Paul told the believers in Ephesus that God had raised them up and seated them with Christ in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6). That was an extraordinary thing to tell a small church living in a spiritually hostile city. Christ had been exalted “far above all principality and power” (Ephesians 1:21), and because they were united with Him, they shared in His victory.

But Ephesus had not changed. The powers were still active. The culture was still pagan. The sons of disobedience still surrounded them. In fact, Paul would later remind these same believers that they still wrestled against principalities and powers (Ephesians 6:12). The victory had been inaugurated, but it had not yet been consummated.

They were living between what Christ had already accomplished and what He would one day bring completely to fulfillment. They shared Christ’s victory, but they were still living in enemy-occupied territory awaiting the consummation of that victory. They were not called to escape Ephesus. They were called to live as Christ’s new creation in Ephesus. Their surroundings had not yet been transformed, but they had.

And that is where we live too. We should not interpret the presence of opposition as the absence of victory. Darkness still exists. Evil still works. The battle is still real. But none of those things change what has already happened in Christ. Perhaps that is why Paul can tell believers who are seated with Christ in Ephesians 2 to stand against the powers in Ephesians 6. We can stand because we know where we are seated.

Until the victory we possess in Christ is fully consummated, our calling is not escape—it is faithfulness. The world around us may not yet look like the world Christ will make, but by His grace, our lives should begin to. ©

–PGR