NO LONGER ALIENS BUT CITIZENS
Most people like to belong to something secure - to a family, their community or their country. To belong gives security. And yet the society in which we live results in many that are alienated from it. "Alienated" is a word that is found in St Paul’s letter to the church
at Ephesus (2:12 AV). It’s a descriptive word of a condition of being separated from others. If you are an alien you don’t belong!
In World War II quite large groups of people found themselves in a country of which they weren’t citizens and they were immediately regarded with suspicion - perhaps they could be spies! - and classed at "enemy aliens". In many cases, although living quite peaceably, they were rounded up at the outbreak of the War and interned in camps for the duration of hostilities. Rightly or wrongly they were no longer welcome in their present country. More recently we hear of people, often young people, who become disillusioned with society. They describe themselves by their conduct as alienated! Some work for reform, others plot revolution, others simply drop out as hippies and adopt a very unconventional lifestyle. Every community has people who don’t want to follow its rule of life and are constantly at odds with the authorities. Their appearances at court are a regular feature of the local newspaper. They are alienated from conventional society.
This condition of alienation is not something new for we see it referred to throughout the Bible. It’s the sad story of estrangement of mankind from God our Creator and the breakdown of relationship between fellow human beings. Where there should be harmony there is discord; where men and women should be living as citizens of one world they act as strangers, aliens or even enemies.
Paul presents a portrait of mankind in three panels. The first section depicts a portrait of an alienated society - we were alienated from God. The second panel is a portrait of Jesus Christ our Saviour showing what Christ has done for us - we are liberated and reconciled to God. The third stage of the portrait reveals God’s new society, or what we are now becoming - we are granted citizenship of God’s kingdom. Let’s see how the portrait relates, not to our neighbour, but to us. First of all:
WE WERE ALIENATED FROM GOD
Paul portrays all mankind in a state of sin and death, alienated from God - "dead through trespasses and sins" and "by nature children of wrath" (2:1,3). The Bible opens with an account of the unity of mankind, only soon to be spoilt by the entrance of sin, resulting in human division and separation. In the course of time God chose Abraham and through him called out a nation - Israel - intending her to become a light to the nations. But the tragedy was that Israel herself forgot her vocation and ended up rejected by God for her backsliding and hated by other nations for her hypocrisy.
There was real alienation between the two communities - Jews and Gentiles - with a deep-seated hostility and a mutual contempt for each other. We can see it today in the suspicion between the Jews and the Arabs. If a Jewish boy of an orthodox background marries a Gentile girl or vice versa, the family carries out a funeral, so great is the alienation. The same happens when a Jew becomes a professing Christian.
The apostle Paul pulls no punches in giving his verdict as to the condition of mankind in its state of being alienated from God. He says that it is that of "having no hope and without God in the world" (12). Why was it hopeless? Because, although God had planned and promised to include the Gentiles in his plan of redemption, they are still in darkness and ignorance and so had no hope to sustain them. Why were they godless? Because, although God had revealed himself to mankind in nature, their evil natures had suppressed the truth they knew and instead they had turned to idolatry. Alienated from God, what a sad state to be in. This is something that we have to face up to: What is my relationship with God? Am I alienated from him?
This alienation from God brings division and unrest into the human community. Men still build walls of partition and division like the terrible Berlin wall once separating the east and west. More recently there’s the ethnic cleansing of communities in Bosnia and Kosovo. And what about the barriers of race, colour, caste, tribe and class which create such tension in society? Paul urges his readers to remember of what they once were as a warning of their spiritual condition of being alienated from God and the terrible consequences that result to mankind.
Paul’s diagnosis is that outside of Christ man is in a spiritual condition of death because of his sins, unable to help himself and under the condemnation of the wrath of God. It’s certainly a dark portrait of what we once were. I wonder if we recognise ourselves in the portrait? We were alienated from God. A sad story, but thank God it’s only the first panel because Paul goes on the portray the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour, showing what Christ has done:
WE ARE LIBERATED AND RECONCILED WITH GOD
When a washing powder manufacturer wants to advertise its valuable cleaning properties, the television adverts often show an article of clothing straight from a muddy playing field and then shows it after the wash, as a great contrast. That is what Paul does. He uses the "before" and "after" technique: "remember that once you were alienated … but now in Christ Jesus you have been brought near" (11,13). The separation from God caused by sin has been abolished by the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus. The apostle goes on to explain what our Lord did and how he did it. The Lord Jesus, he says, "is our peace, who has made both one (that is the Jews and the Gentiles), and broken down the middle wall of hostility" (14).
Paul uses as an illustration one of the features of the magnificent temple built in Jerusalem by Herod the Great. It was built on a platform with courts on three sides, separated by walls. The Gentiles could look up and view the Temple from their court but were not allowed to approach it, and in fact were barred from doing so by a stone barricade. There were warning notices in Greek and Latin to the effect that the penalty was death for any Gentile who was caught in the act. Paul himself knew from personal experience that the warning was not to be taken lightly, for three years earlier he had nearly been lynched by an angry mob who thought he had taken a
Gentile with him in the temple.
Sin had alienated man from God and there seemed to be no way of altering this. The obstacles seemed too great, but then Jesus came. At the time when Paul was writing there were still a few years to run before the Roman legions would literally break down the temple, but already, symbolically, spiritually, the wall which divided man from God had been broken down when Jesus died on the Cross. That great redemptive work commenced a sequence of events described so beautifully in the Creed: "the third day he rose again from the dead, he ascended to heaven, and he sits at the right hand of God the Father." But what is so amazing is that in so doing, believers in Jesus are linked with these great events. Paul states that "God made us alive together with Christ" (5), next "he raised us up with him" and finally "he made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (6). Yes, we were liberated and reconciled to God.
On 21st January 1930, King George V was to give an address at a London Conference. This was in the early days of broadcasting and in fact his voice was to be heard for the first time in a radio broadcast. Suddenly, disaster struck. A few minutes before the speech was due, a member of the studio staff tripped over a cable and broke it. In desperation, the chief control operator grasped one end of the broken cable in his right hand and the other end in his left hand. It was a dangerous thing to do, with 250 volts of electricity surged through his arms and body, but it restoring the circuit.
We live in a world which is disconnected from its Maker – its sins have separated it from a holy God. The book of Genesis depicts Adam and Eve banished from Eden, to a life in a world damaged by their sin, with re-entrance barred by the cherubim. Somehow, someone had to restore the broken connection. And there lies the glory of the Incarnation, the atoning death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone could and did restore the connection between a holy god and a fallen race. In Him alone the high-voltage surge of the power of God flows in saving grace. He “destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility … thus making peace” with God. It was “through the Cross” (Eph 2:14-17).
Our reconciliation to God is brought about, not by any merit of our own, but is derived only from the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus. Let me recall Paul’s words, "but now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have now been brought near in the blood of Christ" (12). The death of the Lord Jesus is of supreme importance in God’s plan of redemption for mankind.
The death of the Lord Jesus has something about it quite unlike any other death. If there’s one thing clear it’s that he ought not to have been put to death, as he was innocent of the false charges brought against him. One can also say that he need not have died for he had power to overcome all those who sought to destroy him Jesus said of his own life, "no one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord" (John 10:18).
When Jesus died on the Cross he was taking the place of guilty sinners, willingly bearing their punishment. This was the climax to the plan of salvation that God had gradually unveiled through the Old Testament rituals and sacrifices. Moses instituted them as the means that God had chosen to teach the people of Israel how much he hated sin and the need to obtain forgiveness at the cost of sacrifice. The animal sacrifices provided only a temporary means of atonement for they were but shadows or symbols looking forward to the sacrifice that Jesus would make. He was "the Lamb of God come to take away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).
Over the many hundreds of years to the time of Jesus, the Jews found that the law of Moses had the effect of condemning them as sinful people because of itself it was powerless to free them from sin. The Jews believed that only by keeping the law was a person able to obtain the friendship of God. The sacrifices had to be repeated over and over again - they were like a treadmill from which there was no escape. The law had been worked out into thousands of rules and ceremonial customs. Hands had to be washed and dishes cleansed in a certain way. There were many pages of detailed instruction as to what could or could not be done on the Sabbath day and a whole catalogue of sacrifices and offerings, all to be followed in precise detail.
These rules and regulations erected a serious barrier between the Jews and Gentiles. But then Jesus came and because he had fulfilled the law, all the regulations of ceremonial and the condemnation of the moral law was abolished. They were swept away by the Cross. Hear these wonderful words of assurance: "For he (Jesus) is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances … so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the Cross" (14-16).
The Jews and Gentiles were alienated both from God and each other, but the Lord Jesus, by his death on the Cross has made peace and brought about reconciliation in himself. Does this great salvation make you want to fall down before the Lord, as the hymn writer put it, "in wonder, love and praise"? We’ve seen what we once were -alienated from God; we’ve recalled with gratitude what Christ has done - liberated and reconciled with God, and so finally we see what we now have:
WE ARE GRANTED CITIZENSHIP OF GOD’S KINGDOM
The apostle says that believers in Christ enjoy a dramatically changed status. Once they were "aliens in a foreign land", visitors without legal rights, but now they are Christians, citizens of God’s new society, with Jews and Gentiles belonging to it on equal terms. I received a letter from the leader of a Christian movement in the USA. When he was a boy of eight his family moved from Sweden to America. There was no one to meet them at the dock and they had to undergo the process of immigration. He wrote: "We were on our own. We were aliens. Our identity cards reminded us that we were aliens. We were here as guests. America could ship us back. But some years later things changed. I became a U.S. citizen. I was no longer an alien. As a citizen I soon discovered that I had rights. Things I had previously viewed as privileges became rights."
There’s something reassuring about citizenship. In my business life I’ve had to go abroad and while it’s very stimulating, there’s nothing to be compared with returning home. As the aircraft touches down it’s good to hear the words from the cabin staff, "Welcome to Heathrow Airport." As a British citizen I’ve a free and unfettered right of entry into the country and I’ve got a passport to prove it. Paul was proud of his Roman citizenship but he rejoiced even more in his citizenship of God’s kingdom - it was international and inter-racial. The Roman Empire would soon decline and fall, but God’s kingdom was everlasting.
But there’s more to being a Christian. He or she belongs to God’s family: "members of the household of God" (19). Now a kingdom is one thing but a household or family is another. There’s an intimacy here on the brotherhood and sisterhood or all believers. Here there are no barriers of class, race or colour for we are "one in Christ Jesus". Some years ago I spent two weeks working in Hong Kong and it was my joy to worship in a mission church in the New Territories. During the previous week I had been working downtown with sophisticated bankers and other professional people, mostly expatriates, but by their lifestyles, unbelievers. The people in the mission church were much simpler, mostly Chinese, but truly Christians and with whom I could identify as brothers and sisters in Christ. We were part of the family of God.
Slowly, perhaps ever so slowly and painfully, God is seeking to work his purposes out in our lives, changing us into his likeness. How does he do it? It is his Spirit, moulding us through circumstances, challenging us through the voice of the Scriptures to be conformed to his image. We have to ask ourselves if we are living that quality of life that identifies us as Christ’s followers? Someone put it like this: Would there be sufficient evidence in our lives for a court of law to convict us of being Christians?
The Church of Christ, comprised of all believers worldwide in the Lord Jesus, is where God dwells. He’s not tied to holy buildings, but to holy people. What a responsibility Christians have to live lives worthy of our calling as the people of God. Once we were alienated from God, but thanks be to God, through the Lord Jesus we are liberated and reconciled to God, and now we are granted citizenship of God’s kingdom. May that increasingly be the case for each of us.
