Gentiles, You Aren't Second Class Christians (Ephesians 2:11-22) Series

Today we have the privilege of working through Ephesians 2:11-22. Let's turn there, and read just the first word. "Therefore." What "therefore" signals, is that Paul is going to draw some conclusions, and an application, from everything he's just said. But it's been a week since we've read Ephesians 2:1-10, and we've probably lost our hold on at least a bit of his argument. So let's read verses 1-10, and then I'll just quickly summarize Paul's main points. As I read, listen for the two groups from last week. There's the "you all," who are the Gentile Christians. And there's the "we also," where Paul deliberately speaks on behalf of Messianic Jews, who grew up living in covenant relationship with God:

(2:1) and (it was) you (plural)--

the ones being dead in your wrongdoings and sins,

(2) in which you all formerly walked

in accordance with the age of this world,

in accordance with the ruler of the authority of the air-- the one now working in the sons of disobedience--

(3) in which we also all lived formerly in the desires of our flesh,

doing the will of the flesh and of the mind,

and we were children by nature for wrath as also the rest of them --

(4) Now, God,

rich being in mercy,

because of his great love

with which He loved us --(5) and us being dead in our wrongdoings--

He made us alive together in Christ--by grace you (plural) are saved--

(6) and He raised us together,

and He seated us together in the heavenly places in/by Jesus Christ,

(7) in order that He might show in the coming ages the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness upon us in Christ Jesus.

(8) For by grace you are saved through faith(fulness)/allegiance, ["by grace" is focused]

and this gift isn't from yourselves,

[but] from God,

(9) not from works,

in order that no one can boast.

(10) For his creation/work, we are, ["his" is focused]

created in Christ Jesus for good works,

which God prepared before hand,

in order that in them we may walk.

The flow of Paul's argument there goes something like this:

(1) You Gentiles, and we Jews, used to be dead in our wrongdoing and sins, and we lived as a people who simply did what our flesh, and our minds, and satan, wanted (vs. 1-3). We lived as a people who were trapped in satan's kingdom, under satan's authority, with satan as our ruler ("exousia," "authority").

(2) God loved all of us so much that He sent Jesus to die for us to rescue us, to save us, from all of that. This salvation has three parts-- (1) God made all of us, Jew and Gentile, alive in Christ. (2) He raised up all of us-- Jew and Gentile, in Christ. (3) He seated all of us--Jew and Gentile--in the heavenlies in Christ (vs. 4-7). Salvation isn't just about having our sins forgiven. It's not just about going to a better place when we die. Salvation is about being given new life, and being freed from satan's rule, and being transferred into God's kingdom and family. If you've read the news at all in the last four years, you know there's a huge debate about illegal immigrants, and about whether or not it's a good thing to have uncontrolled borders. Does citizenship mean anything anymore? Should it?

When you think about God's salvation, you can think about it as God not just giving us a green card, or temporary residency, or partial citizenship in his kingdom. And we didn't sneak into God's kingdom in the dark, through a hole in the fence, or through a tunnel. Through Jesus, God welcomes us into his kingdom as full citizens.

(3) God does all of this in/by Christ.-- We receive these blessings, and this status, when we pledge our faithfulness, our allegiance, to King Jesus. God's grace-- his favor, kindness, and help-- were given through Jesus (vs. 8-9). We're saved, when we bend our knee, and kneel before King Jesus-- when we pledge our loyalty and allegiance and faithfulness to him. That's how we become citizens. That's the citizenship test.

(4) We are NOT saved through Moses, or the Mosaic covenant. This is what Paul means (arguably, see the last sermon) when he says "not by works" (vs. 8-9).

(5) We are saved FOR good works. God made all of us a new creation so that we could live FOR GOD. There's this list of good works that God saved us to do, and God expects us to walk in that path, and do those things (vs. 10).

This Ephesian church that Paul is addressing, is made up of people who were Gentiles by birth. They've pledged their allegiance to King Jesus. They've made that commitment. But they seem to have this nagging fear that Jesus isn't enough. Do they need to become Jews to be made alive? Are they second-class Christians because they are Gentiles? Does the Mosaic covenant have something extra to offer them if they become Jews? Are they missing out on some of God's blessings? Do they have a green card, but not full citizenship?