“God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him

in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6). 

Someone asked this question recently and it shook me to the core – in a good way!

I think it’s a brilliant question to ask ourselves if we desire to deepen and develop our relationship with God.

Our foundation is that not only are we made in the image of God but we are also remade (Eph. 2:10) in Christ Jesus. Amazing!  There’s no getting away from the fact that God has sculpted us – so to speak – to reflect the very image of Jesus Christ.

The question is then: Which image of Jesus do you look to the most? Which Jesus do you set your heart and your mind on? 

Is it the One who walked on the earth? Is it the One who existed before the world began and in whom you are created? Is it the One who is multi-dimensional and who sits at the right hand of the Father – together with you? Is it the One who is timeless and infinite, who reconciled all things to the Father by making peace through the blood of His Cross?

These may be challenging questions, but the very process of asking ourselves and pondering them can be a revelatory and hope-filled meditation. It can open us up to encountering the heart of Jesus in ways that we may not have known before.

Asking these questions helps us to expand our understanding of who Jesus Christ is and – by definition – our understanding of who we are in Him.

In all of these realms (or expressions) of Jesus mentioned above, Jesus Christ is fully present – living and active – and we are in Him in each one of them, whether we perceive it or not at present. Scripture makes clear that wherever Jesus is, we are, and that we are complete in Him.

However, it is the degree to which we identify with, and focus on, each of these expressions that determines our perception of what Jesus we are made in the image of.

There is often a lot of emotion tied to particular experiences in our lives in relation to Jesus, and these can dictate our ongoing focus and level of consciousness. For myself, and probably for most of us, the dominant emotions spring from our experience of Jesus as Saviour. For example, profound love and gratitude, huge relief, wonder, amazement – and so much more.

These are precious, beautiful and wholly appropriate feelings, of course, and we are thankful beyond words for His saving Grace. 

But what if… and here comes a question that has helped me a lot recently: What if these dominant emotions are actually tying my consciousness to the local and finite Jesus who walked on earth?

What if, (albeit unconsciously), I am actually holding myself back from knowing and experiencing the Jesus who is multi-dimensional, timeless and omnipresent? What if I’m unwittingly living in unbelief and effectively saying, “I’m not made in His image to that degree”?!

I’m finding that these questions help me greatly to see where I can choose to move forward in faith with greater freedom and with the exciting prospect of knowing Jesus more and more fully. We can choose very intentionally, in peaceful stillness, to expand our hearts towards Jesus in all the ways in which He manifests Himself; to lovingly identify with Him in each one – by His enabling grace. And this is never to minimise our devotion to Jesus as Saviour – it is “both-and” rather than “either-or”.

In any case, it is always the same Jesus Christ that we seek, of course. We seek ever deeper intimacy with Him – for His glory and His loving purposes, and never for the sake of chasing “experiences”.

In all our seeking to know Him more deeply, we need never fear the unknown and the new. We can rest in the assurance that He longs for intimacy with us infinitely more than we do. And we are assured that we are always completely safe in His loving presence, wherever He leads us.

How we praise Him!!

Related Scriptures:

“God said, Let Us [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness” (Gen. 1:26, AMPC).

“For we are God’s [own] handiwork …, recreated in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:10, AMPC).

“He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4, NKJV).

“God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6, NIV).

“He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together [giving us joint seating with Him] in the heavenly sphere [by virtue of our being] in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6, AMPC).

“the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8, NKJV).

“Christ is all and in all” (Col. 3:11, NKJV).

“In him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible …; all things have been created through him and for him” (Col. 1:16, NIV).

“For it pleased the Father that in Him [Jesus] all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Col. 1:19-20, NKJV).

“For in Him the whole fullness of Deity (the Godhead) continues to dwell in bodily form [giving complete expression of the divine nature]. And you are in Him, made full and having come to fullness of life [in Christ you too are filled with the Godhead—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—and reach full spiritual stature]” (Col. 2:9-10, AMPC).

“For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him” (Col. 2:9-10, NKJV).

“You died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3, NIV).

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe” (Eph. 1:17-19, NIV).

I would like to acknowledge and thank Nicolás Acuña, whose inspirational talk at a recent conference in Dallas, Texas, forms the basis of this article. 

Images courtesy of Pixabay.com

By Ann Shakespeare  15 February 2024