It may not be too much to say that the whole of the Epistle to the Ephesians is the development of chapter 1:3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” In this statement of praise there are three things. First, all the blessings into which we are brought flow to us from God as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that is to say that, on the ground of redemption, we are brought into the same relationship with God as Christ enjoys. Second, all these spiritual blessings are made ours as being in Christ. Third, the place in which they are possessed and enjoyed is in the heavenlies. Let us prayerfully seek to understand these points.
We may ask what is meant by Christ being in the heavenlies, and this is explained to us at the end of chapter 1. There the Apostle prays that the saints may understand “what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward 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 [heavenlies]” (Eph. 1:17-20).
The mighty power of God was displayed in the resurrection of Christ. He was raised up out of the grave in which He lay and set down at God’s own right hand in the heavenlies. We read that His power for us is “according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ.” If chapter 1 gives us the effect of this mighty power in relation to Christ, chapter 2 shows us the effect on His people. The exceeding greatness of God’s power met us in the place where we were dead in sins and “quickened us together with Christ . . . and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:5-6). Christ has accomplished God’s purposes for God’s glory, and God has acted in power in response to the One who has endured all for His glory. The effect is seen in a twofold way — in the place Christ occupies, and in the place we occupy in Him — seated in Him in the heavenlies.
It may be objected that we are in Christ Jesus in the heavenlies only in the sense of being seen in Him as the head of the new race. In the first place, Christ is never spoken of as the Head of a race in this epistle; rather, He is spoken of as Head over all things to the church. We are also told that all things, whether in heaven or in earth, will be “headed up” in the Christ, but this is a very different thing. We are blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ, not merely through Christ. As united to Him and members of His body, we are blessed in Him. This is the teaching of Ephesians. There everything is seen as on God’s side, the side of purpose, and thus is complete. The counsels of God are accomplished, and He has before Him His whole church seated in Christ. He reveals this to us to show us our true place, the character of our blessings, and the scene in which, in spirit, He would have us live and move. We have been made to sit in heavenly places in Christ. There is the whole church now before the eye of God, and He has it there “that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7).
Adapted from The Christian
Friend, 1884, pp. 204-207