Friday, May 02, 2025

The Vision (5.2.25): Before and After

 


Image: Rhododendron, North Garden, Virginia, May 2025.

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Ephesians 2:11-16.

Ephesians 2:12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

In Ephesians 2, Paul continues to draw a contrast for the Ephesians between their unregenerate and regenerate states. It is a before and after contrast. Think of a fitness channel on social media. This was the before (fat and flabby), and here is the after (lean and fit).

In v. 12 Paul offers three descriptions of the Ephesians in their unregenerate state:

First, there were “without Christ.” How sad it is to live a Christ-less existence, yet so many do. He ties this to their apartness from “the commonwealth of Israel” and “the covenants of promise.” They had not known all the shadowy covenants that had pointed to the New Covenant through the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter will say that such were “in time past not a people, but are now the people of God” (1 Peter 2:10).

Second, they were hopeless: “having no hope.” Many people live in this world without hope. I recently read an online story about a 10 year-old girl who took her own life. I saw the scars of hopelessness firsthand while living in a post-communist nation.

Take God away and what hope is there? Hope in yourself? In sport or entertainment? In money or power? In science or knowledge? Of course, Paul is also saying here that they were without the ultimate blessed hope of Christ’s second coming.

Third, they were “without God (atheoi) in this world.” This is the spirit of atheism (cf. Psalm 14:1 and Psalm 53:1). One of the worst and most deceptive songs ever written was John Lennon’s “Imagine,” and it is sung over and over again, even recently at former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral. It has a diabolical message. Take away belief in God and create an earthly paradise! Have they never seen what happened in communist Soviet Union or on the killing fields of Cambodia when nations tried to live without God?

The contrast comes in v. 13: “But now in Christ Jesus….” This parallels the “But God…” in v. 4. Those who were far off have been brought nigh (close) by the blood of Christ. Paul takes the Ephesians back to the foundational work of the cross, and especially to the blood of Christ. Already in Ephesians 1:7 Paul had affirmed, “we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.” Later in this chapter he will say, believers have been reconciled “in one body by the cross” (2:16).

The key to the transformation from the unregenerate to the regenerate state is the cross of Christ. Now, we have Christ; we have hope; and we are not without God in this world.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

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