October 30 2025

Thursday October 30

Without Christ and Without God

Ephesians 2:11-13

11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh--who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands-- 12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Today we're looking at Ephesians 2. As we look again at this chapter, let's remember some things as we need to review. This letter by Paul is to the church at Ephesus in Asia. Paul passed by there on his second missionary journey (Acts 18:19-21), but it's on his third missionary journey that He went there and stayed for at least two years (Acts 19). Paul would go to the Jew first and then also to the Gentile (Romans 1:16). He went to the synagogues and there He would preach and share with the Jews first in each of these cities that He would visit on his missionary journeys, reaching out to them (Acts 13-19). In most cities, some Jews were saved, but many turned him away and actually sought to kill him or to stone him. So no doubt in the church at Ephesus, there are some Jewish believers, but probably mostly Gentile believers.

In Ephesians 2, Paul talks about some definite things that have brought these two groups together who usually were at odds with one another. In the first verses of this chapter Paul is addressing both the Jews and the Gentiles. Paul tells both Jews and Gentiles that God has made alive those who were dead in trespasses and sins. Remember that a Gentile is anyone who is not born of Jewish descent.

Paul reminds them and us how before salvation in Christ we are all dead in our trespasses and sins because sin works against us. We're disobedient. We're depraved, and we're doomed, and we are children of wrath. But God, but God who is rich in His mercy with a great love that He's loved us. And with that love He has now brought us salvation and reconciliation and redemption by His grace and through our faith in Christ (vv. 4-9). God has a plan for our life and we are His workmanship, land He has before ordained before the foundation of the world that we should walk in these wonderful works of God, the good works that only He can do through us and let the light of Christ shine out of us and through us to a dark world.

Now we come to verse 11 and there Paul writes, "Therefore remember that you once Gentiles in the flesh." Here Paul is particularly addressing the Gentiles, those who are not of Jewish descent. First, He reminds them, you're called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision (the Jews) made in the flesh by the hand. The Jews look down upon the Gentiles, calling them the uncircumcision. The Gentiles were like dogs in many cases for most of the Jewish people.

In verse 12 Paul points out that the Gentiles were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenant of promise having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who were once a far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. The one word that best describes the Gentiles is without. They were “outside” in several respects. They were without Christ. They're without citizenship in the nation of Israel without the covenants. The covenants were given to Abraham and to his seed.

Both Jews and Gentiles were without hope. Historians tell us that a great cloud of hopelessness covered the ancient world. Philosophies were empty; traditions were disappearing; religions were powerless to help men face either life or death. People longed to pierce the veil and get some message of hope from the other side, but there was none (1 Thes. 4:13-18).

They were without God. The heathen had gods aplenty, as Paul discovered in Athens (Acts 17:16-23). Someone in that day said that it was easier to find a god than a man in Athens. "There be gods many and lords many," wrote Paul (1 Cor. 8:5). But the pagan, no matter how religious or moral he might have been, did not know the true God. The writer of Psalm 115 contrasted the true God with the idols of the heathen.

It is worth noting that the spiritual plight of the Gentiles was caused not by God but by their own willful sin. Paul said the Gentiles knew the true God but deliberately refused to honor Him (Rom. 1:18-23). Religious history is not a record of man starting with many gods (idolatry) and gradually discovering the one true God. Rather, it is the sad story of man knowing the truth about God and deliberately turning away from it! It is a story of devolution, not evolution! The first eleven chapters of Genesis give the story of the decline of the Gentiles; and from Genesis 12 on (the call of Abraham), it is the story of the Jews. God separated the Jews from the Gentiles that He might be able to save the Gentiles also. "Salvation is of the Jews" (John 4:22).

God called the Jews, beginning with Abraham, that through them He might reveal Himself as the one true God. With the Jews He deposited His Word, and through the Jews He gave the world the Savior (Rom. 9:1-5). Israel was to be a light to the Gentiles that they too might be saved. But sad to say, Israel became like the Gentiles, and the light burned but dimly. This fact is a warning to the church today. When the church is least like the world, it does the most for the world.

God bless!