Brought Near by the Blood of Christ
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Paul's saying, remember where you were. You're separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
That's a bleak picture. Outside of Christ, we are a hopeless people. Remembering who we were outside of Christ should fill us with gratitude and produce humility. It should also lead us to praise as we remember the greatness of what is ours in Christ. This is the Sunday edition of Renewing Your Mind, as each week we feature the preaching and teaching ministry of R.C. Sproul. We're currently in a short series beginning in Ephesians chapter 2. You can own Dr. Sproul's complete study of Ephesians when you request his hardcover expositional commentary with your donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org. And know that your generosity today is helping take the truth of God's Word to the nations.
Paul had bad news to share with us last week, and as Dr. Sproul begins at verse 11 of chapter 2, Paul again reminds us of who we once were. Here's Dr. Sproul.
We're going to continue our study of Paul's letter to the Ephesians, and we are in chapter 2, and I will be reading beginning at verse 11 through the end of the chapter. 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 once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 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 expressed in 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, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. in whom you are also being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Keep in mind that one of the major themes of Paul's letter to the Ephesians is the theme of the nature of the church of Jesus Christ. And so what he teaches in this lesson tonight, I think, is critical for our understanding of what is the church.
So he starts this portion by calling the Ephesian Gentiles to remember something. He says, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh—let me just comment briefly on that phrase, in the flesh— because Paul uses the term flesh in two different ways. Sometimes he refers simply to a person's physical human nature without any particular reference to their fallen condition in original sin. Other times he uses that term flesh to describe our fallen nature where we are in bondage to sin. But now I think here when he talks about the Gentiles in the flesh, he's not talking about their fallen condition, but that those who are defined as Gentiles in terms of their ethnicity, the fact that they are not Jewish by nature, but that they are in fact non-Jewish in their physical and personal background. Remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh
called the uncircumcision by what is called circumcision. Now actually, this is kind of a euphemistic and polite translation that we have here, because we know that the term that was used by the Jews to describe non-Jews or Gentiles was not simply that they were uncircumcised, but they referred to them in a pejorative sense as the foreskins because they still had foreskins which had been removed from the Jews by the rite of circumcision. So that was a little bit more crass than simply being called uncircumcised by what is called the circumcision, which of course refers to the Jews, which is made in the flesh by hand.
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