Eph. ii. 19 — 22. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but felloiv-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone ; in whom all the building fitly framed together grouieth unto an holy temple in the Lord : in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
IT is well for Christians to contemplate their high privileges. But, in order to estimate them aright, it is necessary that they should bear in mind the state in which they were, previous to their embracing the Gospel. The difference between the Jews and Gen- tiles was great ; yet scarcely greater than that between the nominal and the real Christian. The nominal Christian, though possessed of many exter- nal advantages, is, with respect to the spiritual enjoy- ment of them, on a level with the heathen ; or rather, I should say, below the heathen, inasmuch as his abuse of those advantages has entailed upon him the deeper guilt. We may therefore apply to the unconverted Christians what St. Paul speaks of the Ephesians in their unconverted state ; " They are without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of pro- mise, having no hope, and without God in the world a." From this state however they are deli- vered, as soon as they truly believe in Christ. They are then, as my text expresses it, " no more stran- gers and foreigners, but fellow -citizens with the saints, and of the household of God." The exalted state to which they are brought is represented by the Apostle under two distinct metaphors : they are made,
I. The people of God, amongst whom he dwells —
They are "fellow-citizens with the saints" —
a ver. 12.