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St. Mark
West Henrietta, NY
July 22, 2018
Proper 11
“Remember who you were,and now are in Christ”
Text: Ephesians2:11-22
What exactly is the human condition, and what has God in heaven done for us? When we confess that we are sinners, does that mean that we are merely spiritually sick and in need of a little of God’s help to get back on the right track? Does Godprompt us to find the good that is already inside us and thus live the moral life which leads to salvation? Is Christ only our example, showing us the way to live which leads to God’s pleasure in us?
St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians rejects all the preceding notions about ourselves and God. In our natural state, we are not sick and in need of a nurse. We are not misguided and in need of an example to put us back on track. We are dead. That is our spiritual condition. There exists no love of God or neighbor within us. Just a never-ending appetite for ourselves and our pleasures. There is no spark remaining that loves God. We are extinguished, dead, and incapable of being redirected to love God, even by the example of Christ. Paul understands this. He understands that when it comes to our salvation, we don’t only need God’s help—we need everything from him. And we are unable to contribute anything to our redemption. In other words, salvation is entirely by grace, through faith, in Christ Jesus given for us. Outside of the salvation of God in Christ Jesus, left to our own efforts and strivings, we are hopeless, without God, alienated from God and one another, and dead. And we will remain dead and separated from God forever. But, St. Paul assures the Ephesians and us that in Christ radical things have occurred for us.
IN CHRIST, WE ARE GIVEN A HOPE, RECONCILED, AND BUILT TOGETHER.
(I.In Christ, we are given a hope (vv. 11-13).)
(II.In Christ, we are reconciled (vv. 14-18).)
(III.In Christ, we are built together into a spiritual house (vv. 19-22).)
I.
How is it that in Christ we have been given a hope? In the condition in which we are born, we do not have the ability to make a decision to follow Jesus any more than a dead man can decide to be alive. Our Augsburg confession puts it this way: “Of Free Will [our churches] teach that man's will has some liberty to choose civil righteousness, and to work things subject to reason. But it has no power, without the Holy Ghost, to work the righteousness of God, that is, spiritual righteousness; since the natural manreceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, but this righteousness is wrought in the heart when the Holy Ghost is received through the Word.” Our Lutheran Confessions, here, and throughout, are a faithful exposition of holy Scripture. We read in holy Scripture in 1 Corinthians 2:14, The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
So how are we given a hope? By the grace of God. It is the gift of God, not a result of works. The Father gave the gift of Jesus, a perfect, sinless sacrifice, given on the cross for our transgressions. The Father and the Son send the gift of the Holy Spirit, who works faith in us and unites us to Christ, where we find the benefits of life and salvation. All of this is given freely from God to us—we cannot and do not work any of this within ourselves. Even our amendment of our sinful lives and our continual repentance from our sins and living a new life to God are the work of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, St. Paul continues in the letter today admonishing the Ephesians to remember what they were. We too, need to remember what we were, and what God has done for us. Remember that you were sexually immoral, you were idolaters, you were adulterers, you were men who practiced homosexuality, you were thieves, you were greedy, you were drunkards, revilers, and swindlers. And there was no possibility whatsoever for you to inherit the kingdom of God. You were a slave to these sins and they were going to lead you not only to your physical death but also your eternal death in hell.
But that is who you were, not who you are now. Because as St. Paul tells the Corinthians, you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. This God did for you in Holy Baptism when everything that Christ has done in his life and death to earn our salvation was given to you. Paul tells his Gentile hearers that they were called ‘the uncircumcision’ by the Jews who are the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands. But this Jewish accusation against the Gentile Christians is now empty, since Paul writes in Colossians that in Christ we have beencircumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ. So,for the Jews in Ephesus, it doesn’t matter if someone calls themthe uncircumcision and tries to tell themthat they have no share in the grace of God. It doesn’t matter if the old laundry list of your sins is brought to your mind by Satanto convince you that God does not love you. None of this matters because you have a true circumcision, made without hands by Christ, who has cut off the filth of your sin and taken it to the cross, separating it from you as far as the East is from the West. And this is yours in Baptism. The filth is gone, taken by Christ, punished on the cross, and left dead in the tomb. Christ, and we with him, rise again to new life, pure and holy, and without blemish.
To the Gentile Christians in Ephesus, Paul doesn’t even give a laundry list of sins—he is satisfied to remind them that as Gentiles, as the “uncircumcision,”they had been completely separated from Christ,alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Israel had been given the promises of a future hope in the seed of Abraham that is Christ our Lord. The Gentiles had not been given this promise or knowledge and were without hope and without God—which are really one and the same thing.
But at the coming of the promised Messiah of Israel who is Jesus Christ, all the words of God’s promise were made good, including the words to Abraham that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. God is God of all. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the resulting nation of Israel were chosen by God to be the people from whom the Messiah would be given. And this Messiah fulfilled the entirety of God’s promises, including that all nations would be blessed in him—Jew and Gentile alike. As Isaiah had prophesied long before the Christ and as Simeon repeated when his hands held the Christ child—Jesus is the salvation God has prepared in the sight of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of his people Israel.
So now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. You who were not a people—you dirty, uncircumcised Gentiles—you poor, miserable sinners here today—are now the people of God. You are no longer separated from Christ, without hope and without God in the world. You now have been baptized into Christ, given a living hope and fellowship with God. Yes, you have been brought near, you who had no hope. Christ, by his blood, has entered the heavenly sanctuary and is seated at the right hand of God. And you, my dear friends, are in Christ. You cannot be nearer to God. We now have hope.
II.
And you are not only reconciled to God, but you are reconciled to one another in Christ Jesus. St. Paul continues, For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. Paul is speaking specifically about the hostility and division between Jews and Gentiles that is annihilated in Christ. The shadows of the ceremonial Law given to the Jews is abolished by the substance of Christ, who fulfilled the Law completely, gave his life on our behalf, and released us from the condemnation of the Law. But we know that this unity in Christ is far greater than the Jew/Gentile divide. Paul expands this concept in his letter to the Galatians when he reminds us that there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Dividing walls do not exist in the body of Christ. There is neither rich nor poor, black or white, or insert whatever division you still cling too. And if these words of the apostle do not strike you as awfully crucial, remember Jesus’ high priestly prayer before he went to the cross for us. He prayed,[I ask that]they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
St. Paul is reminding the Ephesians and us of this prayer of Christ for our unity in Him. For early Christians, the message was that Jesus does not want Jewish churches and Gentile churches—the body of Christ is not divided. Today, Jesus still does not want our churches to be divided by race, culture, ethnicity, etc. These differences are gone in Christ. We have a common identity now as children of God. [Jesus] came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. The same peace was preached to Jews and to Gentiles and to all of us needy sinners. For through him we all have access in one Spirit to the Father. We are reconciled to God and one another in Christ.
III.
So we are one—one body—beloved by the Father for the sake of his Son, our Lord. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. And what does St. Paul identify as the foundation of this spiritual house of God—the thing on which this unity must be based? This house of God is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. In other words, the household of God is built on the sure and certain word of God, given by the apostles and prophets and recorded in Holy Scripture, all of which speak of our living Lord, Jesus Christ. The unity we experience in the body of Christ must be based on the word of God. No compromise is to be made here. As fractured as Christianity is today, the temptation is to unite with Christians at nearly all costs, even disobeying the Christ. We hear it all the time today—“deeds, not creeds,” “doctrine divides,” and other shallow mantras of Christian unity without unity of teaching and faith. However, unity in Christ is unity in the Truth and fellowship with other Christians is only proper when we share a common, true confession according to the word of God. Unity without a common confession is not the unity for which Jesus prays.
This means we are not to join together with other Christians if it requires a compromise, downplay, or silencing of our confession. False teaching and erroneous confessions are a reason for division between Christians, and a sad reminder of our continued sinful existence and the influence of the devil and the world, constantly attacking the word of God and Christ himself.
Those who confessed the truth of God’s word at the time of the Reformation against the fury of their opponents were called Lutheran. One of thechief truths of God’s word that they confessed is the teaching of St. Paul in Ephesians 2, that we are saved by grace, through faith, in Christ alone. In our Lutheran Confessions, we have a faithful and true exposition of Holy Scripture. In other words, our confession isbuilt on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. This is the true Christian confessionthat binds the true church together. And to affirm that we confess the true Christian faith necessarily means that churches of other confessions are in error. Roman Catholicism, Methodism, Presbyterianism, and even other church bodies calling themselves by the name Lutheran do not share our confession of the truth, based on the word of God. Do not kidyourself that other church bodies are just varying traditions with differing emphases, but still united in one truth. This whitewashes the real issue—the difference between truth and falsehood. And we are not to have fellowship with these groups until they confess as we do, so that we may enjoy true unity in Christ, who is the Truth.
Holy Communionis the reality of the fellowship and unity we share in the body of Christ. That is why we are not to commune with those of a differing confession. When we eat the Lord’s body and drink his precious blood, we are to be united in our confession. Christ is not divided. Neither is his body, the Church, to be divided and to unite error with truth.
While St. Paul affirms church unity based on the word of God, his message does not pessimistically focus on division, but instead urges us onward in our confession before the world, preaching Christ and him crucified according to the holy Scriptures of the apostles and the prophets. Because just as God has taken us, the “uncircumcised,” dead in our trespasses, and circumcised our hearts in Christ by the power of the word of God, giving us a living hope, He is also able to do the same for others. God is able by the clear preaching of His word, and an uncompromising confession of truth, to build His Church. Indeed, the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
And don’t worry that it seems impossible—never is this a reason to abandon our confession or unite with falsehood. All things are possible for God. Remember that you were a dead man and God has raised you up alive in Christ. You were once far off, but God has brought you near by the blood of Christ. We were the sheep without a shepherd described by Jeremiah. We are the ones who have been miraculously provided for in abundance by our Lord Jesus, who makes us to lie down in green pastures and receive the feast of salvation prepared for us. Remember who you were, and who you now are in Christ. This reality demandsa bold and uncompromising confession of who our Lord is and what he has done for us and the entire world. Hope has been given to us, we are reconciled to God and one another, and together, we are being built into one, holy temple of God, confessing the one, true faith to the world. Amen.