Ephesians 2:13

"But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ."  Ephesians 2:13

The theme for Quest this summer is Inseparable.  God is inseparable from us in our time of need, in our time of questioning, in our time of struggling with right and wrong.  God is inseparable from us in the time to come.

The student devotion book gives students this challenge each Monday morning: rewrite the words of Ephesians 2:13. 

Looking at the verse, I saw it in two distinct compartments.  The first being the statement that we were far off from God, our Creator.  The second is that what has brought us back to God is the blood of His son, Jesus Christ.

C.S. Lewis writes a beautiful passage in his book, Mere Christianity, about the transition between the biological life - the life in flesh - and the spiritual life.  We begin as created beings, in the image of God, but not of the same fabric or His being.  We live to die to the life of flesh and be born into a spiritual life - we become adopted.  Lewis distinguishes Jesus as being begotten - He is of the same fabric as God, yet limited in human form.

God sends Jesus to bring us, the created beings, near to Him.  Ephesians 2:13 tells us that this is done through the shedding of Christ's blood.  So the next question is why His blood?  What is the significance?

I think of the term "blood brothers."  A blood brother or sister  is someone who comes from the same bloodline as you.  My brother, David is my blood brother.  In earlier days, friends who felt so close to one another, felt a seemingly familial connection, would sometimes make an oath or a covenant to establish their brother/sisterhood.  This often consisted of each person making a cut on their finger and holding against the cut on the other person's finger - an exchange of blood.

Through His blood, that is what Christ does for us.  He says, come and be my blood brother, my blood sister.  Come be adopted by my father.  He is saying that we have the freedom and the opportunity to be born into that same heritage of faith.  He wants to bring us near.  He wants us to be of the same fabric.  

Christ has brought us into brotherhood with Him.  That is why His blood has been shed.  He wanted His father to be our father.  He wanted us to know our Father.

~SP