Charles Spurgeon Commentary Ephesians 2:10-12

"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them. Wherefore remember, that once ye, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumcision, in the flesh, made by hands; that ye were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world." — Ephesians 2:10-12 (ASV)

Created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Therefore remember, that you being formerly Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made hands; that at that time you were without Christ,

Certainly we were poor sinners of the Gentiles, having no participation whatever in the old Mosaic dispensation.

Created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at the time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

This is where our fathers were. This is where we are by nature.

We have not got even as far as the Jew, who had a covenant, according to the flesh to plead and had received the sign of it while still a child; but we – we were altogether foreigners and aliens from the Most High.

Created in Christ Jesus unto good work, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

That is a true description of our Anglo-Saxon forefathers, who were certainly heathen of the heathen, the wildest and most savage of men when Paul wrote this Epistle; and yet, by sovereign grace, we have been brought to the very forefront of the nations of the earth, and we are no longer without God, nor yet without hope, nor yet without Christ, neither are we now strangers to the covenants of promise, nor aliens from the commonwealth of Israel.