Those of you of a certain age reading this post likely recognize the title of this essay. It’s also the title of an English hymn composed in 1841, one that has been sung in churches for nearly two hundred years. It is famously associated with the Titanic, as it was reported the band played the hymn while it was sinking. It was also reported that a Confederate Army band played it as the survivors of Pickett’s Charge returned following their disastrous charge at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863.
Growing up, I remember it being played or sung at funerals, though the biblical text for the hymn is from Jacob’s dream in Genesis 28:10-17. The connection with Jacob’s dream places the hymn in the context of moving forward in this earthly life rather than in a funeral hymn reflected in its mournful melody.
It is this sense of drawing near to God that is reflected in Ephesians 2:13, in the sense of moving from death to life: we “have been brought near.”[1] This idea of drawing near to God is expressed in these passages:
Psalm 73:28—“It is good for me to draw near to God.”
Hebrews 7:19 —“There is a better hope, through which we draw near to God.”
Hebrews 10:22 — “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.”
James 4:8 — “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.”
I recognize the connection of this single verse to what follows in Ephesians 2, but we can focus on this verse considering Paul’s comments in Ephesians 2:11, 12.[2] As noted last week, Paul used a sharp contrast in Ephesians 2:1-3 with the rich provisions of mercy and grace in verses 4-10. There is a sense of “But God” in 2:4 that gives eternal hope to those “dead in trespasses and sins.” That same contrast motif occurs in Ephesians 2:11, 12 and the opening words of Ephesians 2:13. This time the contrast is made with the English words “But now.”
Let’s refresh our memory of Ephesians 2:11, 12. It’s the condition of Gentiles outside divine blessings given to Israel. Paul referred to the Gentiles as the “uncircumcision,” a derogatory expression used by Jews in Paul’s day to differentiate between the essentially universal two groups of people in God’s eyes: Jews and Gentiles. Gentiles are “without, aliens from, strangers, no hope, and without God,” descriptive words found in verse 12.
Ephesians 2:13 is the divinely given bridge that offers Gentiles the way to draw near to God by faith. It is the bridge over the troubled waters that divide humanity. It is the bridge that God built as His only begotten Son laid down His life on the Cross. The body of Jesus on the Cross is the plank upon which the Gentiles and the Jews can become the One Body of the Messiah for the sake of the whole world and the glory of God!
The language of being “brought near” or “drawing near” to God in Ephesians 2:13 is based on Isaiah 57:19. Paul knew the context of Isaiah 57, a chapter that is filled with warnings and judgment against a disobedient people in Babylonian exile.[3] Isaiah 57 speaks to Jews who are being punished by God for their unfaithfulness to the covenant, an unfaithfulness punished in the Babylonian conquest (586 B.C.). But these same Jews are given an opportunity to hear God’s good news. The section in 57:15-19 reveals God’s desire to heal His people (57:18, 19), to revive His people (57:15), to guide His people (57:18). It is God who gives people the capacity to make a faith declaration from their lips of “shalom, shalom,” or “peace, peace” (57:19).
This double message of peace in verse 19 announces the certainty of reconciliation “to him who is far off and to him who is near.” I think of Romans 5:1, 2, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand. . . .” Ephesians 2:13 takes up the same language with a variation of the Romans 5:1, 2 passage.
“But now,” Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:13, the message of Isaiah 57 has been expanded to include the Gentiles, the defamed “uncircumcision,” who can draw near, or are brought near, because of the blood of the Messiah. It is the Messiah of Isaiah 53 and Psalm 16, 22, whose shed blood on the Cross is greater than the blood shed by Jewish male circumcision. The blood of the Messiah is that healing, reconciling blood of the Lamb that includes men and women, Jew and Gentile, everyone who experiences the despair of being isolated from a healing community.[4]
It is the blood of the Messiah that makes reconciliation possible between lost and divided humanity with God and with one another. As we move forward into the remainder of Ephesians 2-6, verse 13 is the transition, the textual bridge, that enables us to discern God’s purposes through this significant letter.
NOTE: There are many good books on the blood of Jesus. But here are three that I want to mention to you: The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ by Fleming Rutledge; Giving Blood: A Fresh Paradigm for Preaching by Leonard Sweet; The Blood Covenant by H. Clay Trumbull.
[1] I recognize there is a distinction between “brought near” and “draw near.” The first, which is used in the Ephesians text, implies a passive element on the one being brought near. Clearly it is the Holy Spirit who brings us near God by the blood of Jesus. The second, “draw near,” implies an action of one’s initiative. In this sense, it is our response of faith in what Jesus has done that enables us to be brought near. I think of these as the two sides of the same coin.
[2] https://iphc.org/gso/2025/03/27/we-remember-ephesians-211-12/.
[3] See Walter Brueggemann, Isaiah 40-66 (John Knox Press, Louisville, KY, 1989) pp. 175-186.
[4] Markus Barth in the previously cited commentary in the Anchor Bible Series has a lengthy discussion of Isaiah 57 and Paul’s use of it on pages 260-262, and especially 276-279.
