Ephesians 2:19-22 | “Immigrants Become Citizens”

A Romanian Immigrant

In the late 1980’s, a young man in Romania said goodbye to his wife and three children, not knowing when he would see them again.  He was getting ready to flee the country in search of a better life.  By God’s grace, he was able to escape the communist dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu and was given political asylum in the United States.  After two years of working in Turkey and Italy, he finally found a home in Dallas, Texas. 

Had that man not done what he did, I wouldn’t be married to Suzy because that man was Suzy’s father, Dumitru.  I’ve summarized and simplified a long and complex story – a story that Dumitru needs to put into book form, in order to point out the unique experience of immigrants. 

Immigrants and the Gospel

Every immigrant, legal and illegal, has a story to tell.  The issue of immigration is complex and I don’t intend to offer political solutions here.  I do want to point out that the immigrant might be in a better position to understand the gospel than the non-immigrant.  Here’s what I mean: the Bible says that Christians are “sojourners and exiles” who “desire a better country” and are “seeking a homeland” and a “city to come” (1 Pet. 2:11; Heb. 11:13-14, 16; 13:14).  Christians are described as immigrants while we live on the earth.  Immigrants, therefore, are in a unique position to understand what it means to be a Christian.

The Experience of Immigrants

What is an immigrant?  An immigrant is someone who leaves their country in order to live in another country.  An immigrant leaves the comforts of where they were born and raised in order to find a better life elsewhere.  They leave what they know for the promise of the unknown. 

This week I asked several members of our church who are immigrants to describe their experience to me.  They described going through the awkward and painful process of assimilating to a new culture, learning a new language, and trying to learn American ways so that they wouldn’t stick out as much.  They described themselves as outsiders, even after being in this country for over fifteen years.  They described their fear of the government turning its back on them even though they’re here legally.  And the fear of people looking at them and automatically assuming that they’re here illegally.  They told me of being taught by their parents that white people will smile at them and befriend them but will consider them as inferior just because they’re not from here.  They told me that sometimes they feel like they have no country and that they feel like they have to work three times harder than everyone else just to prove that they should be allowed to be here.  They told me of the challenges, hard work, perseverance, sacrifice, and humility that it took to immigrate to America.    

In order to make it in a new country, immigrants willingly endure loneliness, isolation, and difficulties of every kind.  They pay a high price – literally, to be here.  They face opposition, ridicule, and even persecution.  They struggle with homesickness.  They wonder if they made the right decision.  They fear that they’ll fail to make a better life for themselves and their families.  They willingly subject themselves to these things in order to take hold of the promise of a better life.  In pursuit of a brighter future, they willingly become strangers in a strange land.

God Loves Immigrants

God loves immigrants.  God’s love and provision for the immigrant, or sojourner, is all over the Old Testament (Ex. 22:21; Lev. 19:33-34; Num. 15:11-16; Deut. 10:19; Ps. 146:9).  God thinks and talks about immigrants in different ways than many in our government and in the news media.  The church of Jesus Christ should strive to do the same. 

David Platt, President of the International Mission Board, addresses this in his book Counter Culture.  He encourages the church to “labor to respect immigration laws in our country as responsible citizens while loving immigrant souls in our community as compassionate Christians.”  He says that “followers of Christ must see immigrants not as problems to be solved but as people to be loved.”  He points out that “the way so many of us think about refugees (or immigrants) today often springs from a foundation of fear, not of faith.  Our opinions, conversations, and discussions so often seem to flow from a view of the world that is far more American than it is biblical, and far more concerned with the preservation of our country than it is the accomplishment of the great commission.”

We Love Immigrants because We Are Immigrants

God loves immigrants, so we should love immigrants.  We should love them because we ourselves are immigrants.  This is what God told Israel.  They should love sojourners because they themselves were sojourners in Egypt.  He’s saying that not loving a sojourner would be to pridefully assume that you’re better than a sojourner when in fact you are a sojourner. 

In the same way, we also were immigrants before Christ saved us.  We were wandering around the wilderness of the world with no home, no hope, and no God.  We were strangers to God’s people and strangers to God’s promises (Eph. 2:12).  But, when we were far off, God brought us near (v. 13).  He called us into his country and into his home.  Through the death of Jesus, God gave us peace with him and with others (v. 14). 

Who We Were and Who We Are

In the last section of Ephesians chapter two (vv. 19-22), Paul says that God has made spiritual immigrants citizens of his kingdom and members of his family.  We can organize our thoughts around these three ideas.  First, who we were and who we are (v. 19).  Second, what we’re built on (v. 20).  And third, what we’re built into (vv. 21-22).

Verse 19 says that Gentiles, like us, were “strangers and aliens” but are now “citizens….and members of God’s household.”  The “so then” at the beginning of the verse lets us know that everything that follows is a result of what was just said.  What was just said?  Paul said in verses 14-18 that Jesus’ death killed the hostility between God and us and between us and us.  He said that Jesus’ cross-work has created peace where there used to be war.  It has created “one new man in place of the two” (v. 15).  Jesus’ death has brought to life a new people, a new race, made up of all peoples.  Jesus’ death kills ethnocentrism and racism in the church.

“Therefore,” or “Consequently,” Paul says that the Gentiles have a new identity.  They used to be one thing, but now they’re something else.  They used to be strangers and aliens, but now they’re “fellow citizens….and members of the household of God.”  They used to be on the outside looking in, but now they’re on the inside. 

The magnitude of the separation between Jew and Gentile makes this a staggering statement.  The Gentiles couldn’t marry Jews, eat with Jews, worship with Jews, or do much of anything with Jews unless they essentially became a Jew through circumcision and submitting to their law and regulations.  The law of Moses was a wall meant to keep Gentiles out and Jews in.  It was meant to say to Gentiles, “You’re not like us.  You’re not one of us.”

But Paul says that, because of Jesus’ death, that wall has been “broken down” (v. 14) so that Gentiles and Jews can now share life together.  He uses two word-pictures in verse 19 to describe this.  A Gentile who trusts in Jesus’ death for the forgiveness of their law-breaking becomes a “fellow citizen with the saints.”  They join the citizenry of the holy, or set apart, nation of God.  Their immigration status is changed from a tourist or work visa, green card, permanent resident to “citizen.”  They now belong to a new country and kingdom, God’s kingdom. 

This is why our highest allegiance is to the goals and values of God’s kingdom, not our country.  We have dual citizenship, but our citizenship in heaven shapes and forms how we carry out our citizenship on earth.  God’s priorities of mercy and compassion shape our priorities as we live in this foreign land.  We therefore look for ways to serve immigrants, not get rid of them.

Paul also says that believing Gentiles are no longer “aliens” but are “members of the household of God.”  Because of Jesus’ death in our place, we Gentile foreigners can be adopted into a new family.  We become members of God’s house.  We go from sojourners wandering about aimlessly to sons who have a seat at God’s table.  Through faith in Christ, God becomes our Father and we’re brought into a family full of brothers and sisters from all ethnic groups. 

These word-pictures teach us that Jesus’ cross redefines us.  When we embrace the death of Jesus for our sins and put our trust in him alone, we become new people.  The essence of who we are is different.  I’m not saying that our personality or circumstances change.  I’m talking about something much deeper.  When we’re united to Christ through faith, we gain a new identity.  We’re no longer strangers and aliens to God.  We’re now citizens and members of God’s kingdom and family.  We have a new status; we’re on the inside, not the outside.

Called Into Community

Notice that both of these word-pictures tell us that our new identity in Christ is relational in nature.  We’re citizens of a kingdom and members of a family.  We’re not castaways on an island or lone rangers.  We’re called into a new people group.  We’re called into a community.  Our new identity in Christ must therefore be lived out in the context of the body of Christ.  The visible expression of God’s kingdom and God’s family on earth are local churches where God’s people gather to live out God’s word. 

Why would God ordain to call strangers into relationship with other strangers?  Because God made us dependent creatures.  He made us to depend on him and on others.  We become Christians when we place our dependence on Jesus for our salvation.  And we live out our Christian faith by living in dependent-relationships with other believers. 

We need to be in community with other Christians for the health and growth of our faith.  If we live in isolation, how will we ever see the pride and selfishness in our souls?  Consistent and honest conversations with other believers are God’s way of helping us see sin in our lives and see our need for his help.  Dr. John Henderson says it this way, “No one can truly know themselves while walking through life alone.  No one grows alone.  Sanctification cannot and will not happen apart from the Body of Christ.”  Who are you walking with?  Who really knows you – the good, the bad, the ugly, and the lovely?  God makes strangers into brothers and sisters.

What We’re Built On

In verse 20, Paul tells us what God’s household is built on.  The foundation of God’s house are the apostles and the prophets of the first-century church.  They’re the foundation because they were the first ones to preach the gospel.  The message they preached was the word of God because it had been revealed to them by the Spirit (3:4-5).  Thus, it’s a sure foundation.

The teaching of the apostles has been preserved for us in the New Testament.  This means that the church is built today on the faithful teaching of the Scriptures.  The New Testament documents are the foundation of the church.  John Stott says, “And just as the foundation cannot be tampered with once it has been laid and the superstructure is being built upon it, so the New Testament foundation of the church is inviolable and cannot be changed by any additions, subtractions, or modifications offered by teachers who claim to be apostles or prophets today.  The church stands or falls by its loyal dependence on the foundation truths which God revealed to his apostles and prophets, and which are now preserved in the New Testament Scriptures.”

Verse 20 also says that Jesus is the “cornerstone.”  This image is meant to tell us that Christ was the first stone of the foundation to be laid and the stone that determines the placement of all the subsequent stones.  In other words, Jesus himself is the stone that gave shape to the foundation.  When building a house or structure, getting the corners right is vitally important.  If the corners are off, the building loses structural integrity.  Jesus, as the cornerstone, holds the structure steady and keeps it in line.  He gives God’s house structural integrity.

The foundation of the church is therefore Jesus and his word.  The church isn’t built on the personality of the pastor or certain styles of music or an array of programs.  God’s house is built on the solid and unshakeable foundation of Jesus Christ and the Word of God.

What We’re Built Into

Verses 21-22 tell us what God is building us into.  The people of God, Jews and Gentiles from every nation, are being built into a “holy temple” and “dwelling place for God.”  This “temple” is a unified and growing building (v. 21).  Jesus is the secret to both of these realities, “in whom…in the Lord.”  Jesus is indispensable to the church’s unity and growth.  If a church doesn’t have its collective gaze fixed on Jesus, its unity will disintegrate and its growth will either stop or be stunted.  There are hundreds of little things that can pull a church’s sight away from Jesus.  And when the glory of Jesus ceases to be a church’s main concern, disunity and division sets in and spiritual growth is stunted.  May it not be so here.

The people of God are being built into a “holy temple” through Jesus.  John tells us that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Jewish temple (Jn. 2:19-22).  Jesus is God’s new dwelling place.  All those united to Christ through faith become part of God’s new temple, the place where his holy presence dwells.  God makes unholy strangers into a holy temple. 

This means that those who’re made holy must be holy.  Those who’re made new in Christ must live new lives like Christ.  In 1 Corinthians 6:18-20, Paul applies the temple analogy to sexual ethics.  He says, “Flee from sexual immorality.  Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.  Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, who you have from God?  You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.  So glorify God in your body.”  Everything we do with our body should bring glory to the One who lives inside our body. 

Notice in verse 22 who is the one doing the building of God’s building.  God the Holy Spirit is building us together into a dwelling place for God.  God is building for God.  God is constructing a people who will reveal his wisdom, power, and holiness to the world (3:10).  His power and wisdom is revealed in “joining together” and “building together” people from different ethnic backgrounds (vv. 21-22).  In Christ, Jew and Gentile, black and white, Hispanic and Asian, Arab and Islander, immigrant and native, are all “joined together” by God, for God. 

New Values and New Mission

The gospel alone has the power to make strangers into friends and enemies into brothers and sisters.  Through the gospel, God calls strangers like us into his family.  Through the gospel, spiritual immigrants become citizens of God’s country.  Through faith in Christ, we’re no longer on the outside looking in.  We’re now on the inside looking out with new eyes of compassion to a world full of strangers who need to see and know the love of Christ. 

Our new identity gives us new values and a new mission.  We love the immigrant because we know we used to be immigrants too until God gave us citizenship in his country.  We know that we live as sojourners in this world because we know this world isn’t our home.  We’re looking forward to the “better country” that God has prepared for us (Heb. 11:16). 

As we walk in the wilderness of this world, we walk with a hope built on the foundation of Jesus and his word.  We walk with an increasing dependence on him and on our brothers and sisters in Christ.  And we walk with joy because we’re not strangers to God anymore.  We walk with joy because we’re citizens of his kingdom and because we have a room in his house.  And this leads us to live for his glory in this world, even as we live as strangers eagerly waiting for a new world.