end racism

John Piper writing in Bloodlines on Ephesians 2.11-22:

NO LONGER STRANGERS AND ALIENS

First, notice how this Ephesians 2 text begins and ends. It begins in verses 11–12 with a description of the alienation that exists between God and all the non-Jewish ethnic groups in the world (Gentiles). And therefore, since God’s redeeming work had focused so long on Israel, this alienation with God also produced an alienation between Jew and Gentile:

Remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

Then in verses 19–22, the text ends with a description of the conciliation between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians:

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Consider the amazing changes that have happened between the beginning and the ending of this text. First, in verse 19, two negatives and two positives: (1) The Gentiles are no longer strangers. (2) And they are no longer aliens. Rather, positively, (3) they are fellow citizens with the saints; and (4) they are part of the same household of God.