*

This is more fully studied in The Berean Expositor Vol. 32, under the

heading, The Gospel of John, No. 20 (p. 163) and No. 22 (p. 229).  (See also

Life Through His Name, chapter 4).

See Age1.

Alienation.  This word has a twofold application.  The dispensational aspect

is found in Ephesians 2:12 where the Gentile is revealed as an alien from the

commonwealth of Israel.  For this alienation he has no responsibility; no

Gentile can be held responsible for not having been born an Israelite.  The

enmity here that had to be slain, was the enmity produced by the decrees

(ordinances) and refers back to the temporary distinction made between Jewish

and Gentile believers in Acts 15.  The barrier between 'the both' being

likened to the middle wall of partition.  This dispensational aspect has been

considered at some length in Acts of the Apostles1; and Middle Wall3.  There

is, however, a doctrinal alienation, and to this aspect of truth we must now

devote our attention:

'This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk

not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the

understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through

the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness,

to work all uncleanness with greediness' (Eph. 4:17 -19).

'And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by

wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled' (Col. 1:21).

It is a blessed thing to recognize in this sad description of human

depravity the one and only remedy, especially when seen in the original.  The

Greek word for 'alienate' is apallotrioo, the Greek word for 'reconcile' is

apokatallasso, both words being compounds of the same root, allos.  The

alienation here is not from the sphere of high favour, as in Ephesians 2:12

(dispensational), but from 'the Life of God' (basic or doctrinal).  This is

a sphere of death.  It is resident in 'the mind', the 'understanding' is

darkened, 'ignorance' and 'blindness of heart' is seen issuing in

insensibility and 'with a lust for the business of impurity in every shape

and form' (Moffatt).  This alienation of mind issues in 'wicked works'.

Does the 'life of God' refer to the source and origin of all life? or

does the phrase mean the life that should have been lived by man on earth?

Commentators are divided on the subject.  Bloomfield considers the original

to stand for tes kata Theon zoes, 'such a life as is according to the will of

God'.  Alford dismisses this interpretation, saying, 'for zoe in the New

Testament never has this meaning, see the two clearly distinguished in

Galatians 5:25'.  While it becomes us to observe with attention the

expressions of such men of God, such do not bind us, we must still 'search

and see'.  Man has been cut off from the life of God since Adam sinned and

brought death into the world.  The apostle is not going so far back in the

history of alienation as when he spoke of the darkened condition of the

Gentiles.  He is definitely dealing with 'walk' (Eph. 4:17), and with the

evil consequences of this alienation of man from the source of all life;

therefore it appears a sounder exegesis that takes both the root cause and

the fruit of such consequences into account, and to recognize with true

humility, the desperate alienation of the Gentile world, first