HE HIMSELF IS OUR PEACE (Part 1)

HE HIMSELF IS OUR PEACE (Part 1)

For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace,  and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.  And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father (Ephesians 2:14-18)

Verse 14: He Himself - This emphatically indicates that Jesus alone is the believer’s source of peace (Isaiah 9:6). The middle wall of separation - This alludes to a wall in the temple that partitioned off the Court of the Gentiles from the areas accessible only to Jews. Paul referred to that wall as symbolic of the social, religious, and spiritual separation that kept Jews and Gentiles apart.

Verse 15: Abolished in His flesh the enmity - Through His death, Christ abolished Old Testament ceremonial laws, feasts, and sacrifices which uniquely separated Jews from Gentiles. God’s moral law (as summarized in the Ten Commandments and written on the hearts of all men, Romans 2:15) was not abolished but subsumed in the New Covenant, however, because it reflects His own holy nature (Matthew 5:17–19; 22:37-40; Romans 13:8-10).  One new man -Christ does not exclude anyone who comes to Him, and those who are His are not spiritually distinct from one another. “New” translates a Greek word that refers to something completely unlike what it was before. It refers to being different in kind and quality. Spiritually, a new person in Christ is no longer Jew or Gentile, only Christian (Romans 10:12, 13; Galatians 3:28).

Verse 16: Reconcile them both … to God. As Jews and Gentiles are brought to God through Christ Jesus, they are brought together with each other. This was accomplished by the cross where Jesus became a curse (Galatians 3:10–13), taking God’s wrath so that divine justice was satisfied and reconciliation with God became a reality (2 Corinthians 5:19–21; Romans 5:8–10; Colossians 1:19–23).