Seated in Messiah
2: 6b-10
Seated in Messiah DIG: Paul says you are seated in Messiah in heavenly places. What does that mean? What kind of authority do believers have in Messiah? How does the changed life of a believer serve as a display of God’s grace and character? What is the formula for salvation? Why do we need God’s grace to believe? Who can you tell this week?
REFLECT: What is the relationship between good works and salvation? What is the significance of the word “handiwork” in verse 10? How would thinking of yourself as God’s handiwork affect the way you conduct your life? How have you seen God working in you lately? What good work is the Lord giving you to do, with His power, this week?
Saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Messiah alone.
That is, God . . . seated us with Messiah Yeshua in heaven (2:6b). We are not raised from the dead (to see link click Ay – Raised in Messiah) and left in the graveyard. Because we are in Messiah, we have been lifted up with Him and we are sharing His throne in the heavenlies. Our physical position may be on earth, but our spiritual position is in heavenly places with Him. Like Lazarus, we have been called from the grave to sit with Messiah and enjoy fellowship with Him. In order to display (Greek: endeixetai) in the ages to come how infinitely rich is His grace (unmerited favor and loving kindness), and how great is His kindness toward us who are in Messiah Yeshua (2:7). The verb display carries a stronger meaning than to merely make something known. All recipients of divine grace will be high-resolution displays of the many-faceted grace of God throughout all eternity.97
The right hand of God’s throne is the center of authority and power in the entire universe. That power was given to the ascended Lord. The elevation of His children with Him in heavenly places means that we share His authority. We are made to sit with Him as heirs. The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Messiah, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory (Romans 8, 16-17).
The significance of this can’t be overstated. Many people won’t experience freedom in Messiah feel as though they are caught between two equal and opposing forces. Satan on one side and God on the other, and poor little me hanging between the two like a pawn. If that is what you believe, then you are defeated. The truth is that God is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, kind and loving in all His ways. Satan is a defeated and we are in Messiah, seated with Him in heavenly places. See the parallel account in Colossians 2:9-11, 13-15.98
Included in this grace is the gift of having enough faith to believe the Good News of Yeshua Messiah. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast (2:8-9 NIV). Faith is nothing that we do in our own power or by our own resources. In the first place, we do not have adequate power or resources. More than that, God would not want us to rely on them even if we had them. Otherwise salvation would be in part by our own works, and we would have some ground to boast in ourselves. Paul intends to emphasize that even faith is not from us apart from God’s giving it. Faith is presented as a gift from God in Second Peter 1:1, Philippians 1:29, and Acts 3:16. Yet this gift is not restricted to a few, but is available to everyone, “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to everyone” (Titus 2:11 NIV).
Church membership, baptism, confirmation, giving to charity, or being a good neighbor have no power to bring salvation. Nor does taking Communion, keeping the Ten Commandments, or living by the Sermon on the Mount. The only thing a person can do that will have any part in salvation is to exercise faith in what the Son of God had done for him or her.
When we accept the finished work of Messiah on our behalf, we act by the faith supplied by God’s grace. That is the supreme act of human faith, the act which, though it is ours, is primarily God’s – His gift to us out of His grace. When a person chokes or drowns and stops breathing, there is nothing he can do. If he ever breathes again, it will be because someone else starts him breathing. A person who is spiritually dead cannot even make a decision of faith unless God first breathes into him the breath of spiritual life. Faith is simply breathing the breath that God’s grace supplies. Yet, the paradox is that we must exercise it and bear the responsibility if we do not (John 5:40).
Obviously, since it is true that salvation is all by God’s grace, it is therefore not a result of works. Human effort has nothing to do with it (Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:16). And thus, no one should boast, as if he had any part of it. All boasting is eliminated in salvation (Romans 3:27 and 4:5; First Corinthians 1:31). Nevertheless, good works have an important place, as Paul is quick to affirm.99
To the extent that we are trusting, God can mold us, so that we become God’s workmanship, created in Messiah Yeshua to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (2:10 NIV). Our English word poem comes from the Greek word translated workmanship. You are God’s handcrafted work of art. You are not an assembly-line product, mass produced without a thought. You are a custom-designed, one-of-a-kind, original masterpiece.100
If there is no good works, no good spiritual fruit in a person’s life then it shows that they are not really a believer (see the commentary on Jude Ah – Godless People Have Secretly Slipped In Among You). After all, a good tree bears good fruit (Matthew 7:17). So, on the one hand, there is no such thing as faith apart from works to which faith must lead; faith without works is dead (James 2:14-26). Trusting that does not lead to good works cannot save and is not a channel for God’s grace.
But on the other hand, works without faith cannot save the one who does them. Non-Messianic Judaism implicitly recognizes that good works alone do not buy salvation, as the British Messianic Jew Eric Lipson points out by writing that in Judaism “great stress is laid on doing good works, privately and corporately; but the prayers pleading for forgiveness quote Isaiah’s admission: All our righteous deeds are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). So Isra’el prays: ‘Avinu malkenu, our Father, our King, be gracious unto us and answer us, for we have done no good things of any worth. Deal with us in charity and lovingkindness and save us.”
No work is a good work in relation to rewarding its doer (even though others may benefit) if it does not stem from faith in ADONAI, which today demands trusting in His Son Yeshua Messiah. The crowds in Galilee asked Yeshua, “What should we do in order to perform the works of God?” His answer was: Here’s what the work of God is . . . to trust in the One He sent (John 6:28-29).101
If I asked you if you were a sinner, what would you say? Romans 3:23 says: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That includes you and me, doesn’t it? Most people feel that being good gets you into heaven and being bad keeps you out. That simply is not true; we all have sinned. What would you say sin is? I think we can agree that we are both sinners; now let’s define sin. Some have said, “I’m not perfect,” or “I have made some mistakes.” But what do you think the Bible means by sin? Well, the Bible says that everyone practicing sin breaks God’s law – indeed, sin is lawlessness (First John 3:4). Have you ever disobeyed your parents? Have you ever misused the name of God? Have you ever told a lie? This is what sin is. It’s breaking God’s law. And any time you break a law there is a penalty. If you run a stop sign, the penalty is a fine. If you rob a bank, the penalty is jail. What is the penalty for breaking God’s Torah?
The Bible teaches us that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23a). The wages of work is money, but the wages of sin is death. In other words, what I earn – the penalty, the punishment of sin – is death. Death is separation. The Bible speaks of two kinds of death that are two kinds of separation. The first death is separation of the body and the soul. If I were to die right now my body would fall to the floor, but my soul, the real me, would go somewhere else. But the Bible speaks of another death, one it calls the second death. This is separation of the soul from God. Now, the penalty of sin is death, spiritual death, and separation from the LORD. To put it simply – hell. All this is really bad news. But there is good news.
But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). We were spiritually dead and unable to make the first move toward God because we inherited Adam’s sin nature that rebelled and separated us from Him. So, God made the first move toward us by sending His one and only Son to die in our place for the payment for our sins. We stand before the Son of God, guilty of sin, and facing a death penalty. But Yeshua, as judge (John 5:27), comes down from behind the seat of judgment, takes off His judicial robe and stands beside us. It is there that He says to us, “I will take your place. I will die for you.” And if you were the only person in the world, He still would have died for you. The penalty for sin is death, but Messiah died and paid for sin so we do not have to go to hell.
It is not what you do for God that saves you, it is what God has already done for you.
You don’t get to heaven by what you do; you get to heaven by what you believe.
What is it that I need to believe in, to trust in, to have faith in, to be saved?
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son who died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16 and First Corinthians 15:3b-4).
If you believe this, you are saved.
Nothing else matters.
Salvation = faith + nothing (not baptism, not good works, nothing means nothing). Without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. Now is the day of salvation (Hebrews 11:6 and 2 Corinthians 6:2c).
Would you like to be saved right now?
Pray this simple prayer in faith. But before you do, I want you to remember that saying a prayer does not save you, trusting in Yeshua Messiah does. God, I admit that I have sinned. I believe Yeshua Messiah died for my sins and I want to trust Him to save me right now. Lord, please come into my heart and make me a new person. I accept your gift of salvation.
If you were to die right now, where would you go? That’s right . . . heaven.
Why should God let you into His heaven?
That’s right, because Yeshua died to pay for your sins.102
If you prayed that prayer in faith see my commentary on The Life of Christ Bw – What
God Does for Us at the Moment of Faith.
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