Ephesians 2:6

And raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus.

Raised us up with him ... Paul was speaking of obeying the gospel in the preceding verse, of being saved from "old sins," of becoming a part of Christ, being made alive "with Christ," etc. In that light, this clause is a plain categorical reference to Christian baptism, the same being the means by which God makes the penitent believer to be "in Christ." How astounding are the comments which would make "raised up with" Christ in this place to mean: "the resurrection of believers at the last day,"[17] "a spiritual transformation,"[18] "believers are viewed (here) as already seated there (in heaven) with Christ,"[19] "in spirit already, and ere long our bodies too will be raised"[20] - but the true meaning is given by Paul himself thus:

We were buried with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4).

Having been buried with him in baptism, wherein ye were also raised with him, through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead ... you, I say, did he make alive together with him (Colossians 2:12,13).

The full meaning of this verse is that Christians who have been baptized into Christ, therein being "made alive together with Christ" and being "raised up with him," are partakers of the full rights and privileges of the heavenly kingdom. People have removed baptism from their own theology, but they have not removed it from that of Paul.

[17] James MacKnight, op. cit., p. 282.

[18] Francis W. Beare, op. cit., p. 643.

[19] F. F. Bruce, op. cit., p. 50.

[20] John Wesley, One Volume New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1972), in loco.