Paul begins these verses by appealing to the Gentile believers in Ephesus to \u201cremember\u201d their condition outside of Christ. In a sense, this section of Ephesians 2:11, 12 is somewhat like Paul\u2019s words in Ephesians 2:1-3. That is, the Gentiles outside of the Messiah are not only \u201cdead in trespasses and sins,\u201d but they are outside God\u2019s covenant blessings to Abraham and his descendants. In these two verses Paul was setting the stage for what he describes in Ephesians 2:13-22. Namely, the Gentiles are no longer isolated from the promises of God but are included in those promises through the victory of the Messiah\u2019s death and resurrection.<\/p>\n
It is also important that we remember the flow of Paul\u2019s argument in Ephesians 2. First, as noted above, Jews and Gentiles are all under the dominion of the evil one outside of Christ. Second, it is through the riches of God\u2019s mercy and through grace alone that God has shown His lovingkindness in the Messiah Jesus to both Jews and Greeks. Third, Paul is showing that in the body of the Messiah, God has brought Jew and Gentile together to \u201ccreate in Himself one new man from the two\u201d as a witness to divine grace for the whole world (Ephesians 2:15). In this new identity found solely in the body of the Messiah, with Jesus as the head, Jew and Gentile do not fully lose their distinct identity but come together in the Messiah to reveal God\u2019s redemptive purposes for humanity.<\/p>\n
But before moving towards the divine purpose that Paul expounds in the remainder of Ephesians 2, Paul addresses the painful reality that divided Jews and Gentiles. In the Bible, there are essentially three identities for humanity for all time: Jews, Gentiles, and those redeemed in the Messiah. In Ephesians 2:11, 12, Paul writes about the first two, Jews and Gentiles.<\/p>\n
He begins by acknowledging what amounted to a slur against the Gentiles: they were uncircumcised. Jewish identity in circumcision goes back to Genesis 17, where circumcision was a sign of God\u2019s covenant with Abraham. The covenant was rooted in Abraham\u2019s faith in God\u2019s promises to him. It begins with God\u2019s promise of blessings to Abraham, his descendants, and all who would bless him. It includes promises related to the land of Canaan. Over a quarter of a century, God and Abraham were engaged in this \u201cfaith-walk\u201d whereby God declared Abraham righteous because he believed in the Lord (Genesis 15:6). Even when Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar failed in their fleshly effort to fulfill God\u2019s promise (Genesis 16), God did not abandon them. Abraham was 86 years old when this effort to fulfill God\u2019s promise by their works failed (16:16). But thirteen years later, God again appeared to Abraham, renewed His promises, and told Abraham to circumcise himself and all the males in his household, including Ishmael, as a physical sign in the male organ of procreation. It is important to remember that faith was prior to the sign of circumcision, not the other way around. This was so important that Paul emphasized it in Romans 4 and Galatians 2 and 3.<\/p>\n
Thus, Jews used the term \u201cuncircumcised\u201d as a \u201cspiteful designation.\u201d[1]<\/a> But interestingly, Paul also condemns the Jews for what he calls \u201ccircumcision made in the flesh by hands\u201d (Ephesians 2:11). Paul recognized that circumcision in the flesh had become a point of human pride and an unholy distinction. This was not new to Paul. The Old Testament also declared that God intended circumcision to be of the heart; that is, a heart for God and His purposes (Jeremiah 4:4; 6:10; 9:26). Even Moses in the Law called for circumcision of the heart (Deuteronomy 10:16; 30:6).<\/p>\n Circumcision was a sign of belonging to God\u2019s people. In Ephesians 2:12 Paul reminds the Gentiles of what they missed by not being part of the grace-called people God chose through the faith and lineage of Abraham. There are five aspects of not being Jewish that were experienced by all Gentiles.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n First, Gentiles \u201cwere without the Messiah.\u201d[3]<\/a> The Gentiles had mighty warriors and leaders of great empires, but they did not have the expectation of a promised Savior.<\/p>\n Second, Gentiles \u201cwere aliens from the commonwealth of Israel.\u201d The word \u201ccommonwealth\u201d carries the connotation of \u201ccitizenship.\u201d[4]<\/a> To be an alien is to be in a foreign land but without citizenship. It can mean being without protective rights and excluded from the benefits of belonging. An alien is, in a real sense, a person in a foreign land.<\/p>\n Before we go to the third point, a word of clarity is needed about the phrase, \u201ccommonwealth, or citizen of Israel.\u201d Paul is not thinking of a geopolitical, independent nation in the modern sense of the word.[5]<\/a> Rather, Paul is referring to the reality of Jewishness as an expression of faith in God handed down through the centuries through the covenants and Torah (law). Paul has in mind the reality of the covenants made with Abraham, Moses, and David as revelations of the being and nature of God.<\/p>\n Third, Gentiles are \u201cstrangers from the covenants of promise.\u201d In the previous paragraph, I mentioned the three primary covenants that God made with Israel that formed her identity and purpose in the world. Gentiles are \u201cstrangers\u201d to all three of these covenants. That means that Gentiles do not share in the historical divine interaction between the One True God and the children of Abraham. Furthermore, these covenants form the premise of a future (\u201ccovenants of promise\u201d) that belongs to the seed of Abraham by virtue of the Word of the Lord who oversees all history and its future. Another way to put this is, the Gentiles do not belong! A Gentile\u2019s history and future is shaped by remembrance and hope that is found primarily outside of divine revelation. Gentiles have many gods, but not the One True God revealed in Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the Messiah, and Israel\u2019s history.<\/p>\n The fourth and fifth aspects are expressed in the phrase, \u201chaving no hope and without God in the world.\u201d The word translated as \u201cwithout God\u201d is transliterated as atheist<\/em>. A theist<\/em> is a person who believes in God; an a-theist<\/em> is a person who does not believe in God.[6]<\/a> Paul is probably not thinking of our modern view of an atheist as a person who philosophically rejects the notion of God. Rather, Paul was affirming that the gods worshipped by the Gentiles are not gods at all but are demons or figments of the Gentile imagination (1 Corinthians 10:20, 21; Romans 1:20-23). But Paul makes clear that being \u201cwithout God\u201d is being without hope.<\/p>\n In conclusion, there are two things we should remember\u2014the same things Paul advises these Ephesian Gentiles to remember. First, the work of Jesus the Messiah is rooted in the promises of God to Israel. This means that we should be grateful for that testimony through the covenant children of Abraham. In a time of rising antisemitism in the United States and around the world, regardless of our political views about the modern state of Israel, we must be careful to remember the blessings of Genesis 12:1-3 as the promise of God to the Jews and those who bless them. Second, while Paul\u2019s point in Ephesians 2 is about the church, the body of the Messiah, Paul\u2019s comments have a personal aspect for those of us who are Gentiles. We no longer live by the spirit of the world (2:1-3), but we now live as those who have experienced and are experiencing the riches of God\u2019s mercy and grace in Jesus the Messiah (2:4-10).<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Markus Barth, p. 254, 255. See Noel Brooks, p. 77 in previously cited works.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Some Gentiles became proselytes, or God-fearers, who recognized the monotheism of Judaism, and the morality revealed in the Old Testament Scriptures.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> I am intentionally using Messiah rather than \u201cChrist\u201d as many Christians miss the Jewish connection of Jesus as the Promised Messiah of Israel. Remember that \u201cChrist\u201d is the Greek translation of the Hebrew [4]<\/a> See Barth\u2019s discussion on pp. 257, 258.<\/p>\n
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\n\u201cMessiah,\u201d which means the anointed One.<\/p>\n