God Has Accepted You As Gentiles, Through Christ, Into His Family (Ephesians 2:11-21) Series

Let's start today by rereading Ephesians, beginning at Ephesians 2:1:

And (it was) you--

the ones being dead in your wrongdoing and sins,

in which you formerly walked

according to the age of this world,

according to the ruler of the authority of the air-- the one now working in the sons of disobedience--

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--

Now, God,

being rich in mercy,

because of his great love

with which he loved us--and us being dead in our wrongdoing--

he made us alive together in/by Christ--by grace you are saved--

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

in order that he might show in the coming ages the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness upon us in/by Christ Jesus.

For by grace you are saved through faith,

and this not from yourselves,

of/from God (it is) the gift,

not from works,

in order that no one can boast.

For FOR HIM we are a made thing,

created in King Jesus for good works,

which God prepared before hand,

in order that in them we would walk.

Therefore , remember that formerly you--

the nations in/by the flesh,

the ones being called uncircumcision by the ones being called circumcision in the flesh made by hands--,

that you were at that time apart from Christ,

having been alienated from the citizenship of Israel

and strangers to the covenants of the promise,

not having hope

and without God in the world.

Now, in Christ Jesus you--the ones formerly being far away--

have become near by the blood of the King.

For he is our peace,

the one making both one,

and the dividing wall of the partition breaking-- the enmity by his flesh--

the law of the commandments in ordinances abolishing,

in order that:

the two he might create in/by himself into one new person,

making peace.

and he might reconcile both by one body to God through the cross,

killing the enmity in himself.

and coming, he proclaimed the good news of peace to you-- to the far -- (Gentiles)

and peace to the ones near, (Jews)

because through him we have access-- we both -- by/in one Spirit to the Father.

Therefore , consequently, no longer you are strangers and foreigners,

but you are fellow citizens of the holy ones and household members

of God,

being built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets,

being the cornerstone of King Jesus himself,

in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the

Lord,

in whom also y'all are being built up together into a dwelling place for God in the

Spirit.

Last week, I taught on Ephesians 2:1-10. The flow of the argument there goes something like this:

(1) You Gentiles, and we Jews, were dead in our wrongdoing and sins (vs. 1-3).

(2) God loved all of us so much that he sent Jesus to die for us. God made all of us-- Jew and Gentile-- alive in Christ. He seated all of us--Jew and Gentile--in the heavenlies in Christ. (vs. 4-7)

(3) The bottom line is that we are saved in/by Christ-- this is what means when Paul says we are saved by grace-- through allegiance to Jesus. God's grace-- his favor, kindness, and help-- were given through Jesus (vs. 8-9).

(4) We are NOT saved through Moses, or the Mosaic covenant. This is what Paul means 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. So that we would walk in the good works God prepared ahead of us to do. (vs. 10)

In truth, if there was one thing I hoped to do last week, it was to help you see that faith and good works are not two different things. Faith really means something like allegiance, trust, and commitment. If you join the U.S. army, they ask you to pledge allegiance to this country above everything else right? They are asking for your faith-- for your allegiance.

The Ephesian church is made up of Gentile Christians. They have pledged their allegiance to King Jesus. They have done this-- they have pledged allegiance-- but they 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?

I think we can look at verses 1-10 and probably decide we don't-- but it'd be nice is if someone would sum up the argument and help explain how these verses relate to us as Gentiles.