A Throne for You

“But God, being rich in mercy,
because of the great love with which He loved us,
when we were dead in our transgressions,
made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved,),
and raised us up with Him,
and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
Ephesians 2:4-7

“But God” Those are important words.  The verses previous talk about our existence in the old nature, the fact that we were children of wrath and sons of disobedience.  “But God… “ He didn’t leave us there.  Because of His great love and mercy, He made us alive through the blood of the Jesus (He quickened our spirit to be alive and able to converse with the Holy Spirit), and raised us up with Him.  Notice that this verb is in the past tense.  It is a done deal.  We have been raised up with Christ – raised from the dead, raised from the former life, raised to the very throne of God!  And, He seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus!  Again, past tense.  Done deal.  We are seated.  That means that even though we are not in heaven yet, that our place is there waiting on us.  It has been decreed.  We are members of the royal household. 

Do you envision yourself seated with Christ in heaven?  You can!  You can sit and talk to God, you can have a discussion where your opinion matters, you will one day rule over angels from those very seats that are already ours.  Notice that God even encourages us that this is reality, but in the ages to come.  We must be patient, living this life as if the next life is a reality because when we get there, God wants to show us the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us. 

Wow!  Hold on a minute!  Do you mean that God wants to be kind to me?  I should be being kind to Him and giving Him glory, honor, praise, adoration, my life, etc… for what He has already given me!  But it is true, God wants to give us even more, if we will just believe in Him and hold onto the grace by which we have been saved. The surpassing riches of God’s grace is ours for eternity.  Done deal.  We may not always look and act like royalty, but we are!