# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1914_S20
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

20 Proceedings of the twenty-fifth convention

only of a preparatory kind, so that he may fit human beings for his actual work through the Gospel.

And what a glorious product of the highest art God's work is! How the works of the sculptor, who chisels a lifelike figure from dead marble, or of the painter, who casts a picture on canvas with brush and paint, vanish by comparison. God's work is not lifelike, it has life. That is the new creature of which the Apostle speaks in 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15. This work can well fulfill its purpose. It is created for good works, which God has prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Eph. 2:10.) This work of God shows, even in the ages to come, the exceeding riches of his grace through his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

15. Citizens.
(Eph. 2:19–22.)

In the temple at Jerusalem there was a separate court for the Gentiles. This court of the Gentiles, however, was separated from the temple proper by a wall, and a warning tablet forbade the Gentiles, on pain of death, to enter the temple. Christ has broken down this dividing wall and has made one of Jews and Gentiles. (Eph. 2:14.)

Many heathen poets and philosophers have dreamed of a golden age of universal brotherhood; the Roman legions subdued many peoples and united them in one great Roman empire; but such unification and brotherhood is only a pitiful thing compared with what Christ has accomplished. He has really made guests and strangers into citizens with the saints and members of God's household.

The Gentiles were strangers, outside the commonwealth of Israel. They had no share in the promises, no share in the rights and privileges and blessings and hopes of the people of God in the Old Testament. They were not permitted to keep the glorious Passover with them, not permitted to enter the temple to take part in the congregation's worship, they were excluded from participation in the sacrifice. So also the unbelievers are strangers, excluded from the church of God. They have no part in the covenant of holy Baptism, cannot be blessed guests at God's table of grace in the Holy Supper; and even if they can outwardly take part in the worship service, they nevertheless have no part in the blessing of the Gospel, have no mediator and advocate with the Father, who remains for them an angry judge.

The strangers are without Christ and therefore without God in the world. (Eph. 2:12.) There is only one God; but he is a triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. "He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him." (John 5:23.)