You, as former gentiles…

Are you a gentile Christian? Are you a former gentile?

Ephesians 2:11-13 contains a curious quip from Christianity's favorite theologian:

Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (that done in the body by the hands of men)— remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
-Paul in his letter to Ephesus, NIV translation

How do you interpret this?
At first glace, I think he’s saying gentiles are no longer gentiles. What do you think?
Sometimes I like to go to the unadulterated literal translation. Fewer biases in the translator (or so we hope!):

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.
-Paul in his letter to Ephesus, literal translation

Let’s pick this apart.
The first thing I notice is that it starts with “Wherefore”, or perhaps more modernly translated, “Therefore”. Paul does this a lot. I call it the argument/consequences pattern. (Not a real name, just trying to sound smart.) It goes like this:

[X is good. Here’s why…] <—This is the argument
Therefore, [because X is good…] < – This is the consequence

The problem with interpreting this curious verse is that we’re starting dead-smack in the middle of the consequence. We’re missing the whole argument!
I won’t post the whole argument: go read it for yourself. Here’s my summarized interpretation of it:

You used to follow the ways of the world, sinning like crazy. You were dead. You were separate from Israel.
But God loved us, so he saved us by giving us Messiah. He did it to show how great He is. It's all Him, we sure didn't warrant it!

Good, now we have context.

You used to sin like crazy, doing the ways of the pagan gentiles without remorse. God saved you from that. <—This is the argument

THEREFORE!
Therefore what? His consequence is hard to read because Paul has these long run-on sentences. It’s hard to identify what’s the subject and what he’s getting at.

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.

Notice the long sentence with lots of details in the middle. The details are how terrible your life was as a unrepentant gentile in the nations: uncircumcised, cut off from Israel, foreign to God's covenants with Israel, no hope, no God.
Those are important details, but the abundance of details makes it hard to read what he’s getting at. Let’s hide these details for a moment and cut to the chase:

You once were the 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.

That's easier to read. But notice the redundancy: “you were once the gentiles” and “you being once far off”. Let’s temporarily hide the redundancy.

You once were the 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.

That’s Paul’s consequence in a nutshell: You were once sinful gentiles, but now because of Messiah’s atoning blood sacrifice, you’re set right with God.
If we can take summaries of both the argument and consequence, it would look like this:

You used to be gentiles: doing the sinful things of the world, separate from God’s dealings with Israel. But Messiah saved you from all that. Sheer gift of God. [argument]
So, now you’re set right with God. [consequence]

Is Paul saying you’re no longer a gentile? Is he saying you're part of Israel? The answer lies in the next half of Ephesians 2. Ironically, the next half has been used as a weapon against Torah observance, with some translations reading that Paul is abolishing the Torah. Wheh!
In the next post, we’ll cover the last bit of Ephesians 2 and see if Paul really has abolished the Torah, and whether gentiles are Israelites. Stay tuned!
In the meantime, I’d like to hear what you fine blog readers think about this. Are you a former gentile?