Separation To Reconciliation Series

THE SUPREME MYSTERY – THE BODY OF CHRIST

ACT I: Foundations Of A Supreme Mystery – Identification

5. FROM SEPARATION – TO RECONCILIATION (Eph. 2:11-22)

Introduction:

My visits to the Berlin Wall and its downfall.

The Christmas season is upon is and we will once again hear the world proclaim ’peace on earth.’ Have they read the papers?! Do they not own a TV? Peace? Peace? Where is it? All I seem to see and hear about are hostilities. War. Terrorism. Slander. Gossip. Lies and corruption. And I’m not just referring to our churches. . .

Just what does it take to end all the hostility? To see “peace on earth”? Or, as Rodney King infamously insinuated, when will we all be able to “just get along”? How do we achieve unity amidst division and diversity?

Thanks be to God, these very questions are addressed in His Word! Let’s take a look . . .

A.) EXCLUDED STRANGERS (vv. 11-12)

* To appreciate what we have/now are, it is often important if not essential to first remember

where we came from and the disadvantages we once suffered.

1.) Background

* Remember that most of Paul’s converts were not Jews, but “God-fearing Gentiles” who attended

the synagogues with genuine searching and reverence for the God of Israel. There, they were

regularly taught that to truly be a worshiper of God and part of the family and nation of believers,

they would HAVE to not only convert to Jewish beliefs, but also Jewish customs, laws and

ordinances. Chief among these was circumcision (which most God-fearing Gentiles were, for

obvious reasons, not in a real hurry to enact). Without circumcision, they were not Jews, not

members of the synagogue, not protected or blessed by God and greatly restricted.

2.) Fivefold Alienation

* The reason for the Gentile’s alienation (status as excluded strangers) was not cultural or

social, but spiritual:

a.) Without Christ

b.) Without Identity in God’s Nation

c.) Without “the covenants of promise” - God’s Contractual Blessing & Protection

From the time of Abram, God chose from one man to make a covenant to bless the

multitudes. He then separated Israel from all other nations to be the people of His

covenant. By contrast, while God made many promises about the Gentiles, He never

made any to them! Through their covenant relationship the Jews remained near to

God while the Gentiles were ’far off’ and strangers to it.

d.) Without Hope

e.) Without God’s Activity in Their Lives

B.) INCLUDED & UNITED FAMILY (vv. 13-18)

The (Reconciling) Change Agent (v. 13)

* You see, the Jew’s previous nearness to God was contingent on their covenant relationship

which required their perfect obedience to the law. However, no one (not one) could keep the

law and so they too were far from God as their sin created an impenetrable wall between them

and their unholiness and God and His absolute holiness.

* But, now, “In Christ Jesus” the entire situation has been changed and transformed - from

exclusion to inclusion, isolation to intimacy, “far” to “near,” cursed to blessed.

* Not only is Christ’s sacrificial blood our means to redemption (1:7), but it is also the means of

our reconciliation to God.

2.) Breaking the Barriers (vv. 14-16)

* Jesus has reconciled us and become our peace in 2 ways: to Himself and to others.

* “He Himself” is emphatic! It is not a “message” or “truth” or “circumstance” that has

reconciled us, become our peace and broken barriers - but the person of Jesus the Christ!

* The reference is most certainly to the wall within the compound of Herod’s Temple which served

to separate the Court of the Gentiles from the rest of the Temple, with death threatened to any

violator.

* By His death and fulfillment of the requirements of the law on our behalf, Jesus nullified that

which truly and spiritually separated all people from God and the Jew from the Gentile - “the

law of the commandments in regulations.”

* In Christ, we are now free to come across the broken barrier in order to come near to God

and then each other as well (1 Jn. 1:3-4). In Christ, Jew and Gentile alike can come near to God

in only one way – as sinners for whom Christ died and forever destroyed and wall that separates

us from Him – and each other!

3.) The “New Man/Race” (vv. 15-16)

* Now that the “barrier” has been abolished, there is no need for the two peoples/communities to

remain separate. Jesus is peace and has replaced hostility with peace, separation with unity.

* Make no mistake the Christian is NOT a hybrid Jew-Gentile, nor an enlightened, or

“higher” Jew or Gentile; Christ did not Judaize the Gentiles or Christianize the Jews. A