BUT NOW IN CHRIST JESUS YOU WHO
FORMERLY WERE FAR OFF: nuni de en Christo Iesou humeis hoi pote ontes
(PAPMPN) makran: (Romans
8:1;
1 Corinthians 1:30;
2 Corinthians 5:17;
Galatians 3:28)
(12,17,19-22;
3:5-8;
Psalms 22:7;
73:27;
Isaiah 11:10;
24:15,16;
43:6;
49:12;
Isaiah 57:19;
60:4,9;
66:19;
Jeremiah 16:19;
Acts 2:39;
15:14;
22:21;
26:18;
Romans 15:8-12)
If you have time
read Spurgeon's sermon on this verse -
Our Glorious Transforming
But now -
(compare the abrupt transition in
Ephesians 2:4)
a strong adversative, highlighting the glorious, dramatic contrast with
their dismal state just enumerated. Paul reverses the picture, begins to
paint a fresh and glowing contrast. There is particular strong
contrast with the words in
Ephesians 2:12
"at that time".
Now (3570)
(nuni) means at the present.
In Christ Jesus
- formerly Christ-less, separate from Christ (Ephesians
2:12), but now in
Christ Jesus. When they trusted the Savior, God placed them in
Christ Jesus and accepted them in the beloved One. From then on they
were as near to God as Christ is. There can be no greater contrast in
time or eternity!
"Jesus is the
`meeting point' with God for all mankind" (Thompson, p. 48). (Quoted in
the
Expositor's Bible Commentary)
O'Brien
explains that...
The words in Christ Jesus are
not to be interpreted predicatively, meaning [But now] you are in Christ
Jesus. Instead, they are connected with you have come near. It
was not that the readers were in Christ prior to their approach; rather,
their being in Christ was the immediate consequence of this coming near.
They were brought near to God in Him, and the means by which this
approach occurred is spelled out in the concluding phrase it was through
Christ's sacrificial death. (O'Brien, P. T. (1999). The Letter to
the Ephesians. Eerdmans Publishing Co)
Formerly
(4218)
(pote) in the past. "Formerly" is a
key word
in Ephesians 2, used 4 times (2:2,
2:3,
2:11,
2:13.
Once more in
Eph 5:8).
Observe the fifth synonymous phrase "at that time" in
Ephesians 2:12.
Far off (3112)
(makran) - As illustrated below, the words "far...near"
were used in rabbinical writings to indicate, among other things,
non-Jew (far) and Jews (near), or those who were righteous
and near God or those who were godless and far away. In the present
context "formerly far off" describes those Gentiles who had received
Christ as Savior and Lord.
Hodge
explains that in the Old Testament...
God lived in the temple, those living
near His dwelling-place and having access to Him were His people. Israel
was near; the Gentiles were far away. They lived at a distance and had
no freedom of access to the place where God revealed His presence...
Among the later Jews the act of receiving a proselyte was called “making
him near.” Being far from God included both separation from his people
and spiritual distance or alienation from God himself; so to be brought
near includes both introduction into the church and reconciliation with
God. And these two ideas are clearly presented and intended by the
apostle in this whole context. This double reconciliation is effected
through the blood of Christ. (Hodge, C. A Commentary on the Epistle to
the Ephesians. London : Banner of Truth Trust, 1964)
Through His
prophet Isaiah God declares...
"I have seen his ways (referring to
faithless Israel), but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore
comfort to him and to his mourners, creating the praise of the lips.
Peace, peace to him who is far (Gentiles) and to him who is
near (Jews)," Says the LORD, "and I will heal him." (Isaiah
57:18-19)
Peter
reaffirms that even though the Gentiles were "far off" they were
not forsaken, for He desires for none to perish but for all to come to
repentance and be saved...
"For the promise (of salvation and
forgiveness in Christ) is for you and your children (referring to Jews),
and for all who are far off (Gentiles who are called), as many as
the Lord our God shall call to Himself." (Acts 2:39)
HAVE BEEN BROUGHT NEAR BY THE
BLOOD OF CHRIST: egenethete (2PAPI) eggus en to haimati tou Christou: (16;
1:7;
Romans 3:23-30;
5:9,10;
1 Corinthians 6:11;
2 Corinthians 5:20,21;
Colossians 1:13,14,21,22;
Hebrews 9:18;
1 Peter 1:18,19;
3:18;
Revelation 5:9)
What Paul does in
this verse is summarize the new position of nearness for the Gentiles.
In the subsequent passages he elaborates on the significance of this
truth climaxing it with the truth that those who were once far off now
in Christ have access in one Spirit to the Father! (see note
Ephesians 2:18)
Have been
brought (1096)
(ginomai) means to come into existence or cause to be or to
become. Gentiles have become near. The Gentiles have been made nigh.
Literally it reads...
ye being once afar off became
nigh in the blood of the Christ,
Near
(1451)
(eggus) indicates a position relatively close to another position. The
Jews considered themselves and their converts to be brought near to God
because of their covenant relation to Him and the presence of His Temple
in Jerusalem.
When the Rabbis
spoke about accepting a convert into Judaism, they said that he had been
brought near. For instance, the Jewish Rabbinic writers tell how
a Gentile woman came to Rabbi Eliezer. She confessed that she was a
sinner and asked to be admitted to the Jewish faith and then pleaded
"Rabbi, bring me near."
The Rabbi refused.
The door was shut in her face. But now in Christ the door has
been flung wide open! Those who had been far from God were brought
near, and the door was shut to no one.
John MacArthur
explains that brought near...
is not an external, dispensational,
national, geographic, or ceremonial nearness—but is a spiritual intimacy
of union with the Lord Jesus Christ...
Every person who trusts in Christ
alone for salvation, Jew or Gentile, is brought into spiritual union and
intimacy with God.
(MacArthur,
J: Ephesians. Chicago: Moody Press)
(The
MacArthur Study Bible Nashville: Word Pub)
Paget phrased it
this way...
So near, so very near to God
Nearer I cannot be;
For in the Person of His Son
I am as near as He
J Vernon McGee
explains brought near writing that...
In the temple was the court of the
Gentiles way off to the side. Gentiles were permitted to come, but they
were away far off. But now—for the Gentiles who are in Christ—all has
changed. They were without Christ; now they are in Christ. The distance
and barriers which separated them from God have been removed. They have
been made nigh, not by their efforts or merits, but by the blood of
Christ. (McGee,
J V: Thru the Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson)
Harold Hoehner
writes that...
The Gentiles who once were far away
(cf. v. 17) from both God and the Jews (Ephesians
2:12) have been brought
near through the blood of Christ (cf. redemption in
Ephesians 1:7).
They have come near to God and to the Jews by means of Christ’s
sacrificial death. (Walvoord,
J. F., Zuck, R. B., et al: The Bible Knowledge Commentary. 1985. Victor).
John Eadie
commenting on "brought near" writes that...
The presence of Jehovah was enjoyed
in His temple, and that temple was in the heart of Judaea, but the
extra-Palestinian nations were “far off” from it, and this actual
measurement of space naturally became the symbol of moral distance.
Israel was near, but non-Israel was remote, and would have remained so
but for Jesus. His advent and death changed the scene, and destroyed the
wide interval, as the apostle shows in the subsequent verses. They who
had been “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,” were now incorporated
into the spiritual community, were partakers of “a better covenant
established on better promises,” were filled with “good hope through
grace,” knew God, or rather “were known of God,” and were no longer “in
the world,” but of the “household of God.” The Gentile Christians
enjoyed spiritually all that was characteristic of the Hebrew theocracy.
As the “true circumcision,” they were “near,” spiritually as near as the
Israelites whom a few steps brought to the temple, altar, and Shechinah.
(John Eadie, D., LL.D. The Epistle of St Paul to the Ephesians)
John Phillips
draws an interesting parallel with the prodigal of Luke 15
writing...
Once we were prodigals of the
universe dwelling in the far country. We had spent our substance in
riotous living and were in the grip of famine and want. Nobody cared.
Our place was with the swine, and our daily bread was the husks that
they ate. In our sin we were a disgrace to the One who had created us.
We did not even have the good sense of the prodigal mentioned in the
Lord's parable (Luke 15), for we did not know our way home. We groped in
darkness and blindly longed for a God we did not know. But when we were
yet a great way off, the Father saw us and had compassion on us. He ran
and fell on our necks and kissed us. Now we who "were far off" are "made
nigh by the blood of Christ." (Phillips,
J. Exploring Ephesians)
Paul describes our
having been brought near in Romans 5 writing...
Therefore having been justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through
whom also we have obtained (perfect
tense = signifies
it is the believer's permanent possession and nothing can remove us from
it) our introduction (access much as one would gain entree to a king's
presence through the favor of another) by faith into this grace in which
we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. (see notes
Romans 5:1;
5:2)
By
(1711)
(en) is literally in the blood of Christ. The power which
has changed farness into nearness, resides in the blood of Christ.
Blood
(129)
(haima) is the basis of life.
This is Paul's
second mention of the blood of Christ, for earlier he had explained
that...
In Him we have redemption through His
blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His
grace, which He lavished upon us. (See notes
Ephesians 1:7;
1:8a)
Of Christ
- No other blood sacrifice could satisfy the righteous demands of God's
holiness and His just hatred of sin. Only the blood of the spotless,
sinless Lamb of God could take away the sins of the world and bring men
near. The writer of Hebrews expounds on the importance of the blood
of Christ in Hebrews 9 writing...
But when (in contrast to the Jewish
high priests who were sinners) Christ appeared as a high priest of the
good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation;
12 and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own
blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained
eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes
of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the
cleansing of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ,
Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God,
cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews
10:11-14)
The cleansing
value of the blood of Christ immediately washes away the penalty (and
power) of sin and ultimately washes away even its presence (this latter
speaks of the believer's blessed hope that when we see Him someday in
the near future, we shall be like Him, glorified and forever free of the
presence of sin and the passing pleasure of sin. Hallelujah!).
John Eadie
writes that...
The apostle's object is to show that
by the death of Christ the exclusiveness of the theocracy was abolished,
that Jew and Gentile, by the abrogation of the Mosaic law, are placed on
the same level, and that both, in the blood of Christ, are reconciled to
God. (John Eadie, D., LL.D. The Epistle of St Paul to the Ephesians)
The KJV
Bible Commentary emphasizes that...
We are made nigh by the
blood of Christ; not by becoming a proselyte of Judaism, not by the
sincerity of our repentance, not by the strength of our faith, not by
the depth of our devotion, not by the joy of our spiritual experience. A
new relationship has been established in a new covenant sealed with the
sacrificial blood of Christ, who suffered the just for the unjust, that
He might bring us to God (See note
1 Peter 3:18).
Peter
explains that believers...
were not redeemed with perishable
things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from
your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and
spotless, the blood of Christ. (See notes
1 Peter 1:18;
1:19)
KJV Bible
Commentary explains that...
This is what God has done. We are
made nigh by the blood of Christ; not by becoming a proselyte of
Judaism, not by the sincerity of our repentance, not by the strength of
our faith, not by the depth of our devotion, not by the joy of our
spiritual experience. A new relationship has been established in a new
covenant sealed with the sacrificial blood of Christ, who suffered the
just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God (Dobson,
E G, Charles Feinberg, E Hindson, Woodrow Kroll, H L. Wilmington: KJV
Bible Commentary: Nelson)
Peter
writes that...
Christ also died for sins once for
all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God,
having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit (see
note
1 Peter 3:18)
Regarding the "blood of Christ"
Ray Stedman point out...
that it isn't merely the death of
Christ. Paul says that it is the blood of Christ. It is
significant that he uses that term. Death, of course, is not always
bloody. You can die without losing your blood. The Scriptures sometimes
speak of the death of Christ, and more often of the cross of Christ. But
still more often they speak of the blood of Christ. Why this emphasis?
Many don't like this today. They don't like to think of the cross or of
the death of Jesus as being bloody. But God emphasizes it. God wants us
to think about it, because blood is always a sign of violence. You see,
the death of Jesus was not just a simple passing away -- dying of old
age on a comfortable bed. No, no. It was a violent death, a bloody,
gory, ugly, revolting scene -- a man hanging torn and wretched upon a
cross, with blood streaming down his sides and running down the cross.
God wants us to remember that violent death, because violence is the
ultimate result of paganism. It is the final expression of a godless
society. Cruelty arises immediately when love and truth disappear from
society. And God is simply reminding us that when humanity had done its
worst, had sunk to its lowest, had vented its anger in the utter
wretchedness and violence and blood of the cross, his love reached down
to that very place and, utilizing that violent act, began to redeem, to
call back those who were far off and bring them near -- in the blood of
Christ.
And, in the blood of Jesus, all the advantages the Jews had were
conferred upon the Gentiles. Ignorant, pagan, darkened, foolish,
struggling, hopeless -- nevertheless, they had just as much access to
God, in the blood of Christ, as any Jew ever had with his temple, his
Law, his priesthood, and his sacrifice. By this the apostle is trying to
emphasize to us the exceedingly amazing wonder of the grace of God,
which laid all these liabilities aside and reached out to us and found
us just as we were, and brought us near by the blood of Jesus Christ our
Lord. What a gift to give thanks for! (Read the full sermon
Strangers In Darkness)
><> ><> ><>
Our Daily Bread -
Family Tie...
An elderly man who visited an art
gallery was deeply moved by a painting that portrayed Christ on the
cross. It was so realistic in depicting the suffering of the Savior that
his heart was filled with gratitude for the great price the Lord Jesus
paid for his redemption. With tears trickling down his cheeks, he
exclaimed, “Bless Him! I love Him! I love Him!"
Other visitors standing nearby wondered what the man was talking about.
One person walked over and looked at the painting. Soon he too felt deep
emotion welling up in his heart. Turning to the old man, he gave him a
firm handshake and said, “So do I! I love Him too!” The scene was
repeated as a third man and then a fourth walked over, gazed at the
painting, and exclaimed, “I love Him too!” Although these men were from
different churches, they felt a common bond because of their faith in
Christ.
As believers, we need an awareness of our spiritual unity with other
Christians. We need to focus on the fundamentals on which we agree—such
as our love for the Savior who died for us—rather than bicker about
lesser issues.
Regardless of sincere disagreements, we as blood-bought believers should
recognize that we have a strong family tie in Christ.—Richard De Haan
Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love!
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like to that above. —Fawcett
As we draw near to Christ we are drawn near to each other.
