Brought into God’s Presence by Christ’s Death
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Ephesians 2:13 (NIV)
In 2:11 and 12 Paul has called on his readers to ‘remember’ the state they were in before Christ saved them. They were cut off from the Messiah, cut off from God’s people, excluded from the covenant invitation to know God, had no hope and were godless. In Paul’s single phrase they were ‘far away’ (2:13), alienated both from God and His people.
But now everything had changed for these Gentile converts. No longer ‘separate from Christ’ (2:12) they are now ‘in Christ Jesus’ (2:13). They have come to find their life in Him. They who had been ‘far away’ – far from God with a great gulf separating them from His covenant people – were ‘brought near’ (2:13). The rabbis had a way of speaking of Gentiles who were far from the privileges of the covenant as being ‘brought near’ as proselytes. But Paul is speaking of a far more dramatic and fundamental way of approach ‘by the blood of Christ’ (2:13).
The basic cause of human estrangement is sin but Christ gave Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world (John 3:16; 12:32; 2 Corinthians 5:19). The sins of both Jews and Gentiles can be forgiven because of His death (pictured through His blood being poured out or more simply ‘the blood of Christ’) and both can be ‘brought near’ to God as never before. In Hebrews 10:19-22 believers are encouraged to ‘have confidence to enter the [heavenly] Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus’ and so ‘draw near to God.’ The letter of Hebrews is written mainly to Jewish Christians while Ephesians is addressed more to Gentile believers. ‘In Christ Jesus’ is the ground of approach for both groups.
‘But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ’ (2:13). Our new nearness to God is both ‘in Christ Jesus’ and ‘by the blood of Christ.’ ‘The blood of Christ’ signifies His sacrificial death for our sins on the cross by which Christ reconciled us to God and to each other. ‘In Christ Jesus’ signifies our personal union with Christ through which the reconciliation He achieved is received and enjoyed. The two expressions witness to the two stages by which those who were ‘far away’ were ‘brought near.’ The first is the historic event of the cross and the second, Christian conversion, our contemporary experience of union with Christ.
Although you were once distant and far away from God, now you have been brought delightfully close to him through the sacred blood of Jesus – you have actually been united to Christ! Ephesians 2:13 (The Passion Translation)