S210P8 – Our regular reminders: the blood which draws us near

Eph. 2:11-13

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.

He was a man of great means, and the expectation always had been that his wealth would be left to his sons.  They had grown up seeing him run the empire he built and lived through the process alongside him. However, his sons would grow not to honor and obey their father but to distance themselves from him.  It began with disobedience in adolescence and led to their moving away once they reached adulthood.  If they had any desire to collect their inheritance after his death, it was not evident. The sons began their own lives far away without their father. He was left to find young men to adopt as sons to inherit and continue his legacy.  He hoped that his children might return if they knew that someone else had gained their father’s favor and their birthright.

The gospel may be the power of salvation to the Jew first, but it is not to the Jew only. [Rom. 1:17]  The problem was that those chosen to receive the coming Messiah rejected him, so God then chose others to provoke his people to jealousy.  The original chosen group decided to forego that inheritance, and it must go to someone.  That is how we Gentiles come in the picture.  The Father opens the door through Jesus Christ for us to be adopted as sons and daughters, inheritors of his eternal legacy. It is the blood that narrows the distance between us and God, that opens the gate for us to enter his house.  The blood grants us access to what spiritually had been unreachable for us without it.  We each have been grafted into the vine and have been assigned a place in God’s royal priesthood.

Dare I say that salvation for the Gentile is an even more incredible thing because we once were not chosen but have become chosen.  Where once we were relegated to the outside, we now can enter inside. Furthermore, our adoption is complete.  Through Christ, we are of the same blood as the Father.  The earthly distinction made between the natural child and the adopted child does not exist in the spiritual realm. To be grafted in means that we are intertwined, grown together, and incapable of being separated.  The same Spirit which filled the Son now fills us as well.  We share in the full measure of the inheritance of hope. Father, we ask that You give us a deeper revelation of our position as your adopted and chosen children, that we would not question our place there.