NO LONGER STRANGERS

Text; Ephesians 2: 11-22

On Sunday the 5th, I was having a conversation with my two teenage sons about the various military regimes in Nigeria  (before either of them were even born) and governance in general. Our discussion about Murtala Mohammed's achievements even as a military man led my second boy to ask "mummy, how could this man be good even though he wasn't a Christian?". As usual our conversation abruptly took a turn towards the bible. My answer was simple; man has both inherent goodness and evil in him because of the hybrid that Adam's fall allowed. The pure breed  of perfection which God had in mind was marred by man's disobedience at the garden of Eden. However, it did not eradicate completely the goodness in man but rather corrupted it. Hence a man may naturally tilt towards goodness and we describe him as being good natured. Nevertheless, this goodness of man is what the bible describes in Isaiah as a filthy rag before God because it is a tainted goodness; selfish and prideful. Today,  different religions exhort and extol such goodness and good works as a the way of ensuring peace between man and God. Unfortunately, this kind of selfish goodness can never take anyone to God. From the very moment of the fall, God made an arrangement to restore man's fallen nature and estate. He didn't want man to have eternal life in his hybrid state. So God prepared for himself a body in the person of Jesus to right the wrong occasioned by Adam. At the fullness of time he appeared and set things right once and for all time.

At a time in history and God's calendar of events, the national Israel was formed through Abraham and the journey of the seed Jesus began. God incubated and nurtured Israel as the embryo of his divine will. His intention was the entire world but he had to start with the race he has chosen. At this point only Israel had the oracles of God. Only them had any definite and direct relationship with the one true God. After God was done purifying them and getting them ready, Jesus came. He came at a time when the stage is set for the whole world to have the opportunity to hear about God. Before Jesus came on the physical stage of this world, there was darkness all around. Men were mired in sin and all sorts of wrongs their warped imaginations could conjure. Idolatry was the order. All around Israel was spiritual darkness. Israel was the only light. Jesus' coming, his death and resurrection brought peace between this darkness and the light. His light shined in the darkness and disbanded it. Darkness couldn't stand. It couldn't overwhelm nor overcome it. Light conquered and darkness began to give way. 

Through the gospel men everywhere began to know how God sets people at peace with himself. It is through what Jesus had done on the cross. So both the Jews who knew God before and the gentiles who had no prior knowledge of God could now be at peace with God when any of them accepts what Christ has achieved on the cross. It is this prince of peace Jesus that we celebrate at Christmas. When we remember that our ancestors were mired in idolatry and never knew Jesus, we must be grateful. Then we will also like Paul be zealous to run with the gospel, knowing fully well that it was their evangelistic efforts that pushed the darkness far away and made more and more people to know Christ today. 

There are still Muslims, Hindus and many others who still believe in reaching God through other ways than Christ. They are still strangers to the Commonwealth of the body of Christ. But, it is God' heartbeat that his knowledge will fill up the earth as the waters cover the sea. We must note that,  there are many good natured men and women practicing these religions in hope of reaching God. They are hungry to meet the one true God but have no idea how. It is our duty as the saved, redeemed and washed, to use every means available to us to ensure that these ones also make peace with God through Jesus. They need to hear the truth and the holy spirit, the spirit of the message will do the conviction. So that God's aim to bring as many as possible into the fold will not be in vain. 

We must remember and always reiterate that self righteousness ( good works without Christ Jesus) is a filthy rag before God. For Christ alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the father except through Him. He is our Peace and the source of all our joy. Much of what we do does not really count without faith in Him.