‘But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, (by grace you are those who are saved), and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus.'
‘But God.' Here is the great turning point. In the midst of man's sinfulness and subservience to evil God stepped in. He did not leave mankind without hope, walking in darkness, not knowing where they were going. Instead He intervened because He is rich in mercy, and because He has set His love on us. Thus Paul now stresses again the abounding riches of the mercy of God and the greatness of His love for us. It is these, and these alone, that can explain why, when we were dead in sins, He exercised the greatness of His power (Ephesians 1:19) and gave us new life, and raised us up with Him, and made us sit with Him in heavenly places, giving us spiritual life that we might know Him.
‘Being rich in mercy.' Elsewhere we read, ‘according to His mercy He saved us' (Titus 3:5). Here the richness of that mercy is stressed. This mercy is within His sovereign will (Romans 9:15-18), and it abounds towards us, so that Paul himself could never forget that he had obtained mercy in this way (1 Timothy 1:13; 1 Timothy 1:16), with the result that the plea for mercy for others is often contained in his salutations. Here we learn of God's overflowing mercy, of His boundless activity which results from His compassion towards the undeserving, towards us and all who are His.
‘For His great love with which He loved us.' His love was central to the exercise of His saving power. He so loved that He gave His only Son (John 3:16) and John exults continually at the greatness of that love (1 John 3:1; 1 John 4:9), while Paul tells us that God commends His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). What greater love could there be than that? Grace is indeed love acting on behalf of the undeserving, and here again we learn of His overflowing and abounding love.
‘Even when we were dead through our trespasses.' The suggestion appears to be that because we were ‘dead' we were unwilling and unable to respond. We had no spiritual life. We had constantly deviated from what was right and it had worked death within us. We continually ignore Him in our daily lives. Thus because of our parlous state He had to step in and to force the issue.
‘Made us alive together with Christ.' And how did He do it? He ‘made us alive.' The word of God spoke to our hearts and the Holy Spirit worked a new birth within us. We were born from above (John 3:5) We experienced the ‘washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit' (Titus 3:5). We were ‘begotten again to a living hope' (1 Peter 1:3). We were ‘begotten again -- of incorruptible seed through the word of God which lives and abides' (1 Peter 1:23). We were begotten ‘of His own will --by the word of truth' (James 1:18). It was like the dead earth producing life after an abundant fall of rain, the ‘drenching' (baptizo) of the Holy Spirit (which is what baptism illustrates). Thus were we ‘made alive' by Him.
‘Together with Christ.' And it happened in Christ. Spiritually we rose because He rose. The power of His resurrection was released to give us life (Philippians 3:10; Romans 6:8-9), and we are now alive from the dead (Romans 6:13) and live our lives by the power of His risen life (Galatians 2:20; Romans 5:10; Romans 6:10-11). ‘The hour comes and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live,' Jesus had said (John 5:25), and that hour has now come for us who are His. We live as those who are risen from the dead, walking in newness of life in the spiritual sphere (Romans 6:4), which then reflects itself in the physical sphere. So Father, Son and Holy Spirit unite in giving us life.
This ‘making alive' indicates the commencement of the Christian life, and is therefore speaking of a genuine present, personal experience in the life of each believer. We may not always ‘feel' it but it is at work within us nevertheless (Philippians 2:13). It is often suggested that while what Paul is describing in Ephesians 1:19-22 actually happened to Jesus Christ, it only ‘potentially' happened to us. But that is not what Paul is saying. Rather he is making clear that it is more than that, that it is something that is actuated in experience. There are, in other words, two aspects to what he is describing. One the present aspect which we experience through the Spirit as he opens up a new spiritual world and we enter in and live in it (‘Heaven above is softer blue, earth beneath is sweeter green, something lives in every hue, that Christless eyes have never seen'), and the second the final fulfilment when earth is left behind and we enter totally into that spiritual world at the coming of Christ when we will be ‘changed' or resurrected (1 Thessalonians 4:14-17) and see Him as He is (1 John 3:2) and spend eternity with Him (Revelation 22:3-5).
‘By grace you are those who are saved.' Lest this all seem to be too wonderful for us Paul interjects this comment, which he cannot keep back as he contemplates the graciousness of God. This is not something that we have attained for ourselves, he declares. This is not something we have earned or deserved. It is all as a result of God's active grace, His undeserved, unmerited, active love and favour reaching out to us in saving power. It is ‘by His grace' that we have been, and are therefore now saved, thus experiencing this glorious chain of events, commencing from new birth and finalising in glory.
‘And raised us up with Him, and made us to sit with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.' If our being made alive with Him is actual in experience there is no doubt that this is so too. The point is not only that what happened to Him will one day happen to us because we are in Him, (although that is true), but that in a genuine sense it has already happened. We can ‘know Him and the power of His resurrection' (Philippians 3:10). We can walk continually in His presence. We can experience continually the active power of His life at work within us and through us (Galatians 2:20). And Ephesians 6:12 makes clear that even now, as we seek to stand against the wiles of the Devil (Ephesians 6:11), ‘our wrestling -- is against -- spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places'. Thus we are seen as already in the heavenly places. And this is because when we responded and believed, we were not only made gloriously alive in Him through His Spirit, but were also raised with Him through His resurrection power and seated with Him in the heavenly places, and entered into a new sphere of existence, reigning in life through Christ (Romans 5:17). Into this sphere we are born as new-born babes (1 Corinthians 3:1; Hebrews 5:13; 1 Peter 2:2) and within it we need continually to grow and mature (Ephesians 4:15; 1 Peter 2:2; 2 Peter 3:18).
Thus having entered into a new sphere of existence, we, as it were, live in two worlds. We live in the physical world, as we always have, but we now also live in a spiritual world where we are seated with Christ, Who is at God's right hand (Ephesians 1:20). That means that in that world we experience the protection of His authority and power, and we know the power of His life. It is only because of this that we can hope to stand against the wiles of the Devil. (See on Ephesians 1:19-21). And it is from this world that we then go out as ambassadors for Christ, calling on the world to be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:20). We are, through the Spirit, enjoying the earnest of our inheritance (Ephesians 1:14), the first sample and guarantee, until we finally receive the whole.