From Far to Near

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

FROM FAR TO NEAR

Eph 2:11-13

11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (that done in the body by the hands of men)— 12 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. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

NIV

We too were born as a Gentile, however, in the post modern times we are not as separated by circumcision as the Ephesians were from the Jews. Nevertheless, we were once separate from God, and excluded from citizenship in Israel, or maybe we could say separated from citizenship in the kingdom of God. It does not matter when we came to the knowledge of our salvation, we all were sinners who were objects of wrath. Some of us believers may have been raised in a believing household, others may have lived years without believing, but came to that knowledge later in life. But the simple truth is we were all born separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel. We were all foreigners to the covenants of the promise, and we were all without hope and without God in the world. What a horrible way to be, without Christ and without hope. However, at some point in our lives, we had to make that choice for ourselves. We were not born saved, by as a sinner, in need of knowing Jesus personally. Praise God we have been redeemed. We did come to that knowledge of knowing Jesus as Lord and Savior and we are not longer far away from God but have the Spirit dwelling within us. We have been drawn near to God through the blood of Jesus. How else could our sins be forgiven if it is not through the blood of Jesus. If Jesus had not gone to the cross, and shed his blood for us, we would never be able to have any hope at all and would still be far away from God, a foreigner to the kingdom of God. But He did shed his blood for the remission of our sins, and we are a forgiven people who are in Christ and now we have abdicated our citizenship in this world and have become a citizen of the kingdom of God. Unlike some people who might hold dual citizenship in two countries, we cannot have any dual citizenship for we either love the one and despise the other, we cannot serve two masters. Therefore, we love the kingdom of God, and we despise the kingdom of this world. We either live with hope, or live hopelessly, and we have decided to live with hope, to expect to be resurrected and to see our Lord. We praise God that we are no longer far, but we are now near.