Ephesians 2 v 11 thru 13

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

In the epistle to the Ephesians, chapter two, verses eleven through thirteen, the apostle Paul turns from the vertical dimension of salvation, meaning what God has done for us, to the horizontal implications, meaning what God has done among us. He just declared that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in verses 8 through 10. And now Paul reminds Gentile believers who they once were, so that they might better understand who they are now in Christ. This passage is really a call to remember not to wallow in our own guilt, but in order to magnify the grace of God that has done a work and is working in us. Let's look at chapter two of Ephesians, beginning in verse 11. It says, 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. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Father, we pray this morning that you would again open our minds, enlighten our understanding, draw us closer to you. Father, may your word this morning spur us on to live a life that is more like Christ every day. Have your way, we pray, for your glory in Jesus' name. Amen. So Paul tells us first to remember our former separation in verses 11 and 12. Remember that at one time, you Gentiles in the flesh, Paul begins here with a command to remember. On and reflecting, reflecting on who we were. We are to remember our past condition, not in a sentimental way, but in an honest and truthful way. To remember who we were before Christ. The word that he uses here for remember is in the it's in the present imperative active voice, which means that we are to remember now and we're to keep on remembering who we used to be, our former condition without Christ. And it helps to keep us from becoming prideful. Because we understand if we remember who we were before Christ, then we understand we are saved by grace alone. Then we know we have nothing in which to boast, as Paul just said in the previous verses. If we remember those things and we remember that he is our salvation from beginning to end, then we will remember that we have nothing that we can boast about regarding our salvation. Paul, I said last week, Paul says that if I boast, let me boast in the cross of Christ. And so Paul describes five realities then of the former state of these Gentiles. He says, first, 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 one time separated from Christ. That's the first condition we had before we came to faith in Christ. They were outside of the covenant promises that pointed to the Messiah. Isaiah 49, 6 tells us about that. They had no share in the hope of the anointed one. They were outside of the covenant until Christ came. And then he says, You were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. Israel was in the old covenant the visible people of God. And Gentiles stood outside of that covenant community. Strangers, aliens, foreigners. And then he says, You're strangers to the covenants of promise. The Abrahamic covenant, the Mosaic covenant, the Davidic covenant. Those did not belong to us. Those did not belong to us because we were outside of those things. And then he says the next thing is that having no hope, apart from God's revealed promises, they were without any hope in the end, no eschatological expectation, no hope for the end times, because we were outside of Christ. And then he says that the fifth condition is we were without God in the world. Without God is the Greek term atheoi. It literally means that they were not theoretical atheists, but practical ones. People who were living as though God did not exist because they had no relationship to him. And they lived as though then he was absent. And Calvin writes that nothing is more destructive than to forget what we once were. That remembrance humbles us and it strips away our pride. We have no boasting in our salvation. Again, my favorite quote from Jonathan Edwards, the great 18th century American preacher: the only thing I bring to my salvation is the sin that makes it necessary. I bring nothing else. Augustine of Hippo from the early, early church, fourth century, he said, For what have you that you did not receive? We talked about that in Sunday school this morning. That's 1 Corinthians 4, 7. Our past condition was not one of partial need. We didn't just need a little bit of salvation. We were in total ruin. In fact, earlier in this same chapter, Paul says we were dead in the sins and trespasses in which we once walked. But God made us alive together with him in Christ. So we were completely ruined. John Chrysostom said that Paul reminds them of their former miseries that they may be more thankful for present blessings. You ever get down in the dumps? You ever think, man, what do I have to be grateful for? Think about your life before Christ and then think about it with Christ. Now you have all the reason you could ever need to be thankful. Before Christ, slave to sin. With Christ, slave to God. Before Christ, incapable of honoring and pleasing God. Why? Without faith, it's impossible to please him, Hebrews 11 tells us. But with Christ, through faith, we can please God. We can honor Him. And it's really the doctrine that is called total depravity. Not that we are as evil as we can be, but that sin affects every part of us until we come to faith in Christ. And it leaves us, as verse 1 in this chapter said, spiritually dead. But then Paul turns a corner and he calls us to rejoice in our present reconciliation. The beginning of verse 13. He says, kind of like similar to verse 4, but God being rich in mercy, verse 13, he says, but now in Christ Jesus. We've turned a corner. There's a difference here. But as opposed to, but now, and it signals one of the most glorious transitions in Scripture because they mark the invasion of grace into the wasteland of human loneliness and lostness. It's not a gradual improvement. It's not a self-help, boy, okay, I've overcome that one now. Let me move on to the next one, and eventually I'll be worthy in God's sight for salvation. No, that is not what this is. This is the very intervention of God Himself in the person of Christ, but now in Christ Jesus. R.C. Sproul often emphasized that Christianity is not about moral uplift, but about resurrection. He said, We are not just sick, we are dead, and God makes us alive. That's the reality of our condition before Christ. And notice the sphere that this occurs in, but now in Christ Jesus. We talked about how Paul uses that phrase in him, in Christ, in Christ Jesus, in the beloved. He uses those phrases over 100 times in this one letter. Six chapters in our modern Bible. And he uses those phrases more than a hundred times. Gee, what do you think Paul was trying to remind the church in Ephesus of? It's about Christ. Our entire life is about Christ. Union with Christ is central to our theology, and every spiritual blessing flows from being united to Him. Chapter 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Everything we have, spiritually speaking, is because of Christ, and because we are in Christ. John MacArthur said, our entire spiritual position is transformed because we are placed into Christ. This is a forensic statement. And it speaks of a relationship. And because we are justified, declared righteous in God's eyes because of Christ, and then therefore we are reconciled to God. We are now no longer, as James says, at enmity, warring, fighting, striving against God. We now are at peace with God. And we are declared righteous by God because of his grace and set in a right relationship with him because of that grace. Then finally, the last part of verse 13. We should marvel at the means of our redemption. You, who once were far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ. This is the heart of the gospel, substitutionary atonement. Christ paid a debt we owed that we could not pay. He paid a debt he didn't owe on our behalf. We were far off, which really echoes Isaiah 57, 19. Peace peace to the far and to the near, but peace does not come cheaply. It comes by the blood of Christ. Understanding that is not simply talking about the liquid flowing through the veins of Christ. By the blood, by the shedding of blood. Those phrases are colloquialisms that mean the death of a sacrifice. In the Old Testament, in the Old Covenant, they didn't just take a lamb and cut a vein and drip a little blood out. That thing was slaughtered. All the blood drained out. It was cut into pieces. Christ suffered that for our sin. It's not some sort of metaphorical sentiment. Paul's not using a metaphor here. This is kind of how it happens. This points to the reality. It is the reality. It is the sacrificial reality of our salvation. That it comes only through Christ's death. Christ bore the wrath of God in our place. 2 Corinthians 5.21. On our behalf, God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Spurgeon said, There's no hope for me outside the blood of Jesus Christ. There's no hope for any of us apart from that. No hope for any of us. Calvin, again, he writes, we are reconciled to God by the blood of Christ because he alone has borne the punishment of sin. That's the reality. It's the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement. Christ taking upon himself the penalty that we deserve and giving us his grace in the great exchange. Through his blood, that distance now becomes nearness. Our alienation, as Paul writes in the eighth chapter of Romans, becomes adoption. We were given the spirit of adoption. And hopelessness becomes assurance. And this all speaks to the glory of God's sovereign grace. This passage reinforces key biblical truths, sovereign election. God chose a people not based on their merit, not based on anything that they had done. And he makes that clear very early in scripture, back in Deuteronomy, speaking about Israel. He says that it was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you. For you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath he swore to your fathers that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. God's calling, God's choosing is God's will. Again, Romans. Paul says, those whom he foreknew. That means to predetermined to set his love on. Those whom he pre whom he foreknew he predestined. And those whom he predestined, he called. And those whom he called, he justified. And those whom he justified, he glorified. And then there's the effectual calling. Those who are far off are brought near by God's grace, by God's initiative. God takes the first step. Because apart from that, we would never move toward Christ. John 6 makes it very clear: all the Father gives me will come to me. And I will lose none of them, but will raise them up at the last day. Then the idea of particular redemption, that Christ's blood actually accomplishes reconciliation. His sacrifice does not merely make people savable. It drives me nuts when I hear people, well, so-and-so is savable. What does that even mean? Anyone is savable if God calls them to salvation. Christ's blood is more than sufficient to save everyone, but it says that the only ones he died for were his own. Look at his high priestly prayer in John 17. He says, I do not pray for the world, but I pray for those you have given me out of the world. His people. My sheep know my voice. Christ is in charge of our salvation. And then what's called irresistible grace, that those who are far off are not merely invited to salvation. They are brought near. They are brought into the fold.

unknown 16:57

R.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

C. Sprohl said, grace is not simply an offer, it is a power that accomplishes what God intends. That sounds an awful lot like Isaiah 55. My word will not return to me void, but it will accomplish what I have set forth for it to do. So, in conclusion, remember. Rejoice and respond. Paul's purpose in this text is very pastoral. Remember who you were before Christ because this produces humility. Rejoice in what Christ has done because that produces worship. And then respond in unity and holiness because that produces obedience. If you are in Christ, you are no longer far off, you are near, near to God and near to his people. Something about they will know you are my disciples in that you have love one for another. And if you're not in Christ, the message is clear. Nearness is not achieved, it's not something we do, it is received through the blood of Christ. Again, Augustine he said, You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. So come and rest in Christ. Marvel that those who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word today. Lord, I thank you for it.