Remember When...

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—remember that you were at that time 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. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Ephesians 2:11-13

Years ago, I saw a large sign in a souvenir shop that read, “It’s Hard To Be NOSTALGIC When You CAN’T REMEMBER Anything.” I thought it was so funny (and relatable) that I hung it in my study. If another sign had read, “Tim, Remember Fighting the Boer Wars!” I might have chuckled, but would have moved on, since I cannot quite recall fighting in two British wars in South Africa that began in the 1880s. Ephesians 2:11-13 could mistakenly be taken in a similar way.    

In Verse 11, Paul identifies the Ephesians—the “Gentiles in the flesh”—not by what they are, but what they are not. Circumcised. Yet this physical sign, borne by the Jews, was “made with hands,” intimating that if a Jew were only marked by a bare sign, unaccompanied by a non-physical (spiritual) reality¹,  i.e., circumcision of the heart (Romans 2:29), the meaning and benefit were in vain. Which is to say, circumcision no more made male Jews true believers than water baptism makes professing Christians true believers. Fair enough.  

But then it gets strange. Paul says, "Remember." How could the Ephesians, most of whom were thought to be Gentiles², remember being separated from a Jewish Christ they had never known? How could they consider themselves alienated or estranged from a “commonwealth” of which they had never been a part? Of course, they were “strangers to the covenants of promise.” Perhaps telling the Ephesians to remember that they once had “no hope and without God in the world” resonated more.

Acts 19:24ff recounts the story of the fertility goddess Artemis—whose image supposedly fell from the sky—and how the Ephesians built the magnificent Artemision, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, to enshrine her. (The gods forbid she be born in a manger.) But I don’t think she ever had much to say. I don’t think modern gods have much to say, either.³ 

John Walton observed, “Faithfulness, order, and justice were not qualities that were normally associated with ANE [Ancient Near Eastern] gods (though they desired that sort of behavior from their worshipers). Yahweh has effectively told the Israelites that He is a different kind of God than their culture would lead them to expect of a deity.”⁴ Yes. Yahweh could tell a much better story. He could speak to the God-shaped vacuum of the heart and the sin-shaped restlessness of the soul.

I assume the answer to the question, “How can they remember?”, is that five or so years before writing this prison epistle, Paul spent an extended time in Ephesus (roughly AD 54–57). He had already condemned Artemis (Acts 21:19ff). He had taught them the marvels of Christianity. Particularly in this passage, these Ephesian Gentile Christians had been brought near to God—not by taking on an outward mark of the flesh (which involved the shedding of blood as a sign to the Israelites that all life belongs to God⁵), but by the blood of the Jewish Christ.⁶ As the old hymn goes: "What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus."  

Joel Beeke summarizes, “Because Abraham had faith in the God of the covenant, he received the sign of circumcision, which typified Christ’s work of shedding His blood for the remission of sins. As Romans 4:11 makes clear, circumcision was a seal of the righteousness Abraham had by faith while yet uncircumcised, and anticipated baptism as the circumcision of Christ (Colossians 2:11). The promises of God and Abraham’s response of faith and obedience, sealed with the sacramental sign of circumcision, all reflect the unfolding of God’s redemptive purposes in the covenant of grace.”⁷

I notice at least this:

1. If man can only be reconciled to God through the blood of Christ—if only the surrender of His lifeblood can atone for our sin—then lessening that standard must mean there is more than one way to the Father, meaning Christ tragically misunderstood the Father and died in vain. Conversely, adding to the cross of Christ means He did not accomplish, nor could the Spirit effectually apply, the full work of redemption. Without the exclusivity of Christ, the Trinity is rendered dysfunctional; if the Son could not understand the Father, what hope do we have of standing before such a God? Truly, Christians have nothing of eternal value to offer ourselves or the world except Christ crucified (Galatians 6:14).

2. By His blood, Christ not only atoned for our sin and ransomed us from the dominion of death, the world, the flesh, and the devil, but He also made possible continual nearness to the Father and seated us with Him in the heavenly places.⁸ Unlike animal blood, His blood reaches the conscience, continually purifies us, and gives us boldness to enter the presence of God as children, forgiven and justified (Hebrews 9:13-14).⁹  

3. Paul’s teaching was substantive and enduring because God is substantive and enduring. Five times in Ephesians, and more than 50 times in his writings, Paul speaks of the glory (δόξα, we might think “weight”) of God, who has bestowed on us “every spiritual blessing” (Ephesians 1:3). Pastors, elders, deacons, mothers, fathers, and teachers of all ages should follow this proclamation of weighty revelation with correspondingly weighty teaching, which will not happen without great intentionality.

4. This passage, along with countless others, cannot be rightly understood or deeply felt by a casual reading. Paul did not invent predestination, compose the covenants, or concoct union with Christ; rather, he spent years teaching the Ephesians the depths of these things. Without careful, enduring, Spirit-wrought study, contemplation, and meditation, we will likely skip, under-interpret, or misinterpret such passages. With such attention, a mature, obedient, soul-satisfying, God-glorifying faith will carry us through the vicissitudes of this earthly sojourn, as we live with and for Christ.¹⁰ And, at the center of it all, is His life-saving, life-giving blood.     

Worth remembering, don’t you think? 

 

 

END NOTES:

1. See Rom 2:28; 2 Cor 10:3; Gal 2:20; Col 2:11, 13; and Phil 1:22, 24

2. Wilson, R. McL. 2005. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Colossians and Philemon. Edited by G. I. Davies and G. N. Stanton. International Critical Commentary. London; New York: T&T Clark International, p. 8.

3. Isaiah 41:21–24 "Set forth your case, says the LORD; bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob. Let them bring them, and tell us what is to happen. Tell us the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, that we may know their outcome; or declare to us the things to come. Tell us what is to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods; do good, or do harm, that we may be dismayed and terrified. Behold, you are nothing, and your work is less than nothing; an abomination is he who chooses you." 

4. Walton, John H., and J. Harvey Walton. 2019. The Lost World of the Torah: Law as Covenant and Wisdom in Ancient Context. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press.

5. Here (Gen. 17:9-14) the physical embodiment of male sexuality is cut, and its blood is shed, as a symbol of belonging to the covenant people of God. Sherlock, Charles. 1996. The Doctrine of Humanity. Edited by Gerald Bray. Contours of Christian Theology. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

6. Leviticus tells us plainly, “The life of the flesh is in the blood” (Lev. 17:11). … God is the creator and governor of all life, and no life can be taken apart from the conditions of His law-word, …. In other words, life is not ours to take: it belongs to God, our own life included. Rushdoony, Rousas John. 2005. Commentaries on the Pentateuch: Leviticus. Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books.

7. Beeke, J.R. and Jones, M. (2012) A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life. Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, p. 267.

8. Since Christ has been raised from the dead and has ascended into heaven, the church, too, is seated with him in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6). The church is the temple of God, his holy home by the indwelling Holy Spirit, and through Christ all its living members have access to the Father in one Spirit (vv. 18–22). As the church engages in worship as God’s temple, it does so in union with the cornerstone of that temple, the exalted and heavenly Lord Jesus. Beeke, Joel R., and Paul M. Smalley. 2024. Reformed Systematic Theology: Church and Last Things. Vol. 4. Reformed Systematic Theology. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, p. 427.

9. So I repeat that it is utterly useless to appeal to men and women to put this world right. It is the one thing they cannot do. They would if they could. They are trying; they have been trying. That is the whole story of civilization. But they cannot do it. The powers that are within them are greater than they are—evil forces, drives, passions, lusts, and devils—and the devil over it all. They are under the dominion of sin and of Satan and cannot liberate themselves. They have tried in vain throughout the running centuries, and to ask them to do so today is to display unutterable ignorance of history and the truth of human nature. To expect them to do so is still greater folly.  Lloyd-Jones, Martyn. 2007. Compelling Christianity. Vol. 6. Studies in the Book of Acts. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, p. 72-73.

10. John 17:20–23 "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, 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."