FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Scripture Reference: Ephesians 2:14-16

Believers are not under the law but under grace. However, this does not mean they can live as they please; it means they are now bound to Christ, and should live as He pleases.

As a result of abolishing the hostility stirred up by the law, the Lord has been able to usher in a wholly new creation. He has made in Himself, from the two, that is, from believing Jew and believing Gentile, “one new man,” or entity – the church. Through union with Him, the former combatants are united with one another in this new fellowship. The church is new in the sense that it is a kind of organism that never existed before. It is important to see this. The New Testament church is not a continuation of the Israel of the Old Testament. It is something entirely distinct from anything that has preceded it or that will ever follow it. This should be apparent from the following:

1. It is new that a Gentile should have equal rights and privileges with a Jew.
2. It is new that both Jews and Gentiles should lose their national identities by becoming Christians.
3. It is new that Jews and Gentiles should be fellow members of the one Body of Christ.
4. It is new that a Jew should have the hope of reigning with Christ as an heir instead of being a subject in His kingdom.
5. It is new that a Jew should no longer be under the law but under the new order of grace.

The church is clearly a new creation, with a distinct calling and a distinct destiny, occupying a unique place in the purposes of God. But the scope of Christ’s work does not stop there. He has also made peace between Jew and Gentile. He did this by removing the cause of hostility, by imparting a new nature, and by creating a new union. The cross is God’s answer to racial discrimination, segregation, anti-Semitism, bigotry, and every form of strife between men.

In addition to reconciling Jew and Gentile to one another, Christ has “reconcile[d] them both to God.” Though Israel and the nations were normally bitterly opposed to each other, there was one sense in which they were united—in their hostility to God. The cause of this hostility was sin. By His death on the cross, the Lord Jesus removed that hostility by removing the cause. Those who receive Him are reckoned righteous, forgiven, redeemed, pardoned, and delivered from the power of sin. The hostility and hate are gone; now they have peace with God as well as with one another. The Lord Jesus unites believing Jew and Gentile in one body, the church, and presents this Body to God with all trace of antagonism gone.

Understand this important distinction as well; God never needed to be reconciled to us; He never hated us. But we needed to be reconciled to Him. The work of our Lord on the cross provided a righteous basis on which we could be brought into His presence as friends, not as foes.

A closing question; are you a friend of God through Christ Jesus, or are you still a foe? Only you personally can answer that!

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Ephesians 2:14-16

If you have read the Scripture text, I want you to notice right away that it doesn’t immediately say, “He made peace.” Even though that, of course, is true also, as we will see in verse 15. In verse 14 however, Paul is stating the fact is that Jesus Himself is our peace. But you might be asking yourself, “how can a person be peace?”

In essence, this is how: When a Jew believes on the Lord Jesus, he loses his national identity; and from that moment on he is “in Christ.” Likewise, when a Gentile receives the Savior, he is no longer a Gentile; again, from that moment on he also is “in Christ.” In other words, a once believing Jew and a believing Gentile, once divided by hate and malice, are now both one in Christ. Their union with Christ necessarily unites them with one another. Therefore a Man is the peace, just as the Prophet Micah predicted (Micah 5:5).

First is the work of union which we have just described. He has made both one, that is, both believing Jews and Gentiles. They are no longer Jews or Gentiles, but Christians. Strictly speaking, it is not accurate even to speak of them as Jewish Christians or Gentile Christians. All fleshly distinctions, such as nationality, were nailed to the cross of Christ.

The second phase of Christ’s work might be called demolition: He . . . “has broken down the middle wall of separation.” Not a literal wall, of course, but the invisible barrier set up by the Mosaic Law of commandments contained in ordinances which separated the people of Israel from the nations. This has often been illustrated by the wall which restricted non-Jews to the Court of the Gentiles in the temple area. On the wall were No Trespassing signs which read: “Let no one of any other nation come within the fence and barrier around the Holy Place. Whoever is caught doing so will himself be responsible for the fact that his death will ensue.”

A third aspect of Christ’s work was abolition of the malice and hate that smoldered between Jew and Gentile but also between man and God. Paul identifies the law as the innocent cause of the antagonism, that is, “the law of commandments contained in ordinances.” The Law of Moses was a single legislative code; yet it was made up of separate, formal commandments; these in turn consisted of dogmas or decrees covering many, if not most, areas of a Jew’s life. The law itself was holy, just, and good (see Romans 7:12), but man’s sinful nature used the law as an occasion for hatred. Because the law actually did set up Israel as God’s chosen earthly people, many Jews became arrogant and treated the Gentiles with utter contempt. The Gentiles struck back with deep hostility, which we have come to know all too well as anti-Semitism. But how did Christ remove the law as the cause of arrogance and hate? First, He died to pay the penalty of the law that had been broken. He thus completely satisfied the righteous claims that God demanded and commanded. Now the law has nothing more to say to those who are “in Christ”; the penalty has been paid for them in full.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.