P. Derek Overfield PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

of a realised eschatology.18
In that in these
verses, particularly vv. 5-8, the resurrection of
the believer is' set in the context of realised
eschatology, what is being suggested or inferred is
that the author of the epistle is no longer interested
in the resurrection of Christ as revent' per se, but
much more is interested in it only inasmuch
as it
forms the basis for his theology of exaltation.
If
this is so then we must conclude, at least for the
author of Ephesians, that the resurrection has lost
its original significance as the pivotal point for
faith and has been replaced as such by the exaltation
motif in as much as th~~
in this epistle the believer
himself is now exalted, in terms of function rather
~he
than status,19 because Christ has been exalted.
Easter event is thus no longer described as lifedeath-life
of Christ but life-death-exaltati04 of both
Christ and the believer.
2.3 1:20 - 2:10 and the Baptismal Theme
It is certainly true that the insistence
that the believer has already risen from the dead and,
at the same time, has been exalted with Christ (the
aorist of 2:6) suggests that the whole section has as
its background the ideology of baptism.
This is
confirmed by the very close relationship that exists
between Col 2: 13 : xa.t' ~I-Llt