledge your position of rest in Christ. This is applying His “Seating” power to your anxiety.
A Final Warning and Invitation
There may be some here who feel completely lost by this. You might think, “What is the preacher so excited about? When will he finish so I can check my phone or go eat?” If you feel that way, I truly pity you, for you are still in that WORST condition—dead in trespasses, spellbound by the world, and under wrath. There is no rest for the volcano of dissatisfaction inside you until you come out of that pit.
You don’t have to understand every theological complexity to be saved. I am still learning these depths after thirty years. All you must do is behold the Lamb of God. The only way to be saved is to be attached to Jesus Christ in a living relationship of faith.
In a recent warning, the US President told a hostile nation to lay down their weapons and surrender in exchange for a full pardon and prosperity, warning that the alternative was destruction. We might doubt the words of a President, but God’s promise is certain: “Sinner, lay down your weapons of rebellion. Surrender and believe in my Son, and I will give you eternal blessings.”
Do not fight Him. Cast yourself upon His mercy. When He raises you from the dead, these truths will become a reality you can see with your own eyes. Believe the Gospel and embrace the word. May God stir you to seek His face until you know that you, too, have been quickened, raised, and seated together with Christ.