Just some quick thoughts on this Friday as we enter God’s sabbath…
We talked about Paul’s naming of gentiles who come to God through Messiah as “former gentiles”.
Doing some more study on that verse, something jumped out to me:
Wherefore, remember, that you once were the nations [gentiles] in the flesh, called Uncircumcision by that called Circumcision in the flesh made by hands,
that you were at that time apart from Christ, having been alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope, and without God, in the world;
and now, in Christ Jesus, you being once far off became near in the blood of the Christ.
Heh. Paul is saying that before Messiah, you were apart from Israel and the covenants.
Now you’re not. You’re no longer an alien to the commonwealth of Israel, nor a foreigner to the covenants made with Israel. Am I reading this right?
We’ll cover the rest of Paul’s thesis, including the last half of Ephesians 2, next week.
Shabbat shalom, fine blog readers.