TUESDAY-THURSDAY BIBLE STUDIES
EPHESIANS hy Dr. IJo yd 7. .1«//mo«*
*Dr. Anderson, a member of the Biola Board of Directors, is pastor of the Bethany Baptist Church of West Covina, California.
Our Spiritual Separation
T he general theme in the verses before us differs little, if at all, from that contained in the preceding verses of this chapter. Here are listed more characteristics of the natural man, proving the need of regenera tion. However, the message here seems to be directed in a peculiar way to the Gentiles alone. Before the day of Pentecost, which day was the birthday of the Church, the Gentiles included all people in the earth who were not Jews. Since Pentecost God sees a threefold division of the hu man race ; the Jew, the Gentile, and the Church of God (I Cor. 10:32), the last being made up of Jew and Gen tile who have been saved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul’s usage of the pronouns “we” and “ye” shows that he had in mind the con dition of man in general in verses 1-3, and the condition of the Gentiles in particular in verses 11-13. The key phrase in this portion of our study is “far off” (2:13), sug gesting separation by distance. Before the Gentile was saved he was sep arated from God by a great gulf. We were “Gentiles in the flesh . . . called uncircumcision” (2:11). Circumcision was originally a rite enjoined by God upon Abraham as a sign of the cov enant God made with him. Later it took on a definite religious and moral significance. Hence the Jews became
known as “the circumcision” and looked with reproach upon the Gen tiles to whom they referred as “the uncircumcised” (I Sam. 17:26, 36; 2 Sam. 1:20). Vine déclarés, “Actually the Gen tiles were inferior to the Jews in that they were separated from the sacrifices and religious privileges that united Jewish believers to God. Of course there were those who were Jews in name only; and while they proudly called themselves “the cir cumcision,” they were Jews outward ly and not inwardly, for they lacked that real circumcision of the heart (Rom. 2:25-29). The Gentile at that time stood condemned before God. After the flood God’s covenants were all made to Israel, giving Israel hope which the Gentiles lacked.” Then, too, the Gentiles were “with out Christ” (2:12). While every un saved man, both Jew and Gentile, is without Christ, the Gentiles were sep arated by a greater distance, since the Jew had the types, symbols, and prophecies that pointed to the coming Person and work of the Messiah. When Paul referred to God’s dealing with Israel, he said : “Now all these things happened unto them for en- samples (or types)” (I Cor. 10:11). In the Old Testament every hope of the Jew centered in the Messiah, for in Him their every expectation was 30
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker