Thursday, January 3, 2019

PT-3 "Spiritual Alienation" from Eph. 2:12-13


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/3/2019 11:15 AM



My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-3 “Spiritual Alienation”



Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Eph. 2:12-13



            Message of the verses:  12 remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”



            The fourth reason that the Gentiles were spiritually alienated was because they were hopeless, as seen in verse 12 “having no hope.”  As we combine the first three reasons for alienation, which are “Those who have no Christ, no commonwealth, and no covenants of promise also have no hope.”  I have mentioned a few times when teaching the Word of God that many times in the Word of God “hope” is a noun, and not a verb.  We hope for something that we have in Christ because we know that it is true.  John MacArthur writes “True hope can be based only on a true promise, on confidence in someone who can perform what he promises.  Hope is a profound blessing that gives meaning and security to life.  Living without hope of future joy and enrichment reduces man to a piece of meaningless protoplasm.  Hope is the consummation of life, the confident assurance that we have a blessed future in the plan of God.  The saddest feature of Job’s great lament is found in these words:  ‘My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and come to an end without hope’ (Job 7:6).  The opposite of that pessimistic outlook is the joyous truth celebrated among the Jews and stated succinctly in Psalm 146:5—‘How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God!’  ‘The hope of Israel’ (Acts 28:20) was the hope of eternal salvation and glory.”  It is my desire (hope) that this quote will help you have a better understanding of exactly what the word “hope” means to believers in Jesus Christ.  Oh we can say something like “I hope that the sun will shine today” and if you live in Northeast Ohio like I do then that is truly a verb and not a noun for we have the second least amount of sunshine in the U. S.



            If someone offered to give you a lot of money, money that you needed and then when it came down to them giving it to you they could not because they didn’t have the means then that would be false hope.  Israel was able to have supreme confidence in the promises of God because He is able to do what He says He will do.  Not the case with the Gentiles, as they had no such promises and therefore had no ground for hope.  In Paul’s day not too much unlike our day people have little idea what will happen to them once they die, and this is not the case with believers in Jesus Christ.  These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life (1 John 5:13).” 



            We have one more reason for alienation of the Gentiles and it is probably the most important one and that that they “were without God in the World.”  Paul spoke of this in Acts 17 when he preached on Mars Hill in Athens as he told the Greeks that they worshiped many gods, and yet in order not to miss out they also worshiped the “unknown God” which Paul based his sermon on telling them who this unknown God was, but unfortunately not many listed to him. 



            Why were the Gentiles without God?  They were without God because they did not want Him.  The Lord did not reject the Gentiles as Paul points in Romans 2:11 “For there is no partiality with God.”  They did not want anything to do with God, and not the other way around.  The Jews had the Word of God written on stones as seen in Exodus, but the Gentiles had it written in their hearts in the form of their conscience, but they did nothing with it.  “19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse (Romans 1:19-20).”



            One of the reasons that God called the Jews was to be a missionary to the Gentiles, which sadly they did not do, but how about us as believers in Jesus Christ are we falling short of giving out the Gospel to those who need it?



            John MacArthur concludes this section by writing:  “There will never be an end to alienation until Christ returns and by His own power breaks down the barriers of separation.  Apart from Christ there not only can be no harmony with God but no harmony among men.”



            Spiritual meaning for my life today:   “but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence (1 Pet. 3:15).



My Steps of Faith for Today:  It is my desire to learn more about Romans 12:3.



Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Faith, utterance, knowledge, diligence, love” (2 Corinthians 3:9-15).



Today’s Bible question:  “What is the rock foundation on which we should build?”



Answer in our next SD.



1/3/2019 12:31 PM











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