005 What’s the Difference?

When you visit a club in Australia you are likely to be required to wear certain minimum standards of dress. Men might be required to remove any headwear. There will be reasons for the club setting these standards and you are free to leave or not to visit.

Some churches have similar expectations and traditionally people have donned their Sunday Best when going to church. Fashion changes and so it is much more acceptable for people to wear more casual clothing to church.

It’s not only clothing that makes someone acceptable or not, part of the group or at least a fringe member. 

When Paul wrote to the Ephesians some of them were long-time established members of the church, others recently joined and he commented on a distinction which was significant at the time but somewhat mysterious now. In Ephesians 2:11 he wrote 

Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called ‘uncircumcised’ by those who call themselves ‘the circumcision’ (which is done in the body by human hands)

For generations there was the requirement for all men and the males in their households to be circumcised.  This demonstration of commitment is not unique to hebrews, members of the jewish religion but is practiced in other cultural situations as well.

For all these generations the Jews had been expecting the arrival of their Messiah, their Saviour and now he had come, Jesus the Christ. Many of the jews in Ephesus now worshipped him and they shared the good news Jesus gave them with their neighbours and friends, people referred to as Gentiles, people who were not of Jewish culture but now also followed Jesus as Lord and Saviour.

These gentile members of the Ephesian church had not been ritually circumcised so that there were two groups marked out by this practice.

When Paul wrote to this church he wrote to them with the expectation that they would be in unity as one group of Christians.

He had just written to remind them of their miraculous change from being spiritually dead to life by the powerful grace of God:

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)

In the same church in Ephesus were now people of different cultural backgrounds who have not always lived harmoniously. Misunderstandings and outright racism were common. Gentiles, the uncircumcised, were impure and irreligious to the Jews. In turn the Gentiles, who were mostly of Greek or Roman culture despised the Jews.

This situation makes the lessons in Ephesians relevant to our society, times and church. We often see examples of such tensions in our world, our country and our churches.

So Paul reminded them:

remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:12,13)

Christian people have something in common so dramatically more significant than anything which might divide people. Cultural practices, appearances, religious experiences, even circumcision, have no significance compared with spiritual resurrection, being moved from death to life, gathered in by the grace of God and the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ!

They are brought near by the blood of Christ!

Having been brought near by the blood of Christ surely there can be no thought of division or separation or even of distinction to those of us who have been so dramatically changed by the power of God.

The Jewish people had lived for thousands of years in a covenant with Almighty God which made them a unified people signified on their part by the rite of male circumcision and obedience to laws handed to them by God. This relationship gave them expectations that God would care for them. They were one people, a family descended from a man called Israel so strong as to be called a nation.

Backgrounds, ancestries  and histories lose all significance.  All of us have been changed from death to life! There was a time we were separate from, actually excluded from Christ, cut off from his kingdom, his family, his life. 

Now each of us and therefore together we are no longer foreigners. We now belong, are included into the one family enjoying the expectation and hope that we are now given. We were far away but now we have been brought near to God himself!

These remarkable and unique results are the results of one man.  It is the central message of Christianity and distinguishes it from any other faith, religion, belief system. 

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)

We naturally appreciate the sacrifice of someone who gives up much, perhaps even their life, for the sake of another and we hope the one who benefits in some way deserves and is grateful for what they have benefited by.

God became man in the form of his only son, Jesus who died a cruel crucifixion for the sake of many people, people who do not deserve this salvation; people who were sinners, sinners so scarred, so powerless they were as good as dead, far from and, separated from all that is good.

This is an extreme and unique sacrifice that has brought us near to God.

It was at the cost of the blood of Christ as it was shed from the body of Jesus Christ as he died hanging on the cross. 

People keep deluding themselves into thinking that the perfect, all-powerful and eventual judge of each of us would accept anything but perfection if they are to have the least possible relationship with God let alone acceptance into his perfect presence. Why do they think God will even hear their pleas?

For so many generations people have tried to find acceptance, forgiveness by doing good but spoiled things to satisfy the judge, by keeping some form of laws and regulations but never able to do so with the perfection that matches the creator. The jews had done this for so long but never well enough.

Again we come to the question, “how can we get right with God?” And again we come to the only answer there is: the answer is Jesus.

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.  (Ephesians 2:14-16)

Peace! Peace with God is a wonderful relationship to have. Knowing that Jesus blood was shed to dispose of the problem of our death and sin gives us that peace that passes understanding! That knowledge is also the only way that we can find peace with other people, sinners who have also been translated from death to life.

At the birth of Jesus the angels announced Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests  (Luke 2:14) but it was because of the death of Jesus that peace became possible!

Be realistic! Try no more to try to satisfy God, to find peace, by your own efforts. Accept the forgiveness and salvation available to you by the blood of Christ! This is the way to be reconciled to God, reconciled through the Cross.

It is by the cross of Christ that Jesus put to death any hostility between God and man and there is reconciliation between them.  Between God and me. Between God and you! Peace!

But it is also the way that the barrier can be destroyed that is between humans, that the hostility between divided groups can be set aside. There are no more commands and regulations that can bring peace between man and God and when such men of peace are joined as one body by Christ there can be peace between men. Without Christ there is no such hope possible.

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22)

Under these circumstances there is so much in common. We belong to one kingdom, the Kingdom of God, adopted children of the one true God and so brothers and sisters in the one family with one Father and one Lord Jesus.

Together we live with the same source of teaching, the teaching of our Lord Jesus as passed on to us through his own inspiration recorded in the teaching of his apostles and prophets as we find it in the Bible. We become closer and unified, built together as one entity made of many of us.  And what a remarkable entity! Within it the living Jesus becomes the foundation, the mortar that binds us all together and more! He takes his place with the entity, within us as his Holy Temple where he is worshipped, met and heard.

Not now in his body the Spirit of Jesus is to be found now dwelling in God’s people.

With such wonderful good news no wonder Christians who have been so blessed by their Lord are driven to share it, to follow the example and teaching of their Lord who lives among them.

He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. (Ephesians 2:17,18)