Christ: The Peace of His People
Ephesians 2:11-16
Introduction
Division is rampant in our day. Whether it be racial division, political division;
whether it be division in the home or the church, nationally or internationally,
division mars human experience. Our country seems as divided now as it ever has
been though I'm sure men of other generations have said the same thing.
This division runs against our inner sense that there ought to be peace among men.
We long innately for rest, harmony, and resolution to the constant fights and wars.
We know that we were created for a world that is far different and far better than
this one one which was lost at the beginning with the sin of Adam.
Yet the solutions for peace are varied, and each one is as flawed as the last. Some
suggest that stronger enforcement of international law will bring peace between
nations. Others assert that if they were the ones in power then there would be no
more war. Yet others suggest economic solutions. Still others provide military
solutions. While each one may have its various degrees of merit in staving off
devastating conflict, none of them seem to achieve the lasting wholeness that we
know we were created for.
Perhaps the best kept secret of Christianity-which we don't keep secret by any
means is that we know the answer. In fact, the answer is the substance of the
book of Ephesians. As we have said so many times by now, God's plan of salvation
has the great goal of magnifying his name in the praises of his saints through the
renewal of the universe. Ephesians 1:10 says that God has established a purpose in
Christ, which is a plan for the fullness of the times, "to unite all things in him,
things in heaven and things on earth.” To establish peace through the reign of the
perfect king. To cast down the old world and its ruler and to set up a new one.
God has accomplished this through the work of Christ, whom he has seated at his
right hand, and whom he has given to the church as its head. And now Christ is at
work in the world to save people out of that world, out of their lusts, out from
under the domination of Satan, and to make them into brand new people in
himself. And that has been Paul's point in 2:1-10. God's work to unite all things in
Christ is unfolding in the lives of individuals everywhere. But as Christ saves
individuals by his grace, as me makes them alive by joining them to himself, this
begins to pose a question: what happens when he does that to a whole bunch of
individuals? In other words, if I am joined to Christ and if you are joined to Christ,
what does that mean about my relationship to you? What implications do each of
our individual, vertical relationships with Christ have to our corporate, horizontal
relationship with each other? That is what 2:11-22 lay out with painstaking,
comprehensive, surgical precision.
And this begins to unfold a very important reality to our day, especially within a
culture of fragmented individualism. God is not merely acting in the world to save
individuals from their sin. He is also acting in the world to take those new
individuals and bring them together and reconcile them to himself and to each
other and to forge them into what he calls in 2:15, "One new man." One new
humanity. He does not desire merely to save individuals, but to create in himself a
new society of human beings, renewed in the image of God, having right
relationship with one another and working together in unity and harmony to rule
and subdue the earth under Christ's headship. In other words, this passage has
significant implications for our corporate life as a church.
It has often been the case that true Christians have taught in church history that one
cannot be saved apart from the Church. Now, of course, there is a wrong way of
taking that, a meritorious way which says that being part of the church is necessary
for salvation. This is not true. Christ's grace is sufficient for our salvation apart
from our involvement in or membership of a church. Yet, there is also an element
of truth in that statement. How is it possible that we can be reconciled to God
through Christ, united to Christ by his Holy Spirit, and yet still remain divided
against other people for whom Christ has done the same work? In other words, if I
have been reconciled to God, how can I remain alienated from you? In fact, if I do
remain alienated from you, that begins to prove that I was never reconciled to God
in the first place. And this is why the church is so important. To be reconciled to
Christ is to be reconciled to his body. In other words, Christ is the peace of his
people.
Now, there is another element here which requires some explanation-and my
introduction will be longer than normal because of it. And that element is the
relationship between Jews and Gentiles. It is precisely at this point that this
passage can get very complicated and very controversial. In the beginning there
was only one human race, one "nation," which was humanity. Adam had no nation.
He was not Jewish, nor was he Gentile. He was just man. After the fall, as the
children of Adam multiplied and spread out across the earth, they began to be
divided into nations. This is described in Genesis chapter 10 by what we call the
"table of nations," and the origins of those nations come in Genesis 11. This
happens decisively at the tower of Babel, when God confuses the language of the
people. As a consequence, says Genesis 11:8, "So the Lord dispersed them from
there over the face of all the earth." Thus the singular race of humanity becomes
divided into many nations.
Out of those nations, God chooses a single individual—a man from Ur named
Abram, whom he later names Abraham. And he promises Abram that he will make
him into a great nation (Gen 12:2) so that he would bless all the other nations of
the earth. Through God's gracious provision of children against all odds, to make
sure that they knew it was through his grace alone that the promise would come to
pass, Abraham begat Isaac by Sarah, and Isaac begot Jacob by Rebeccah, and
Jacob is renamed Israel by the Lord. Israel becomes the father of the nation of
Israel, the Jews. And to this family he gave the sign of circumcision as a seal of the
righteousness which Abraham had by faith. Circumcision was the sign of the
special covenant which God made with the father of the nation of Israel to mark
them off as distinct from the rest of the world. But circumcisions, Genesis says, did not save. It
simply sealed salvation for Jacob's family, in much the same way that the NT ordinances are “signs and seals of our faith.”
To this circumcised nation, the Lord gave the law. Now, the law was never
intended as a way to be made right with God. It was not a way to earn
righteousness. Rather, it was a way to express their adoption by the Lord, a way to
demonstrate their love for God. Thus, keeping the law required a changed heart
and trust in the Lord, something which they demonstrated they never had and still
do not have. But beyond that, the law also possessed a missionary purpose. In
Exodus 19:3-6, in a kind of preamble to the law, God says this to Moses: "Thus
you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: 'You yourselves
have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and
brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep
my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all the peoples of the
earth, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a
holy nation.’"
It is hard to overstate the importance of this passage for understanding the law and
the nation of Israel's role in God's plan. Israel was to be a nation among all the
other nations set apart for God. And they were to demonstrate that they were
distinct from all the other nations by their obedience to the law. Thus, obedience to
the law had a missionary purpose, a witnessing purpose. Israel was to serve the
nations and witness to the nations by being distinct from the nations through their
obedience to the law. And that law was given to them as the nation of Israel, and
what marked them off as part of that nation was circumcision.
And this divided the human race by divine ordinance. There were Jews—
descendants of Jacob who were circumcised and possessed the law-and
Gentiles all the other nations descended from anyone but Jacob who were
uncircumcised and without the law. And this division funneled all the blessings of
God through one nation-Israel. They possessed the promises of Abraham. They
possessed the law of Moses. They possessed the promise of a Messiah to David in
the Davidic Covenant. And they were promised within the law of Moses a new
covenant which would circumcise not just their flesh, but their hearts as well.
And so the old world existed-an old order of things under the law which
established a divinely sanctioned division of humanity between Jews and Gentiles
through the institution of the law. This, of course, does not mean that Gentiles
could not be saved. Many were. Think of Rahab, Ruth, the sailors on Jonah's boat,
or Nebuchadnezzar. Rather, it meant that there was no possibility of being part of
God's saving plan without a relationship to the nation of Israel. As Paul says in
Romans 9:4-5 "To them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving
of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from
their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed
forever." As our text says, to be a Gentile meant that you were "separated from
Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants
of promise, having no hope and without God in the world" (Eph 2:12). That's what
it meant to be a Gentile.
After the Jews were given the law by Moses, they began over time to make a
mistake. They began to think that being chosen by God for this privileged position
among the nations meant that they were therefore superior to the other nations.
And so they gradually developed a national myopia-a short-sightenedness that
forgot the whole purpose of the law to begin with. Rather than keeping the law to
be a holy and distinct people for the purpose of witnessing to the nations, they
began to keep the law for self-serving and self-righteous purposes, a way of
demonstrating that they were more acceptable to God than the nations. This,
matched with the constant Gentile conquests of the land of Israel, began to breed in
the Jews a hatred of Gentiles.
And that is no understatement. Jews hated Gentiles. They called them “dogs” as
evidenced by Matthew 15:25. Jews would intentionally bypass the land of the half-
breed Samaritans by crossing the Jordan and traveling north or south until they
reached their destination. The Jews began to believe that the Gentiles were created
by God to be fuel for the fires of hell. To help a Gentile woman in labor was
unlawful because it would just bring another Gentile into the world. If a Jewish
boy or girl married a Gentile, they would hold a funeral. The contempt was so
strong that even in the temple, between he far outer court of the gentiles and the
court of the women was constructed a four foot thick wall, fourteen steps lower
than the rest of the temple, posted with large signs that read (as archeological
evidence shows) as follows: "No foreigner (Gentile) may enter within the barrier
and enclosure round the temple. Anyone who is caught doing so will have himself
to blame for his ensuing death." In fact, the Jewish leaders attempted to kill Paul
for this very reason, believing that he had brought a Gentile named Trophimus into
the temple (Acts 21:27-31). You can even catch some of this contempt reflected in
Paul's words in Ephesians 2:11: "you Gentiles in the flesh, called "the
uncircumcision" by what is called "the circumcision," which is made in the flesh
by hands."
Thus the situation was very divisive. Not only were all human beings, Jew and
Gentile, alienated from God by their sin individually, but the human race was
divided-first by righteous divine institution and then by unrighteous human
contempt and hatred.
And then Jesus Christ came. Now, we have already discussed how Jesus' death
forgives our sins. Ephesians 1:7 says that we have "redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace." By Jesus
death he has supplied the means by which God may forgive us without injuring his
justice righteously expending his just wrath on a substitute so that those who
trust in him may be justly forgiven. So, all those who hear the word of truth, the
gospel of our salvation, and believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins
are freely forgiven. And his is what has happened to us individually, as Paul
described in 2:1-10. He has restored the vertical relationship.
But his coming has horizontal implications as well. In the same way that we once
walked in sin, but because of the intervention of God we now walk in good works,
so also, we once were alienated from the people of God, but because of God's
intervention in Christ we have been joined into one new humanity in him, rightly
walking in relationship to each other. In Christ, the vertical and the horizontal
meet. Through his death, "you who were once fare off have been brought near"
(2:13). We were once far away from God by being divided and separated from his
people, but now we have been brought near to God and are included in a new
people, and walk in fellowship with them. And that is what this passage talks
about.
And all of this is driving toward a central point for us today: If God's grace
overcame a divinely instituted division between Jew and Gentile, surely God's
grace can overcome our humanly fabricated divisions. We may not necessarily face
the kinds of problems that Paul did with the relationship between Jews and
Gentiles. I'm not even aware of any Jewish members of our church. Yet, we do
face division or at least we will at some point. And it is at that point that we must
say, "Christ is our peace. We are all united to him. We are one new man."
Now, the practical instructions on how to live as that new society of renewed
human beings waits until Ephesians 4. Here in our text, Paul first asserts this
reality in verses 11-13, and then he explains this reality in verses 14-18.
I. The Assertion (2:11-13)
"Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called 'the
uncircumcision' by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by
hands-remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from
the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no
hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far
off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.'
Now, from what we've already said, much of this should make sense already. First,
notice that they must remember these things. The Gentiles must remember that this
was their former state. This is not because they have forgotten, but because it is
necessary that they always be reminded lest they forget the amazing work which
Christ has done on their behalf.
But then notice how they are called Gentiles "in the flesh." Now, there are
essentially two ways to understand this. The first, and most common way, is to
understand Paul as saying you were "physically Gentiles." And there is, of course,
truth in that. They were physically Gentiles in that they were uncircumcised. But I
think Paul has another, more prominent nuance in mind. To see it, glance up at 2:3,
where it says that we once lived among the sons of disobedience—the old
humanity "in the passions of our flesh." They were Gentiles in the flesh,
separated from the saving purposes of God and in the state of their old human
fallenness, and therefore under those old categories of division.
And those are the terms which the Jews used under the old system and in the old
humanity to identify the Gentiles. They were called "the uncircumcision" by what
is called "the circumcision." They were not part of the covenant promises of God,
cut off from his saving purposes. And again, you can catch the edge of disdain, and
Paul's mockery of it. As another translation renders it, you were "called
'Uncircumcision' by the so-called 'Circumcision."" But such categories belonged
to the old order, because that circumcision was also "in the flesh," just as the
Gentiles were in the flesh. Circumcision may have marked off the Jewish people as
the privileged nation, but it was still according to the old system and the old fallen
humanity. Both Gentiles and Jews were "in the flesh."
And that is felt doubly by the fact that external circumcision was never able to
save. Romans 2:28-29 states this clearly: "For no one is a Jew who is merely one
outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly,
and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter." In other
words, you could be part of God's chosen people, part of the Jewish nation, and
still have an uncircumcised heart. If that's the case, your physical circumcision
doesn't count for anything before God. As Paul says in our text, circumcision was
"in the flesh"-according to the old world, the old humanity.
But he returns in Ephesians 2:12 to his thought. The Gentiles are to remember their
old state, which he describes in five ways:
1. Separated from Christ—that is, you were apart from the Messiah, having no
part in his coming, because the Messiah was to come from the Jews. God
never promised the Messiah to the Chinese or the Finns or the Brazilians. He
promised the messiah to the Jews. He came from their race. So, all other
nations were "apart from" the Messiah.
2. Alienated from the citizenship of Israel - Again, as we already said,
citizenship or attachment to Israel was the means of being included in the
covenant promises of God.
3. Foreigners to the covenants of promise-by the "covenants of promise" he
refers to the Abrahamic, Davidic, and promised New covenants. Those
belong to the Jews. We already read from Romans 9 that to them belong the
"promises." They are a Jewish possession. Therefore...
4. Having no hope-there was nothing to look forward to, no place the world
was going, no plan of redemption, no hope of salvation from sin and death.
5. Without God in the world-"without God" has the idea of without a
relationship to God, no way to connect with him because they were "in the
world"
This was our state. And it's important to pause here and remind ourselves that we
are Gentiles. Under the old system, in the old humanity, this was us-no
connection to the Messiah, no part in God's chosen people, having no share in the
covenants of promise, absolutely hopeless regarding the future of the world, and
with no relationship with God. We were excluded.
But, mirroring the "but God" of 2:4, Paul says in 2:13, "But now in Christ Jesus
you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." There
has been a decisive change in time. The "once" has given way to the "now." And
the difference is in that phrase that Paul never seems to get tired of: "in Christ."
While we were once divided between Jew and Gentile, circumcised and
uncircumcised "in the flesh" we are now brought near, included, "in Christ Jesus."
And specifically, by the blood of Christ.
And there is the assertion! We were far away, excluded, left out, alienated, cut off,
apart from, hopeless, without God. But now, because of the death of Christ, and
because of our inclusion in him, we are now near, included, incorporated,
reconciled, attached, full of hope, and with God.
Now the question is, how is this possible! This is a dramatic change! So Paul takes
the time to explain in verses 14-18.
II. The Explanation (2:14-18)
And the explanation essentially boils down to that initial statement: he himself is
our peace. The basis of the peace and unity of the people of God is Christ. Notice
that he does not just make peace, nor does he forge peace, nor does he require
peace, but he is our peace. Where there was once fractured, divided brokenness,
there is now whole, healed peace in Jesus. He is the people of his people. They
have peace with each other in him.
How is he the peace of his people? Here is where the grammar gets tricky, and
where there are a number of ways to read this verse. If you compare translations
you'll see differences. Here is what I think is a good, literal translation: "He made
us both one and broke down the middle wall of division, by nullifying the enmity
in his flesh, namely the law of commandments in decrees." Let's take that part by
part:
1. He made us both one that is to say, he made Jews and Gentiles one. The
word "made" echoes the word in 2:10, "we are his workmanship." Just as he
remakes each one of us, he also remakes the divided nations of the world
into one healed whole. Then he explains further...
2. "and broke down the middle wall of division."-a people cannot be united,
they cannot be one, if there are barriers between them. And so Jesus broke
down the barriers dividing Jew from Gentile. And how did he do that?
3. "by nullifying the enmity in his flesh, namely the law of commandments in
decrees." That is to say that barrier between Jew and Gentile, which God
himself put in place, and which the Jews twisted into hatred for the Gentiles,
Christ put out of effect. It is no longer valid as an order through which to
relate to God. It no longer defines the boundaries of his people. And
therefore, the category of Jew and Gentile is brought to nothing. The path to
God for the Jew is "in Christ," just as the path to God for the Gentile is "in
Christ."
In other words, to reunite the world, you must reunite humanity. But if the law still
stands, and circumcision is still the decisive marker of how to relate to God, then
you cannot reunite humanity. So, the law must be set aside, abolished, nullified,
put out of effect. It no longer defines the approach to God.
And this is where you need to be very careful, and where whole systems diverge.
We need to remember what Paul also says in other places.
· This does not mean that circumcision-meaning, physical identification with
the nation of Israel, the descendants of Jacob, is meaningless altogether. Paul
says in Romans 2:25, "For circumcision is indeed of value if you obey the
law." The problem was not with circumcision per se, but with sin. Physical
circumcision does not remove sin from the heart, and therefore does not
empower a Jew for obedience. It could not provide the internal qualifications
needed for righteousness. Thus, when Paul says in Galatians 5:2, "I, Paul,
say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to
you," he means that you cannot be justified by Christ's righteousness if you
embrace the law as a path to righteousness, represented by circumcision. As
he says in the next verse, Gal 5:3, "I testify again to every man who accepts
circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law." And similarly
again, a few verses later, Galatians 5:6, "For in Christ Jesus neither
circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working
through love." Physical circumcision or not does not accomplish anything. It
is not strong. It misses the point. The point is to be "in Christ," and that is
what counts. Which in turn is why Paul had no problem performing
circumcisions after being saved. Acts 16:3 says that he circumcised Timothy,
but he did not do so because of righteousness, but "because of the Jews who
were in those places," that is to say, not to offend the consciences of Jewish
believers and unbelievers unnecessarily. All the while, Paul absolutely
refuses to circumcise Titus (Gal 2:3) because there were false brothers who
sought to bring believers into slavery by requiring them to be circumcised
for righteousness sake. It all had to do with the reason,
· This also does not mean that the law is now useless. Remember that Paul
says that the law is "holy, righteous, and good" in Romans 7:12. A few
verses later in Romans 7:22, Paul says, "I delight in the law of God, in my
inner being..." In fact, Paul appeals to the law of God constantly as a basis
for the behavior of the church. Just as one example, he says churches should
pay their pastors because Deuteronomy 25:4 says so in 1 Timothy 5:18. So,
while the law has been "nullified," set aside as the path to a relationship with
God, that does not mean that the law becomes irrelevant to the church. Nor
does it mean that I should never read or study the Old Testament.
· This also does not mean that a Gentile church has completely replaced
Israel's role in God's plan. Yes, Israel is a disobedience and stubborn people.
But, as Paul asks in Romans 11:1, "I ask, then, has God rejected his people?"
by which he means "Has God rejected the nation of Israel?" And his answer?
"May it never be!" And what's his proof? "I myself am an Israelite, a
descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not
rejected his people whom he foreknow." As he has already said in Romans
9:4, "They are Israelites (still!), and to them belong (presently!) the
adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the
promises." These things still belong to them, for "It is not as though the
word of God has failed" (Rom 9:6). God turning away from Israel does not
mean that their role in his plan is over. It simply means, as he says in Rom
11:25, "Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware
of this mystery brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the
fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be
saved." And then verse 28, "As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your
sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their
forefathers. For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable."
So, what does it mean that he has "nullified the enmity, namely the law of
commandments expressed in ordinances"? It means that the law, in Christ's death,
has been set aside as an approach to God, as a means of inclusion in the covenant
blessings of God, as an inclusion in his people. No one any longer is near to God
because they kept the law but because they are in Christ. No one experiences the
blessings of the covenant because they personally are righteous but because they
are in Christ. No one is included in the church on the basis of circumcision but
because they are in Christ.
And that is why Paul fought the Judaizers tooth and nail when it came to
circumcision! It truly was a gospel issue! For the gospel is a message of the free
grace of God in Christ which comes by the grace of God through faith, apart from
the works of the law, including circumcision. And to place an external ritual like
circumcision in the path of a Gentile and require them to engage in it in order to be
saved is an abomination to the work of Christ. No, you will not place circumcision
in the path of Gentiles to be included in the church. No, you do not need to keep
the law to be counted righteous by faith. No, you do not come into relationship
with God through law-keeping, but through faith in Christ. Why!? Because, 2:14,
"He himself is our peace. He has made us both one. He has torn down any barrier
to unity. And he has done that by setting aside the law in his blood.
And why did he set aside the law? Paul identifies two purposes.
1. In order to create one new man. That is, to create one, new unified humanity,
a new society of human beings renewed in the image of God. Because,
again, if Christ is to unite all things in him, he cannot do that if humanity is
divided. He makes peace among his people so that there might be peace in
all the earth.
2. In order to reconcile both Jew and Gentile to God in one body through
Christ's death. He rectifies the relationship between himself and Jews,
between himself and Gentiles, not in two bodies, but in one body, which is
Christ's body, the church. And by so doing, he kills the hostility between
Jews and Gentiles.
Conclusion
And with this we must bring things to a close. Christ is the peace of his people. A
couple points of application:
1. Rejoice that you have been brought near and accepted by God through
Christ. The prophets of the Old Testament longed to see the day when the
Messiah would come and when he would bring salvation to the ends of the
earth. And what they hoped for, we experience. And that should bring us
great joy. Not just in the trite, tongue-in-cheek jokes about being able to eat
bacon in the new covenant, but in the real, substantive joy that God has
made away for us Gentiles to be included as well.
2. If you are in Christ, and defined by Christ, there is no basis for division
among you. Col 3:10, "Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and
uncircumcised, barbarian Scythian, slave, free; But Christ is all, and in all."
Don't miss the force of that. You are defined by Christ to the degree that you
are Christ. You are his body. Just like your body is you, so also you are
Christ's body. And Christ is not divided. Christ is in all of us, and all of us
are in Christ, and we together represent Christ, and Christ is not divided.
There is absolutely no basis for division in the church on the basis of these
kinds of external markings or evaluations. We must drop all other identifiers
as primary. Here there is no white or black, no rich or poor, no healthy or
unhealthy, no young or old, no male or female, no successful or
unsuccessful, no white collar or blue collar, but Christ is all. There is I
new man.
3. If Christ has made peace, we must strive to be peacemakers. If we are one
new man, then we must express that unity diligently through the regular
confession and repentance of interpersonal sins. We must restore
relationships which are broken. We must not be satisfied when our brother or
sister has something against us. But rather, we must go, be reconciled to
them, and then come and bring our offerings to the Lord. He has made
peace. How can that be meaningful if he also is not moving through us to
preserve and protect that peace through confession, repentance, forgiveness?
How can we preserve that peace without the spiritual virtues of humility,
gentleness, patience, forbearance, love, and earnestness? So, if there are any
of you who know you must make something right with one of your brothers
or sisters in this church, be quick about it. Keep a short account.
