and to reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by which the hostility has been killed.
This is the third verse where Paul has used the word “one.” The three verse are one sentence.
For he is our peace, the one who made both groups into one and who destroyed the middle wall of partition, the hostility, when he nullified in his flesh the law of commandments in decrees. He did this to create in himself one new man out of two, thus making peace, and to reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by which the hostility has been killed.
Two groups into one (v. 14)
One new man out of two (v. 15)
both into one body (v. 16)
This verse tells us the means of the reconciling of both Jews and gentles. It is the body of Christ. It is Jesus as the savior of both groups.
The Jews have the righteousness they have been searching for and the Gentiles the relationship/acceptance/love from/with the true God that they have been searching for from myriads of gods.
Both Jews and Gentiles come to Christ for different reasons but they found their rest in Him; both find there identity in Him; both groups put their trust in Him.
Paul has acknowledged that the hostility is real (v. 14, 16).
That was why Paul used words like “he is our peace” (v. 14), “making peace” (v. 15), “reconciled” (v.5). Our reconciliation to God is the key to our reconciliation with one another. It is not the other way round.
If there is something we should take away from this, it is the fact that God’s aim is oneness.
Before Jesus went to the cross, He prayed that His disciples will be one (John 17:21).
After talking about one body in this passage, Paul would later talk about access to God through one Spirit (Ephesians 2:18).
The pagans through the myriads of gods cannot find God, and the myriads of rituals was not adequate for the Jews. The one who is sufficient is Christ. The one who represents rest is Christ (Matthew 11:28.).
So the recipients of this letter should not to think that they are less because they are Gentiles and not Jews.
Paul wants their eyes to be opened to their oneness with the Jewish believers in Christ, not to look down on them or to think that they themselves are second class citizens.
We may not really appreciate what Paul is saying because we are not in the society he is writing to.
There might have been a clear danger of perpetuating the age-old division between the Jews and the Gentiles, in which the mindset of the old can crop up into the new.
But Paul is telling them there is a new reality now and the new reality is brought about by the blood of Jesus. Someone paid the price to bring us together, paid the prize with his body handing on the tree.
Paul said the gentiles were far away and the Jews were near.
But that is not what God wants. And by what Christ has done, the Jews can marvel at the grandness of the grace of God to overcome the limits of sin, and the Gentiles can rejoice in the power of God to bridge the divide of sin.
The cross made it possible. One sacrifice that's all. Not only linking God to humanity in that same body but also forming all of us believers into one flesh in His body. That was the stroke of divine genius.
We have seen God’s actions in the previous verses, from chapter verse 1 to 2:10, it has been about the Father, and what He did.
Now from now from verse 2:11, we are see Jesus come into focus. And that will last until 2:22.
To set up what God did, Paul said we were ALL, with exception, dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1), and now raised up through God’s love, grace and mercy displayed in Christ.
To set up what Christ did, he said we were afar off and the Jews near, but he reconciled both to God, dissolving the lines of demarcation between Jews and gentiles.
Because that line has been dissolved for centuries now, we may not fully appreciate what Paul is saying.
So Jesus made both groups into one. So, there is no Jewish body of Christ and Gentile body of Christ. There is one body of Christ, there is no Asian body of Christ and American body of christ. There is one body of christ.
If the line between the Jews and gentiles is no more, so also the divide between the geographies, nationalities, and people groups. We are one in Christ.
When talking about the Father, Paul said we are God's creative work, individually, but Christ created one in himself one new man, focused on the collective.
It's a new reality we can feel in our bones, in our affinity for our fellow believers, that is beyond language differences, skin color or nationality. He nullified in Himself the law of commandments in decrees (v. 14)
He reconciled them both to God in one body.
WHO IS JESUS?
He is our peace
WHAT DID JESUS CHRIST DO?
the one who made both Jews and Gentiles into one and who destroyed the middle wall of partition, the hostility
WHEN DID HE DO IT?
When he nullified in his flesh the law of commandments in decrees
WHY. To create in himself one new man out of two and to reconcile them both in one body to God
HOW? Through the cross.
Praise the Lord.