Hopes for Eternity, What They Rest On
T. Guthrie, D. D. Ephesians 2:12 That at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise… When John Wesley lay on an expected death bed (though God spared him some years longer to the world and the Church) his attendants asked him what were his hopes for eternity? And something like this was his reply — "For fifty years, amid scorn and hardship, I have been wandering up and down this world, to preach Jesus Christ; and I have done what in me lay to serve my blessed Master!" What he had done his life and works attest. They are recorded in his Church's history, and shine in the crown he wears so bright with a blaze of jewels — sinners saved through his agency. Yet thus he spake, "My hope for eternity — my hopes rest only on Christ — 'I the chief of sinners am But Jesus died for me.'" (T. Guthrie, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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: WEB: that you 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.