Read Ephesians 2:11-22.

Introduction⤒🔗

“You belong! You made the team! You’re in the band! You are a part of the family!”

How do you feel when those words are addressed to you? “You belong!” These words make you feel good, happy, peaceful, joyful, secure.

Have you ever experienced the opposite of those words? You don’t belong!” You did not make the final cut when the coach was selecting the team; you didn’t qualify to make the band; you are not accepted by your classmates or maybe by the members of your community.

How do you feel when those words are addressed to you? “You don’t belong!” Those words make you feel rejected, depressed, isolated, alone.

“You don’t belong!” It is painful if those words describe your relationship with your classmates or fellow-workers; worse if they describe your relationship with your family; but worst of all if they describe your relationship with God.

For so long those were the words that these Gentile Ephesians had heard from the Jewish community: “You don’t belong. You are not a part of the LORD’s covenant community.”

Maybe through the insensitive behavior of fellow Christians, or maybe due to an overly sensitive conscience, the devil would seek to whisper those words to your heart: “You don’t belong.”

In this passage of Scripture, the Holy Spirit loudly proclaims the truth: “Christian, as a recipient of God’s saving grace, as one who has received Christ and given yourself to Him, you do belong to the household of God!”

Christian, Be Confident that You Belong to God, because of the Atoning Work of Christ←⤒🔗

The Apostle Paul begins by reminding these Gentile Christians of their former identity: They were “Gentiles;” as such they were spiritually unclean and defiled. In Isaiah 52:1, the LORD promises Jerusalem, “Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city. From now on the uncircumcised and the morally defiled will no longer enter into you.” Here is the promise that the city of God would no longer suffer invasion by the Gentile nations, a promise that shall be finally realized in the kingdom of heaven, when all the enemies of Christ and His church have been subdued.

Paul goes on to remind these Gentile converts that they were “Gentiles by birth;” literally, “Gentiles in the flesh.” In other words, their status as Gentiles was clearly evident in their bodies: they were uncircumcised. Indeed, they were called “The Uncircumcised.” The Jews made it painfully clear to the Gentiles that they did not belong to the covenant community of Israel, derisively labeling them as “The Uncircumcised.”

In verse twelve, Paul reminds these Gentile Christians of their former status, or, lack of spiritual status, before God: They were “without Christ.” They had no interest in or claim upon the Messiah whom the LORD initially sent to Israel. Note how the Lord Jesus Himself brought this out during the time of His earthly ministry: “These twelve [referring to the original disciples] Jesus sent out with the following instructions: ‘Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 'Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel’” (Matt. 10:5-6). Our Lord gave His disciples these instructions because the time for the evangelization of the Gentile nations had not yet come. Since the nation of Israel was God’s covenant people, the gospel was first preached to them, with the intention that it would go forth from them, as foretold by Isaiah the prophet,

Many peoples will come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths, for the law will go out from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. Isa. 2:3

Furthermore, these Gentiles were “excluded from citizenship in Israel.” They were not a part of the Old Testament covenant people of God; they had no membership in that spiritual community. They were “strangers to the covenants of promise.” They had neither a stake in nor knowledge of the covenant promise God made to His Old Testament people: the promise to be their God and to make them to be His people:

Therefore, say to the children of Israel, 'I am the LORD...I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. ⁷I will take you as my people, and I will be your God.' Ex. 6:6­-7a

The former condition of these Gentile Christians is summed up in these awful words: “having no hope and being without God in the world.” They were separated from Israel physically and separated from God spiritually; they were “far away.”

“But now,” declares the Apostle Paul in verse thirteen, “you have been brought ‘near.’” Now they have been reconciled to God and brought into the covenant community, “by the blood of Christ.” The prophecy of Isaiah 53:5-6 applies to Gentile believers as much as it does to Jewish believers:

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment was laid upon him for our peace, and by his wounds we are healed. 'We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has laid upon him the iniquity of us all.

In verse fourteen, this former Pharisee, now the Apostle Paul, addressing these ethnic Gentile Christians, declares, “He, referring to Christ, [i.e. the Messiah], is our peace.” Christ has destroyed the barrier: “the dividing wall [that served as] a barrier,” which in turn is defined as “the law [that consisted] of commandments in [the form of] regulations.” Christ, by His life of obedience and by His substitutionary atonement upon the cross of Calvary, completely fulfilled the Old Testament law: both the moral law, as well as the ceremonial law, (which especially served as a barrier, separating the Jews from the Gentiles). He did so in order that he might bring peace between (believing) Jew and Gentile: “[He did so] in order that in himself he might create the two into one new man, [thereby] making peace” (vs. 15). By fulfilling the ceremonial law, Christ removed it. By removing it, He removed the great obstacle between believing Jews and believing Gentiles. As a result of Christ’s work, the two, (believing Jews and believing Gentiles), might now be reconciled to one another in Christ.

Throughout the Old Testament dispensation, the ceremonial law, with its demands that the Jew keep himself undefiled by any contact with Gentiles, served as a barrier between the Jew and the Gentile. In the New Testament dispensation, with the ceremonial law being fulfilled by the work of Christ, that barrier between believing Jew and believing Gentile has been removed.

Note: The ceremonial law was intended to function only during the Old Testament dispensation prior to the coming of the Messiah. Its function was two-fold: First, it was intended to preserve Israel’s unique identity, so that they would not become assimilated into the Gentile world, and thus no longer be a people separated unto God and prepared for the coming of the Messiah to be their Savior and the Savior of the believing Gentiles. Second, it was intended to symbolically represent to Israel the fact that they were called to be holy unto God, which holiness could only truly be achieved by becoming united by faith to the Holy One of God Himself, Jesus the Messiah.

The ultimate purpose of Christ’s work was to reconcile them both to God: “With his flesh he destroyed the [source of] enmity...so that he might reconcile the two...unto God by the cross, having put the enmity to death by it” (vs. 14-16). By fulfilling the law, especially the moral law, Christ satisfied God’s justice and appeased God’s moral indignation against us. The Apostle John declares, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 Jn. 4:10). “The propitiation” is the sacrifice that both satisfies the divine justice and appeases the divine wrath. Christ accomplished this by both fulfilling the law’s requirement of obedience, (Christ’s ultimate act of obedience being His going to the cross in submission to the Father’s will), as well as by satisfying the law’s demand that punishment be meted out for disobedience, (which punishment Christ suffered on the cross of Calvary.)

In verse eighteen, Paul now assures the Gentile believers that through Christ we have our access to God the Father. By way of illustration, consider the fear expressed by Queen Esther as she contemplated approaching the king of Persia:

All the king’s officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned, the king has but one law: that he be put to death. The only exception to this is for the king to extend the golden scepter to him and spare his life. Esth. 4:11

Now, in contrast to the fear Esther exhibited when she contemplated approaching the mighty Persian monarch, consider the confidence we as Christians have as we approach the King of heaven:

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess... ¹⁶Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Heb. 4:14,16

As a Christian, be confident that you belong to God, because of the atoning work of Jesus Christ. There is now no barrier between you and God, thanks to the sacrificial death of our Lord Jesus Christ. We must be careful not to re-create a separation by willfully engaging in unrepentant sin, as Isaiah 59:2 warns, “your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have caused him to hide his face from you, so that he refuses to hear you.” There is now no barrier between yourself and any fellow Christian. We must be careful that we do not sinfully erect any such barrier by engaging in sinful acts against our brethren, such as the behavior for which Paul rebukes the Corinthian Christians:

⁵I say this to make you ashamed. Is this the case, that there is not even one wise man among you who is able to judge a dispute between brothers; ⁶but one brother must go to court against another brother, and this before unbelievers? ⁷Actually, the fact that you have lawsuits against one another is already a defect in you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be cheated? ⁸On the contrary, you yourselves are doing wrong and cheating, and you are doing these things to your brothers. 1 Cor. 6:5-8

Christian, Be Confident that You Belong to God, and that He has Great Plans for You←⤒🔗

Whereas formerly the Gentiles were strangers and aliens, now in verse nineteen, these believing Gentiles are described as “fellow citizens with the saints,” (the term, “saints,” is used here to describe the Old Testament covenant people as a people who had been set apart to be God’s own possession and exhibit His holy character).

As believers in Christ, we possess all the rights of the kingdom of God. These include the right to bring our petitions before the King of heaven: “Do not be anxious about anything. On the contrary, in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Phil. 4:6). Also included is the right to expect God’s divine provisions: “My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19). Yet another right we possess is the right to trust in God’s divine promise, namely, the redemption of our bodies:

Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. ²¹By the power that enables him to bring everything into submission to himself, he will transform the body belonging to the present state of our humiliation, so that it may be conformed to his glorified body.Phil. 3:20-21

Not only do we now have the status of citizenship in the kingdom of God, we have been made members of “the household of God” (vs. 19b). In Christ, we have all the rights and privileges of sonship, including the assurance of the Father’s love: “God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (Rom. 5:5). Also included is the assurance of the Father’s loving discipline:

⁵You have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: My son, do not make light of the LORD’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, ⁶because the LORD disciplines those he loves, and he scourges everyone he accepts as a son. ⁷Endure hardship as discipline. God is treating you as a son, for what son is not disciplined by his father? Heb. 12:5-7

Then, too, there is the assurance of sharing in the Father’s inheritance: “Now if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory” (Rom. 8:17).

Not only have we been made members of the household of God, but, according to verses 20-22, we are being made into “a holy temple for the LORD.” We are “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.” The apostles were the ones through whom Christ communicated His New Testament revelation; note Paul’s testimony as an apostle, expressed in 2 Corinthians 12:19 and 13:3, in those verses he writes: “we speak by Christ” (2 Cor. 12:19) and “Christ...speaks by me” (2 Cor. 13:3).

Prior to the completion of the New Testament Scriptures, the New Testament prophets served the function of confirming and interpreting the apostolic writings; note 1 Corinthians 14:37, where Paul writes, “If anyone thinks that he is a prophet or that he is a spiritual man, let him acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the commandment of the Lord.”

This is why the prophets are mentioned in Ephesians 2:20 in conjunction with the apostles. The apostles and the prophets, as the channels through whom Christ communicated His word, form the foundation for our faith and life. We must appreciate and accept the Word of God as our standard for faith and life. When praying to His Father, the Lord Jesus declared, “Your word is truth” (Jn. 17:17). We must be aware of the devil’s strategy; namely, to invent an alternative to replace the absolute truth of God as our standard and authority. One of those ungodly alternatives is moral relativism: making your own personal standard of truth instead of accepting God’s divine standard presented in His Word the Bible. Another ungodly alternative is the selective acceptance of God’s Word: selecting what portions of Scripture we will accept as authoritative, as opposed to submitting to the whole of Scripture.

Paul goes on to write, “Christ Jesus himself [is] the cornerstone.” Our Christian faith and life is not only built upon Christian doctrine as it is derived from the Scriptures; it is built upon a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ Himself as He is presented to us in the Scriptures and through them reveals Himself to us. We must take note of Jesus’ rebuke of the Jews recorded in John 5:39­ 40, “You study the Scriptures diligently, because you think that eternal life is found in them. Now they testify about me; ⁴⁰but you will not come to me so that you may receive life.”

It is in Christ that “the whole building is joined together.” Each individual part of this spiritual superstructure is joined together to form one cohesive building. Consequently, we must appreciate the necessity of each fellow Christian, as Paul has occasion to remind the Corinthians: “those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are necessary” (1 Cor. 12:22). We must appreciate the value of each fellow Christian as “a brother for whose sake Christ died” (1 Cor. 8:11b).

The various parts, being fitted together, are growing “into a holy temple for the LORD.” As Christians, we are presently a spiritual temple under construction. Consequently, we need to be patient with one another: “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Col. 3:13). We need to maintain a proper perspective with regard to our own spiritual progress. We must not wrongly assume that we have arrived at full spiritual maturity; on the contrary, we must be diligent to press on in our Christian life, as the Apostle Paul, by his own example, exhorts the Philippians, who were already a very mature Christian congregation: “It is not that I have already obtained this or have already been made perfect; rather, I press on so that I may take hold of that for which also I have been taken hold of by Christ” (Phil. 3:12). Nor must we become discouraged and despairingly think that we will never arrive at spiritual maturity; we may be confident that, “he who began a good work in you will carry it out to completion until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6).

The end product of this divine construction work is stated in the following terms: “you also are being built together [with the Jewish believers] to become the place where God dwells by the Spirit” (vs. 22). As Christians, let us yield ourselves to the great Master Builder, the Lord God Almighty, and not lose sight of His great design for our lives and for His church.

Conclusion←⤒🔗

Maybe through the insensitive behavior of fellow Christians, or maybe due to an overly sensitive conscience, the devil would seek to whisper those words to your heart: “You don’t belong.” In this passage of Scripture, the Holy Spirit loudly proclaims the truth: “Christian, as a recipient of God’s saving grace, as one who has received Christ and given yourself to Him, you do belong to the family of God!”

Discussion Questions←⤒🔗

1. How does the Apostle Paul describe the Christian’s identity (cf. Eph. 2:10a)? For what purpose has God “created [us] in Christ Jesus” (cf. Eph. 2:10b)? What language in this verse emphasizes God’s sovereign work in our conversion and our Christian life; but does this mean we are completely passive with regard to living the Christian life (cf. Eph. 2:10b)? See, also, Phil. 2:12b­13,

We are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance in order for us to walk in them. Eph. 2:10

Therefore, my beloved ones, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence, but much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³for it is God who is working in you both to create the desire and to produce the work for the sake of his good purpose. Phil. 2:12-13

2. What blessed privileges did the O.T. covenant community have in comparison to the surrounding Gentile nations (cf. Eph. 2:12)? Applying the O.T. covenant community’s privileged religious position to ourselves, what privileges did you have, if you grew up in a Christian home? How did you regard those privileges? Do you now provide them for your own family? If you were raised in a non-Christian home, what spiritual privileges were lacking; what ungodly or unholy influences were present in their absence? How did you come to faith in Christ?

Speaking to the Gentile converts with the Ephesian church, the Apostle Paul reminds them of their spiritual condition prior to placing their faith in the Lord Jesus:

[I say, remember] that you were at that time without Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and being without God in the world. Eph. 2:12

3. Prior to their conversion, what was the Gentile Christian’s spiritual status (cf. Eph. 2:12b)? What was your life like before receiving Christ: In what, or in whom, did you seek to find hope? What was the purpose of your life; around what did it revolve? To what substitute gods did you give your devotion? Did you fear death? How did you cope with your moral guilt before God? What has been the biggest change since you have become a Christian?

[I say, remember] that you were at that time without Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and being without God in the world. Eph. 2:12

4. Twice in Ephesians 2:12 the Apostle Paul uses the word “without;” to whom does he attach the word in vs. 12a, and to whom in vs. 12b? What does this tell us about the irreplaceable importance of Christ, if we are to have a personal relationship of blessing with the living God? See Jn. 17:3, What does the Apostle John warn us to avoid? See 2 Jn. 9, As Christians, what are we exhorted to do? See Col. 2:6-7,

[I say, remember] that  you were at that time without Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and being without God in the world. Eph. 2:12

In praying to God His Father, the Lord Jesus declares,

And this is eternal life, [namely,] to know you, the only true God, and [to know] him whom you sent, Jesus Christ. Jn. 17:3

Anyone who goes beyond and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. 2 Jn. 9

As you, therefore, have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, ⁷rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Col. 2:6-7

5. What blessed privilege do we as Gentile Christians now share with those true spiritual Israelites who have acknowledged Jesus to be the Messiah in whom their forefathers hoped and in whom they have placed their faith? See Eph. 2:18-19. Paul had referred to believers as “[God’s] workmanship” (cf. Eph. 2:10); into what spiritual structure is God building the entire number of those who have put their faith in Jesus the Messiah? See Eph. 2:21-22. Even as this spiritual temple/sanctuary is being built, how are we to treat it, both collectively as the church and individually as our own bodies? See 1 Cor. 3:16-17; 1 Cor. 6:19-20,

...through [Christ] we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. ¹⁹So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and [members of] the household of God. Eph. 2:18-19

The “we both” is a reference to both Jewish and Gentiles believers alike.

In [Christ] the whole building is joined together and grows into a holy temple for the Lord. ²²In him you also are being built together to become the place where God dwells by the Spirit. Eph. 2:21-22

Do you not know that you are God’s sanctuary, and that the Spirit of God is living in you? ¹⁷If anyone desecrates the sanctuary of God, God will destroy him; for the sanctuary of God is holy, and this is what you are. 1 Cor. 3:16-17

Do you not realize that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You do not belong to yourself; ²⁰you were bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God with your body. 1 Cor. 6:19-20