This passage starts with two beautiful words after the last few verses about how we are dead in our sins: “but God.”
Because of God’s matchless grace, we are united with him spiritually, and in the hereafter, we will be united physically.
This is the basis of all of Christianity. We are defined, not by particular doctrine or even by particular moral standards, but by being united with Christ.
But what does it mean to be seated with Christ in the heavenly places? It is easy to let our imaginations run wild, but what does scripture say?
Seated with Christ means we are no longer under threat by Satan. ItWe have been plucked out of a kingdom of darkness and placed in a kingdom of light. We are no longer under the dominion of Satan, but citizens of a fast better country. We have a dim picture of this cosmic struggle, enough to understand that there is much that we do not see. We have an adversary, a bully who tries to scare and intimidate us. But we have an “older brother” who protects us, and if we keep that in mind, we have nothing to fear.
It also means we have passed from spiritual death to spiritual life. In Hebrews, the author writes:
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Hebrews 10:19-22
How does all this matter in our day to day lives? What does it mean to us while we are trying to install a water heater that won’t turn on? It means that we can’t go about assuming that what we see is all that there is. There is more happening than we realize. We need to believe what we read in scripture, because the information we get from the outside world is imperfect and limited.
When we walk around in the world, we are very focused on what we see around us. But we need to know that God is doing things we cannot see. “The Lord is my shepherd, I will not want.” The sheep can’t see where the shepherd leads them, don’t know his plan for keeping them safe and fed. But they trust him – just as we can trust our Good Shepherd.
This is what it means to be seated with Christ, at his right hand, a vassal under His protection, protection from threats we cannot even set, through methods we do not see and often cannot understand.
– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, August 30, 2020