The Household of God

“So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.” Verse 19.

Even though the Ephesians were Gentiles according to the flesh, they were no longer aliens. They had come “near” by the blood of Christ. God acknowledged them by giving them the Spirit as a pledge. They were grafted in as wild olive branches to the olive tree that had the promises, and thus partook of the root and the sap of the olive tree. Because they had faith, Abraham became their father, which gave them their relationship to the patriarchs.

The Gentiles are also heirs of the law (which was given to Israel four hundred years after Abraham received the promise) in a far deeper spiritual sense than Israel was as a transgressor. The Gentiles possess the spirit of the law and its true character, since the requirement of the law is fulfilled in them when they walk in the Spirit. It can in truth be said of them that they are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. A Jew according to the flesh has no greater rights. What a blessed fellowship and citizenship with all the saints—the purest and finest souls that have ever walked this earth, souls who are worthy of the resurrection and eternal life in the world to come! How glorious it will be to spend eternity in such company!