But now…………….

We were as far away as we possibly could be from God’s grace before Christ came into our lives to rescue us from sin and death.

Source: Amazon.com

During this period of lockdown my husband and I have been watching programmes such as ‘Garden Rescue’, where they take an uninspiring, run-down, overgrown garden and transform it into somewhere beautiful. Then there is ‘Money for Nothing’, where they take a tired, broken- down and often ugly looking object from the tip and transform and sometimes repurpose it into a desirable and useable object. By far my favourite ‘make-over’ programme has to be ‘The Repair Shop’, where hugely talented experts use their amazing skills to restore old but much-treasured items, that have seen better days, to their former glory. At the end of any make-over programme they will show the place or the item as it used to be and then, with a dramatic voice they say, “but now….” And there before your eyes is the wonderful transformation.

This phrase ‘but now’ ran through my head for a few days. It is a transitional phrase. If you use ‘but now’ there is always going to be a change after it. In the dictionary transition means:  passage from one state, stage, subject, or place to another, change, a movement, development, or evolution from one form, stage, or style to another. It got me thinking about how many ‘but now's’ we have in our lives after we accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.

Ephesians 2:12-13 says:  remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.  But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

1. We were separate from Christ 

Isaiah 59:2 says: But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you that he will not hear.

We were as far away as we possibly could be from God’s grace before Christ came into our lives to rescue us from sin and death. Isaiah was writing to the Jews. They were separated even though they had the option of having a relationship with God and the promise of the One to come. The Gentiles, however, had no such assurance. The same applies to us. We are Gentiles and as such we were separate from God until Jesus came into our hearts. Once we were separated from God. 

But now…….

through the blood of Christ, we have been brought near.

2. We were excluded from citizenship

Citizens tend to adopt the culture and practices of the nation or kingdom to which they belong. We were all born into the kingdom of this world, in which Satan rules Consequently, we grow up adopting the culture, practices, and values that he instigates. We were captives in this kingdom of sin, heading for total destruction.

But now….

Colossians 1:13 says: He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.

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

Philippians 3:20 says: But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Once we we had no citizenship in Christ but now, we are not just citizens, but a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.

1 Peter 2:9-10 says:  But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

3. We had no covenant

God’s covenant in the Old Testament was made with the Jews. Jews would actually thank the Lord that they were Jews and not Gentiles.  The old covenant was a list of dos and don’ts and were always going to fail. Everyone is a sinner and, as it says in Romans 3, nobody can be declared righteous by trying to adhere to the old covenant law, in fact, this law just makes us conscious of our sin.

But now…..

Romans 3:21- 24 says: But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.  This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Now both Jews and Gentiles can rejoice and receive this gift, which was planned before the foundation of the world. This gift is entirely by God’s grace, and open to all.

4. We were without hope

The Jews lived with the hope of the promise of a Messiah, someone who would deliver their people, but sadly, when He came, many of them did not recognise Him. We continue to pray today that the Jewish nation will come to know Jesus Christ, who is the only hope for the salvation that is desperately needed by everyone. The Bible says that without Christ people have “no hope” and they are “without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12). Without Christ no-one has any hope beyond this life. John 3:18 says that those who do not believe in Jesus are spiritually lost, they are “condemned already”. 

But now…

Source: biblia.com

1 Peter 1:3-5 says: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

5. We were without God

The Gentiles had many pagan gods. They worshipped all sorts of pagan gods, made by their own hands, such as the goddess Diana at Ephesus.  Before Christ, they never had the opportunity to know the One true God. They sometimes would see examples of His power but they had no one to intercede for them. They thought the God of Israel was for the Jews alone. We still have idols today. The late evangelist Billy Graham once said, “Some people today worship their money or social position or possessions just as devoutly as people in the ancient world worshipped an image made of gold or wood or stone. The difference, of course, is that most people don’t think of money (for example) as an idol, or as something they worship. In reality, however, many people do; their whole lives are focused on money, and they serve it just as faithfully as other people serve an actual idol. In fact, money has become their master, and they have become its servants. In other words, money has taken the place of God in their lives.”

But now…

Romans 5:10 says: For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!

I am sure you can think of many more ‘but now's’ in your own lives, if you are a believer. Our transformation is ongoing as God fits us for heaven. He will keep on showing us, through His holy spirit, where we need to change our thoughts and actions and behaviour and so we will continue to have ‘but now's’ until we go to be with the Lord or Jesus comes again. As we go through this journey together let us pray for each other that we will have an increasing number of ‘but now's’ in our lives as God prepares us for His purposes and for eternal life with Him, where our ultimate ‘but now’ will be: We once lived a flawed life on earth but now we live a perfect life with Him. Hallelujah!!

Author: Thelma Cameron

May God bless and enrich your life

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