Outside In
remember that you were at one 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, Ephesians 2:12
Strangers – Once you and I were a strangers to God. Oh, God knew us, all right. He wasn’t a stranger to us, but we were estranged from Him. Paul reminds the believers in Ephesus that before they entered into a transforming relationship with the Messiah, they were standing far off from God. But today things are different. Today we are part of the covenants of promise. Hallelujah!
The word Paul uses (xenos) doesn’t mean enemy or alien. Of course, at one time we were God’s enemies. But Paul is not talking about the change from enemy to friend. He is talking about the change from outsider to family member. A stranger was someone who didn’t belong, even if that person was a guest in the house. Paul tells us that now we are part of the family. Paul might be thinking of that great passage in Isaiah 46:13 where God tells His people that salvation will no longer be far off. God brings salvation near in His Son, the Messiah. The outsiders have been invited in.
That raises an important question. If you and I are now part of the family, what does that mean? What family have we joined? Paul says that we are now in the family that enjoys the covenants of promise. The distinguishing characteristic of this family is that it has particular and specific binding agreements with God. These are the covenants; contracts made between two parties that obligate each party to certain actions and commitments. Of course, when it comes to the covenants with God, we find something very unusual about these contracts. God makes the originating covenant with Himself. That way it can never be broken. His promise is guaranteed even if we don’t live up to our side of the bargain. This covenant with Abraham set the entire process in motion. This covenant had a promise attached to it, that Abraham’s line would be a blessing to all nations.
But Abraham’s covenant with God is not the only covenant with a promise. There is the covenant with Israel (through Moses). There is the covenant with David. And then there is the new covenant. We pay a lot of attention to the new covenant because we think that the new covenant is the covenant initiated with Jesus. But that ignores God’s announcement of the new covenant. The new covenant is announced in Jeremiah 31:31. It contains an incredible promise, a promise that has yet to be fulfilled. The coming of the Messiah inaugurated this new covenant nearly 500 years after God announced it. The death and resurrection of the Messiah is the sign that the new covenant will be accomplished. It is the evidence that God’s promise will come to pass. It is not the end of the game. It is merely the beginning.
Two thousand years after the inauguration, the sign of the new covenant is still valid. We are still part of the family that will enjoy the promises of the covenants. We have reason to celebrate. And we have even more reason to want to know what those covenants say about who we are. Right?
Topical Index: Covenant
