Ephesians: Tear Down These WallsShembull

I still remember the day my family became citizens of Australia. 

In order to become an Australian citizen, we renounced our South African citizenship and with it our allegiance to the Springboks and the South African cricket team! (“Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!”) 

With Australian citizenship came certain privileges: citizens can vote, citizens have automatic right of entry into Australia. Plus, we got a silver spoon with the Australian emblem on it. As a 12-year-old, the spoon was the highlight for me! I’m fairly certain it was used to spoon sugar onto our Weetbix every morning for the next decade.

The day you started trusting Jesus, you transferred your spiritual citizenship to the Kingdom of God. Once you were a stranger, an alien, a foreigner. Now you’ve been made a citizen with all the privileges of God’s people. Once you were an orphan, now you’ve been adopted into God’s family. You were once far from God, now you’ve been brought near. 

In the construction of the temple, the outer court was the court of the Gentiles. They could progress no closer to the presence of God than that. But now in Christ, we’re being built into the temple as the spiritual bricks of God’s house.

There are certain privileges associated with our new identity. We get to call God our Abba Father. We have access to his presence. And we are heirs of the Kingdom of God and co-heirs alongside Christ. This is no commemorative spoon! 

It’s very easy to lose this sense of privilege. To stray into a sense of entitlement or apathy. But consider the alternative: “without God and without hope” (2:12).

In a world of increasing nationalism, we must remember that our allegiance is to the Kingdom of God! We are proudly part of God’s family and his new people.