Ephesians 2:11-12
Writing to mainly Gentile Christians, Paul spends a curious amount of time writing about the strictly Jewish ordinance of circumcision to the uncircumcised. This stood in strong contrast to circumcised Jews, who saw that ritual as a necessary sign of membership among God’s chosen people. Paul’s point here is these attitudes were completely manmade.
Paul wants to state clearly the issue of the great gulf between Jews and Gentiles. Paul shows that the Jews considered the Gentiles uncircumcised, indicating that they had no favor with God because they lacked the covenant seal. Furthermore, not only were they not circumcised but they had none of the privileges that God graciously gave to the Jews. Just as we were once sinners at enmity, as enemies of God prior to God’s gracious act of love in redeeming us, changing us from sinner to saint, we see here how God has now broken down the wall of hostility between the Jews and Gentiles to that of reconciliation in Christ. We were all lost, and in a desperate situation, but Paul is saying that the Gentiles were not only lost, but lost and clueless, not having much of an idea of what pleased God, and so were considered far off compared to the Jews since God had given Israel the revelation of the OT along with certain privileges which the Gentiles did not have. But in the church both are now in Christ and have the same standing and privileges before him. It is important for the Gentiles to remember the particular spot that they were in in the past, before Jesus, so that they can appreciate all that Christ has done for them. When Paul says “that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh he’s referring to the time before either the Jews or the Gentiles had obtained the gracious gift of salvation, and Paul reminds them of how they were viewed by the Jews. And, in case you think that circumcision wasn’t important to the covenant of God, remember the words of the Covenant to Abraham in Genesis 17:14 14 Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
the ones who are called ‘uncircumcision“ by the so-called ‘circumcision’ which is performed in the flesh by hands But, remember that this was also not without some reason. Isaiah says in celebration in 52:1 Awake, awake, Clothe yourself in your strength, Zion; Clothe yourself with your beautiful garments, Jerusalem, the holy city; For the uncircumcised and the unclean Will no longer come into you. He’s talking about Israel’s eventual redemption. He’s talking about Israel being set free from the oppression of Gentiles, the uncircumcised, and their unclean way of living. Gentiles had no set of laws, and their pagan ways were unclean and disgusting to the Jewish people. The lesson here, is that it’s a relationship with God that counts, not an outward sign like a circumcision, or for that matter church membership, or baptism! People can deceive themselves about these outward things, and think that they are saved by them, if they are not careful. Remember Jeremiah 9:25 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “that I will punish all who are circumcised and yet uncircumcised— Those who have an outward appearance of being God’s people, but are not in relationship with the Holy God, are still subject to wrath. And that’s how people were still acting in New Testament times. Acts 7:51 51 “You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did. 52 Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, and you have now become betrayers and murderers of Him; And Paul knew this very well, because he was one of the ones that Stephen was talking about in the passage in Acts—he was one of the ones committing the murders. This phrase “being performed with the hands.” This word cheiropoeitos is used in the OT of making idols. The implication being that circumcision had become an idol to Israel.
So, like many people, they were trying to get to heaven based on their works, the works of their hands instead of the work of God. Paul emphasizes that the important thing is a relationship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit, which results in a desire to please God by obeying Him. Physical circumcision, or baptism, or teaching Sunday school, or anything else won’t result in a right relationship with God; only a heart relationship. See Rom 2:25-29 25 We can’t put any faith in rituals, or rites, or working our way to heaven, because there’s no righteous act that we can do to get there. Jesus has already completed the work needed, we must then put our faith in Him and His finished work on the cross. Putting any faith elsewhere is misplaced.
Paul is bringing these descriptions up to a largely gentile audience to remind we Gentiles not to forget their past alienation from God and the great disparity between them and the Jews. Believing Gentiles now have the privilege to be united with believing Jews in one body. The Gentiles, who were probably in the majority, could easily forget history and look with arrogance toward the Jews. And he’s trying to prevent self-reliance, and spiritual arrogance and elitism.
“that you were at that time without Christ, being alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”
So why bother with all of this when he’s speaking to a largely gentile audience? Because they had begun to forget the wonder and joy of their salvation, and had begun to put their faith in what they were doing for God. They had probably began to become a bit arrogant toward the unbelieving jews around them, forgetting that they were still God’s people, even if they were in error through unbelief in Jesus. See Romans 11:17-21 Paul is warning them that they must continue in faith in Christ, and not in any works that they might do. Paul is calling them to be thankful, and live for Christ, since before they knew Him, they lacked these five privileges that Israel enjoyed.
First, they used to be without Christ.” The Gentiles were not only separate from Christ personally, which was true also of many Jews, but moreover they had no national hope of the Messiah as did Israel. Israel had this hope because of OT revelation of the promised Messiah, that Messiah would come from Jewish lineage, and rescue them from their enemies. Israel, the Jewish people, are guaranteed to be saved by Christ, ultimately, by believing in Him as Messiah, and saying as a nation “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord”. Second we were “being alienated from the citizenship of Israel,” as Gentiles without Christ. This citizenship is the second privilege the Gentiles lacked and never had. This citizenship is by blood, descended through the male line from one of the 12 tribes of Israel.
And Gentiles were “and strangers to the covenants of promise.” The third lack of the Ephesians before conversion is that they had no relationship to the covenants God had made with his people Israel. As gentiles, we had no relationship to the Abrahamic covenant promising a Messiah, and the homeland of Israel, no claim to the Davidic covenant that the messiah would come through his descendants. Israel was promised a continued seed whereby the nation of Israel would continue to exist, but more particularly the seed of David that would bring forth the Messiah who would head up that nation. Gentiles did not have the covenants of promise and thus were alienated or excluded from them. All of the first Christians were Jewish. Salvation was made available to the gentiles through Israel’s rejection of it’s Messiah 2,000 years ago, and then we were grafted in.
“having no hope.” Hope is the fourth privilege the Gentiles lacked. There was no hope apart from relationship with God. Old Testament believers had eager expectation of the future as they trusted in the outworking of God’s plan. It was an objective hope based on the promises of God. Because the Gentiles did not have Israel’s privilege of God’s revelation, they had nothing to look forward to.
“and without God in the world.” This is the fifth and final lack of the Gentiles. The atheos is the word from which we derive the English word “atheist”. The Gentiles may have felt abandoned by the God of Scripture, but God purposed that Israel was to be a priest among the nations, and thus Gentiles were accepted to participate in the worship of the true God. They were supposed to be acting as the priests for the world; the rest of the nations, but instead they used God’s many warnings for them not to mix with pagan idolatrous worship to look down on the gentiles instead of pointing the way to God. We must be careful of this attitude ourselves in excluding those whom God would save, as we’re going to talk about next week.