"You were dead in your transgressions and sins …  But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this [salvation] is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast" (Eph. 2:1-10 NIV). 

The words "it is by grace you have been saved" appear twice in this short passage. Combining the word "have" with the past participle "saved" creates a perfect participle. Perfect participles demonstrate that an action was completed in the past. Here it emphasizes God's saving action in our own past, as if Paul were saying: "We are people who have been saved and remain for ever saved". He saved us in eternity past and he saved us in time when we put our trust in him. He is saving us throughout our lives and he will save us from the final judgement. We know all this to be true because our salvation is a gift of grace; totally undeserved and unmerited.

About 2,000 years ago Jesus died on the cross, was buried and three days later was raised from the dead and enthroned in heaven. Spiritually speaking we died with him, we were buried with him, and we were raised to life with him and seated with him in the heavenly realms. See also Rom. 6:1-14. In the NLT of the Ephesians passage the wording is: "He raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus". When I read these words I felt God saying: Even death and the grave does not for a single moment separate us from Jesus. We were separated from him by our sin; but he has removed all our sin from us – once and for all (we are eternally forgiven) – as far as the east is from the west. We are in him now and it is impossible for us to be separated from him again. All we had to do was believe in him, receive him as Saviour and Lord and repent of our sin. If you are at all unsure of this, do it now.