Because of the excellence of Christ in heaven, we can excel while still on earth.
Scripture brags about the innumerable blessings which come to the disciple as a result of the resurrection of Christ. In Ephesians chapter one, the Apostle Paul extols the fact that “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places†is ours through Christ (Eph. 1:3). He then fills out the revelation by describing the implications for believers based on the fact that the Christ, who died and rose again, now sits in the heavenly places “far above all principality and power and might and dominion†(Eph. 1:21).
The gospel work of Christ – surrender, death, burial, resurrection – has established Him forever in the position of highest authority in the heavens. The present importance of this fact for all believers surpasses adequate description. One could plumb the depths of this truth for years and never fully mine its riches. No wonder Paul prays for the faith community in Ephesus – in a way that we should pray for ourselves – that God would grant a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ (Eph 1:17). So much is contained in the Son of God that only divine insight can begin to unveil it. Our prayerful longing should continue as did Paul’s: That the eyes of our understanding may be enlightened, that we may know the hope of His calling, and the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints (Eph. 1:18).
And there is more. Because of the excellence of Christ in heaven, we can excel while still on earth. We must pray to know the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power (Eph. 1:19), which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead. We can know the all-excelling power of Christ in resurrection .
These truths are not threatened by the existence of spiritual forces of evil. There are principalities and powers, might and dominion seeking to wreak evil in heaven and earth, but Christ has conquered them all and rules from far above them. This is true not only now, but also in any age that is to come (Eph. 1:21).
And should anyone think that the church is an optional choice in following Christ, he or she should think again, for one of the benefits flowing from Christ’s gospel accomplishment is His headship over the church, which is His body. One does not want to consider the very body of Christ as superfluous to genuine faith, especially since, by revelation, we know that the church is the fullness of Christ even as the body is the expression of His headship (Eph. 1:22-23).
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