“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
(Eph 2:13, NKJV)
I couldn’t believe my ears when the choir of a large church I had ministered at a while back started singing Bette Midler’s hit song From a distance. You are probably acquainted with the chorus – “God is watching us, God is watching us, God is watching us … from a distance.”
My pre-salvation feelings concerning God suddenly emerged from a deep dark place of that which was forgotten – the fear of a sinner constantly confronted with the idea of God as a vicious old man, sitting in heaven keeping tally of all my sin. (It was stoked by an old-fashioned and ornate Scripture painting from my childhood, which read The eyes of the Lord see all things. This picture had hung above my parents’ bed, and I always thought that that spot would be the last I would ever choose for a painting such as that J).
We know that man’s sin had brought separation between him and God, bringing forth an orphan’s heart (Ezek 16:4-5) within him, having felt as if God was removed from him (Isa 59:2). Often one finds believers in Scripture calling on God who seems far-off to draw closer. David calls out in Ps 38:21 and Ps 71:12 – “O my God, be not far from me!” Jonah (1:3) did not share this sentiment, and wanted to get as far away from God as possible. Shortly before He died Jesus himself experienced God as being very far away – “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, and from the words of My groaning?” (in the prophetic words of Ps 22:1). The tax collector in Luke 18:13 features as an icon of the individual who is removed from God – “And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’”
It should be remembered that all the cited examples are from the old covenant. But Eph 2:13 explains that it is only through the blood that those who have been far away from God have come closer. It had already been prophesied in the old covenant, for closeness is the heart of God. In Deut 30:12-13 God says – “It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’” In Jer 23:23 it is explicitly spelled out – “Am I a God near at hand,” says the LORD, “And not a God afar off?”
The dispensation of the blood and the Spirit (1 John 5:6 & 8) bore a promise – “For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:39).
Praise God for the fact that 1 Pet 3:18 and Ps 73:28 has now become true for us – “But it is good for me to draw near to God…” This is only possible through the blood of Jesus.
And Bette Midler – you are wrong. God is not watching us from a distance.
- Sela: Do what the before last paragraph suggests.
- Read: Num 1; Zech 10; Ezek 2
- Memorise: Ezec 2:8
- For a deeper understanding: Read chapter 22 of John Piper’s book Fifty reasons why Jesus came to die.
