Ephesians 2:4-8

4 “But[c] 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, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift.”

From time to time as Christians, we all tend to struggle with sin in our lives. Sometimes there is that one sin that dominates our lives. I call them those giants. Those sins that just keep overcoming us over and over on the battlefield and we wonder at times where is this so called power of God?  Then we find ourselves trying to regroup, we pray more and read our Bibles more in hopes that the next time we war against these giants in our lives we can somehow defeat them for good.  But then sooner or later we meet the giant of Fear or Lust and the exact opposite happens and we end up hobbling back in retreat licking our wounds. But what God had to remind me recently is to stop striving to fight my giants from an earthly position and start facing my giants from a heavenly perspective. First, He reminded me of the truth that I am dead.  When a human being stops breathing permanently, we all know, that a person ceases to function. The whole body once full of life, movement, and expression suddenly becomes a lifeless and hollow shell of what it used to be.  It cannot eat, drink, work or play.  I have been to quite a few wakes and never have I seen anyone go up to the open casket and tell a deceased person that they need to make sure they comb their hair if it is a little disheveled or button up their shirt or fix their tie.  No one tells a dead person, they need to go get a job now to pay for the funeral.  I’ve also never seen a dead person rise up out of the casket and begin to have a conversation with anyone, or get up and walk over to the guests and serve them refreshments and thank them for coming to their funeral and no one before leaving the funeral home reminds the corpse to turn the lights off and close the lid after themselves.  No, of course not and it would be foolishness to think that way.  No, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that when a person ceases to exist, they cannot do anything, and no one  in their right mind would expect them to.  Yet, when the Bible tells us in Ephesians that we were spiritually dead in our trespasses, why is it that when it comes to our salvation over the power of sin, some of us still think it’s up to us to comb our hair, brush our teeth and fix ourselves so that when we see Jesus face to face in eternity, we will look presentable before Him?  Why do we think our salvation and victory over sin and death is somehow up to our own doing?  Didn’t the Bible say we were dead? If we cannot do anything physically when our earthly bodies die, don’t assume by reading the Bible and memorizing a bunch of scripture verses that this is going to save us.  We have to first see ourselves as dead. Nothing we can do can save us, nothing. Once we understand that truth, then we can take claim of this next truth. Ephesians tells us that not only were we dead but Christ made us alive and raised us up with Him and now we are seated in the heavenly places.  Christ made you alive, not you. You had nothing to do with saving yourself from hell and you have nothing to do with saving yourself from those giants we battle day to day either.   Remember, that you are now seated in the heavenly places. This means that you reign in Christ now and nothing shall have dominion over you because nothing has dominion over Christ.   Stop approaching your battles from down below looking up at your giants, instead look down upon them from your throne where your real position is.  When we approach our battles from this perspective, we will find ourselves winning more and more because we are not striving to win, we are simply believing it is finished.  And when we read our Bibles, memorize verses and pray, we don’t do it to gain our victory or position but we do it to remind ourselves of the victory and the position we have already in Christ. So, whatever those giants are for you, remember to face them looking down from  on high, from the throne of victory where Christ has seated you. Soon, those giants that once seemed so overwhelming will appear as mere ants.  They will be looking up to you instead and when they see Christ alive and reigning in you, they will have no other option but to bow the knee.