Illegal Aliens

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God (Eph 2:19).

There's an immigration problem.  People everywhere who have no apparent legal right to be here.  Illegal aliens.  And there are plenty of folks who are upset that they're around.  No, I'm not talking about the United States in the 21st century.  Paul's talking about the church in the first century.  What began as a strictly Jewish sect is being overrun by Gentiles.  The church in Ephesus is a perfect case study.  But the apostle says something has happened.  Legals statuses have been changed.  "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God" (v19).  Outsiders are now insiders.  Illegal aliens are now legal citizens.  How in the world did this happen?

Call it naturalization through Jesus.

This is a HUGE first century deal that we have trouble wrapping our brains around 2,000 years later.  Jews and Gentiles did not get along.  There was hatred, prejudice and discrimination.  And it went both ways.  But something crazy happened.  Or should I say, Someone crazy happened.  Jesus hit the scene.  He came as the long-awaited Jewish Messiah.  But He also came as "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (Jn 1:29).  Christ came to knock down all the walls that separated not just Jews and non-Jews but every barrier between races, religions, cultures, nations and socio-economic status (Eph 2:13-16; Gal 3:28; Col 3:11).  He's not there just to bless the Jewish insiders.  He's come to transform outsiders into insiders.  To grant the blessings of kingdom citizenship

to illegal aliens.  

Naturalization through Jesus.

A massive controversy raged throughout the early church about the whole "Gentile issue."  That's a big part of the story throughout Acts and most of Paul's letters to the churches.  This firestorm led to a critical meeting of leaders at the home office in Jerusalem (Acts 15).  They eventually decided that if God was bringing non-Jews to the party, who were they to get in His way.  But there were plenty of folks who couldn't get this through their skulls.  It happened in Ephesus.  Paul saw it firsthand (Acts 19:9).  Just down the road in the churches of Galatia, Colossae, Hierapolis and Laodicea, Jews did everything to convince Jesus' followers that the only way to insure a place in God's kingdom was by becoming Jewish first.  Follow all the religious rules.  These false teachers spread a counterfeit gospel that told Gentiles they were illegal aliens unless they followed a VERY specific naturalization process.  

From a cold, dark cellblock in a Roman slammer, Paul furiously writes to his friends in Ephesus to let them know who Jesus is, what He's done for them and who they are in Him.  He knows that once they understand that, they won't fall for any spiritual snake oil salesman peddling the not-so-good news.  They're citizens.  Christ has seen to it personally.

Naturalization through Jesus.

Paul reminds his non-Jewish buddies of their illegal status before the resurrected Rabbi got involved on their behalf.  They were "strangers" (v19).  This is the Greek word xenos, which means foreigner, stranger, alien, citizen of a foreign land, refugee or someone excluded.  It's where we get our term xenophobia, the fear of foreigners.  It describes someone who does not belong to a particular socio-political group.  Something or someone on the outside looking in.  That's the core meaning of the word throughout the Bible.  Jesus told His crew that there are times when they loved on Him when they didn't recognize Him.  "I was a stranger (Gr. xenos) and you welcomed Me" (Mt 25:35).  Jewish leaders used the bribe Judas rejected to buy "a burial place for strangers (Gr. xenos)" or foreigners (Mt 27:7).

Before Jesus threw open the doors of His kingdom, that's exactly where Gentiles were.  On the outside looking in.  Paul used the same word earlier just a few verses ago when he first talked about this same idea.  "Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers (Gr. xenos) to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world" (Eph 2:12).  Even insiders, folks who knew they part of God's chosen people, saw themselves as outsiders.  The people listed in Hebrews Faith Hall of Fame "acknowledged that they were strangers (Gr. xenos) and exiles on the earth" (Heb 11:13).  One day, we'll all be home.  At home with Jesus.

Naturalization through Jesus.

The apostle goes on to remind Gentiles of where we were before Christ jumped in.  We were "aliens" (v19) or  paroikos.  This describes a stranger, exile, foreigner or sojourner.  It literally means "near the house."  These outsiders are pretty close to being on the inside but not quite.  Close but no cigar.  On the outside looking in.  The word paints a picture of someone who lives for a period of time in a foreign place.  Someone on the move who can't settle down.  Someone always on the move.  A man without a country.  A high plains drifter.  It's how God described how His chosen people would wander around as strangers before He brought them into the promised homeland (Acts 7:6).  But because of what Jesus has done for us, we have a home.  

Naturalization through Jesus.

If folks think the citizenship process in the United States is difficult, it doesn't hold a candle to getting into God's kingdom.  That takes perfection.  Complete obedience.  Let's face it.  With those rules, NOBODY gets in!  But that's where Jesus comes in.  He lived the perfect life that we failed to live.  He died the brutal death for sin that we should have died.  He rose to the glorious new life that we don't deserve.  He did for us what we could never do for ourselves in a million years.  We would never make it through His citizenship process without Him.  We're on the other side of the river.  We're on the far side of the fence.  

But in Christ, we're "fellow citizens" (v19).  Paul uses the compound word sumpolites, which describes one who possesses the same citizenship of others.  In Jesus, we have full citizenship.  In Jesus, we have the rights of every other citizen.  In Jesus, we're no longer outsiders.  In Jesus, we're now insiders.  In Jesus, we can never be deported.

Jesus solves our immigration problem.  Naturalization through Jesus.