4. The heavenly realms are as real as the earthly realms. Of course, they aren’t perceived the same way. We know about the earthly realms through our physical senses. We know about the spiritual realms because God has revealed it to us through His word. Because God’s word is true, they are every bit as real as the world we see.
5. People of the first century understood these truths better than we do today. We like to think that a couple of decades into the 21st century we are at the pinnacle of human knowledge. We know more than anyone at any previous time in history has known. At a certain level, that makes some sense. Through the Hubble and now the Webb telescopes, we can see into parts of the universe no one has seen before. We can split an atom and map the human genome. Sometimes the only thing we lack is . . . humility. After all, we still can’t cure a cold, or stop a small Covid virus from wreaking havoc on our planet.
In the matter of evil spirits, demons, angels, and the like, the people of the first century have an edge on us—many of those people saw and experienced these things. It’s clear from the gospels and Acts it was God’s will to allow this activity on earth as part of showing Jesus’ dominion over all powers. “Sophisticated” people today wink and nod as they hear these texts and think about the poor, superstitious people of the first century. They’re not enlightened like us who know that we came from a cosmic explosion of some sort—though we can’t say where the mass came from or what caused it to explode—we’re just know that something was swimming in the sea, started swinging in a tree, and now it’s me. And we’re sure this is all somehow more respectable to believe in than angels and evil spirits!
6. Jesus is Lord over the heavenly realms. Now we’re back to 1:20-21. As God’s representative, Jesus demonstrated this power on earth. As the enthroned Lord of all, He reigns over everything.
7. We have been seated with Him in the heavenly realms. Paul says, “And God raised us up and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (2:6). This speaks to a spiritual reality. We’re on earth but we experience all the blessings of the heavenly realms (1:3) because they are available through Jesus who resides and reigns there. In Hebrews this is pictured by Jesus entering through the veil on our behalf (Hebrews 9:24, 10:19-22). He is in heaven part of the heavenly realms as our representative, so we are there experiencing these benefits through Him. Normally we think of Jesus being with us (and that’s correct), but it’s also true that we’re with Him!
8. We need to rely on His strength as we do battle with the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. We are in a spiritual battle (6:12ff). We can survive and be victorious only if we stand in the strength of the One who overcame everything. As we do so, “the manifold wisdom of God” is made known to “the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms” 3:10. God is bringing the alienated, fractured world together in and through Jesus. The chasm created by Satan and fostered by the spiritual forces of evil has been overcome by the redemptive work of Christ and the church is the outworking of that victory. It shines its light in the darkest of places as it bears witness to the manifold wisdom of God.
As you can see, understanding the “heavenly realms” is critical to understanding Ephesians and seeing the glory of God’s eternal purpose in the church.
A Taste of Grace with Bruce Green 