But Now Brought Near Eph. 2:13

What a horrible and hopeless condition the heathens in before being called by the gospel.  They did not have Christ, where all spiritual blessings and forgiveness of sin are found, (Eph. 1:3) nor did they have the Law that would lead them to Him. The Jews were also lacking the fullness of these blessings, but they had the hope of the expected Messiah. The Gentiles were excluded from both the blessings and the hope. The Messiah was coming through the nation of Israel and very few Gentiles had even heard of it.  

They were “strangers to the covenant of promise.” Abraham was promised a descendant who would be a blessing to all nations. Moses promised a prophet like him that all should listen to. The prophets promised the Messiah. The Jews had a school master preparing and bringing men to Christ. But the Gentiles were ignorant of all of this and excluded from the hope. The whole Gentile world was outside of these promises and blessings. They had nothing to look forward to, just as they no conciliation in this life. 

Without God, the heathens had no hope, only blind groping because what witness God had given them was ignored or forgotten.  God was still there, but their lives did not reflect it. Paul described the gloominess of this spiritual “blind man’s bluff” search for God to the Athenians: “that they should seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.”  (Acts 17:27) 

But then, thanks be to God, Christ came and offered His blessings to the Gentiles as well as the Jews. “But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” (Eph. 2:13) Reconciliations and forgiveness were found in Christ form them too.

Grace From God

A quandary of the salvation is, “How does God, who is so merciful and loving that He will go to any length to save his creation, BUT is also so just and holy that sin cannot be allowed in His presence, reconcile sinful man back to Himself?” The answer lies in a system of salvation that 1.) will allow man to be justified and 2.) satisfies God’s mercy and graciousness, and His holiness and justice. To accomplish this man could be saved by a legal system. A man would be required to keep the law, without sin or fault and so be justified. This would satisfy the justice and holiness of God. So the a law was given, revealed, and accessible to the Jews; and all they had to do was keep it (Deut. 30:8-14).  The problem was that no one kept it, Rom. 3:9,23. This was the fault of man, not the Law which was good, Ps. 119.

A System of Grace is what we need. With all under the penalty of sin, we need someone to do us a favor, to show us some grace. We need someone to pay the debt we owe, which would satisfy the demand of justice. The problem is that all men same debt. All men are equally debtors, so none can pay for his own sins nor the sins of anyone else. We need someone to pay the debt, we need a willing and equal substitute. To unwillingly take from one to give to another is robbery, so the one who pays the price for our sins has to be willing to pay the price for us (Rf. Jn.10:17,18). We needed in this system of grace is one who can pay the price for us.  So the substitute must be debt free, sinless, without moral scar or blemish. This satisfies the holiness and justice of God and shows his marvelous grace. Here is the great grace of God — salvation in Christ, the sinless, willing and equal substitute. He paid the price for our sins! By grace are we saved, Rom. 4:4; 11:5,6.