The Messenger 4
Introduction
You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ. For in scripture it says – ‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone….’” (1 Peter 2:5-6).
Those words from Peter’s letter have captured the theme of the second half of Ephesians 2. If you read that chapter of Ephesians from verse 11 to the end you will notice how the focus has moved away from the personal dimensions of salvation with its emphasis on what we have become in Christ. It is now focused on what God is building. He is building writes Paul “a dwelling in which He lives by His Spirit” (verse22) with Jesus as the cornerstone and those in Christ as the living stones. Here Jesus is portrayed “not solely or mainly as the saviour of each individual soul but rather as ‘gathering up’ all humanity in Himself” (CJ Ellicott).
Remember
Paul, in this second part of chapter 2, has painted “a vivid contrast between the double alienation the Gentiles endured before Christ – an alienation from God and from Israel – and their double reconciliation through Christ. For by His death Christ demolished the Jew-Gentile and God-man barriers, and is now creating in relation to Himself a single, new, multi-cultured, human society which is both the family he loves and the temple He lives in. Paul’s Gentile readers must have read with amazement the exposition of the gospel of peace” (John Stott).
To help his Gentile readers appreciate this ‘double alienation’ and this ‘double reconciliation’ Paul exhorts them to think back to what they had been outside of their union with Christ. “Remember” he says in verses 11 and 12 – “remember that as Gentiles you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel (the People of God) and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ….”
But now in Christ! God’s long-term plan was beginning to come together and that plan included the Gentiles. A double alienation had become a double reconciliation
Bridging the religious divide
God did not choose Israel to be His people because they were bigger, stronger, wiser or more loved than the people of other nations. God wanted an instrument through which He could bring salvation to this world. So He began by choosing Israel and making them His covenant people. “I will be your God and you will be my people” He had said to the nation of Israel.
Did they disappoint Him? Yes they did. Did they sometimes rebel against Him? Yes they did. But God had bound Himself to them by a covenant. And through all their tumultuous history God never left Himself without a witness in the nation. And then in the fullness of time, when the time was right, a son was born into a Jewish family and was given the name Jesus. Salvation had come into the world. But salvation was not just for the Jews. That was never God’s plan. Before completing His earthly ministry Jesus gave a clear mandate to His disciples – “Go and make disciples of all nations….”(Mat. 28:19).
From the early chapters of Luke’s Book of Acts, however, it would appear that the disciples were in no hurry to take the Gospel to all nations. If we had been in their shoes we would probably have been no different. After all, as most of us know from our own experience, it is easier to stick with what one knows and feels comfortable with than venture into the unknown. And crossing social, cultural, religious and geographical barriers is never easy. How long the Jerusalem Church would have remained insular in its outlook is impossible to say, but two things happened to get the Church of the 1st century moving. A persecution of Christians in Jerusalem drove many of them out of their comfort zone (Acts 8:1 & 4) and an arch-enemy of the Church, Saul of Tarsus, a zealous orthodox Pharisee, was suddenly and dramatically converted. It he who was to become the Church’s greatest champion (Acts 9) and played a pivotal role in taking the Gospel to the Gentiles across the Roman Empire.
Some challenging conclusions
In our next reflection I want us to examine the contents of 2:11-22 in more depth. For now, however, allow me to draw some challenging and interesting conclusions from what we have looked at so far in that second half of the chapter.
1. Salvation is not just about God and me. It is not just about God and you. While there is no mistaking the personal dimension to salvation, it also has the broader dimension of that which God is building – His Church. All those in Christ become the ‘living stones’ out of which God shapes His Church. It is important that we hold in tension these two dimensions of salvation so that we neither miss the personal need for repentance and faith nor the corporate implications of our salvation as God builds us together to become a dwelling in which He lives by His Spirit. You have been saved not just for your sake but for His sake.
2. God’s plan of salvation came to fruition through His chosen People, the Jews, but His plan in choosing Israel was to make salvation available to all nations.
3. “No Christian can be anti-Semitic. Christ was a Jew, and that by divine intent. In a conversation with a Samaritan woman, Jesus declared: ‘Salvation is from the Jews’ (John 4:22). All people are indebted to the Hebrew nation for the Saviour” (Christian Courier).
4. Nothing, no force on earth or in hell, will ultimately thwart the plans and purposes of God for His Church. Whatever obstacles may appear to stand in the way of God’s plans He will find a way to overcome them. What God has purposed He will accomplish. In the midst of all the chaos in the world today and all the divisions in the Church hold on to that. Sometimes when we look at the divisions in the Church it is impossible to imagine how the Church could rise ‘to become a holy temple in the Lord.’
5. We don’t choose with whom we will be united as believers – God does.
Cheap grace
I want to refer to the phrase cheap grace coined by the German Theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book entitled “The Cost of Discipleship” It is a term that accurately portrays the way in which many churches today are presenting the Gospel of salvation.
Bonhoeffer makes the point in his book that as more and more people adopted the Christian Faith, the Church became ‘secularised.’ It began to adapt the biblical demands of obedience to Jesus to the accepted norms of secular society. It lost the sense that Christianity in effect is and always has been counter-culture. Christianity, however, is seldom presented today as a radical call to discipleship. Instead the Gospel with its emphasis on grace is being cheapened by adapting it to accommodate the lowest common denominator. The result? People are tempted into thinking that they can simply add Jesus to their life without really having to change in any discernible way.
“Obedience to the living Christ was gradually lost beneath formula and ritual, so that in the end grace could literally be sold for monetary gain.” Think of the Church selling indulgences in the time of Luther.
And that, I feel, is a good place on which to end today’s reflection.
If you have a question or a comment about this series please feel free to write to me, Brian, at
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