Jesus fulfilled the law and the prophets, and then was glorified by the Father. He was arrested, beaten and mocked, hung on a tree to die, placed into a borrowed tomb, and resurrected. All these things He did so He could take us with Him into heavenly places. Jesus took us with Him into His glory. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast (Ephesians 2:4-6, 8-9). It is not because of anything we have done, will do, or can do, but God who is rich in mercy gave it to us as a gift.

If we are with Jesus in heavenly places, how is it that we are still here? I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one (John 17:15). How can both be true? How can we be with Him in heaven and still in the world? “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24). It has something to do with love. “And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26). It is the love of God and the Son of God in us. “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17:20-21). The Son of God in us and us in the Father and the Son completes the answer. We are in heaven in God and God is in the earth in us.

So what is my brother to me? He is one with me in Christ, and he is one with God in God. There is no difference between the love I have for my brother and the love I have for God. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? (1 John 4:20). How is it I can behold the glory but have never seen God? The glory resides in my brother whom I have seen. My brother is in heavenly places with Christ Jesus, and the Spirit of Christ lives in my brother. Our unity is in the heavenly place with Christ. On the earth we agree together as one, with the Spirit of Christ who dwells in us. Either way you look at it, my brother Jesus defines the relationship I have with all my brethren. The same love I have for one I have for the other – there is no difference in the love, all are from God. When I see one brother, I see the other. Am I seeing my brother in Christ Jesus in heavenly places, or the indwelling of Christ in my brother? Yes!

But what about, “that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7)? At first it sounds like now, and then it talks about in ages to come. How long does the grace last? Is grace just for now and in the age to come something else? Or is it grace and inhabitation now, and still more exceeding riches in the ages to come?

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:2). Wow! We are children of God. The seed of Jesus who was planted has produced children of God – seed producing like seed. God is producing fulfillments of His promise. God is reproducing His love (with all the attributes of love) in us. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16); and His love is the knowledge that those who perish lack. We are the carries of the love who overcame the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There is no difference in the love.

© 2010, Tim D. Coulter Sr.