Fellow Citizens

 

“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household…”

—Ephesians 2:19

Looking back over the last several blog posts, I detect a certain theme in the Scripture passages chosen by the folks at Biblegateway.com. That, by the way, is my source for most of the Scriptures I use in the more recent blog posts. I simply look at what those kind people have chosen and write about that passage.

In any case, the recent Scriptures seem to have an underlying theme of “belonging.” There is no doubt that one of the most potent realities of faith in God through the sacrifice of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is that we now belong to God in a way that defies an accurate description.

We of the Reformed expression of the Protestant Christian theology believe that before the foundation of the earth God chose us to belong to Himself. In due season, God sent His blessed Holy Spirit to reveal our sinful condition, to reveal our need of a Savior, and to reveal that God has already provided a sacrifice in His Son on the cruel cross of Calvary. God then irresistibly draws us to Himself through Christ. With our growing comprehension and upon our acknowledgement of what God has done in our behalf, we humbly receive His gift of love. The Holy Spirit comes to live in our hearts and offers His enablement so we can walk the pathway of faith.

This process that may seem so dry and uninteresting when expressed in theological terms is actually filled with horror at the depth of our sin, relief at knowing God has already paid the penalty for that sin, and overwhelming joy that He loves us with His everlasting and unfailing love.

Our “belonging” becomes our present and future reality. We not only belong to God—which is, of course, the greatest thing—but we belong to every other person who has been chosen by God just as we have been chosen. We have a who new family of brothers and sisters in Christ. We belong to God and we belong to each other.

The Apostle Paul expressed this great truth to the people gathered in the church at Ephesus by writing these words preserved for us in Ephesians 2:19:

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household…

We are not foreigners and strangers in God’s Kingdom. No! We are citizens. We are a part of God’s people. We are members of His household. We are His dearly loved and tenderly cared for children.

And that, dear ones, is news so wonderful that, as the song writer, Frederick Martin Lehman, has so eloquently put it:

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
    And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
    And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
    Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
    Though stretched from sky to sky.
O love of God, how rich and pure!
    How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
    The saints’ and angels’ song.

That is something to be genuinely joyful about at the beginning of this new day.

 

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