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The words "with Christ" must be repeated mentally in Eph. 2: 6. We are quickened
together "with Christ". Eph. 2: 5 says so. We are raised together "with Christ", for
there is no point in stating that the believer today is raised together with other believers,
for that takes place at the coming of the Lord. By all the laws of language and of sense
the same must be true of the third association. This seating together is said to be "in
heavenly places". This looks back to the closing verses of Eph. 1: where Christ is both
"raised" and "seated", in the same heavenly places, at the right hand of God. If this be
not truth in excelsis, it approaches very nearly to blasphemy. This position is far above
anything revealed elsewhere, and but emphasizes the distinctive character of the truth
reveled in this epistle of the Mystery. The term "in Christ Jesus" embraces the three
verbs:
Quickened together \
Raised together
}
In Christ Jesus
Seated together
/
The title, as we have shown elsewhere, is exclusive to the ministry to the Gentiles. It
is never found in Hebrews. "In Christ Jesus" occurs seven times in Ephesians, thus:
"To the faithful in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 1: 1).
"Quickened, raised, seated together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (1: 4).
"In His kindness toward us through (lit. in) Christ Jesus' (Eph. 2: 7).
"His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus" (2: 10).
"But now in Christ Jesus . . . . . made nigh" (2: 13).
"The purpose of the ages . . . . . in Christ Jesus" (3: 11).
"Unto Him be glory in the church in (lit.) Christ Jesus" (3: 21).
There is, as it were a seven-runged ladder, reaching from earth to heaven, each one
being a compound of sun "with". Believers are reckoned to be "crucified with"; "dead
with"; "buried with"; "quickened with"; "raised with"; "seated with" and finally be
"manifested with" Christ. We have therefore reached in Eph. 2: 6 the sixth and last
step of "reckoning" in grace that leads to the seventh step, the "realization" in glory.
That step is found, not in Ephesians, but in the parallel epistle to the Colossians, namely
in Col. 3: 1-4.
This seven-rung ladder is dealt with in the series "Reckoning and Realization".