The Gentiles: Them and Us

The Gentiles: Them and Us

Ephesians 2:11

I’d like to talk about something that we’ve already discussed, and it follows that really panoramic view of history that Paul expresses when he just says those words, “God out of the great love with which he has loved us; who is rich in mercy towards us even when we were dead in our sins, made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places. That in the coming ages he might show forth the riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, that’s not of yourselves it’s the gift of God, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which he has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

And then he turns around of course, to the Gentiles say’s, “And you, you too, you who were call the 'un-circumcision' by the people who call themselves the 'circumcision'.” And he’s implying, "You, too, were raised up." And it’s that that I’d like to mention to you again, because he’s just pointing out, really very clearly, that we human beings look at each other in a very unreal way, because you Gentiles, you’ve been called the un-circumcised by the people who pride themselves in being circumcised, just in the flesh. So they're kind of pointing at you and saying, “You are un-circumcised; you are Gentiles in the flesh, while we are just circumcised in the flesh, but really circumcised.” And of course Paul is pointing out that it’s silly, and it’s a foolish way to look at each other. And he is referring back, of course, to the covenant that God drew up with Abraham. And he said, “I’m going to be your God, and I’ll be the God of your successors and all your family. And I want you to circumcise every male as a sign of that covenant.”

And of course what Paul is saying is, “You Jews have circumcised faithfully your children on the eighth day, but in your hearts you’re not circumcised. You’re just outwardly God’s people. And here you are, looking at these others who haven’t the outward signs that you have, and you’re regarding them as not as good as you.”

And of course what we’ve mentioned several times is that there’s a strong, strong tendency in us, that is almost bred into us, to think the same way about 'those people out there'. There’s a strong tendency for us to say, “...That God who is rich in mercy towards 'us' out of the great love of which he has loved 'us', made 'us' alive together with Christ, and raised 'us' up, and made 'us' sit with him in the heavenly places that in the coming ages he might show forth the riches of his kindness and grace towards 'us', but not to 'them'. And we’ve got to try to get 'them' into what 'we’ are in, so that they can experience all that.”

And of course what Paul is implying, and what God is implying through Paul is that God’s covenant extends to everybody. And you remember we shared that together. We said that there’s that verse in 2 Corinthians 5:14 where Paul says, that God has, "even when we were dead in our sins made us alive," and, "If Christ died for all, then we judge that all died.” And then Paul, you remember, goes on to say, “Therefore we refuse to know any man from a human point of view, because if any man is in Christ, he’s a new creation.” And have you ever thought about that? He’s just finished saying, “If Christ died for all then all died.” And he goes on immediately to say, “We therefore know nobody from a human point of view because if any man is in Christ he is a new creation.”

And you’d almost think he’s close to saying, “Everybody’s in Christ, and everybody’s a new creation. Because Christ has died for all, therefore all have died.” And that kind of approach is actually one of the differences -- I’m not saying we were interpreting it rightly either Protestants or Catholics -- but that was one of the differences that we learned or absorbed between our Protestant view, and their Catholic view. And actually, now as I see it, and as I read old Barth, I wonder who was most right., because we would say, you see, that the Catholics -- well of course we Methodists baptize children too, but the really real Protestants like the Baptists didn’t.. So we would say, “The Catholic church regards every child as inside the covenant." And that’s why they baptize them all and of course that’s why even the Anglican Church talks about confirmation. You confirm something that of course was done, virtually when the child was born, because we all believe that nothing happens, nothing happens in the child’s will at baptism. But obviously then the Catholic Church, we would believe that grace is given at baptism. And in the Methodist church we would believe prevenient grace is given, at baptism, that is a prevenient grace that moves the person gradually towards God and gives them a hunger. But we staunch Protestants and we Methodist would try to straddle between the Anglicanism, and the Catholicism, and the Protestant's attitude, “No, no they are absolute children of wrath. There is nothing that God has done for them. And they are outside the pale unless 'they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and then they are saved.'” And that’s of course where Calvin got himself into the problem he got into, because he said, “If there’s nothing in man that can respond to God them how does he ever respond?” Calvin just said, “God decides which one.”

But we were left with that kind of problem, that the Protestants had a tendency to think of 'them' as 'out there'. And the Catholic Church had a tendency to think of everybody being embraced. And so we often felt, “Oh Catholicism believes that everybody will be saved, and that there’s no difference at all between or the other... And so we Protestants try to hang on to the difference. Of course the difference is faith. The difference is that the whole thing has been done. Even the Protestants believe in the universal atonement: The atonement is for everybody. But of course those who will be regenerated are those who will respond to that and will experience it.

And so in a sense we’re both looking at the thing the same way. My wife jokes sometimes I look at the cup as half empty instead of half full. And in a way that’s what’s happening to us. Both traditions are really saying, “That Gods love is extended to every man and every woman.” One tradition says, “Really, God is embracing them all, if they’d only realize that their being embraced. And the other is saying, “Well yes, God wants to embrace them all but can’t embrace them unless they’ll come into his embrace.”

All I’m saying to you is, it does seem that Paul stresses that if Christ has died for all, then all have died. And he does seem to emphasizing that again in these verses that we’ve just talked about. “God who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he has loved us even 'when' we were dead, made us alive.” That God looks upon every child as part of his dear Son. And he embraces them and loves them, and has extended to them all the wonder and all the victory of heaven, and all the victory of Jesus. And they live in darkness because they don’t open their eyes to that. And they don’t enter into it. But that in fact they are in our Savior. They are in our Savior.

I’d just like to point out one verse to you, and then try to share with you what it seems to me means in our attitudes. It’s in Colossians 2, and verse 9 to 16. And of course it tines up with the whole truth that Paul states, “A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly, and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men but from God.” So it’s in Colossians 2:9. And those verses are just stated very clearly. “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,” in Jesus, “And you have come to fullness of life in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ; and you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

"And you who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, having canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him.” And that that took place when we were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of our flesh.

In other words, we need to look very plainly and very carefully at the attitude that we have to them, you know, the attitude that we have to 'them'. Whether it is Greg thinking his dad...or me thinking my dad is wrong, "Oh, that he would see the light." Or whether it’s us thinking of that gentlemen Hudson. Or I think of the fellow who seems to throw the garbage over the hedge into our garden. How do we think of them?

And if you look a little more carefully, it seems to me you can see, peeping up there, something not too pleasant, because not only is there often some judgementalism there, but there may also be a little self concern, to prove to yourself, "Well of course you are different from them. And you don’t know everything, but you do feel a bit more certain of eternal destiny than of theirs..." And there may be something there of self justification, that in way we want to -- we don’t quit know, why we want to think of them as vitally in a different relationship to Jesus to us, but sometimes you can glimpse a little desire to be us and not them, to be in the 'in group' and not in the 'out group'. Indeed sometimes maybe a little of our own assurance and peace of mind comes from the idea that, “Well we know where we are, we don’t know where they are.”

And yet it affects the way you pray for them. And most important it reflects whether we look at them in truth or in deception, in reality or in unreality. Is it not a fact that only God knows finally where we all are? Only the Father knows everybody’s heart. We certainly would admit that many of the people that we’re praying for, we don’t know them intimately enough to know them exactly how they think about God, or how they think about Jesus.

And so finally Jesus words are our guide, “I have come not to condemn the world but to save it. And what I want you to do is help me to do that. And it’s up to me and my Father to judge men and women at the end.” And so is it not true that that’s not our business? That it’s not up to us? God will not demand that we determine where this person is in relationship to Jesus, or where this person is. In fact he rather emphasizes to us that we should not judge.

And then some of us may say, “Well do you help, how do you help them?” Well we all know that the Holy Spirit does give discernment to us. But it’s not necessarily 'Judgment Day certainty' about their eternal destiny. It usually is discernment as to what we should say to them at that particular moment in our relationship with them. It’s usually discernment of maybe some need they have that we can see Christ fulfills. But it’s not necessarily the ability to determine whether they are Christians or not Christians.

And so I would submit to you that there is strong encouragement in scripture for us to forget about this, and rather to plead the promises that God has given us here, that "Even when we were dead in our trespasses in sins God made us alive," and that "If Christ has died for all then all have died," and "If any man is in Christ he is a new creation." And so we are to be looking upon these people as people who have been changed by God in Christ, and who are already in him, and all the blessings of Christ are around about them, and all the love of God is upon them, and they have only to open their eyes and see it, and live in the joy and delight of it.

And that that exercise of faith on our part brings a great openness in us towards them. That what I think it does. It brings a great openness. It does change our attitude.

If you say to me, “Oh well now do you not think then we’ll end up talking to them as if their Christians? And of course that’ll obviously offend them?” No, I think the Holy Spirit will give us wisdom that way, but I do agree with you that I think it will bring home to them that we regard them as equals. And they’ll feel that in some way we regard them as the same as ourselves. And the more you talk in those terms the more you find yourself virtually, defining love, because love is eager to believe the best. Love treats another person as yourself. Love accepts other people. It does not judge them. It does not condemn them.

So it seems to me it does make a difference in our attitude to them, and of course another thing it does, it takes away fear. You no longer fear -- well we used to joke, you remember in that house we had, Lions three, Christians one, you remember. I forget how it started off. It was one of our wilder houses on the University Campus, and it started off with five non-Christians and two Christians. And then each week somebody would get converted. And I know because we kept track of it that way. But it’s too easy for us to have that kind of attitude ourselves, to think of them as lions, or think of them as enemies. And really I wonder where that comes from. It certainly would be a good tragedy for the evil one to preserve that kind of gap, or that kind of separation, that kind of 'wall of division' between us and them.

So I’d ask you to think about it just once more. And then we’ll go on to the next verse next Sunday. But think about it just once more this attitude between them and us, and think, "How do you think of not only your mums and dads, your sisters your brothers, but how do you think of those men and women that we meet in business every day?" Do we think of them as people in whom Jesus exists, and who actually exist in Jesus? And are held together by our Savior, and whose every feeling and attitude is born and known by our Savior? Do we think of them as that? Do we think of them as people that Jesus has destroyed with himself and remade with himself?

In which case I think we’ll have one attitude: we’ll want them to see that; we’ll want them to see that. Because all our dads -- I mean they knew that really we had it in us to keep that back up. They knew we had it in us. I remember my dad, I mean I’ve never gone far beyond what he taught me to, which was the breast stroke. But I remember him holding my chin, saying, “Yes, Ernest, just kick.” And he showed me how to do the kick, “You know the water will keep you up.” And he knew it would keep me. And there was a whole attitude of confidence there. He didn’t think I had to make the water buoyant; he didn’t think I had to do anything actually, but just kick the way he kicked, and the water would keep me up.

It seems to me there’s a whole attitude when you know that the people are already there. All they need is just to realize it. And I think we would talk to them differently even about their sales and about their business, if we talked to them as if our Father was their Father.

Let us pray.