The Plan: Who is Involved – 30 April 2009

Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth… that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from… 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. For he himself is our peace, who has… destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.

For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.  Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.  In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.  And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
Ephesians 2:11-22 [NIV]

Christians have been accused of all kinds of exclusiveness, of being judgemental and hypocritical, but there seems no trace of these things in Paul’s description of God’s Plan. This ‘wall of division’ was a big thing in Paul’s day.  People were divided into those who were Jewish, and so God’s people, and those who were not.  That division, Paul affirms, was broken by God in Christ.  So who is involved in God’s Plan now?  For Paul the answer is clear – everyone is involved!  There is no such thing as an excluded group, people, nation or minority – all are brought near through the blood of Christ.

These seem strange words to us perhaps when we think of groups of all kinds who feel excluded.  But the words are not strange if we realise that Paul is saying that any separation that people feel from Christ is self-imposed.  For everyone is offered access to the Father, and the right to be a member of God’s household.  If we turn down that offer, can we then say we are discriminated against?

So we see now that the whole of humanity is involved in God’s Plan, but in one of three ways: they have heard of the Plan and have accepted God’s offer, or they have heard of the Plan and rejected God’s offer, or they know nothing about the offer.  The divisions are not neat however, for some have hints of the Plan, some misunderstand, and some cannot make up their minds.

The comforting thing is that the picture of a building is highly visual – people can see a building where God lives by his Spirit, and that helps in the decision: provided of course God’s people are letting themselves be ‘built together’.  But that’s another issue.