Followed By Mercy

Remember Where You Were And What Christ Did

• W. Austin Gardner • Season 3 • Episode 18

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Brought Near: From Distance to Family

Ever felt like God was far away or like you were on the outside looking in? 

From Hopeless Distance to Nearness

Paul reminds Gentile believers that they once stood separated from Christ, cut off from Israel’s commonwealth and the covenants of promise, “having no hope and without God in the world.” Remembering that former distance is not to keep them in shame but to magnify the sheer mercy of God in bringing them near.​

Now, in Christ Jesus, those who were far away have been brought near by His blood, given access to God, folded into His people, and included in promises once limited to Israel. 

Remembering Without Living in Shame

Twice, Paul commands, “Remember,” pressing believers to recall who they were before grace found them. 

Gratitude, not groveling, becomes the basic posture of those who live as people brought near.​

The Old Testament as Our Story

When Gentiles are united to Christ, they are grafted into the people of God and share in the story that runs from Abraham through Israel to the new covenant. The Old Testament ceases to be distant religious history and becomes the family record of promises that now reach them in Jesus.​

Israel’s covenants, the faithfulness God showed through exile and return, and the hope voiced by prophets now belong to every believer as fuel for present courage and perseverance. 

Ephesus: When Idols Lose Their Grip

In first‑century Ephesus, the gospel did not merely change private beliefs; it disrupted an entire city. Grace still works this way today, undermining economies of fear, superstition, and performance when people leave their old gods—whether success, approval, or control for Christ.​

Legalism’s Trap and True Righteousness

External marks and law‑keeping had become badges of superiority. Neither circumcision nor meticulous law observance ever reconciled anyone to God; they could highlight sin but not remove it.​

True righteousness rests entirely on Jesus. When that sinks in, the exhausting “do more, be more” soundtrack of legalism gives way to a life lived from Christ’s finished work rather than toward self‑made righteousness.​

Living as Those Brought Near

Identity is anchored not in shifting spiritual performance but in union with the crucified and risen Savior who has made a way to the Father.​

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Austin Gardner:

Thank the Lord for all he's doing to us and through us and for us in Ephesians chapters 1 and 2. You have worked with us now all the way down through verse 10, and today we move on to verse 11. 11 through 13. You want to read that to them real quick? Yeah, sure.

Robert Canfield:

Wherefore, remember that ye being in times past, there's that times past again, Gentiles in the flesh, who are called the uncircumcision, by which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, ye who were sometimes afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

Austin Gardner:

So that's a powerful thing. So he's reminding us of what he's done. We were all dead, both Jew and Gentile. But as Gentiles, we were even further off because God was working in Israel. Amen. But it wasn't being clear for us. Very few times does God ever step out in the Old Testament, even Jonah goes to Nineveh, and there are a few things of that, but not much.

Robert Canfield:

It's hard to find in the Old Testament of God working outside in the Gentiles. I know that there was widows that that that God did some miracles with, and there's there were times, there was glances, but there were promises that God gave to his special people, the nation of Israel. And he is telling the people here at Ephesus, the people that lived on the other side of the Mediterranean or lived a little further northeast, I guess, yeah, northeast or just north of Israel, that you need to remember that in times past, you had no promise, you had no hope, and there was no God. You had your idols, you had your your own way and religious system. He said, but now, now in Christ Jesus, being in Christ Jesus, you that were neighbor you were far off, you've been made close, you've been made nigh by the blood of Christ. Those are things that we need to remember. Those things that we need to think on and we need to meditate. That in the Old Testament, when you read the Old Testament, I think it's very crucial for us to read the Old Testament. And a lot of times people use the Old Testament and they're like, well, those are in samples, you know what I mean? So we need to make sure right and wrong. And there are times when God uses that as in samples. But also when you read Paul, when he talks about it in Romans chapter 16, if I'm not mistaken, or chapter 15, I think it's 15.4 or 16.4, I forget which one it was. But we read those scriptures and those stories in the past to generate hope in us. And so as you read the Old Testament and you see how God was with the nation of Israel, how he worked through their lives, how he was always giving them promises, and how he was telling he was going to work in them and how he was going to use them greatly, and how he's going to use them for his glory. Paul's writing again here in Ephesians chapter 2, saying, You guys now have made nigh by what Jesus did through his blood and his death. Those are things that we need to remind ourselves. Just like God was with the nation of Israel, he's with us right now, too.

Austin Gardner:

I think, well, I think sometimes it's hard for us to gather what Paul means or what God means when he calls Gentiles. Gentiles were the non-Jewish people. And Gentile basically means pagans. They had no God, or they had a lot of gods. And so they didn't know God, they were a long ways from God. They really didn't have a reference to God except what they might have heard. So they are Gentiles. That's what actually that's what I am. That's what most people today are. And that church in Ephesus was a primarily Gentile church. And so they knew we didn't know anything about God. All this is new to us.

Robert Canfield:

In Ephesus, they if you remember, I think it's back in Acts 19, if I'm not mistaken, it's where the entire town gets in an uproar because all these people have left Diane, the God of the Ephesians, and they are like out to destroy Paul. But these people that that put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, they God used Ephesus in such a great way. All of Asia went out and they knew the gospel. Paul was there for two years. He's not usually there for long. And there was there was elders, that means there was a lot of pastors in that area. There was something special going on there, and it was causing people so much so to leave their idols and worship the true God. And the people there that were making the idols were so frustrated, so frustrated because they were actually losing money that they caused an entire um, I guess, uh industry. Yeah, they were losing their industry, and they they were caught, they caused a riot there. So much so Paul wanted to go into the to the Coliseum, and there were people like, no, no, no, no, go in there, Paul. You need to leave. You need to, it's time for you to get out of town, Dodge. But Paul was reminding them that even though you guys were afar off, by Jesus' blood, you've been made nigh. Now you have promises, now you have hope, you have a future. And he tells them to remember that. And I think it's a good thing to remember. It's never good to live in the past. Like a lot of people live in the past, they live in the hurt. They they retell them the they retell their stories and they just live there and they're just in that pain and they're in that hurt. But it's always good to look back, but never live in it. And Paul's telling them to remember, to look back and see, this is what God's done with you. And that's what we need to do in our lives, too. There's a there is a there is a positive to look back, looking back and seeing, and such were some of us. There's a positive in that.

Austin Gardner:

So I want to remind you so you understand as you read the Bible. Gentile, pagan didn't know God. Circumcision was the mark of God's people, Jewish people, and uncircumcision was the people that weren't Jewish. Those are the ones that were without Christ. And it says, aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel. We didn't have any opportunity to get to God. We were a long ways from God. We were foreigners from the covenants of promise. We had no hope and we were without God. But Jesus died and was buried and rose again, and he opened the door for us.

Robert Canfield:

What you said was made me think of this as so great. So, circumcision in a Jewish mindset, or in a Judaizer, a person that was really steeped in legalism, it was through circumcision that is a person is made right and right standing before God. If you read in Acts 15, that Paul comes back to the church of Antioch and he's there, and like there is some people that came up from Jerusalem, some Judaizers, some Jewish people that were under the law that began to tell people that except you accept except you listen to Moses' law and except you're circumcised, you can't be saved. And that caused a big ruckus with Paul and Barnabas. And he he brings up the circumcision and uncircumcision here because it's not by what we do that makes us in right standing with God. That's right. Right standing, like being righteous, like what we talked about in just. When we talk about justice and just, that means being able to stand face to face to God. When we think about righteousness, it means that that that we can go before a perfect God and not have our head held down in guilt and shame. And it's not through anything that we've done, it's only by the blood of Christ. He is the lifter of our head. That's what Psalms 3:3 says. Yeah, I just read that as you said that. It was like, he is the lifter up of my head. He he he allows us now to see him face to face.

Austin Gardner:

He says, Hey, there's no shame, no embarrassment between us because I fixed it. Yeah. You're you're my kid now. You are you belong in this presence. I don't want my children coming in and hang hanging their heads low. No. Dragging their feet and acting ashamed in my presence.

Robert Canfield:

I don't want my kids to feel like they don't have anything in their future. I don't want my kids to feel like, man, the outlook doesn't look great in life. And my relationship with dad is I'm I'm afraid of him. Yeah, there I don't I don't want that. He says, remember that you guys were of the uncircumcision. You had none of that promises. But now you've been you were far off, but now you've been made nigh. And it was by it's the person that's done the whole salvation thing is by the blood of Christ. And he that's something that we need to put in our mind and our memory. Not just the the negative, the but the fact that he rescued us.

Austin Gardner:

And it's all we're we were made. It says we're far off, our made now, we are near, and it's all because of Jesus. And it's amazing. We're now 13 verses in to the second chapter. We've finished chapter one, 13, and yet we have nothing to do. We're nothing to do but to find out how good he is. To have our eyes of understanding enlightened, to see amazing grace.

Robert Canfield:

To see amazing grace, to remember what he's done. That's that remember, that's the that's the command. That's the imperative. Remember what God did for you. And I don't know that how often we do that. Well, I mean, I think we like to do stuff because we think when we do stuff, it makes us feel good. We like to think that I can contribute. And just remind you, you can't contribute anything.

Austin Gardner:

And I think the beauty of it is to realize for by grace are you saved through faith that out of yourselves. So it's really not about any of the things you've been trying to do. No. And all the things that make you frustrated and feel like a failure, and you don't measure up were never yours to do to begin with. That was his job. Religion, religion put that on you. Satan put that on you. You put that on you, but not the father.

Robert Canfield:

Well, that's the the world system always looks at I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I do, I do, I do, I do. And that's the world system. Yeah, world system looks at I first, which is a huge problem. A huge problem when you look at I first. Because God resisteth the proud. And what is a pride? It's just nothing more than me looking at myself. Yep. And in this thing, he's saying, I don't want you to remember just you, I want you to remember what I did.

unknown:

Yeah.

Robert Canfield:

So it so our eyes and our mind is not looking at what Robert did or what what Austin did or what Austin has done or what Robert has done. It's looking at our savior.

Austin Gardner:

We can't, we're not here to measure ourselves. We're here to measure our savior. We're here to go, wow, what a savior. Wow, what a God.

Robert Canfield:

I think, I think so many times we're we're just like Peter, and we're just looking at it and say, Lord, but yeah, what's gonna happen to him? Or what's this guy have to do? When at the end of, was it John, the Gospel of John, Peter's like looking at John, he's like, So what's gonna happen to him? And Jesus' like, that's not your servant. What's your mat? You just keep focused on me. You just do what I tell you. In this passage right here, Paul is having us remember this is what Jesus has done. Because I want you to remind you, because it goes back to all the praise, all the glory goes to him. And it's not just a future praise, it needs to be right now, and that's why in a Christian we should be so known for thankfulness, praise, and gratitude, and just constantly telling God how good he is. Because that's really where the where the where the battle is.

Austin Gardner:

It ought to be more eyes up instead of eyes in a mirror. Look up to heaven and see God. Well, thank you very much for being with us. I hope it's blessing you to know what a great God you serve. God, but God. And that's what it's all about. Any final words for today's podcast? Nope. Remember. Remember, remember how good God is. That's very good. God bless you. See you next week.

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Austin Gardner

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