Sermon Notes October 14, 2018 “Together With Christ” Ephesians 2:5-6

Introduction
One of the greatest summaries of Christianity comes from the nineteenth century Scotsman, Hugh Martin. Martin wrote that Christianity can be summed up in two expressions: ‘Christ for Us’, and ‘We with Christ’. This perfectly sums up Paul’s thought in Ephesians Chapters one and two. Chapter one tells what God has done for us in Christ, apart from which we cannot be saved. The New Testament proclaims this over and over. Everything Jesus did, He did for us, that we might be saved: ‘Christ for Us.’
But, as Martin points out, ‘Christ for Us’ must be joined to ‘We with Christ.’ We must receive Christ and trust Him for our salvation and become his disciple. Therefore the New Testament says, we were ‘crucified with Christ’ (Gal. 2:20). And as Paul says in Ephesians 2:5-6, ‘we were made alive with Christ, and raised with Christ and seated with Christ in heavenly places.’ Martin explains, ‘If He lived for us, we now live with Him, for as He was, so are we in the world.’ Jesus’ experience has become our experience. Just as he died for our sin, we now die to our sin with Him. Just as He was resurrected to live with God forever, so we now also live a new life in service to God.

UNION WITH CHRIST (made alive together with) (raised up with) (seated with)

Covenant Union: ‘federal headship’ (‘It is finished’ John 19:30)

Spiritual or Experiential Union: The experience of Jesus in His death, resurrection, ascension and heavenly reign sets the pattern for our experience on earth and then in heaven. God’s Son became like us so that we might become like Him. (Galatians 2:19-20). This defines a true Christian!

MADE ALIVE TOGETHER WITH CHRIST

We were ‘dead in trespasses,’ but God has ‘made us alive together with Christ.’ We were not interested in the things of God; now we find them exciting and important. We were unresponsive to God’s promptings and lived as if He did not even exist, or like Adam and Eve, like we were trying to escape from God. But now we not only know He is there, but we trust in Him as our Lord and savior.

RAISED UP WITH CHRIST

We are no longer powerless before the temptations of sinful desires. The Christian’s destination is in eternity, in heaven, and we must live now as those whose hopes have been raised there together with Christ.

SEATED WITH CHRIST

‘seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus’ (Ephesians 2:6). This refers to Christ’s reign in power, seated in heaven at the right hand of God the Father. Believers partake of this and its effects become real in our present experience. Because we rest on Christ’s finished work, safe and secure, Paul concludes. ‘we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us’ (Romans 8:37)

BY GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED

If you are in Christ through a living faith, then you have been made alive with Him, you have been raised up a citizen of heaven, and you have been seated with Christ in God’s presence, clothed with forgiveness and favor and fellowship with God.

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