Enthroned with Christ
Today's Scripture
Ephesians 2:1-10
Today's Insights
Paul's letter to the Ephesians unfolds like a magnificent panorama, revealing the breathtaking vista of God's eternal purpose in Christ. In chapter 1, Paul celebrates Christ's decisive victory and exaltation to the Father's right hand, where He now reigns supreme over all creation. From this lofty summit, Paul then descends in chapter 2 to show how our personal salvation connects intimately with Christ's heavenly rule.
The apostle describes our union with Christ in His ascension with these remarkable words: God "made us alive together with Christ... and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:4–6). This extraordinary statement invites us to see our spiritual reality from an entirely new perspective. We are not merely forgiven sinners still struggling on earth—we are enthroned companions of Christ in the heavenly realms!
Today's Devotional
Sarah struggled with anxiety for years. Every morning she would wake up with a sense of dread, mentally rehearsing all the potential problems awaiting her. Deadlines at work, family tensions, financial concerns, health worries—these earthly troubles dominated her thinking and stole her peace.
During a particularly difficult season, her pastor taught a series on Ephesians. When he reached chapter 2, verse 6—"and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus"—something shifted in Sarah's perspective. She began to visualize herself seated with Christ, looking down on her circumstances from heaven's vantage point rather than being buried beneath them.
"What would my problems look like if I were truly seeing them from where I'm spiritually seated—next to Jesus in heavenly places?" she wondered. Gradually, Sarah developed a practice of beginning each day by consciously embracing her heavenly position in Christ before facing her earthly challenges.
This wasn't mere positive thinking. It was embracing a spiritual reality that Paul declares to be already true of every believer. When Christ ascended to heaven after His resurrection, we were spiritually united with Him in that journey. As Watchman Nee observed, "God has made us to sit with Christ in the heavenly places, and every Christian must begin his spiritual life from that place of rest."
Imagine this profound truth: As the disciples watched Jesus majestically rise into heaven forty days after His resurrection, we were, in a spiritual sense, carried within Him on that glorious upward journey. Upon arrival in heaven, God positioned us before and in Christ, seating us in places of honor and rest. This carries wonderful overtones of the Father placing each of us in a royal, supremely comfortable chair where we gaze upon Christ's beauty and naturally begin to worship Him.
This heavenly positioning isn't just inspiring theology—it transforms our daily experience. Paul makes this connection explicit in Colossians 3:1: "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God." Our spiritual location should determine our mental preoccupation. Since we're seated with Christ in heaven, our thoughts and affections should naturally gravitate toward heavenly realities.
Prophetic Significance
The truth of believers being seated with Christ in heavenly places carries profound prophetic implications that stretch from eternity past to eternity future.
In the ancient prophetic literature, the concept of "enthronement" was consistently associated with victory, authority, and kingdom establishment. When Psalm 110:1 declared, "The LORD says to my Lord: 'Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool,'" it foretold a Messianic figure who would share God's throne and exercise divine authority. Jesus claimed this prophecy for Himself (Matthew 22:44), and Paul sees its fulfillment in Christ's ascension.
But remarkably, Paul extends this prophetic fulfillment to include all believers. We are not merely subjects in Christ's kingdom—we are co-regents seated with Him on His throne! This fulfills the promise given to the overcomers in Revelation 3:21: "The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne."
Our present heavenly seating also anticipates the future reality described in Revelation 20:4, where the saints are seen seated on thrones with authority to judge. What we experience now spiritually "in Christ" serves as a prophetic foretaste of what we will experience in the fullness of the coming kingdom.
This heavenly positioning also reveals the prophetic purpose behind the incarnation itself. When the eternal Word became flesh (John 1:14), He initiated a divine exchange—He took our humanity that we might share in His divinity. As the early church fathers expressed it, "God became man that man might become like God." Our being seated in heavenly places represents the fulfillment of God's original intention in Genesis 1:26 to create humans in His image and likeness, sharing in His dominion.
Perhaps most significantly, our heavenly seating with Christ prophetically declares that God's redemptive plan has already been accomplished in the heavenly realms. While we still await its full manifestation on earth, in the spiritual realm where time and eternity intersect, we are already glorified with Christ. As Paul states in Romans 8:30, those whom God justified "he also glorified"—using the past tense for something we typically think of as future. This is because from heaven's perspective, the end is already accomplished.
This prophetic reality should revolutionize our approach to spiritual warfare. We don't fight for victory; we fight from victory—from a position of authority already secured in Christ. Ephesians 6:10-18 makes more sense when we remember that the spiritual armor is worn by those already seated in heavenly authority with Christ. We engage earthly battles from a heavenly vantage point.
Reflect & Pray
How might viewing your current circumstances from heaven's perspective—seated with Christ—change your response to challenges? What would it look like to begin each day conscious of your heavenly position before addressing earthly concerns?
Heavenly Father, thank You for the astonishing truth that I am already seated with Christ in heavenly places. Help me to live today from that position of spiritual reality and authority. When earthly concerns threaten to overwhelm me, remind me of my heavenly vantage point in Christ. May my thoughts, affections, and actions flow from the awareness that I am united with Christ in His exalted state. Teach me to view my circumstances, relationships, and challenges from heaven's perspective. In Jesus' name, Amen.