17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,
18 the eyes of your [a]understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power
20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,
21 far above all principality[b] and [c]power and [d]might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,
23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,
2 in which you once walked according to the [a]course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
Our opening Scripture shows us that, in the mind of eternal Justice, when God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, He actually raised us up together with Him. God actually meant to raise us up but couldn’t do that without the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So, He raised us up together with Him. In essence, we are the object of Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus Christ is our Substitute; He took our place and died in our stead. So, when He was raised up from the dead, we were raised up together with Him. Jesus’ death was for us and so is His resurrection. We have identified with Him in death, and so have we in His resurrection. His resurrection is as much ours as His death, for if He died for us, then He was raised up from death for us. Hallelujah! Death no longer has power over us. The pangs and stings of death are broken and shattered in pieces.
What have we been raised up from? Death in sins. The Word tells us in our opening verse that even when we were dead in sins, God has quickened or made us alive together with Christ. He did that by His awesome grace; and raised us up together with Him and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Once upon a time, we were dead in sins, living in sin, walking in sin, insensitive to the promptings of righteousness, dead to the stimuli of the Spirit of God, but God has raised us up from death in sin into life in righteousness. Now we who were dead in sin are now dead to sin by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah!!! Sin has no power over us any more than Pharaoh had power over Israel after they had departed from Egypt and had settled in the Promised Land. Romans 6:14 tells us that sin shall no longer have dominion over us, for we are not under the law but under grace. We now live and reign as kings in the domain of righteousness where sin has no power. We swing under the sway of righteousness, and sin speaks a language that we no longer understand. Righteousness is now our mother tongue in Christ. Hallelujah!!! Beloved, the hold of sin has been broken over you by your resurrection with Christ Jesus. When you got born again, sin ceased to reign over you. You got your freedom and emancipation from sin once and for all. Now yield your members to righteousness and walk in the light of the Word in Christ.
My Solid Front (Confession):
I declare that I am blessed with the Sceptre of dominion over sin, for I have been raised up with Christ from the dominion of sin and sinfulness; therefore I make bold to declare that sin shall no longer have dominion over me, for I am not under the law but under grace.
Further Meditation: Colossians 2:13-15; Romans 6:3-14.