While we were dead in his trespasses and sins, God, because of His rich mercy and the great love with which he loved us, did three things: He 1) makes us alive, 2) raised us up, and 3) enthroned us with Christ. These are the spiritual counterparts of Christ’s own quickening, resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Father. As Paul speaks of our experience with Christ, he does not mean to suggest that we experience the exact same thing that Christ did, but that our new life is made possible by Christ’s resurrection and our union with Him – the believer shares in what God has done for Christ.
Just as the spiritual death described in verse 1 is real and personal, so the life described herein is not some theological abstraction, but is as real a blessing, as our spiritual death was in actuality, a curse. The life given corresponds to the death described, so as the death described is spiritual, so the life is as well. So when Christ was raised from the dead, all of His people were in actuality, spiritually quickened and raised as well – we know this by faith, not by sight, but it is no less genuine an experience.
