“And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.” He begins with the Gentiles (v. 2). Gives their condition as dead in sins (v. 3). He turns to the Jews, and you, he says, were by nature the children of wrath even as others. Dispensationally they were near, no doubt, but not by nature. So he puts the Jew practically in the place of the heathen (v. 4). Then he leaps right over to God Himself. They were children of wrath, but God is rich in mercy. He goes over from the condition in which men are lying, to God’s love to them when they were in that state (v. 5). Quickened together with Christ. I get it as a complete thing here. In Colossians 2:1313And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; (Colossians 2:13) the resurrection is not connected with quickening, the resurrection is in the preceding verse. In Colossians 1 get that the quickening is a total change of the subjective state. I am quickened, but it is another thing where you are going to put me. When we were dead in sins, He has quickened us together with Christ. I am not in my old place at all. God has quickened us together with Christ. It is not here that Christ quickens us. It is that He was dead, and having forgiven us all trespasses, God has quickened us together with Him. In Colossians 2:1313And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; (Colossians 2:13) it is really redemption, but it is life that is the question there. Having life is a different idea from the fact of being quickened. It is, a man living in this world has eternal life. I am quickened along with Christ, who has come down into the place in which I was—death. Why does He come there?
I was there in my sins, and He came there (having obtained forgiveness of my sins), and took me away. Then we get up together into heavenly places. It says, “The Son quickeneth whom he will” (John 5:2121For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. (John 5:21)); but that is a very different thing to being quickened along with Christ.
In 3 John He says, “If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you heavenly things?” He is referring to Ezek. 36, and as a master in Israel he ought to have known that. It is the thing for Israel then. These are the heavenly things.
This is, a new man comes out of death along with Christ. I am then in His state as man. So He goes on “Hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places.”
(To be continued, if the Lord will.)