Unlimited grace

Ephesians 2:5-7
even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Many Christians today haven’t been made aware of their status with God. They are so preoccupied with the rules of living a right life that they have become completely oblivious to the unlimited grace that flows freely from God’s throne. Instead of waking every day to a world full of God’s blessings, they wake to a world full of self-condemnation through unkeepable standards that the “church” sets for them.

It’s this failure to realize the Christian’s eternal right standing with God, through grace, that keeps them in bondage to the laws and to sin that Christ suffered to release them from. The attitude becomes one of “I must not sin anymore or God will be mad. He’ll judge me and punish me if I fail. He’ll set trials before me to once again set me on the right track and keep me from sin.” But that’s not what His word says.

Instead it says that even when we were dead in trespasses, dead in our sins, God made us alive together with Christ. Even with our sins (which incidentally God sees as were, not are), we are seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. This is powerful; this is freeing. We aren’t eventually going to get to be with Christ in heaven; God has already placed us there. He already sees us finished, completely made new, whole, forgiven, sanctified, and remade in Christ at His right hand!

Not only are we already seen as complete in Christ by God the Father, but He sees us sitting. This is where we make the biggest mistake in our Christian walk. We think that once we surrender our lives to Christ we have to get right back out there and get to work being a “good person” as an example to the world.(I’m not saying that we aren’t to be an example to the world; I’m saying we don’t have to work at it, God’s grace makes us one.) But the truth is God has made us sit just as Christ is seated. This means the work is over. It’s done. Christ finished it at the cross. There is no longer a need for you or me or anyone who is a Christian to try to be a good person, God, through Christ, has made us perfect!

The final benefit is knowing that God intends to show us the exceeding riches of His grace toward us, His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. The key here is where we are: in Christ. God sees us as He sees Christ, seated next to Him in heaven. And because He sees us as He sees Christ, He blesses us as He blesses Christ: with the riches of His grace and kindness.

Where the believer runs into trouble is with the struggle to comprehend that God sees us in Christ as a finished work and wants to bless us exceedingly abundantly according to Christ (Ephesians 3:20). There isn’t anything more to be done because Christ did it all!

Some may say this is crazy to believe, but the truth is God receives more glory by blessing than He does in being blessed. Our works here are filth before Him (Isaiah 64:6); why do we assume that they would be a blessing to Him? But His works for us? They are magnificent, they are marvelous, and they only serve to reveal to the world the blessing that is found in resting in the finished work of Jesus Christ.