“Brought Near from Afar”
Eph 2:11-22
I. Our Wealth and Worth In Christ 1-4
A. Paul blessed God for blessing us with every spiritual blessing 1:3-14
1. Specially Chosen 1:4
2. Purposefully Adopted 1:5-6
3. Freely Redeemed and Forgiven 1:7-8a
4. Spiritually Enlightened 1:8b-10
5. Surely Deemed God’s Inheritance 1:11-12
6. Securely Sealed 1:13-14
B. Paul prayed for their enlightenment 1:15-23
C. Paul detailed our resurrected life in Christ 2:1-10
1. Our woeful condition – Dead and doomed
2. God’s wonderful correction – Alive in Christ – Saved by grace
Introduction
Most everyone knows the devastating emotions associated with rejection and relational conflict. The emotions come from two types of relational discord. There are the emotions associated with rejection and offenses. There are the emotions we feel when we have offended someone or failed. Both have to do with broken relationships.
Neighbor who “hates” you - Offended friend - Marriage conflict – Betrayal - Prejudice based on race, color, gender, customs, beliefs and philosophy - Unpaid debt - Guilt over an offense
These emotions become so overwhelming that we must find some way to cope. People resort to a wide variety of escape and defense mechanisms to cope.
I.e. Humor, anger, avoidance, isolation, denial, aggression, chemical
Ever since Adam deliberately defied God’s only prohibition, there has been hostility between God and people and people and people. Right from the beginning, there was self-centered conflict between Adam and Eve which passed on to the kids to the point of jealous murder.
It continued to deteriorate until the time of Noah where the intent of every man’s heart was evil continually. The number one longing instilled in those created in God’s image is for meaningful community. The number one trauma and struggle in society is the absence and deterioration of community. It is interesting to note that the bulk of the Bible deals with broken relationship with God and people broken relationships with people. People are mad at God. God is angry with people. People are mad at each other. Half of the commandments deal with our relationship with God. The other half deals with our relationship with each other.
Jesus affirmed that the whole Bible deals with loving God and loving each other.
There is no greater power than a meaningful relationship. There is no greater pain than a mangled relationship. When I find out someone is mad at me or has something against me, it affects every area of my life. When I have a disagreement with my wife, it affects my whole focus on life. I can’t concentrate. It is nearly impossible to study. It affects my prayers. It erodes my other relationships.
Situations differ but the struggle does not. The emotions are the same; that knot in the pit of your stomach, the ache in your soul. God made us to live in and enjoy meaningful community.
So why have I spent so much time on this point. I want you to understand and connect to the awful devastation of alienation and rejection. Only to the degree that we apprehend the problem will we appreciate the solution.
In this next section, Paul not only talks about the hostility that existed between God and sinful man but the utter distain between proud Jews and pagan Gentiles. He will spend the next twelve verses declaring our awful alienation and rejection and then our awesome acceptance and reconciliation through Christ.
D. Paul declared our awesome acceptance and reconciliation 2:11-21
1. Our Awful Alienation and Rejection 2:11-12
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called "the uncircumcision" by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Ephesians 2:11-12
Paul called the Ephesians to bring to mind; rehearse, recollect their condition before Christ.
He identified the as “Gentiles in the flesh”. Jews called them the “uncircumcised”. For the Hebrew, the rite of circumcision was a sign of their covenant relationship with God. It began with their father Abraham and became the external identification as God’s people.
Paul encouraged the Gentile Ephesians to recall their former condition “BC” (Before Christ).
They were “separate from Christ”. Paul used a word that means “at a space, separate, apart from, by itself, without. They were without Christ. They had no relationship with the long-promised Messiah.
The reason stated here is that, at a point in time, they as a group of people had been alienated from the people God had chosen to bless all nations. Paul used a perfect passive participle.
You were separate from Christ “having been alienated” at a point in time and continued to be alienated. The passive indicates an action that was done to us.
Who alienated us?
The implied answer is God alienated all other nations because of their rejection of Him.
They were without Christ because of their alienation from Israel, God’s chosen people.
They had no claim to privileged citizenship; they were people without a country. They were without Christ because they were “strangers” to God’s promises. Because they were separated from Christ they were “not having hope.” Since Christ is the only means to reconciliation with God, they lived in a continual state of hopelessness. There was no way out of this dilemma; alienated from God and from His chosen people. In this hopeless state they were, for all practical purposes, “without God” (a-theist).
Previously (2:1-11) Paul declared us dead, driven and designated children of wrath. “But God” made us alive, raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenlies.
Before Christ, every Gentile was…
Without Christ
Without a citizenship
Without any promise of salvation
Without hope
Without God
All these things indicated that we were hopelessly alienated from the divine community.
2. Our Awesome Acceptance and Reconciliation 2:13-21
“But now” (after the death and resurrection of Jesus)
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
The core of this verse is…“But now in Christ you have been brought near”. From separation to inclusion. For one who has been alienated these are endearing words.
The God who once alienated us can now bring us near. Jesus is clear about God’s initiative in this process.
"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. John 6:44
The word translated “bring” is generally translated “be” or “become”. In the passive it would be translated “cause to be or become” near. Paul emphasized their previous condition by identifying them as those who were once far off. Now God has taken the initiative to bring them near. Those who were without Christ or God or any hope of salvation.
How is that possible? What has changed? How can a holy God, obligated to deny sinful man access now bring him near?
Paul is crystal clear. It is because of Jesus. The rest of this passage is packed with reference to Christ’s work in not only restoring relationship with God but establishing a new relationship between Jew and Gentile.
For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, Ephesians 2:17-19
• We have been “brought near” by reason or on the account of the blood of Christ.
• He Himself is our peace.
• He made both Jew and Gentile one.
• He has broken down the dividing wall that divided us from God and Jew from Gentile.
• He created a new race “Christian”.
• He made peace.
• He killed the hostility that existed between all the parties.
• He reconciled both Jew and Gentile to God.
• He preached peace to both groups.
• He established open access to the Father.
Paul’s reference to a dividing wall was a sensitive subject. The Jew had an immense contempt for the Gentile. The Jews consider that the Gentiles were created by God to be fuel for the fires of hell. God loves only Israel of all the nations that he had made. It was not even lawful to render help to a pregnant Gentile mother in her hour of sorest need, for that would simply be to bring another Gentile into the world. If a Jewish girl married a Gentile boy, or a boy a Gentile girl, the funeral of the Jewish son or daughter was carried out. Such an act was the equivalent of death. There was definitely a dividing wall between them both literal and figurative. The Jews erected a wall in the temple preventing Gentiles from entering and defiling their sacred ground. In 1871 the discovered a limestone slab measuring nearly a meter across dating to a time before Christ which read "No foreigner may enter within the barrier and enclosure round the temple. Anyone who is caught doing so will have himself to blame for his ensuing death."
Not only is Jesus the peace maker between God and man but also between Jew and Gentile.
God designed us for community. God created us to live in harmony with Him and others.
It was our nature to live in harmony. That all changed at the rebellion. Our heart was programmed for meaningful community our nature became selfish. Jesus took two groups of people hostile to each other and God and reconciled them to God and each other.
King David sang about the wonder of brothers dwelling in unity.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity! Psalm 133:1
We would concur. We would also concur how wretched and how painful it is when people live in conflict.
Jesus said love between people once marred by the fall would be the sure sign of those who have committed themselves to Jesus and head their hearts transformed by Him. There is much to teach from this passage and we will come back to it to detail some more great truths. Even though such reconciliation between people is clearly a part of this passage I want to finish with a focus on the wonder of our reconciliation with God. Once alienated without Christ, without hope, without God we have been brought near. The cooperative work of the original community is clearly evident in this passage.
The Father brings us near.
Jesus, by His sacrifice on the cross, makes reconciliation possible.
The Holy Spirit is the intermediary and facilitation of that reconciliation.
We both have our access in or by one spirit to the Father.
We are being built together as a dwelling of God by the Spirit.
God brings us from alienation to acceptance. He brings us from rejection to reconciliation.
Two powerful passages highlight the great truth of this blessing of God.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Romans 5:6-11
From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh.
There is something deeper than the color of skin or gender or nationality.
Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, he has become new. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
And that transformation makes amazing restored relationship with God possible.
Response
• Understand and embrace this blessing.
• Bless the Lord who has blessed us.
• Draw near to God. Hebrews 10:19-25
Do you feel like a stranger with God? Is there something between?
Jesus died to make reconciliation possible.
Act on the facts and return to closer relationship with Him. Draw near to Him and He will draw near to you.
• Declare the good news of reconciliation with God to others
