Listen for God’s word to you from Ephesians 2:11-22…
Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)—remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
In this section of Ephesians, Paul addresses the Gentiles in the church directly. You may remember that in his letter to the Galatians, Paul was dealing with a very particular problem between Jews and Gentiles. The problem there was that some Jews were telling the Gentiles that they had to be circumcised if they were going to be proper followers of the Jewish Messiah Jesus. There is no hint in Ephesians that the same problem was happening in Ephesus. But Paul knows from experience that there can be divisions between Gentile and Jewish believers in the church. And he wants there to be unity. So, Paul addresses the issue of unity in the church head on. His whole point in this section is to help his readers to see that Jewish and Gentile believers in Jesus are one in Christ.
What We Once Were
Paul begins this section, in verses 11 and 12, by pointing out to his Gentile readers what their lives were like before they came to faith in Christ. In some ways, this is an accurate description of all of us apart from a relationship with Jesus Christ. Paul tells us three things about what the Gentiles in Ephesus were before they came to faith in Jesus.
Separate from Christ
First, Paul says that they were separate from Christ. The negativity of this description is dramatic in contrast to what Paul has said in Ephesians 1 where he has made clear all the blessings of being in Christ. Then, at the beginning of Ephesians 2, Paul makes clear that we have been made alive in Christ, raised up, seated in the heavenly realms with Christ. But, before Jesus came into the world, the Gentiles were neither in Christ nor with Christbut separated from Christ. And they didn’t even know the hope of a coming Messiah.
In a sense, all of us had a time when we lived “BC”, before Christ. For those of us who grew up in the church, it is hard to see things this way. We may not even remember a time when we didn’t know about Jesus. But the question is: when did we come to know him personally? When did Jesus become more than just a word, more than just a name?
Excluded from Citizenship in Israel
The second thing Paul says about the Gentiles in their BC phase is that they were excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise. These two statements amount to the same thing. Before Christ came, the Gentiles were not a part of Israel. But, through faith in Christ, the Gentiles have become part of the one olive tree which is Israel. In Romans, Paul talks about the Gentiles being like branches grafted into the olive tree of Israel.
There is a sense of belonging that goes along with faith in Jesus Christ. The moment you put your faith in him, you become part of a family. Christian spirituality is not simply a matter of “Jesus and me”; it’s a matter of “Jesus and us”.
Without Hope & Without God in the World
Thirdly, Paul says that the Gentiles, BC, were without hope and without God in the world. The Greek word translated as “without God” is the same word from which we get the word “atheist”. That’s interesting, isn’t it? Paul is saying that the Gentiles, before Christ, were atheists. How can this be since many of the Gentiles were polytheists in Paul’s time? Well, the Gentiles were atheists in the sense that they did not have a relationship with the one true God who is known through Jesus Christ. After all, if you believe in the God and Father of Jesus Christ, then you also believe that all the other gods that people talk about are not really God.
And when we don’t have a relationship with the one true God then we are also without hope. What hope is there apart from a relationship with God? God is Life. That means that to turn away from God is to turn away from Life. And when you turn away from Life, there is only Death. That is a hopeless situation.
I wonder, can you imagine your life without Christ? What words would you use to describe your life before you came to faith in Jesus? Or what words would you use to describe your life now if Jesus wasn’t in it?
What Jesus Has Done
The second major thing Paul does in this part of his letter to the Ephesians is that he shows us the change that Jesus brings. In verses 13 through 18 Paul tells us what Jesus has done for us. Paul says that Jesus “destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility”.
There was a wall in the Temple in Jerusalem dividing the Court of the Gentiles from the rest of the Temple that was for Jews alone. On that wall there was an inscription that warned Gentiles that if they passed beyond the wall, the penalty would be death. (See picture above.) Paul is saying that Jesus took down that barrier. He destroyed the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile. How did Jesus do that?
Set Aside the Law
Paul explains that Jesus got rid of the dividing wall of hostility by “setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations”. What an amazing thing for a Jew like Paul to say! For the Jew, the Law was everything. But Paul says Jesus set it aside in his flesh. What does Paul mean?
Well, Jesus did two things in his flesh. He fulfilled all God’s law on our behalf. And Jesus died on the cross to pay our penalty for having failed to fulfill the law. Theologians call this double imputation. Because of Jesus’ perfect life, and his death on the cross for our sins, God imputes to us, he puts to our account, the benefits of Jesus’ righteousness. And God also imputes to Jesus, he puts into Jesus’ spiritual bank account, all our sin, and Jesus pays for that sin on the cross.
Imagine waking up one morning and checking your bank account, only to find that the richest person in the world paid all your debts and put all his or her wealth into your account. That is just a dim picture of what Jesus has done for us.
This also means that now, following Jesus is not like following a rule book, it is not a matter of keeping the law. No. Following Jesus is much more like painting a portrait. God is painting a portrait in our lives by the power of the Holy Spirit, and it is the portrait of Jesus. As Christians, we don’t follow a rule book, we follow a person. We live not by the power of the law, but by the power of the Spirit.
Created a Single New Humanity
The second thing that Paul says Jesus has done for us is that he has created a single new humanity. In verse 15 Paul says that God’s purpose in sending Christ “was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace”. Before Jesus came, Jews and Gentiles were separate from one another in so many ways. There was hostility between the two groups, but Jesus came to make the two into one.
Do you remember Paul’s dramatic statement in Galatians 3:28? We looked at that in our study of Galatians. It’s the verse where Paul says, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” All the essential distinctions of the first century are wiped out in Christ. It no longer matters, ultimately, whether you are a Jew or a Gentile, slave or free, man or woman. All of these are one new humanity in Jesus. In Jesus there is an end to racism, an end to the economic struggle, and an end to sexism. Granted, the church has often failed to live up to Paul’s vision, but Paul is giving us a vision of where Jesus is taking us, if we let him.
Reconciled Jew and Gentile to God
The third thing Paul tells us that Jesus did is that he reconciled Jew and Gentile to God. Paul says that in one body Jesus reconciled both Jew and Gentile “to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.” It is one thing for human beings to be reconciled to one another. It is quite a different thing for human beings to be reconciled to God. But in fact, I do not believe you can have one without the other. The only way we can be reconciled to each other is to first be reconciled to God.
I am reminded of what I tell couples in pre-marital counseling. I tell couples that if they want to have a healthy marriage, they need to have a marriage triangle. You might well ask, “What are you talking about, Pastor?” I’m talking about having a marriage triangle where Jesus makes the third point, the third party in the marriage. I tell couples, “Look, the closer you get to Jesus, the closer you will get to one another. If you both work hard at drawing as close to Jesus as you can, you will, at the same time, draw closer to each other.”
How does Jesus reconcile people? How did Jesus reconcile Jew and Gentile? He did it through the cross. The cross puts to death hostility between people because the ground is level at the cross. No one has a “one-up” on anybody else at the cross. We are all standing on level ground because we are all equally sinners, and we are all equally loved by Jesus.
The cross also puts to death any hostility between us and God. When we look at the cross and see that God loved us so much that he gave us his Son, how can we not love God in return?
What We Are Now
This leads us to what we are now in Christ. Paul talks about what the Gentiles are now in Christ in verses 19 through 22. Paul uses three powerful metaphors to describe the Church…
God’s Kingdom
First, in verse 19, Paul says that we have become part of God’s kingdom. Paul says, “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people.” Now, I will grant that Paul does not use the words “God’s Kingdom” in this passage. But I think that is what he is alluding to in verse 19.
John Stott writes,
The Gentiles used to be stateless and disenfranchised outsiders, ‘alienated from the commonwealth (politeia) of Israel’. But now, he says to them, you are fellow citizens (sumpolitai) with the saints, which seems here to mean the Jewish people, the ‘saints’ or ‘holy nation’. Only a few years previously the word politeia had been used of Roman citizenship in Paul’s conversation with the tribune in Jerusalem. Now he writes of another citizenship. Although he does not develop the metaphor, he appears to be alluding to citizenship of God’s kingdom.[1]
God’s kingdom cannot be plotted on a map, nor is it manifested in castles or other grand physical structures. God’s kingdom exists wherever God reigns in human hearts.
Some three hundred and fifty years after Paul, St. Augustine would call Christians “The City of God”. Augustine contrasted “The City of God” with “The City of Man”. Moreover, Augustine made this comparison at a time when the Roman Empire was falling apart. Long before the dissolution of the Roman Empire, Paul was advocating that there was a citizenship far more valuable than a Roman one. God’s kingdom is more splendid and enduring than any earthly kingdom. Our passport to God’s kingdom is provided by Jesus Christ alone. His Spirit causes us to be born into God’s kingdom. Jesus gives us a sense of belonging like no other.
God’s Family
A second image Paul uses to describe the Church is God’s Family. Paul says we are “fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household”.
If you have trouble relating to the metaphor of kingdom, perhaps the metaphor of God’s family will be more appealing. “God’s family” certainly connotes greater intimacy. We aren’t just citizens under the rule of a king; we are children in the family of that same king—Jesus.
Paul uses family language throughout Ephesians. Paul has just spoken of the access we have to God the Father through his Son Jesus. In Ephesians 1, Paul used the language of adoption.
Do you know what is the most common descriptive term for Christians in the New Testament? It is “brothers”. Of course, the Bible was written long before inclusive language became fashionable. But the meaning is clear nonetheless, we are all brothers and sisters in God’s family through our elder brother, the Lord Jesus. And as brothers and sisters, we are to show brotherly love (Philadelphia) for one another.
God’s Temple
The final image that Paul uses for the Church in verses 20 through 22 is that of God’s Temple. Paul says that we are…
… built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
It is clear from the whole of the New Testament that the Church is people. Some people in our modern world don’t seem to get that. They only know the Church from the outside. And what they see from the outside is mainly buildings. But as the old nursery saying suggests, “Here’s the Church, and here’s the steeple. Open the doors and see all the people.”
The Church in the first century didn’t have buildings of their own. So, they did not get confused the way we do in the twenty-first century. They understood that the Church is a group of people. So, Paul could use a building as a metaphor for the Church without the first Christians misunderstanding.
Since the Church is made up of people, the foundation of the Church consists of people too. Apostles and prophets form the foundation of the Church. And Jesus himself is the cornerstone that holds the Church together. He makes us one in him. The atonement through his blood is all about at-one-ment. And that at-one-ment is all about love.
So, this section of Ephesians, like the rest of the letter, is all about plugging in to the power of love. The power of God’s love is what makes us one in Christ. At one time we were separated from Christ, without hope and without God in the world. But then Jesus came. He lived for us, died for us, and rose again for us, that we might be forever with him.
It is interesting to note that when Paul was writing this letter there stood in Ephesus a temple in honor of the goddess Diana, Artemis of the Ephesians. And in the center of her temple there stood a statue of her. At the same time in Jerusalem there stood a temple with no statue of any god in its Holy of Holies. But the Temple that Jesus is building out of his people has him, the one true God, at the center, shining forth from our hearts.
Through Jesus, we are “brought near”. That expression, “brought near”, has shaped my prayer life for many years. It is my prayer for everyone I know that each of us would constantly and consistently be drawn closer to Christ. Personally, I think there is no more important thing that can happen in our lives than that. I believe it is the goal of life here on earth, that we would be drawn closer to Christ, step by step, until one day we see him face to face and are enveloped in the warmth of his eternal embrace.
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