(Continued from p. 49)

"Wherefore, remember, that ye are being in times past Gentiles in the flesh, who are catted Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumcision in the flesh made with hands, that at that time, ye, were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were jar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ."

We are here confronted with international differences and distances, as well as differences and distances between God and man. In the one case there are barriers that are established, God-established, man-established, and in the other barriers raised by man alone.

Paul, with his rabbinical training, was acquainted not merely with the Old Testament Scriptures, but also with the teachings of the doctors of the law, and the conditions he describes are vivid realities to him. It may not be unprofitable for us to recall for a moment the enmity of the Jew for the Gentile, which like the "middle wall of partition" referred to later in the chapter, the "law of commandments contained in ordinances," made difficult indeed any approximation on the Jew's part to the "un-circumcised who knew not the law." Edersheim's "Life and Times of the Messiah" is our authority:

"In truth the bitter hatred which the Jew bore to the Gentile can only be explained from the estimate entertained of his character. The most vile and unnatural crimes were imputed to them. It was not safe to leave cattle in their charge, to allow their women to nurse infants, or their physicians to attend the sick, nor to walk in their company, without taking precautions against sudden and unprovoked attacks.. They and theirs were defiled, their houses unclean as containing idols or things dedicated to them, -their feasts, their very contact was polluted by idolatry; and there was no security if a heathen were left alone in a room that he might not in wantonness or by carelessness defile the wine or the meat on the table, or the oil and wheat in the store. Three days before a heathen festival (according to some also three days after)every business transaction with them was prohibited, for fear of either giving help or pleasure. Jews were prohibited to pass through a city where there was an idolatrous feast; nay, they were not even to sit down within the shadow of a tree dedicated to idol worship. Its wood was polluted; if used in baking, the bread was unclean…. Jewish workmen were not to assist in building basilicas nor stadia, nor places where judicial sentences were pronounced by the heathen.. .Milk drawn by a heathen, if a Jew had not been present to watch it, bread and oil prepared by them, were unlawful. Their wine was wholly interdicted, the mere touch of a heathen polluted a whole cask; nay, even to put one's nose to heathen wine was strictly prohibited."

Such was a sample of that "zeal for God, but not according to knowledge," to which the apostle, in another place, bears witness. The Gentiles were indeed "alienated from the commonwealth of Israel."

They were, moreover, "strangers from the covenants of promise." These covenants are well known to our readers. They established a very blessed and intimate connection for Israel with God. A profound sense of it is evinced by Moses, when he writes:"For what nation is there so great, that hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon Him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?" It was God Himself, moreover, who had said:"Now, therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then shall ye be a peculiar treasure unto Me, above all people, for all the earth is Mine:and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation."

Israel, as we know, kept not the covenant, yet in spite of that fact, God assumed another relationship to them, of even closer intimacy. The prophet Jeremiah writes:"Their Redeemer is strong, the Lord of Hosts is His name." The word translated "Redeemer" is "Goel." The Goel of any Israelite was always his next of kin. He was the nearest blood-relation, and as such three main duties devolved upon him. One was to buy back, redeem, any property alienated by his relative, because of poverty or other urgent need. Another was to redeem that relative from slavery if he sold himself to a stranger; the third to avenge his blood, were he murdered or inadvertently slain. These were the duties of a Goel, a "next of kin," and this is the name that Jehovah permitted to be applied to Himself in the day of Israel's alienation. How very near then were they to God, positionally. Spiritually, alas, they were at a distance:"This people draweth nigh unto Me with their lips, and honoreth Me with their mouth, but their heart is far from Me."

The heathen, however, were entirely without God, atheists-as the word used might be transliterated. They had gods of wood and stone, they were idolaters, but they had no conception of the true God. They were also without Christ, who had bridged the gulf that Israel had made between themselves and God. They knew of no "Mediator between God and men." Consequently they were entirely without legitimate hope of life beyond the grave. They were in that respect as the "beast that perisheth." Those who had lived in the city of Ephesus, and who in days gone by had joined in the foolish cry, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" knew perhaps better than Paul how great the hopelessness.

So the Apostle calls upon them to "remember" how far off they had been. It was something to humble them, and yet something over which they might rejoice. The gulf had been spanned, the distance had been abolished. Those "that were afar off had been made nigh by the blood of Christ." The very thing that expressed the utmost hatred of man, expressed the utmost love of God. The deed that seemingly would have forever sealed the awful distance between God and man was the means whereby that distance had been annihilated unto the ages of the ages. They were now "with Christ, with God, with hope."

The celebrated writer and clergyman, Charles Kingsley, once said, "I think I have one of the happiest homes in England, yet I could not live without Christ."

Doubtless he would have recognized that the chief source of that happiness was that same Christ. Many a Christian will say that times of communion with Him have been the most delight-some that he has ever known, that sacred memories hallow the places in which he has walked and talked with the Lord. He sings:

"I see Thee not, I hear Thee not,
Yet oft art Thou with me,
And earth hath ne'er so dear a spot,
As where Thou art with me.

"Like some bright dream that comes unsought
When slumbers o'er me roll,
Thy vision sometimes fills my heart
And charms my ravished soul."

And when he remembers that this communion is fruit of the blood of His cross, that the lintels and doorposts of the houses where he dwells are sprinkled with the "blood of the Lamb, that taketh away the sin of the world," that he is a member of a "blood-brotherhood" through the atoning work of Him who once in triumph exclaimed:"Go, tell My brethren that I ascend unto My God and their God," then his attitude is that of the adoring worshiper.

And whereas, as we have said, we "were without hope," now that same Christ is Himself our hope. It is thus we wait for Him. Let us listen to Alexander Maclaren for a moment on this theme, he speaks so delightfully:"On these two great pillars, rising like columns on either side of the gulf of Time, 'He has come,' 'He will come,' the bridge is suspended by which we may safely pass over the foaming torrent that else would swallow us up. The revelation in the past cries out for the revelation in the future. The Cross demands the Throne. That He has come once, a Sacrifice for sin, stands incomplete, like some building left unfinished with rugged stones protruding which prophesy an addition at a future day, unless you can add, 'Unto them that look for Him will He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.'" F. C. Grant