From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The words to which I should like to call your attention this morning are to be found in Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, in the second chapter and the 19th verse. The 19th verse in the second chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians.

Now therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God.

And then he goes on to say and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together, groweth into an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

We are still considering this summing up which the Apostle gives us in this 19th verse of the argument that he has been working out and developing from the 11th verse.

Now, there are two things, two big principles which we must bear in mind as we consider this summing up.

The Apostle is concerned to demonstrate first of all, this remarkable unity that has been brought to pass and into being in the Christian church. That's his fundamental thesis, that the pagans, the people like the Ephesians, people who had been strangers and foreigners, aliens outside the Commonwealth of Israel, separated from the people of God by the middle wall of partition, that they've been brought together.

The church is something quite new. It's a new body, it's a new humanity, it's a new creation. And the first and the greatest characteristic in many ways of this body is, of course, the unity. Now that's something which he goes on stressing and impressing.

And the second thing follows of necessity, and that is the wonderful privilege of being members of this body, of being units in this marvelous new thing that God in Christ through the Holy Spirit has brought to pass.

Very well, the Apostle now goes on to illustrate that by means of his three pictures. The first is that the church is like a great state, so that these Ephesians are now fellow citizens with the saints. We've already considered that.

But then having put that, put it in the form of that picture, he comes on now to this second picture, which we are going to consider together this morning. Not only are they fellow citizens with the saints, but they are also of the household of God.

Now, here is obviously something different. Here is an advance. But again, I say, let us remember that the two things he wants to bring out are this principle of unity and also the greatness of the privilege.

But we may well ask the question, why, why does the Apostle thus use a second figure? And why indeed is he going on to use a third figure which we shall go on to consider later? Why, why does he do this?

Well, the answer I think is obvious. It is that he felt that the first figure was obviously not sufficient. It conveys an idea, it introduces us to a very vital part of the doctrine, but it doesn't include it all. It isn't sufficiently comprehensive. It's laid down one tremendous thing. The one we've already considered.

But now I say he moves on, and therefore it behooves us to consider and to discover why it is that he employs this particular second illustration.

Now, you will recall that in the very first chapter, the Apostle has already introduced us to this idea where he says, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will.

Now he takes that idea up again. For here, what he tells us is that we now belong to the family of God. The household means the family. In other words, we are children of God.

Now he makes this point about Jews and Gentiles who have become Christians. All other distinctions, you remember, have gone. They've all been put aside, they've all been abolished. Now in this new thing that God has brought into being amongst Jews and Gentiles, this is the fact that we are in the position of children.

Very well then, what we have to do is to compare and contrast the idea of a state and the idea of a family. And it's only as we do that we shall realize why it is the Apostle brought in the second picture, and how this second picture is a very definite advance upon the first and takes us more deeply into this truth about the unity of all Christians and the greatness of the privilege which we enjoy.

Well, I suggest therefore to you that there are certain points in which we can contrast a state and a family. And here is one. The relationship that exists and subsists between the members of a state is after all a general relationship.

Whereas the thing that characterizes the relationship between members of a family is that it is a more particular relationship.

All of us in this country are citizens of Great Britain, but we don't all belong to the same families. There are a number of families. We are all one in the state. Well, that's what I mean by saying that it's therefore obviously something much more general.

Whereas when you come to the family, you've narrowed it down tremendously. It's a much smaller unit.

And of course, because it is narrower and because it is more particular, it is therefore a much more intense relationship, so that we can use those other terms. We can say that the connection between us in the state is a very loose connection.

There is a connection. Oh yes, it's enough to divide us up from people who belong to other countries and to other kingdoms. We are bound together, but it's a loose connection. Here, it's no longer a loose connection. Because it's particular, because it's narrower, it's more intense. It's therefore closer.

And I think we'll all see that at a glance. And the Apostle therefore, you see, is making a real advance in his doctrine about this unity. The unity that exists in the Christian church between the members is not a loose attachment. It is this intense, close, intimate attachment.

And that I say we derive from the broad distinction between something which is general and something which is particular.

But we can add to that by putting it like this in the second place. The unity that exists, of course, in a state is an external unity. We are attached to one another externally in a state. Whereas the whole point of course about a family is that it is something which is internal.

I don't think that needs any elaboration or any demonstration. You can't think of a family without immediately thinking of something within, inside that's making us one. That isn't true in the realm of the state.

We are held together by certain types of culture and by certain laws and things of that kind and certain common interests, but they're all as it were, on the surface of our lives and they're outside us. Here, it's essentially something inward, internal.

Or I can put it like this, that the relationship between members of a state is a more remote relationship. Whereas that between the members of a family is a more intimate one.

I mean by that that you know people in a vague and in a somewhat remote manner, you recognize people who live in the same street perhaps, or who work in the same large office. You're acquainted with them, but you don't really know them. You're not intimate with them. It's not an intimate friendship. It may be a kind of nodding acquaintanceship, a general friendship, but it's always remote.

Whereas in the family, the whole idea at once is an intimacy and an understanding and a bond. Or again, let's put it in yet a different way.

Ultimately, of course, our relationship to one another in the state is an impersonal one. Whereas the whole point about a family is that the whole relationship is intensely personal.

Now, this is a very important principle, quite apart from its application to the church this morning. There is a tendency in the world today to emphasize and to increase impersonal relationships at the expense of personal relationships. You can think of many examples of that.

The state itself does it. And as the state becomes more and more powerful and as it interferes more and more in our lives, it is tending to depersonalize us. We all become units, we become numbers. The personal element has gone out.

We are having evidence of that in this country at the present time. I'm not making this point politically. I'm just making it as a most important point philosophically and ultimately from the standpoint of personality and of individuality. The state always tends to depersonalize us.

Of course, it's a part of the whole mass and mob psychology. You always tend to lose your identity somewhat in a crowd. And that is why crowds can be so dangerous. And it may well be that a day will arrive when there will even be need of legislation to prohibit people meeting together beyond certain numbers.

Whether we like it or not, the crowd has an effect upon us and people act automatically in a crowd. Hitler knew that very well. He exploited the whole idea. You can make people do things in a crowd that they'd never dream of doing singly and individually. Somehow or another, the personal element goes out.

And indeed, we have to observe this and watch this even in our educational systems. The more you impress loyalty to a side or to a school, the more you're tending to depersonalize people and to produce this impersonal relationship.

And there are those who would suggest that perhaps this is one of the main reasons and causes for the appalling increase in divorce at the present time. People have thought less and less of themselves in this personal manner, and the loyalties have all been general: the country, the crown, the school, the side, something like that outside oneself, impersonal.

Now, there is something in that, of course. It's a terrible thing to be selfish and self-centered. But the tragedy is always that we pass from one extreme to the other.

And in trying to teach children and others not to be selfish, surely we've gone to the other extreme when we've made them quite impersonal. They're afraid to express their feelings. They mustn't show that they're babies if they do. So they have to depersonalize themselves and they become lost in a mass, in a mob.

Therefore, you see, the Apostle has definitely advanced the thought here. The attachment, the relationship in the state is impersonal. But in the family, and this is the glory of the family, we are all personal, and the relationships are all personal and direct and immediate.

And then finally, perhaps I can put it like this. The difference between the two is the difference between a legal relationship and a vital, a living, a blood relationship. What binds us together ultimately in the state is the law.

That's the thing that holds us together. There may be certain interests and outlooks, as I say, in common, but the thing after all that does make us one and keep the cohesion is the process of the law. It's legal.

But that isn't the case in the family. What binds in the family is blood. It's a vital relationship. Now, I can show you the difference very easily in this way.

You will find particularly on the continent of Europe that in various countries which are divided up from one another as states and so on, there is nevertheless the same blood essentially in people who belong to different states. Think of the Slav people, for instance.

Now the Slav people are of one blood, and they've got certain characteristics. That's a family, that's the family idea. And though some of them may belong to one country and some to another, you recognize the Slav.

And so it is with other types of nationality and of blood. A blood relationship is a more intimate, direct, living, vital thing than any relationship which is delimited and determined by the processes of the law and by the enactments of men.

Well now then, you see the Apostle was not merely multiplying words when he puts it like this, now therefore, you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints. Yes, and members of the household of God. He's gone up. He's taken us to a higher realm. He's narrowing it down, and as you narrow relationship, it always becomes more intense.

We are always more intense in our relationships when we are smaller in number. That's psychology, that's human nature, isn't it? And it's very true. So the family conveys all these great ideas which it's very important for us to grasp.

Now then, having shown the difference in that way in general, let me come to the particular application of all this to the Christian, to members of the Christian church.

Why is it important that we should realize this? You see, the Apostle was so anxious these Ephesians should take hold of this matter. He's prayed that the eyes of their understanding might be enlightened.

It's because so many of us don't realize these truths that we are as we are and that the church is as she is. Do we realize that we are indeed of the household of God, that we belong to God's family?

Why should we realize this? Well, let me suggest some answers. It is, of course, a very vital part of the whole of the doctrine of salvation. I start with the greatest and the most important thing of all.

It is important that we should realize this in order that we might understand as we ought, the marvelous and wondrous grace of God.

I mean this. It would have been a very wonderful thing if God had just decided not to punish us, not to send us to hell. It was hell we deserved. In our state and condition which the Apostle has already described, living to the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were the children of wrath even as others. Why didn't he leave us there?

I say it would have been a wonderful thing if he'd merely decided not to leave us there and not to punish us. But God's way of salvation doesn't stop at that. He elevates us to this dignity of children. He adopts us into his own family.

Oh, it's all there in the parable of the prodigal son, isn't it? That man went home and he said to his father, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thy face, and I'm no more worthy to be thy son. Make me. And he wanted to become a servant. A father can't leave his boy, though he's a prodigal as a servant. It just can't happen. He says, no, no, you come back as my son and he embraces him. And he brings out the robe and the ring and kills the fatted calf. My son.

That's God's way of salvation. And therefore, I say, it's important that we should grasp this principle in order that we should be able to magnify the grace of God. What a plan of salvation, what a scheme of redemption, content with nothing but that we should stand in his presence as his children.

Oh, if we don't realize this, we don't realize the greatness and the riches of God's grace, the thing the Apostle has already been speaking about. Well, there it is. That's the first and the most important thing, a thing which in a sense includes all the others.

But you see, it does emphasize what I've just been saying, that we must never think of our salvation negatively. Only. We start with the negative. The first thing we all need is forgiveness of sins and deliverance from the wrath of God.

But he doesn't stop at that, and we mustn't stop at that ever in our thinking. Our thinking must be positive. We must see it here in all this to which it leads, what it goes on to. The Christian is not merely a man who is forgiven and saved from hell. No, no. He's been adopted into the family of the eternal God.

Then another point which is very important is this. You'll notice that this is true of us only in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is only true of those who are in Christ.

Now that, of course, is absolutely vital and pivotal, because there is a loose teaching abroad today concerning the so-called universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man.

The Apostle here in this second chapter of Ephesians tells us the exact opposite. All these blessings. That's why it's so important for us to bear in mind that this 19th verse is a summing up of what's gone before. Everything he's been telling us is in Christ Jesus.