Ephesians 2:12
12 That [hoti] at [en] that [ekeinos] time [kairos] ye were [en] without [choris] Christ, [Christos] being
aliens [apallotrioo] from the commonwealth [politeia] of Israel, [Israel] and [kai] strangers [xenos] from the
covenants [diatheke] of promise, [epaggelia] having [echo] no [me] hope, [elpis] and [kai] without God [atheos] in [en] the world: [kosmos]KJV-Interlinear
12
remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the
commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no
hope and without God in the world. NASB
The remembrance
continues. The remembrance that at one
time in your life you were an unbeliever.
Remember also, that Paul is
speaking to both Jews and Gentiles, not only in this letter directly in his
day, but throughout the generations of the last 2000 years since then.
And Paul lists five
things that are true of unbelievers, but also five things that unbelievers do not
have.
First, without
Christ. No Christ means no salvation. No salvation means no eternal life. Christ is the only means of gaining eternal
life. There is no other means, no other
method, no other option for advancing into eternity with God, except by means
of faith in Christ.
Second, all unbelievers
are aliens from the commonwealth of Israel.
And what exactly does that mean?
This does not mean that they were not Jews, because Paul was speaking to
both Jews and Gentiles.
Israel is an actual
nation. It was formed by the twelve
tribes, which were derived out of the sons of Jacob.
The line of the Messiah,
which is also called the line of promise, was defined through Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob, to distinguish it from the many Arabic lines that were in existence
and developing at the time.
The nation of Israel was
representative of the chosen nation of God, made up of the chosen people of
God, which is symbolic of those who believed in the promised Savior, who is
Jesus Christ. Salvation was by faith in
the Savior, just as it is today. Christ
is the one and only Savior.
Anyone who is a believer
in Christ, is a member of the Family of God, but also, they are citizens of the
nation of God, which is symbolically described as Israel.
Anyone who has rejected Christ,
has not believed in Christ, then is not a citizen of Gods nation, but is an
alien, and stranger, a foreigner, and that is exactly what alien and stranger, ‘apallotrioo,’
and ‘xenos’ mean. This is a reference to
strangers, or those who are not members of the family, and aliens, or those who
are not citizens of the chosen nation.
From the covenants of
promise, comes from the many descriptions and promises from God, which belong
only to those who are members of His family and nation. All of Gods promises and blessings and future
destiny confidences, are for believers only.
Unbelievers have nothing, absolutely nothing.
And having no hope means
exactly that.
This world offers
absolutely no hope, no confidence, no assurance of any kind that will carry the
unbeliever into eternity, much less through this life.
Most folks place their
hopes and dreams on things. They hope
for weekend fun, for school graduation, for a job or a marriage, or family, for
a retirement, or things accumulated in life and so forth. Whatever your hopes in life have been, you
can add them to this list. And these
things are not hopes at all, because this life and this world is temporary and
nothing more.
Hope comes through
confidence and confidence comes only through Christ, who is the one and only
person who can accomplish true hope.
True hope is attached to eternity and because life, true life, will
never end, but will go on and on forever.
True hope begins with eternal
life which comes only through salvation.
Since unbelievers have no hope then they have no salvation. Since they have no salvation, then they have
only eternal death, or the Lake of Fire.
Without God in the world,
is a descriptive phrase that eliminates all religions, all gods, all
philosophies, all beliefs as alternatives to the one true God, Jesus
Christ. None of these other so called
belief systems are real. They are all
false. And anyone who subscribes to any
of them, is subscribing to having absolutely nothing.
There is no such thing as
an honorable religion, or an honorable belief.
There is no such thing as a worthy system of thought that is derived out
of this world. All of these things are a
fools pursuit, and a fools self-destruction.
While a person rejects
Christ, he is an unbeliever. And this
means a person who has never believed in Christ, this does not refer to people
who have believed and then at some later time decide to unbelieve themselves. You cannot undo or unthink a thought that you
have already had.
Anyway, all unbelievers
have nothing and never will have anything.
Whatever they have in this world is irrelevant, because when a person
dies, their possessions, be they vast or not, will vanish to them, and they
enter the next life with nothing. This
life may last several decades at best, but the next life will last forever into
the gazillions and gazillions and gazillions of years and beyond.
Rejection of Christ is a
bad decision. Faith in this world is a
bad investment.
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