Verse 11-12
I) Wherefore remember, that ye being in times past….
A) Paul encouraged them to remember their former state. Remembrance of such, should bring about two qualities.
1) Humility- we were no different or better than others who now do the same things, thus while concerned and therefore give warning, we are not condemning and harsh.
2) Thankfulness- we are not what we once were because of the kindness of another, whose kindness ought to be repaid by our service and giving of thanks.
B) He encouraged them to remember it is a former state to which they are no longer bound (in times past). How true the saying “I am not all I ought to be, I am not all I’m going to be, but thank God I am not what I was”.
II) What they were
A) Gentiles in the flesh, by physical birth, called, uncircumcision, as a reproach, to express the contempt, low regard in which they were held, by Jews by physical birth (Circumcision) in the flesh. Anyone who was not a Jew was a Gentile.
1) This sentence speaks of their poverty of their previous condition, Godless.
2) Their inferiority in that the Jews had the hope and looked for a Messiah. Romans 3:1-2, What advantage then hath the Jew? Or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
B) As Gentiles five things enumerated.
1) They were without Christ- Isaiah 9:6a says “For unto us (Israel, Jewish nation) a child is born, unto us a son is given:” Thus the Gentiles were sadly inferior to the Jew.
2) They were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel- They were strangers to, not at home in the theocracy by which God made himself known.
3) Strangers from the covenants of promise. They had no part, nor claim in them.
There are two types of covenants if the O. T.
a) Unconditional- those God promised that He would fulfill simply because the receiver chose to believe them (mainly Abraham and David)
b) Conditional- Those based upon obedience.
One is positional, one is experiential.
God promised Abraham a land, this was unconditional, given because of his initial faith.
God promised Israel blessings in that land, this was conditioned on obedience.
These gentiles were strangers to either covenant type.
4) They had no hope- All the promises Israel enjoyed were tied to Christ, whom the Jews looked forward to for final deliverance.
5) They were without God in the world. Having not the Word of God and no part in the promises of God they had nothing to help them in their present condition of “children of wrath” and “no hope” for the world to come.
We have here a dark picture painted of a blind man groping in the darkness, knowing there was no one to help guide him and knowing his way was filled with treacherous cliffs that would plunge him into the fiery pit below.
Verse 13
I) But now!
A) Just as in verse 4 of this same chapter, God steps in upon the bleak scene painted above.
B) In Christ Jesus- Once again this blessed name arises. Once again we find all our hope and security is fastened upon this mediator who stands between God and man and secures to sinful, hopeless sons of Adam all that is necessary to give him a right standing before God.
II) Ye who sometimes were far off
A) Sometimes were far off- again speaking of our past
B) Are made nigh
1) Note we are made (presently) something we were not. Thus this condition did not originate in ourselves, God intervened on our behalf.
a) This was a charitable act on God’s part. For even the benefits the Jews enjoyed were gifts from God who promised to
b) Abraham something for which God himself was the security. The promise to Abraham was that “I will” Genesis 12: 1-3.
2) Nigh- this is what we are made. God is now our Father and we are his children. Romans 8:15-17.
III) By the blood of Christ
A) This transaction was not natural or without cost. Though we receive it as a gift, by grace and kindness from God, it came at a great cost to God. The price was blood, not just any blood, but that of His own darling Son.
B) This was the only way. Titus 2: 5 and Romans 8: 1-8.
Verse 14
I) For he is our peace.
A) He- is our peace, everything is secured by him and enjoyed in him.
Romans 6: 1-10, we are crucified with Christ, baptized into Christ; taken out of Adam and placed into Christ so that all that is his is ours.
1) He secured our peace by fulfilling the righteous demands of God’s law (as the second Adam) on our behalf, then dieing to pay the penalty of our breaking of that law.
2) He is our peace in that he is now seated at God’s right hand. His work on man’s behalf being acceptable to, and his person as the (last Adam) representative of a new, righteous race being acceptable to the Father.
3) We being in Him are therefore acceptable as he is acceptable. When God looks at us He sees His Son! Amen and Hallelujah!
II) Who hath made both one.
A) The dividing point between the Jew and Gentile was that the Jew represented God and righteousness.
1) Have you ever noticed no matter how poorly the Jews represented God, they were still hated. That is because despite their performance they still reminded the gentiles there was a God and thus an absolute right and wrong, thus intimating there was a judge who would execute sentence against sin. No matter how worldly the Jews were the hatred remained because of the God they reminded people of.
2) Should it surprise us if the same hatred remains towards both Jews and Christians today. If you acknowledge the name of Christ you will be despised!
B) Both are now said to be one. Once the blood of Christ is applied to the sinful soul of man, the hatred is removed for we now love and serve the same master, we are one family. Therefore there are Jews, Gentiles and the Church of God. All the saved belong to the latter family, we are no longer Jew or Gentile.
III) And hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity.
A) What was the partition? What was the enmity?
1) The law of commandments. How did it divide?
2) As above it represented God, thus was divisive because we did not want to be under it’s or should I say God’s domain, as that is what the law represented.
3) Also the Jews wanted to be justified by the law and thus supposed themselves superior to the Gentiles who were both ignorant of God and therefore wicked and of no value to God. This was evidence by the fact that God had called them a chosen nation.
B) How did Jesus break down the barrier and resulting enmity?
1) Repentance – the demand for repentance put the Jew on the same plane as the Gentile as it required him to face the fact that he like the despised Gentiles came up short of the required righteousness to be acceptable to God.
2) Faith- That righteousness could only be attain by faith in a substitute again forced the Jew to face the fact that he could only obtain the needed righteousness through the efforts of another.
3) Thus Jesus’ words to Nicodemus in John 3: 3-7, you must be born again. Jew or Gentile, bond or free, every man has to come to God the same way.
4) So where is the room for boasting, or looking down on another. We all share a common problem and all require a common solution.
IV) For to make in himself of twain one new man.
A) He makes one new man. Romans 5: 17
1) Under Adam’s order death reigned (by sin)
2) Under Christ’s order life reigns (by righteousness)
B) So making peace- Sin brings about discord, but righteousness brings about peace to all who practice it. The enmity between God and Satan, between sin and righteousness still remains. But here Paul is speaking to believers and about a racial, ethnical problem.