Paul continues to share his insights about the salvation of mankind, now to the Galatians and the Ephesians.

Galatians 1:4. He sounds a familiar note here when he talks about how we who are saved have been delivered from this present evil age. Obviously not all are saved, not all delivered, or there would be no evil left at all.

Galatians 3:7-14. Those Universalists who jump immediately to verse 8 have something to crow about: It says that the Scripture foresaw that God would justify the nations by faith. It quotes the promise to Abraham that in him all the nations shall be blessed.

But verse 7. Only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And verse 9. "Those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham."

The words of Paul interpret the words of Paul. All the faithful within all the nations will be blessed as Abraham was. That connects perfectly with the happenings on the Day of Pentecost, when representatives from all the nations were filled with the Spirit. And the other end of church history recorded in Revelation 5, where a new song is being sung to the Lamb, part of which sounds like this:

You have "redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation..."

Out of. That's the ticket, as my British brothers might say. That's the key. We, the church are the "called out of". That's what the Greek word for church means. All the nations have been blessed. All the nations get to hear the Gospel. And those out of all those nations that respond with love to the loving God's call will be saved. And only those.

No, we do not close the door to the lost. The lost themselves close it.

Another possible look at this verse is the view of the Millennial Kingdom. There, all the nations still in existence will be blessed. The entire world will then be the Kingdom of God. Because of Abraham's faithfulness. Christ's work. Our acceptance of it...

...that (verse 14) "the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles..."

Galatians 4:21, 5:4. Paul confirms here what we have suspected all along. There are people who desire to stay under the law, under the old way, under the "I-will-save-myself-thank-you" method. To stay under the law is to stay under the curse, and to be lost.

He says there are even believers who try to go backwards and let the law justify them, as they do so many good works and begin to depend on those works for their salvation.

He says they have fallen from grace. So much for Paul being a Calvinist...

Galatians 5:21. Another reminder that unrepentant sinners simply will not be a part of God's Kingdom, whether that is here, or later.

Ephesians 1:1-19. Back to grammar lessons for this passage. We must remember the pronouns "we" and "us". Then when Paul seems to be making sweeping statements, we remember the context is always, the believing church. Look at this first:

Verses 1-9: The letter is directed to the saints, the holy ones, the faithful in Christ. Obviously there are unholy, unfaithful people, but this letter is not addressed to them.

He chose us in Him... that we should be holy... having predestinated us... he has made us accepted... in Him we have redemption... according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us...

Only in verse 10 is the text unguarded by the first person plural. Here the Universalist swoops in, raptures it up to himself and claims it to be eternal truth that all things will be gathered together in Christ in the fullness of times. Period. End of discussion. Everyone gets to be saved.

Wrong in every way. God is going to gather together as one everything in Christ, everything that pertains to Jesus. And what pertains to Jesus more than those "we" and "us" folks of the first nine verses?

Then, to be sure you don't misunderstand, he throws in another "in Him" at the very end of the verse!

And that verse continues uninterrupted into verses 11-14, where the pronouns resume in abundance, even adding a "you" to personalize even more the owners of this salvation:

...we have obtained an inheritance... we who first trusted in Christ... you were sealed with the Holy Spirit... who is the guarantee of our inheritance...

All this long passage is telling us is that one day, when the time is right, Jesus is going to gather us all together to be with Himself. He predestined us, He redeemed us, He poured out His grace on us, told us His will, promised us an inheritance.

Wouldn't it be a little strange for Him to make all these wonderful claims about "us" , then turn around and give away the blessings to someone else who had no interest in salvation?

Ephesians 2:13-14. Context: Salvation of Jews, salvation of Gentiles. The Gentiles were up against a wall. On the other side of that wall was God and the entire commonwealth of Israel, the called of God. Jesus broke that wall down, and established communications and relationships. Gentiles and Jews will now be saved.

Not all Jews. Not all Gentiles. Only those "in Christ Jesus."

Ephesians 4:13. The Universalist reminds us of ants at a picnic. They just show up everywhere and take our focus off the fun we are having. One sugary morsel that really appeals to them is the word "all". And here is that word again in Ephesians 4:13.

Some day, we all will come into the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God. Need I repeat myself? The letter is addressed to believers. When "we" is used in a passage, it refers to those believers. One day the church will stop fighting, stop arguing, about what is true and false. There will be perfect unity among us.

'Nuff said.