From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The second chapter and the 13th verse. The 13th verse in the second chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians. But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

Obviously, this is a continuation of the statement which begins at the beginning of verse 11. Wherefore remember, that ye being in times past Gentiles in the flesh, were called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that at that time ye were without Christ. Being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. In other words, we are looking here at the complement as it were to the statement which we considered together last Sunday morning there in the 12th verse. The Apostle is setting out here, let us never forget, the greatness of this Christian salvation.

He wants us to realize that it's so great, that nothing less than the power of God Himself could ever have achieved. That's his whole argument. The power that makes us Christians is precisely the same power that brought the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead and from the grave, showed him in glorious resurrection, and then raised him into the heights in the heavenly places where he is seated at the right hand of God's power.

That's his theme. That's the thing he's talking about. We mustn't miss the wood because of the trees. The trees are glorious, but the wood is still greater and still better. So let's hold the two things together in our minds as we are proceeding.

It is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward that believe that the Apostle's writing about and wants us to grasp. We shall need the aid of the Holy Spirit. Our minds are so small, they're so feeble, they're so inadequate.

We pray therefore as Paul prayed for the Ephesians, that the eyes of our understanding may be enlightened. But we may really know this. Well, now he's helping us to know it. And the way he's adopting at the moment is this. It's his usual method, of course, he has one great method which he keeps on applying. There's no greater method conceivable. Two things are essential. If we would understand the greatness of Christian salvation, the first is, our condition apart from it.

And then secondly, our condition as the result of it. Now last Sunday morning in the 12th verse, we were looking at our condition apart from it. At that time ye were without Christ. Being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, without hope, without God in the world.

And it's only as we realize that in the first instance, that we shall realize how wonderful it is that anybody at all should be a Christian. And after all, that is the amazing thing. Not why so many are not Christian. The astounding thing is that anybody is a Christian. And nothing but the power of God in Christ accounts for it.

When we realize what man is by nature, when we realize what he is as the result of sin. But as I say, we must not only realize that. If we are to measure this great power, you not only measure the depth out of which we've been raised, you also measure the height to which we've been exalted and elevated.

And here in this 13th verse, the Apostle is dealing with that, or to use other language, there it was the negative, here it is the positive. Here are the two poles which represent the extremes, in which all who are Christian have found themselves first of all outside Christ, then in Christ.

Now that I say is what the Apostle is doing here. Having given the negative, he goes on to show the positive. You recall that in the first 10 verses, he was doing exactly the same thing but from a different angle. There he was concerned with our actual spiritual condition, dead in trespasses and sins. And showing how we had been raised to the heights.

Now here he's putting it mainly as we saw and have seen for two or three Sundays in terms of law and in terms of our status and our standing in the sight and in the presence of God. And once more therefore, I say, it is essential that we should realize the two sides. In other words, nothing is clearer to all who have any pastoral experience than this, that when people are unhappy about their salvation, when they're lacking in assurance, or when there isn't much joy in their Christian life, it's invariably due to one of these two things.

Quite frequently, of course, the two together. But people are in that condition either because they've never truly been convicted of sin, because they've never really seen their hopelessness, or else because they've never seen their true position as Christians and the heights to which they have been raised.

So the two things, I say, must always be taken together. And in the New Testament, of course, they always are. And they're always taken in that order, the negative first invariably, then the positive. If we've seen it in this chapter, the Apostle always starts with the negative. And indeed, you remember that when he was bidding farewell on that great and lyrical occasion, he was bidding farewell on one occasion, strangely enough, to the elders of the church at Ephesus.

He was on his way up to Jerusalem, and they had come down to see him. He hadn't got time to go up to Ephesus himself. So they sent the elders down to meet him and they met on the seashore. It's one of the most moving bits of literature that I'm familiar with. It's in the 20th chapter of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. And the Apostle there talks to them and this is what he says in effect. He says, I would remind you how when I was with you, I ceased not night and day, with tears to bear my testimony and to the gospel and to preach it.

And what was the preaching? Well, this is how he puts it. He preached, he tells them, the repentance that is toward God, and the faith that is toward the Lord Jesus Christ. You will never find the Apostle Paul saying that people can come to Christ first and afterwards repent. No, no. He made that impossible because he always preached repentance first.

And that's what he's doing here. That's what you were, this is what you are. And it's only as we grasp the negative and the positive that we shall truly appreciate this great salvation and rejoice in it as we ought. Very well then. Shall I ask a simple and an obvious question at this point? Do we realize the greatness of our salvation?

Or let me ask a more sensitive, delicate question. Are you rejoicing in your salvation? Are you prouder of the fact at this moment that you are a Christian than of anything else in your life? Now, I don't hesitate to say that unless we are prouder of this and glory more in this than anything else, well, to put it at its lowest, our understanding of it is seriously defective.

When a man feels this, there's only one thing to say. It's what Paul says. God forbid that I should glory. God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we truly see this, well, it's everything.

There's nothing comparable to it. So that I say is a very good test as to whether we really have understood these things or not. Do we realize the privilege of it all? Do we realize the glory of our position this moment as Christian people?

Well, now then, let us help one another to come to that place. We've considered the negative. Let's look at the positive. Here it is in one verse. The Apostle again follows a method which with him is invariable. He states his whole theme in one sentence, then he comes back and he breaks it up and takes it bit by bit. That's what he does in the rest of the chapter. But here it is in one verse, this 13th verse.

And again, of course, we are face-to-face with one of these glorious and moving summaries of the whole Christian faith. You know it's all here in a verse. And I sometimes have a feeling that if I could only say this as I should say it, and as the Holy Spirit can enable one to say it, there'd be no need to say any more. Here it is, but now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

There it is, that's the whole gospel. But let us, let us look at it. It's the very essence of the message. This morning, I take it as a whole. We look at it in general and then, God willing, we shall follow the Apostle as he himself proceeds to break it up into its various component parts. It seems to me that the, the matter divides itself up quite inevitably. There are three things here. The first is this: the contrast between what we were and what we are.

The second thing is what we are. And the third thing is how we have become what we are, what has produced the contrast. Now let us just glance at them. The contrast, I say, between what we were and what we are. The Apostle puts it in his famous manner, in his customary manner, but.

You see, he paints the dark picture. He gives us the negative. He presses it home. Then having done it, he says, but. You remember the other glorious example of it we had in the fourth verse, having given us that appalling account of ourselves as we were dead in trespasses and sins, suddenly he says, but God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, and here again he does it once more.

These buts, these blessed buts, they can't be repeated too frequently. The whole gospel comes in here. But now. You see the difference. It's all, I say, in the word, but. But also, he adds these other terms, now, sometimes. You see, but, contrast, now, then, former times, times past, sometimes. Here are his great words, his contrasts.

And what is the effect of these words? Well, the effect of these words, of course, should invariably be this. And to a Christian, they are always this, beyond any doubt. And therefore, you can tell whether you're a Christian or not by just answering this question. Do you feel at times that the greatest word in the entire language of humanity is the word but? Because if you don't, again I say, your defective Christian, your understanding of Christianity is very defective.

There you are, but. And immediately you lift up your head and you begin to sing, there's hope, a window's opened, the light has flashed. Suddenly the gloom is gone. But now. In times past, formerly, sometimes, what does he tell us? Well, it's this but, I say again, of hope. The but of relief. The but that says there's an end to despair and darkness and gloom. All is not lost. God is yet with us. We lift up our heads. The people that sat in darkness have seen a great light.

God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to reveal the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's it. That's what we've got here in other language. Well now, but especially I want to emphasize this morning this, that these words bring out in a very striking manner the sharpness of the contrast. The completeness of the separation. The absolute quality of the difference.

And this is something that surely we must emphasize. Because it's emphasized everywhere in the New Testament. The difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is an absolute difference. It's a complete contrast. Now, I want to emphasize that with all my being because that's exactly what the Apostle does here. It is an absolute and an utter difference.

It's clear, it's definite, it's distinct. There should never be any difficulty about telling whether we are Christian or whether we are not. I'm not saying meaning by that that we judge other people. I say, it should be possible for everyone to know whether he or she is a Christian or not. Because the contrast between Christian and non-Christian is as extreme and as definite as this: now, then. The but, the complete difference, the extraordinary change.

Let me put it like this. There are no shades of difference between being not Christian and being Christian. It isn't that you go from black to white through various shades of gray and, and you can't quite tell where you are. The black is beginning to be affected by a little white and then there's a little more and a little more. And at last, ah, you say, this is white. It isn't that. That's absolutely false. That's a complete contrast to what the Apostle is here teaching. It's either black or white, he says.

And there are no intermediate stages which are almost imperceptible. It's not like those subtle changes in the color of the spectrum where you can't quite tell at any given point what you're looking at. Not at all. That, this. There, but. Times past, now. Now, I, I'm emphasizing this because it does seem to me that there are so many who are in trouble about their whole position as Christians because they've never realized that.

And let me put it like this. This contrast between the non-Christian and the Christian is true of all. I say that for this reason, that I can imagine somebody saying, ah, wait a minute. Of course, I can understand the contrast in its extreme form as the Apostle puts it there, because after all, he was writing about those Ephesians who had been pagans. They didn't even believe in God, they were pagans, right out in the world, living the typical life of a pagan. And of course, when a pagan like that became a Christian, well, the contrast, obviously, is extreme and striking.

And they go on to say, it's the same at the present time. Of course, there are some people who have become Christians, who once upon a time were drunkards and almost murderers and wife beaters. They, they couldn't have been more terrible. And there, of course, when such a person becomes a Christian, you've got this astounding contrast. And you're justified in emphasizing your "but" and saying "now" and "then," "times past," "formerly," "now." But they say, surely, that doesn't apply to people who've been brought up in a nice and respectable manner in a Christian country.

They were sent to Sunday school when they were children. They were taken to services by their parents, and who've never done any of these violent and foul and extreme things. They, they've always lived a nice and a good life and, well, they've just grown into Christianity. It's almost imperceptible. There it is. They say, surely, you don't emphasize these extreme contrasts in the case of such people? All right for pagans and outsiders and so on. But not, surely, for anybody brought up nicely in a Christian country.

Well, my reply is that I say it is as extreme in their cases as in the other. That the difference between non-Christian and Christian is always equally great. Why? Well, the Apostle gives us the answer. What decides whether we are Christian or not is not what we do nor what we are. It is our relationship to God. Made nigh, says Paul.

He doesn't say, are now improved and are now living a better life. No, no. The thing that makes you a Christian is this, that you who were afar off are made nigh. You are near to God, whereas formerly you were far from God. So you see the distinction and the difference is to be drawn not in terms of our morality or conduct or behavior, but in our relationship to God. I wonder whether this is clear.

Shall I try to give you an illustration to show you what I mean? It's a matter of relationship, I say, not of one's moral condition primarily. That follows. So look at it like this. Take the state of marriage. There is a man who got married yesterday. And you can say this about him, can't you? Until yesterday, he was a single man. Now he's a married man.

Now, I say that when you're thinking of the married state, that particular relationship, it is absolutely beside the point and a complete waste of breath to tell me various things that were true about that man. You begin to tell me, well, of course, he drank rather heavily and he gambled a great deal. I say, but look here, I'm not interested in that. I want to know, was the man married then or wasn't he married?

And if you're thinking of the married state and the married relationship, it's a pure irrelevance to tell me about the man's moral life or conduct or behavior. The vital question is, he wasn't married? He was married. And all these other things in that point and in that connection are pure irrelevances. Or take another.

You say such and such a person was presented at court last week. All right. And if that's the thing you're interested in, well then, you have either been presented at court or you have not been presented at court. You have either been introduced into the presence of the monarch and have been received, or else you haven't. Ah, but you then begin to tell me a great deal about the moral character of the two people, the one who's been presented and the other who hasn't.

I say, I'm not a bit interested. Of course, it's all right in its realm and in its place. But if we are talking about the, the, the honor of being presented at court, and the difference it makes to be presented at court, well then, the personal life and morality and conduct really doesn't enter in at all. Now it's exactly the same thing in this whole matter of being a Christian.

I'm not really interested as to whether you've been living in the gutters of life or in the most respectable tenements of life. The one question I'm asking is this: Are you nigh unto God? Do you know God? That's the question. Have you been presented at court? Have you entered into the holiest of all? That's the one question. The others are irrelevances.

And as the world regards respectability and goodness and morality and ethics, you can be a paragon of all the virtues and yet not knowing God. And judged by that test of personal relationships according to the Scriptures, there is no difference between the foulest and the vilest sinner and the most respectable sinner. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no, not one. They're all outside the door. They're not given entrance into the audience chamber, into the presence of the monarch.

They're all shut outside. Ah, but you say, they're very different. Look at their clothing, they're not dressed the same. I say, I'm not interested. The only question is this: are they outside the door or are they inside the door? Now I think you'll agree with me that the trouble invariably with these matters is that instead of considering it in terms of this personal relationship to God, people will persist in considering it in terms of goodness and behavior.

I remember someone once saying to me, and I use the illustration before because I think it puts it very perfectly. This person said to me, she said, you know, I sometimes almost wish that I'd lived a foul and a vile and an extremely sinful life. Why, I said, well, she said, in order that I might know this great change that such people know when they are converted.

Now you see the fallacy, you see the misunderstanding. That person was looking entirely at the matter in terms of conduct and behavior. Negatively. If she'd only looked at it in terms of knowing God and rejoicing in him, she would have seen that there was no difference between her and the foulest and the vilest sinner. The test is a positive one. Very well then. This but. Now. Formerly, times past. The contrast is extreme. And it can never be overemphasized.

Well, very well then. Let us go on to our second principle, which is this. Let us see what we are as Christians. And that'll serve to emphasize the contrast still more as we bear in mind what we were considering last time. Now, Paul puts this, I say again, in these wonderful words. Made nigh. The made nigh, of course, is the contrast to aliens, strangers, without God, outside Christ, not in living relationship to Christ, but now made nigh.

Now, this is, of course, the whole truth about the Christian. The Apostle obviously had an illustration in his mind. He was thinking of the temple. You know the temple at Jerusalem was divided into different courts. The most important place of all was the holiest of all, the innermost sanctuary where the presence of God, the Shekinah glory of God was there over the mercy seat.

And into that holiest of all, into the very presence of God, only one man was allowed to go, that was the high priest, and he only went in once a year. Then there were these other courts. But the outermost court of all was called the Court of the Gentiles. They were the furthest away from God. They were not even allowed into the court of the people, the court of the Jews. And they were not allowed to where the priests were allowed to go. And even the priests couldn't go where the high priest went.

But the furthest away were the Gentiles, the outsiders. Paul will work that out in greater detail towards the end of this chapter. But here it is already in this particular form. And what he says is that they who were furthest away have been brought in, have been made nigh. In a most amazing manner, have an entry, as it were, into the holiest of all.

Now, this is the position of all who are Christian. And this is the thing that we must emphasize. The non-Christian is without God, without Christ. He has no access, he has no knowledge, he has no entry. What's the truth about the Christian? Well, the first thing that is true about a Christian is this. Not that he's had some experience, not that something's happened to him, but that now he is made nigh.

He has this entry, this access. He is able to go into the presence of God. And of course, he is able to do so with all others who are doing the same thing. So that Paul carries on this other contrast. Before, you see, the Jews were a separate people. They went to God through their burnt offerings and sacrifices, through their priesthood. The Gentiles had nothing of the sort. But now, the Gentiles, not only can go into the presence of God, they go in with the Jews who have become Christians. They all go in together.

He will say that later in this form: we now both have access by one spirit unto the Father. But this morning, I only want to hold this before you in general. It's the most wonderful thing in life and in eternity. What is it? Well, it's this. Do you remember what happened when Adam and Eve had sinned in the Garden of Eden, in paradise? They were driven out of the garden.

And there at the eastern end of the garden by the gate, God set up what? A flaming sword and cherubim. What for? To prohibit the re-entry of the man and the woman into paradise, into the Garden of Eden. That's the effect of the fall and of sin. Man is shut out of the presence of God, without Christ, without God in the world and without hope, and he can't get back. The flaming sword and the cherubim. But now, in Christ Jesus, the gate is opened.

And man, in spite of the fall and of sin and shame, and all that is true of him, can come back and enter in, has access into the presence of God. He's reconciled to God. He's restored to God's favor. The enmity is removed. The wrath of God is appeased and satisfied. There has been an at-one-ment, an atonement. They've been brought together again, made nigh. Introduced into the audience chamber, presented to the King of Glory, entering in.

Or if you like, I can put it like this. Paul has been speaking in the previous verse and saying that all who are not Christians are strangers to the covenants of promise. He means the one great covenant of grace, that God repeated several times with slightly different emphasis. That's what he means by the covenants of promise. You remember we saw it last Sunday morning. God has pledged himself. God has covenanted with men. God has said, I will do this, a new covenant.

And what Paul is saying here is that these people, though they were so far away, have been brought into the covenant and are now beginning to enjoy the full blessings of God's new covenant with man in and through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What are these? Well, shall I just tabulate them for you? There's a perfect description given us of the new covenant in the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. It's a quotation from Jeremiah 31. Listen.

This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts. And I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people. And they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying, know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest. And I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

That's the new covenant. And when a man is not a Christian, he's a stranger to that covenant. But what's, what's it to be a Christian? It's this. To be made nigh, to be brought into the covenant, to be told all that applies to you. Well, now, what's it mean? Let me put it in this form. It means that we know God. That is Christianity, to know God.

You can be a Christian and know certain things about God, and believe certain things about God, and be interested in God, and read books about God, and listen to lectures and arguments about God. That isn't to be Christian. To be Christian is to know God. They shall no longer, says the new covenant, teach one another saying, know the Lord, for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. The least as well as the greatest. To know God.

I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people. And that's what it means to become a Christian. Formerly you were not a people. You were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, which is God's people. And you were strangers from the covenants, without God in the world. But now, you've been made nigh, you're with the people. You know God. What else? Well, because we know God, we come with boldness unto the throne of grace. That's the argument again of the Epistle to the Hebrews, isn't it?

Let us therefore, he says, come boldly unto the throne of grace to find, to obtain mercy and to find grace for help in time of need. My dear friend, have you been made nigh? When you get on your knees to pray, do you do it with confidence, with this boldness? Do you know you're going to the throne of grace? And do you know you're given mercy? And do you get that grace to help? That's the position of the man who's been made nigh. He's near, he's there, he's in the audience chamber.

Well, let me put then that quite definitely by putting it like this. Again, let me read the words of the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Listen to him in the 19th verse of the 10th chapter. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, and having an high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

That's what it means to be a Christian. Sometimes, but now are made nigh. Entering into the holiest of all. Beloved people, are you there? Have you been there? Do you know this way? The Christian is a man who can enter into the presence of God, the holiest of all. There's nothing to stop him. There is this new and living way, the holiest of all, made nigh, admitted into the presence. What else? Well, I've just read it. We do so with this full assurance of faith.

What a terrible thing it is to be on your knees and to be filled with doubts and uncertainties and to say, well, I don't quite know that I have a right or not. Can I ask God? I have no right. I'm a sinner and I've done this and that. That's not praying. The way to pray is to go into the holiest of all with full assurance of faith, knowing God and knowing his relationship to you and his attitude towards you. Well, let me put it in the words of our, of the prologue of the Gospel according to Saint John. What he says is this.

That to as many as received him gave he power or authority if you like, to be the sons of God. Have we got this clearly? That the Christian is a man who not only has access into the presence of God, but he knows God as his Father. Christ has given him authority to be a child of God. He's been adopted. And though he is going into the presence of the holy and eternal God, he goes with the confidence of a child.

He's got authority, the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ to say that he's a child and there is no porter that can prohibit him. There is no enemy that can hold him back. He holds his birth certificate in his hand and he says, I'm going to my Father, made nigh. Oh, he not only knows because he holds the certificate in his hand that he's a child of God and the certificate is this word, this scripture. He's got another form of assurance, hasn't he?

God has not given us the spirit of fear again, says Paul to the Romans in the eighth chapter. He hath not given to us the spirit of bondage again to fear. But he hath given us the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. That's the Christian's position. He's not praying to some distant God. He's not concerned about forms and appearances and beauty of language. It's a child and his Father. Abba, Father. He knows God as his Father. He's got a filial spirit. His whole heart is going out to God.

And he knows that God's heart is coming out to him. Abba, Father. That's Christianity. Is it surprising that the Apostle emphasizes the contrast? And of course, because the Christian knows that thus God is his Father, and that he is a child of God. He knows God's love to him. He knows that the very hairs of his head are all numbered. He knows that God is taking a personal interest in him. That nothing can happen to him apart from God. That though God is so eternal in his majesty, his might, his glory, and his power, he like a Father is interested in his every child, knows all about us, deeply concerned for us.

There at his right hand is one who came from heaven to earth and identified himself with us. Has taken his place alongside of us, has taken our sin upon him, and has died for our sins. And there he is also. So this man goes into the presence of God knowing these things. That is what it means to be made nigh. I put it like this as I close. In the fourth chapter of the Epistle of James, in the eighth verse, there is this extraordinary statement.

Draw nigh unto God and he will draw nigh unto you. But how can I draw nigh unto God unless I know the way? How can I draw nigh unto God unless I know that I'm in the covenant, that I'm no longer a stranger, no longer an alien, no longer afar off and without? The only way to draw nigh unto God is the way in which the Apostle puts it at the end of this glorious verse, and which I must leave over, I regret to say, until next Sunday morning. There is only one way to draw nigh.

There is only one way of entering into the holiest of all. By the blood of Jesus. But now ye who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the blood. The blood of Christ. The blood of the Lamb on the lintel and the doorposts of the house of the Israelites in Egypt saved them and spared them. And the one sign that is looked for on all who would approach and draw nigh unto God is the mark of the blood of the Son of God. Is it on us?

If it is, you have a free right of entry and no one can stop you into the holiest of all, into the very presence of God himself. Are you there? Have you been there? Do you pray with confidence and assurance? Do you know God? Are you enjoying fellowship with him? To be nigh unto God is to experience all those blessings of the new covenant in Jesus Christ. Amen.

The closing hymn is hymn number 400, 400. Object of my first desire, Jesus crucified for me. All to happiness aspire, only to be found in thee. Hymn number 400. And now unto Him who is able to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now, throughout the remainder of this our short and uncertain earthly life and pilgrimage, and until we shall see him face-to-face. Amen.