SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/3/2019 11:15 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3
“Spiritual Alienation”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Eph. 2:12-13
Message of the verses: “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. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have
been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
The
fourth reason that the Gentiles were spiritually alienated was because they
were hopeless, as seen in verse 12 “having no hope.” As we combine the first three reasons for
alienation, which are “Those
who have no Christ, no commonwealth, and no covenants of promise also have no
hope.” I have mentioned a few
times when teaching the Word of God that many times in the Word of God “hope”
is a noun, and not a verb. We hope for
something that we have in Christ because we know that it is true. John MacArthur writes “True hope can be based
only on a true promise, on confidence in someone who can perform what he
promises. Hope is a profound blessing
that gives meaning and security to life.
Living without hope of future joy and enrichment reduces man to a piece
of meaningless protoplasm. [‘the living part of a cell that is surrounded by a plasma membrane’]. Hope is the consummation of life, the
confident assurance that we have a blessed future in the plan of God. The saddest feature of Job’s great lament is
found in these words: ‘My days are
swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and come to an end without hope’ (Job
7:6). The opposite of that pessimistic
outlook is the joyous truth celebrated among the Jews and stated succinctly in
Psalm 146:5—‘How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in
the Lord his God!’ ‘The hope of Israel’
(Acts 28:20) was the hope of eternal salvation and glory.” It is my desire (hope) that this quote will
help you have a better understanding of exactly what the word “hope” means to
believers in Jesus Christ. Oh we can say
something like “I hope that the sun will shine today” and if you live in
Northeast Ohio like I do then that is truly a verb and not a noun for we have
the second least amount of sunshine in the U. S.
If
someone offered to give you a lot of money, money that you needed and then when
it came down to them giving it to you they could not do it because they didn’t
have the means then that would be false hope.
Israel was able to have supreme confidence in the promises of God
because He is able to do what He says He will do. Not the case with the Gentiles, as they had
no such promises and therefore had no ground for hope. In Paul’s day not too much unlike our day
people have little idea what will happen to them once they die, and this is not
the case with believers in Jesus Christ.
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of
God, so that you may know
that you have eternal life (1 John 5:13).”
We
have one more reason for alienation of the Gentiles and it is probably the most
important one and that that they “were without God in the World.” Paul spoke of this in Acts 17 when he
preached on Mars Hill in Athens as he told the Greeks that they worshiped many
gods, and yet in order not to miss out they also worshiped the “unknown God”
which Paul based his sermon on telling them who this unknown God was, but
unfortunately not many listed to him.
Why
were the Gentiles without God? They were
without God because they did not want Him.
The Lord did not reject the Gentiles as Paul points in Romans 2:11 “For
there is no partiality with God.” They
did not want anything to do with God, and not the other way around. The Jews had the Word of God written on
stones as seen in Exodus, but the Gentiles had it written in their hearts in
the form of their conscience, but they did nothing with it. “19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for
God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His
invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly
seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without
excuse (Romans 1:19-20).”
One
of the reasons that God called the Jews was to be a missionary to the Gentiles,
which sadly they did not do, but how about us as believers in Jesus Christ are
we falling short of giving out the Gospel to those who need it?
John
MacArthur concludes this section by writing:
“There will never be an end to alienation until Christ returns and by
His own power breaks down the barriers of separation. Apart from Christ there not only can be no
harmony with God but no harmony among men.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: “but
sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a
defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in
you, yet with gentleness and reverence (1 Pet. 3:15).
My Steps of Faith for Today: It is my desire to learn more about Romans
12:3.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Faith, utterance, knowledge,
diligence, love” (2 Corinthians 3:9-15).
Today’s Bible question: “What is the rock foundation on which we
should build?”
Answer in our next SD.
1/3/2019 12:31 PM
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