Ephesians 2:13 - The price of admission

"But now in Christ Jesus you [all] the [ones] formerly being far came to be near in the blood of Christ.’ 

-But now...  Complete transposition.  We were far, now we are near.  We had no hope.  No God.  We were strangers to the promises of God, excluded, having no place among God’s people whatsoever.  But now...all that has changed.  Now we have hope, we have God, we have His tremendous promises, and now we are members, we belong to His people, no longer excluded.  We are near, and we are in - and it is all because of Jesus Christ.  We are in the club, so to speak, and the price to join, the membership fee if you will, was paid by Him.  The fee was not waived.  He paid it - in blood.  His blood which He shed on the Cross made all the difference.

-Yes, blood.  This was the price of admission.  Blood is the life of all flesh (Genesis 9.4), and it is the only way to atone for sin (Leviticus 17.11, Hebrews 9.22).  Where you have transgression against deity, there must of necessity be some payment for that to make amends - assuming that deity is holy and just and omnipotent.  Which of course in this case He is.  But what we see in Scripture is that from early on, God began showing the world how HE was going to be the One to make this atonement.  HE was the One Who killed one of the animals He created (shedding that blood in effect) in order to make suitable clothes for Adam and Eve after THEY transgressed against HIM (Genesis 3.21).  Then it was the blood of the spotless lamb by which the destroyer passed over (Exodus 12.13), it was the blood of a bull and a goat which would temporarily and imperfectly atone for the sins of the high priest and all Israel (Leviticus 16.11-19).  These rituals, though imperfect (Hebrews 10.4), were to be repeated every year in perpetuity in order to prepare God’s people (and the nations really) to embrace the Messiah HE would eventually send to make the perfect once-and-for-all atonement for the sins of the world (cf 1Peter 1.19, Colossians 1.20, Romans 3.25).  O the blood, the o-so-precious flood, crimson flow, makes me white as snow.  Nothing.  Nothing else, nothing but the blood of Jesus could accomplish and secure my rescue.  However - it turns out that this passage is not as much about me personally - it’s about the integration of two groups of people into one.  Paul continues on this in the next verse...