Die, Hostility
- May 9, 2010
- Series: Ephesians
Ephesians is a book where the first three chapters cover who God is, the gospel and who we are because of that. That is why, week after week, we are talking about gospel and our identity because the book does.
2:11 “at one time” Paul is calling people to remember our old identities. Remember when you were teased, beat up and alone. You were an “uncircumcised philistine.” Anyone who went to a public elementary school knows what Paul is talking about. This is being on the outside looking in and getting called names, beat up and made fun of. Anyone that was made fun of growing up does not look back to those days and wish they were still there. A bad nickname or bad identity on any day of elementary school would stick at least the whole year. “Dinosaur sweatshirt,” “legs,” ”voice cracking.” We all remember what made us outsiders growing up. We all remember wanting badly to fit in. And most of us are grateful to be out of the hell hole called elementary school or puberty. No one looks back on puberty and thinks “man wish I could have braces, pimples and voice cracking again.” You look back and thank the Creator God that you are not still going through that social torture.
In these two verses Paul reminds them of four major pieces of their old identity:
1. Filthy and unacceptable. This is what it meant to be uncircumcised and gentile.
2.Separated and alien. Sin separates us from God and separates us from God’s people. This is what sin does. It destroys community. They were aliens. Just absolutely did not belong. We must remind ourselves that this was us. Aliens. And we felt it deep down and fought with all our might to belong to something. I remember telling everyone about the club soccer team I was on. It was my ticket to belonging. And these cliques continue to shape and try to justify our existence. You see, our old identity was that of aliens. Separated and not belonging, and we would fight with all our might to prove to someone that we belong. To prove to our selves that this is not true. So we would strive to be an athlete who belongs to a team, or a nerd who belongs in an honors society, or a goth-kid who belongs with those who don’t belong. And we still do this with adults. We belong to a political party, a cause or agenda, a rich neighborhood, a poor neighborhood, a club, a race, or a religion. We still are fighting for some sense of belonging. And Paul is telling the gentiles this was who they were. And we need to remind ourselves that before Christ this was us “to the T.”
3. Strangers and hopeless. He reminds them that they were without hope. Not without conjecture or a faith in something but that they were strangers to the covenants of promise. They were without a real, substantial hope. See since the beginning, God has promised his people a rescuer and ruler – Jesus Christ. He has promised them a land. And God has fulfilled his promises and his covenants, and he will continue to fulfill them. But the gentiles were without any real promises or covenants. Meaning, anything they hoped for was made up of optimism and not truth from a God who is trustworthy. We have talked about this in earlier weeks how we can trust Jesus because he said he would give his life, and he did. He said he would rise again, and he did. So we can trust that he has forgiven us, is redeeming us and has brought us under his gracious rule and reign. We can trust that he will restore all of creation for his glory and our enjoyment. We hope in Christ and we hope in all that he is preparing for us to enjoy for eternity. But remember before, when we had no hope. When we did not know the depth of these covenants and promises. When we did not have assurance of salvation, a new heaven and a new earth and that he will wipe away all our tears. Remember wondering if there is an after life, and if there is, how in the world do I get there. This is where most of the world still is, and we should still be there with them. Hopeless.
4. Without God. We were without the one true God. Sure, we worshipped things. We may have made up gods, or thought we were god, but we were without God. Our sin separated us from people and it separated us from God and it left us utterly hopeless.
2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus.” It is the last old identity of being without God that creates the other factors of the old identity. And it is being brought near to God that transforms us into a brand new identity. So we go from being without God, to “in Christ” and “brought near.”
2:13 “by the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ takes our filth and everything that made us unacceptable and cleanses us and makes us acceptable.
2:14 -16 We are no longer separated and alien but are reconciled and are made one. A place of belonging that is so strong that we are one with one another through the reconciling power of Christ.
2:14-16 We are no longer hopeless, placing our faith in conjecture and things that cannot grant peace ... we are placing them in the only one who can bring lasting, promising and perfecting peace in Christ Jesus. Not speculation but revelation through God’s word.
This is our new identity and it is huge that we get this. It is so vital that we understand who we are in Christ. That Jesus Christ is now our representative. I want us to go back to verse 13 because it is this “with God,” or “in him,” peace that doctrinally, we call the union with Christ that we must get here.
Union with Christ is a phrase used to summarize several different relationships between believers and Christ, through which Christians receive every benefit of salvation. These relationships include the fact that we are in Christ, Christ in us, we are like Christ and we are with Christ. – Wayne Grudem
How important is this identity of being united with Christ? Look at the first chapter of Ephesians. Count the “in’s” and “withs.” This is vital that we identify ourself “in Christ.” Paul considers it important and God the Holy Spirit who inspired this writing thought it incredibly important.
Second new identity: One new man instead of two = new identity. This is referring to Jew and Gentile but this is much more overarching than that. Black and white, Mexican and Asian, Athlete and nerd, man and woman, goth and cheerleader, are no longer separated but are one new man instead of two in Christ. One body. A radical communal impact because there is nothing that can separate us.
We are free to work towards racial and social reconciliation.
In addition, there are two major identities that are hostile to each other that this Jew and gentile represent. And as to why they may break apart in many factions of hostility amongst each other, we can make a distinction of Jew and Gentile today. Today Jew and Gentile are hostile and they are represented by what we will call the religious (Jew) and the irreligious (Gentile). Both these camps are incredibly hostile to Jesus because Jesus is our Lord and Savior, our Ruler and our Rescuer.
The religious are hostile and are practicing a form of self-salvation by rejecting Jesus as their Rescuer and Savior. They may accept biblical rules or whatever rules their religion has made up but they believe what will save them in the end is their own ability to keep, follow, enforce or maintain these rules. They are lawmakers that try to be law keepers so they can be self savers and self rescuers.
The irreligious are hostile are practicing a form of self-salvation by rejecting Jesus as their Lord and Ruler. They don’t believe anyone should tell them how to live, and will essentially be saved or are better than others because they are not religious.
The funny thing is the religious are far more irreligious than they think. They are hostile to a God saving them, and whil attempting to make salvation come from their own ability to follow rules, they functionally make themselves their own god and savior, making them incredibly irreligious.
The irreligious are far more religious than they think. They believe they are saved by not being religious. What could be a more boldly religious statement than that?
In America, and in the world, the divide between these two is growing. Atheists are now even describing themselves as anti-theist. They are anti God and anti religion. There is a passionate and vocal movement for religion to be destroyed. That religion is the enemy. And religion is doing much of the same thing. Separating itself and claiming the bad guys are the irreligious. Both are growing increasingly hostile to each other and increasingly hostile towards God. A wall is being built and bricks are being added on by both teams every day.
And this is what makes verse fifteen and sixteen so mind blowing. Christ has broken down the walls between the religious and irreligious. Christ alone breaks down the hostility by representing both the religious and the irreligious. He represents the religious, who really are irreligious, by keeping the law that they never could keep. And he represents the irreligious, who really are religious, by taking the penalty for not keeping the law. And the great wall of hostility is brought down by this hostility killing work that Christ accomplishes on the cross. Christ is our representative.
Christ has killed our hostility with him and brought us near by his blood, and he has broken down the wall of hostility with one another. The incredible thing is, he did this while we were still enemies. He did this while we were in our old identity, unclean, hopeless, strangers and aliens. If you are not identified with Christ you are still in this old, hopeless identity. If you are clinging to religion or irreligion you are still hopeless and without God.
But the beauty is that Christ died to draw you near. He died to make you clean, acceptable, and in-union with him. He can be your representative. I invite you to let go of this old identity and embrace this new one with Jesus.
Church, we must see that if we are one with Jesus then we are now hostility killers. We now are to be like Christ and be messengers of reconciliation. Christianity does not form an “us=good, them=bad” lifestyle but instead is so captured by grace that it can truly love its enemies and pray for its enemies even while they are enemies because we are killers of hostility. We break down our wall of hostility and become a people who are radically for our enemies. We are part of a story of grace. A radical grace narrative shapes our character and forms our story so we now live out of that story.
So when our coworkers, neighbors, family or others are hostile towards us we can respond with grace, love and a genuine care for their soul.
But we don’t do this, do we? We still fall back into our old identities, we fall short of killing the hostility. And this fall back into our old identity is hostility to God. I encourage you to examine where you are letting hostility live. Who are you hostile toward? Hand that hostility over to Christ and let it die.
Jesus is our great hero who put hostility to death. Jesus placed himself in the most hostile of positions. On the cross, the very creation that came from the words of Jesus turned on him. In the greatest act of hostility that all of the cosmos have ever witnessed, our Lord Jesus put hostility to death. It is by grace we have been saved, and Jesus on the cross had every reason to turn hostile towards his creation, but by grace has killed the hostility and draws us near to him by his blood. Hostility is like a bee who let out its most painful sting on Jesus, but in its sting it lost all power to live.
Kaleo, our Lord Jesus is not hostile towards us. Hostility has no more breath or life when the blood of Jesus has covered us. Kaleo, the body of Christ is not a people or body shaped by comparison, walls of division or hostility, but is united under God’s gracious rescue and reign. Kaleo we don’t have to look at a lost world and build a wall from them or separate ourselves from them but are free to invite them into a united people with no walls. And when those in our community, and those in the world, try to wall us out, or when we try to lay bricks to separate ourselves, we can point ourselves and each other to Jesus. Point ourselves and each other to our Hero who has broken down the walls, brought peace, and killed the hostility by shedding his own blood. Remember your old identity and rejoice in your new one. Remember the walls that were up and rejoice that they are now rubble. Rejoice in Jesus! Amen.
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