Salvation

There is only one word to describe the manner in which a person is redeemed from a deserved death: grace, unmerited favor.  Above all, this word underscores Ephesians 2:4-6.  There is also something wonderful I find about this passage, and it represents, I think, the whole idea of the Scripture being God-breathed.  These next three verses only make sense when taken in the context of heaven's perspective, and Paul could not have written them, which are harmonious with all of Scripture, without the help of the Holy Spirit to guide his thoughts and pen...

4  But 1 God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus  ESV

4 ο δε θεος πλουσιος ων εν ελεει δια την πολλην αγαπην αυτου ην ηγαπησεν ημας 5 και οντας ημας νεκρους τοις παραπτωμασιν συνεζωοποιησεν τω χριστω χαριτι εστε σεσωσμενοι 6 και συνηγειρεν και συνεκαθισεν εν τοις επουρανιοις εν χριστω ιησου

There are two durative verbs in this passage, and the rest are punctiliar -- the action happened and is not continuing.  The two durative verbs are ων, the present tense participle of the verb "to be", translated "being", and the second one is the accusative voice of the same, οντας, which is translated/interpreted as "when we were".  The first part of verse 5 should more correctly read "and us being dead in trespasses..."  Paul, using the durative form of participle in its present tense, emphasized our everlasting condition prior to what he was about to describe -- just as God being rich in mercy is an everlasting quality of God, so is us being dead in our trespasses and sins our everlasting condition, until something wonderful happens...

I think somewhere along the way of this blog, I spoke of the richness of the Koine Greek, its use of prepositions and creating compound words to add strength to the ideas being conveyed.  What we are about to see are examples of this characteristic of Koine Greek, beginning in the middle of verse 5:

συνεζωοποιησεν τω χριστω

WHAM!  BAM!  There it is -- our salvation, or at least the first of its three elements.  "He made (us) alive together with Christ".  The three words are combined into one: with, life, make.  It is a new verb, in the aorist (punctiliar) form, past tense.  Punctiliar, or aorist, does not automatically mean past tense, rather, the prefix augmenting the verb tells us its time relationship:

συνεζωοποιησεν:  συν ('with', as in side by side), ε (prefix augment indicating past tense), ζωο (from the word ζωη, meaning 'life'), ποιησεν (third person singular active of the verb "to make", punctiliar/aorist by its ending σεν)

τω χριστω literally "the Christ", but in the locative form was would be required of the the preposition συν

One time occurrence of this action, in the past, not repeating.  For me, this is being written from the perspective of heaven: when Christ was made alive, the Body, the Possession, the Called Out Ones, the Elect were made alive with Him in the same action.  Interesting that Paul immediately adds "by grace you are now saved (perfect passive participle of the verb "to save"), as if to underscore this simultaneous "being made alive" was God's work entirely, not ours in any way.

I said there were three elements to our salvation, the first being that we (the Body, the Elect, the Possession, the Called-out Ones, and henceforth hereafter) were made alive together with Christ.  The second element is that we were raised with Him, and thirdly, seated with Him in the heavenly places.  These other two elements are represented by compounded words/verbs in much the same way as the first element:

και συνηγειρεν και συνεκαθισεν εν τοις επουρανιοις εν χριστω ιησου

I think you can recognize similar linguistic characteristics in the words in bold as I previously described.

συνηγειρεν συν ('with'), η (since the word 'to raise' begins with a noun, the past tense augment merely lengthens the vowel), (ε)γειρεν (third person singular active of the verb "to raise", punctiliar/aorist by its ending εν)

συνεκαθισεν συν ('with'), ε (past tense augment), καθισεν (third person singular active of the verb "to sit", punctiliar/aorist by its ending σεν)

Note the use of the aorist past tense in these verbs, meaning these actions are already completed, and they occurred for the Redeemed, the Elect as the events occurred for Christ.  Being raised up and being seated with Christ are not things to which a believer must "hope" will happen, from Heaven's perspective, it has already happened!

Our salvation, by grace -- unmerited -- is solely the work of God in every way: He is the One Who made us alive when we were lifeless; He is the One Who raised us up with Christ into a new life; He is the One Who seated us in the heavenly places with Him: all of these things are already done, finished, completed for the Body, His Possession.  What a great love with which He has loved us!

Grace and peace, my brothers and sisters,

Mark