Ephesians 2

Ephesians 2:11-22

XI THE WALL OF Eph_2:11-22. This chapter commences with the seventh item of the analysis – the breaking down of the wall of partition between Jew and Gentile, and the uniting of the two into one church, as an institution, which finds expression in every particular church. The particulars of the statement of the condition of the Gentiles prior to the proclamation of the gospel after Christ’s ascension are thus given in our text:

1. Separate from Christ – having no knowledge of him, or any interest in him – “salvation is of the Jews.”

2. “Having been alienated from the commonwealth of Israel” – i.e., as uncircumcised, not entitled to citizenship in it. The force of “alienated” here is about this: The original promise of the gospel was to the race. Through both the antediluvian and Noachic periods the promise was universal in its application. But after these two race falls, particularism in a single nation succeeded. The race probations culminated at the Tower of Babel in the dispersion of the nations, followed by the call of a particular nation. This was the time of their alienation. In the Hebrew politeia or “citizenship condition,” including country, constitution, economy, they had no part. The call of one nation made the others aliens.

3. “Strangers from the covenants of the promise.” Mark the plural, including all covenants made with Abraham or any of his descendants. Mark the word “promise,” not promises in general, but the promise, that is, of the Messiah.

4. “Having no hope.” This does not deny desire or aspiration, but expectation based on definite and reliable grounds. Hope is composite – a blending of two elements, desire and expectation. We may desire what we may not expect and expect what we do not desire. Many heathen desired better things, but had no assured ground of hope. They had no accredited revelation. Mommsen in his History of Rome says, “In Hellas [Greece], at the epoch of Alexander the Great, it was a current saying, and one profoundly felt by all the best men, that the best thing of all was not to be born, and the next best to die.” Testimonies from the classics might be multiplied on this point.

5. “Without God in the world.” Mark the Greek, Atheoi i.e., “atheists,” not in the active but passive sense. They had indeed gods many – their own creation. The one true God was unknown to them. See Paul’s speech at Athens referring to the altar inscribed to the “unknown God.”

6. “Far off.” Compare Romans 1:18-32, to see not only how far off, but just how they sinfully arrive at that dark and guilty distance.

7. “A wall of partition” rigidly separated them from the people who were custodians of the Oracles of God, and the heirs of all the covenants from Abraham to David.

The reader will miss the mark at this point if he does not look back carefully to the first eleven chapters of Genesis. There are in these chapters three distinct race probations. First, in Adam, as head of all human beings. Adam fell, and all his posterity, without distinction, fell with him and in him. Second, after his fall and expulsion from the garden of Eden, the throne of grace was set up at the east of the garden, and all his descendants, without distinction, were privileged to approach the God of grace and mercy through typical sacrifices based on the promise to the race, “The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head.” This race probation culminated in the flood, and a third race probation commenced with Noah, as the new head of the race and under a special covenant.

When this third race probation failed at the Tower of Babel, and the dispersion of the nations then followed (Gen. 12) the call of Abraham, and the fourth probation, commenced through one family to become a chosen nation under national covenants. The very constitution of one nation to become God’s organized people, by isolating laws and ordinances, left out all other nations as aliens and strangers. These segregating laws and ordinances constituted the wall of partition between the Hebrews and other nations.

Circumcision, the entire sabbatic cycle, priesthood and sacrifices, with their ritual, all social and political ordinances of separation, prescribed limitations of citizenship, a special homeland, indeed the entire Sinaitic legislation, with its later developments in Numbers and Deuteronomy, entered into the wall of separation. There is no parallel in history to the isolating, exclusive legislation of Moses.

We find in the New Testament that Christian Jews wanted to keep up that wall of partition – to deny that Christ had broken it down. They said in order to be saved one had to become a Jew – had to be circumcised. All of these laws with reference to their altar, the way of approach to God, etc., as embodied in the tabernacle, or its successor, the Temple, and its offerings setting forth ways and means by which one could come to God, were in the partition wall. In Galatians Paul says that even believers in Christ, up to the time the object of faith came – that is, until Christ came – were under these laws and had to observe these old ceremonial laws. The heirs by faith were under tutors until Christ died.

So we see Christian Jews in New Testament times still wishing to keep up this wall of partition. When Peter went into the house of Cornelius and ate with the Gentiles he was sharply rebuked by some of the church at Jerusalem, but by patient explanation of all the circumstances he quieted the opposition, but did not conquer it.

It reappeared at Antioch in the demand that the Gentiles must be circumcised in order to be saved. This was a vital and fundamental matter. So Paul and Barnabas sternly resisted it, and as these Judaizing teachers came from Jerusalem and claimed authority from the apostles and the mother church, the whole case was referred to them and resulted in the council described in Acts 15. Paul’s contention was fully sustained. Peter, and even James, sided with him.

But even this solemn decision did not end the matter, so far as the Jews were concerned. The question of eating with the Gentiles was reopened at Antioch. While a Gentile might be saved without becoming a Jew, a Jewish Christian must remain a Jew. In this form of the question Peter and Barnabas were led to dissimulation, the more reprehensible on Peter’s part, since this was the very form of the question on which he had stood so nobly in the case of Cornelius. Paul won again, but the war went on.

How did Christ break down the wall? In the letter to the Colossians is the clearest passage in the whole Bible on how the whole Jewish law was abrogated, Ephesians 2:14 : “Having blotted out the bond written in ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us; and he hath taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross, having despoiled the principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of a feast day, or a new moon, or a sabbath day.”

Christ nailed the whole thing to the cross – blotted it out. These things were typical. When Christ, the antitype, came they were done away forever. The whole sabbatic cycle is set forth in this passage; feast days, or annual sabbaths; new moons, or monthly sabbaths; a sabbath day, or weekly sabbath, are all blotted out, just as Hosea predicted: “I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feasts, her new moons, and her sabbaths and all her solemn assemblies.” Seventh Day Adventists try to get people to go back to keeping the seventh day instead of the first day of the week.

That means Christ has not come – that we are still under the bondage of types and ceremonies. Whoever believes that, announces himself as a Jew of the old kind.

It took a Paul to make people see that the wall was broken down, ground to powder, and swept out of the realm of obligation by the breath of God’s abrogation. It is utterly gone. Paul would sometimes as a matter of expediency, out of consideration for weak brethren who believed it was something awful to eat meat offered to idols, refrain from eating meat. He said, “The idol is nothing. That is all done away with in Christ. And all of these laws about clean and unclean animals have no force now, but so far as I am concerned, if my eating meat will cause some weak brother to stumble and fall down and keep on falling, I will let it alone. I do not let it alone because there is any harm in it to me, but because of these weak brethren for whom Christ died.”

While that wall of partition stood, on one side were men without God, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenant, who had no hope in the Messiah, therefore without God. It said to the Gentile, “You stand off yonder.” In Mark 7, to show how extreme their position became, in addition to the law, they observed their added traditions; if a Jew went to market, when he came back he must immerse himself to be free from possible defilement by contact; he must immerse the table on which he ate, the couch on which he slept, the pots and vessels which he used. That entire typical ceremonial legislation which shut out the Gentile was abrogated. It was blotted out, abolished, and nailed to the cross of Christ.

We will now see how the thought develops. The old distinction between Jew and Gentile being blotted out, he now uses a series of figures. The first figure is marriage, by which two entirely different individuals become one: “They twain shall be one flesh.” The scripture on that is Ephesians 2:14 : “He hath made both one.” And in Ephesians 2:15 : “That he might create in himself of the two, one new man.” The wall being broken down, it is the purpose of Christ to take the Jew and Gentile and make one new man, so that in Christ there will be neither Jew nor Greek. That is the first figure.

The next figure is the new commonwealth. He says, “Ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but ye are fellow citizens with the saints.” Here is a citizenship, and it is just as good and proper for the Gentiles to be citizens in Christ Jesus as for the Jews. The next figure is the household, or family. This is the language: “And of the household of God.” So we have a new man, a new commonwealth, a new family.

He changes the figure again to the Temple, or house of God. Here is the language: “Being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner stone.” That Temple at Jerusalem was one of the strongest factors in the wall of partition. Why? There was a certain place that the Gentiles were permitted to go – the court of the Gentiles – but they could not go any further. No Gentile could go up into the Jewish court.

Now Paul says, “That old Temple is out of the way; he builds a new temple that the old one foreshadowed,” and in this new temple Gentile material will be used as well as Jewish material. The chief cornerstone in the foundation of this new temple is the rock, Christ Jesus. A cornerstone is one that holds two walls together. We notice in a building where two walls come together a large stone that goes into each wall and holds them together. Of course there are cornerstones all the way up, but the chief cornerstone is down next to the foundation. Every Christian who exercises the holding-together power is a cornerstone. Some just stick in the wall. Others we may call intermediate cornerstones. That is the imagery of the temple.

In Ephesians 2:18 he shows a much more precious thought: “Through him we both [Jew and Gentile] have access to the Father.” Before, it was only the Jews who had access, but under this new economy, the Gentiles as well as the Jews have access in Christ to the Father. I stated that when Christ died he nailed to his cross all discriminating legislation. There was a signal token. Just at the time Christ died the veil in the Temple was rent in twain from top to bottom. That veil was said to be 70 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 4 inches thick. Ten yoke of oxen could not have torn it.

It was closely woven and beautifully colored. At the moment Christ said, “It is finished,” it was rent in twain, commencing at the top and going all the way down. This signified that the way to the holy of holies was then made open to all.

Paul refers to that in the letter to the Hebrews when he says, “Wherein God, being minded to show more abundantly unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us: which we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and entering into that which is within the veil; whither as a forerunner Jesus entered for us, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” Christ destroyed two enmities; first the enmity between Jew and Gentile, and made peace between these two and converted them into one; then he made peace between each one of them and the Father. Being reconciled to the Father through Christ we are reconciled to our fellow men.

We now come to a very important thought. When Paul talks about the new man, and the church is said to be the bride made one with Christ, as Adam and Eve were made one, and when he talks about one commonwealth and one citizenship, and when he talks about them being one housebold, and being made into one temple, he is speaking of the church as an institution. God established a time institution. That institution is exemplified, becomes operative, in particular churches.

This thought is expressed in Ephesians 2:21 : “In whom each several building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord.” That is to say, each particular congregation, particular church, is an expression of the church as an institution, and its only expression. For instance, a new state may provide for “trial by jury.” There, “jury” is an institution, of which each particular jury is an expression. So the expression, “I will build my church,” when that institution becomes operative, it is exemplified in a particular church. We must make the distinction in usage according to the laws of language between an institution in the abstract sense and its expression in every particular, concrete case. Speaking abstractly, we may say that the church is a temple. Speaking concretely, each particular church is a temple.

Such usage of language is common. We never misunderstand its import in other matters. We never make the abstract sense a conglomeration. If we say abstractly “the husband is the head of the wife” we do not mean all husbands are blended into one big universal husband. But we mean that in every particular case the husband is the head of the wife. Just so in Ephesians 1:22; Ephesians 2:12-20; Ephesians 3:10; Ephesians 3:21 the church as an institution is discussed under several figures.

But always Ephesians 2:21-22 (revised text) shows what the institution is in its expression. It becomes operative in particular churches only. Later Ephesians 5:23-33 will discuss the glory church.

The Judaizing Christians fought Paul’s Gospel on every field of evangelism, and notwithstanding his letters to the Corinthians, Galatians, Romans, Philippians, Colossians, Ephesians, and Hebrews, he foresaw the coming of a great apostasy that after his day would revert to a national church with an earthly head and reincorporate into the Christian system the ideas, priesthood and ritual of an abrogated economy. He foresaw the coming of Christian interpreters, who would revert to the Jewish sabbath and insist on this restoration of a Jewish kingdom with a returned Christ a: King at Jerusalem and with the Gentile world in subjugation Tens of thousands of pulpits in Christendom today are seeking in some fashion to rebuild that wall which Christ demolished on the cross, and whose crumbling stone and wasting wood were pulverized and scattered as fine dust.

From the old covenant, and from effete heathen religions and customs, they gathered fragments and blended them into a new yoke of bondage, setting aside the liberty and simplicity of the gospel. And particularly on the ideas of the church there is yet before Baptists a hard battle, whose preliminary skirmishes have already commenced.

So far only the general line of thought has been followed. But we need to look more critically at some particular expressions, even though there be repetition.

Ephesians 2:14. “For he is our peace.” What the strict meaning? Is it limited to peace between Jew and Gentile, or is it the peace of both Jew and Gentile with God, or both? The peace under discussion is a reconciliation by the cross.’ The cross must have here an expiatory sense; it must propitiate toward God, making peace between him and the sinner, and as both Jew and Gentile draw near to God they draw near to each other. As all the diverging spores of a wheel come together and unite in the hub, so Jew and Gentile find in Christ, the center, primarily, peace with God, and, secondarily, peace with each other. Isaiah (9:5-6), Micah. (5:6), and Zechariah (10:10) predict peace through the coming Messiah.

Ephesians 2:15. “The enmity.” Here again the enmity is not merely or primarily the hatred between Jew and Gentile, but the enmity of both toward God. This is what stood in the way of peace. Enmity which antagonizes and holds nations apart can never be converted to peace until first the giunity toward God on the part of opposing nations is gotten out of the way. In the death of enmity toward God is also the death of enmity toward each other. The thought is beautifully imaged in the two staves of the prophet, the staff, “Beauty,” and the staff, “Bands,” the first representing the tie uniting Ephraim and Judah to God, the second binding the two together. “Bands” cannot be broken until “Beauty” is first broken.

“Create in himself of the two one new man.” This is not demanding that a Gentile shall become a Jew, nor that a Jew shall become a Gentile; this would not be a creation. But he creates a new corporate body, i.e., the church as an institution. But as the two elements, Jew and Gentile, are blended into the new corporation, this would not be a creation on account of the use of pre-existing material. A mere blending, therefore, does not express the thought. The blending would be purely artificial if unchanged, incoherent elements are bound together. By the creating power of regeneration the Jew is made a Christian, and so the Gentile.

This Christian material of the new corporation did not exist before. In this way he created in himself of the two one new man, i.e., a new church. As the corporation was new, so the elements which composed it were made new.

Ephesians 2:16. “Reconcile them both in one body, unto God, through the cross.” Here it is evident, what has been expressed before, that the reconciliation of peace is toward God, and sacrificially through the cross, and hence their peace with each other is only a secondary thought resulting from the first.

Ephesians 2:17. “And he came and preached peace to them that were far off and peace to them that were nigh.” “And he came. When and what this coming? It was the coming m the Holy Spirit on Pentecost – the beginning of the execution of the commission given before this ascension. Instrumentally the church, endued with power by the Spirit, did the preaching.

Ephesians 2:18. “For through him [Christ] we both [Jew and Gentile] have access, in one Spirit, unto the Father.” Here in one short sentence we have all the persons of the Trinity in their distinguishing office work.

Ephesians 2:20. “Foundation – Cornerstone.” Christ is really the foundation and the cornerstone ( 1 Corinthians 3:10-15; 1 Peter 2:6-7). The New Testament apostles and prophets are the foundation only in the sense that they laid it in their preaching, and in that way their vital doctrines, or what they preached, is called the foundation (Hebrews 6:1). Real foundation = Christ Teaching foundation = the apostles and prophets Doctrinal foundation = what they preached

Ephesians 2:21-22. Let the reader particularly note that the church as an institution, whether called “one new man,” “one body,” “one commonwealth,” “one household,” or “one temple,” finds expression in “each several building” or particular congregation, and that the leading idea of its mission is to become a habitation of God through the Spirit.

1. Cite and explain each particular of the condition of the Gen- tiles prior to the gospel proclamation.

2. What race probations in Genesis 1-11, and what change commences in Genesis 12?

3. What is the wall of partition?

4. When and how abrogated?

5. Prove that this includes abrogation of the Jewish sabbaths of all kinds.

6. In what letters of Paul is all this made plain?

7. Yet what did he foresee?

8. In this chapter what various images are employed to express the idea of the church as an institution?

9. Prove that this institution finds expression in particular churches.

10. What is the meaning of “Christ our peace”?

11. What is the meaning of enmity?

12. What is the meaning of “He came and preached peace, i.e., when and how was this coming?

13. What verse of this chapter presents all the persona of the Trinity, distinguishing between their office work?