Transcript

During this time in God’s Word we’ll be looking at Ephesians 2:11-22 with a title of Peace in Christ.

A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art: everything from Picasso to Raphael. When the Vietnam conflict broke out, the son went to war and died in battle while rescuing another soldier.

The father grieved deeply for his only son. About a month later, there was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands.

He said, “Sir, you don’t know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart. “He died instantly. He often talked about you and your love for art.”

The young man held out the package and said, “I know this isn’t much. I’m not a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this.”

The father opened the package and gazed at a portrait of his son. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured his son in the painting. The father hung the portrait over his mantle. When visitors came to his home, he always drew attention to the portrait of his son before he showed them any other great works.

When the father died, his paintings were to be auctioned. Many influential people gathered, excited about the opportunity to purchase them. On the platform sat the painting of the son.

The auctioneer pounded his gavel and asked for someone to start the bidding. The crowd scoffed and demanded the Van Goghs and the Rembrandts. But the auctioneer persisted. “Who will start the bidding? $200? $100?”

The crowd again insisted on seeing the famous paintings. Still the auctioneer solicited, “The son! The son! Who’ll take the son?”

Finally a voice said, “I’ll give $10 for the painting.” The longtime gardener of the father was poor and couldn’t afford anything more. While the auctioneer continued to pursue a higher bid, the crowd became angry.

The auctioneer pounded the gavel and sold the painting for $10 to the gardener. An eager buyer from the second row bellowed, “Finally, on with the auction.”

But the auctioneer explained, “I’m sorry, the auction is over.

“When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time.

“Only the painting of the son would be auctioned. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings. The man who took the son gets everything.”

We who have taken the Son, and trusted Christ as Savior, have everything in Him. We have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.

But Paul wanted Gentile believers to remember our dark past so that we might be always appreciative of our salvation, hope, blessings and glorious position in Christ.

Ephesians 2:11 says, “Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands.”

Verses 1-10 and verses 11-22 of chapter 2, follow the same outline: what we were, what God has done, what we are.

In vv. 1-10, we WERE dead in our sins, BUT GOD by His love, mercy and grace has given life in Christ and exalted us in Him, and we ARE His workmanship.

In vv. 11-22, Paul says, we WERE hopeless and without God, BUT GOD has made us nigh and reconciled us by Christ’s blood and created one new man, the Body of Christ, and we ARE now fellow citizens, part of God’s household, and a habitation of God.

Paul starts out, “wherefore remember.” The “wherefore” points back to the first 10 verses, as the grace of God in their salvation and position in Christ was to cause the Ephesians to think about the past and the history of the Gentiles, or the nations.

Remembering that past was to sharpen them in respect to being more thankful for the grace of God and all the blessings they enjoyed in Christ and also to cause them to be careful to walk in the good works God desired them to as His workmanship (v. 10).

The word “remember” is a command in the Greek, and in the present tense, indicating that God wants us to remember something and keep remembering it.

What we are to remember is the great disadvantage we were saved out of as Gentiles and the incredible position we were saved into under Grace.

God calling on His people to remember who they were and what they were delivered from is something He did with Israel in the past as well.

Speaking to Israel in Deuteronomy 5:15, Moses says: “And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm.”

John W. Moore, “Age hasn’t affected my memory a bit. In fact, I can’t even remember the last time I forgot something.” We all tend to forget and need to remember.

Remembering is important in life. Remembering who we were and what we were saved out of keeps us humble and grounded, and keeps us from taking God’s benefits and grace to us for granted.

Paul tells the Ephesians, “in time past,” they were “Gentiles in the flesh,” Gentiles by birth, born outside of Israel, pagan as far as their physical descent was concerned.

They were people of the nations, who were born outside God’s chosen nation, and were also “called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision.”

Being called “the uncircumcision” was the derogatory title given to the Gentiles by the Jews, the Circumcision. This causes us to recall David’s cry to his countrymen when Goliath and the Philistines stood against God’s people. David cried out: “for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

Being uncircumcised denoted that they did not bear in their body the physical mark of God’s chosen nation and were outside of the Abrahamic covenant with its promises.

When Paul wrote this and during this dispensation of Grace, physical circumcision means nothing, but in the past under the law, it had great significance, as circumcision was required by God according to the law for acceptance with Him.

Ephesians 2:12 reads, “That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.”

There was a physical difference between Jew and Gentile of circumcision, and there was a great spiritual boundary and difference between them as well.

When God called Abraham, calling out a special chosen people for His own, God made a difference between Jew and Gentile.

God made this difference, not so the Jews would boast in their privilege, but that they might be the channel of His revelation to the world. He desired this nation to be the light of the world that would draw the Gentiles to Himself.

As it’s been said, “God had originally separated Jews from Gentiles for the purpose of redeeming both groups, not for saving the Jews alone.”

But Israel failed again and again and lived just like the Gentiles, and so their light was dim and they failed to be a blessing to “all families of the earth” as God desired.

Paul says, “at that time,” in time past, the Gentiles lacked 5 privileges that the Jews enjoyed. As uncircumcised, unbelieving Gentiles they had no Messianic hope, no promise of a Deliverer, no expectation of His coming.

Christ came through Israel, the Gentiles were far from Him, had no knowledge of Him or connection with Him.

They, as Gentiles, were also “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,” or estranged and excluded from Israel and their theocracy and worship of God, and as aliens having no rights of citizenship among God’s people or hope of it in God’s kingdom on earth.

As Gentiles they had no covenant with God and were “strangers,” or had no part, no share in, “the covenants of promise,” that God made with Israel.

In these covenants God promised Israel to be a great nation in a great land, promising them a marvelous kingdom, being ruled by a wondrous King. God promised them blessing, prosperity, protection, and life.

Gentiles in time past Paul says had “no hope” and were “without God in the world.” They lived devoid of hope, having no basis for hope, no promises from God, no relationship with God, no revelation from the one true and living God.

Psalm 71:5 says, “For thou art my hope, O Lord GOD.” Psalm 146:5 says, “Happy is he, whose hope is in the LORD his God.” Being without Christ and without God, they were without hope, as we only have hope in Christ, our God.

John 4:22 says “Salvation is of the Jews.” In time past this was true, and being a Gentile and an alien of the commonwealth of Israel, meant that they were without hope and without God in the world.

Throughout God’s Word and history, man must come to God in God’s way in order to be saved, and in time past it was thru the Jews to come to God and be saved.

The picture painted here is of an unbelieving Gentile in time past, and the picture is tragic as they lived a Christless, Godless, homeless, hopeless existence.

Hope is offered and available to all today without distinction. Our hope today is through Christ and what He did for us at the Cross. Just believing the gospel, that Christ died for our sins and rose again, we have hope, hope of eternal life, and the hope of heaven.

Here in this passage, God wants us to remember the past of the nations in being far from God, that we as Gentiles might more fully appreciate our salvation and nearness to God and the blessings in Christ we have, which are all because of the grace of God.

Ephesians 2:13 says, “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.”

Just like the “But God” of verse 4, “But now” introduces the love and grace of God to sinners. It also introduces a dispensational change. God’s dealings with man have changed. It was to the Apostle Paul that this change was revealed.

But now in Christ we, Gentiles, who once were far off are brought near to God by the blood of Christ. “But now” expresses the way it is now.

Ephesians 1:12,13 and 2:8,9 tells us that we are saved today by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, by believing the “gospel of your salvation,” which is that Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again the third day.

We are not saved today, not through Israel, we don’t have to become a proselyte of Judaism, we are not saved through the physical rite of circumcision, and we are not saved through the covenants, or following the law, we are saved by the grace of God alone.

Paul turns from tragedy to triumph. Being saved by grace thru faith, we Gentiles, who once were far off, we are now made nigh to God, joined in a real, spiritual union with Christ and reconciled completely with God. We were without Christ, now we are in Christ.

Only the removal of our sin makes this possible. Our sin separated us from God, but “by the blood of Christ,” our sins are washed away and removed forever, we are righteous, redeemed, and we have been brought near to God, all by the shed blood of Christ.

Ephesians 2:14-18 reads, “For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;

“Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;

“And that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.”

Christ died not only to make peace between God and man, but between man and man.

Christ Himself is “our peace” between Jews and Gentiles, and today under grace, He “hath made both one.” He has removed the difference, and any spiritual enmity, barrier, hostility, and prejudice between Jew and Gentile by the Cross.

We are now united and one in position and privilege. There is one Lord and one Body, and we are one in Him. As Romans 10:12 says, “For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him.”

Pastor Jim Black tells the following: In 1949, following the defeat of Nazi Germany in WWII and as a result of the re-organization of Europe, the nation of Germany was divided into East and West.

In the East a communist government was set up under the influence of the Soviet Union. In the West a free, democratic government was set up and benefited greatly from the Marshall Plan and the economics of free enterprise.

Life became much better in the West for German citizens. The city of Berlin became a crucible where these divided philosophies would literally divide the city.

Fearful of losing many of its citizens, East Germany closed the border between the two states in 1952. But that didn’t keep an estimated 2.5 million East Germans from fleeing to West Germany between 1949 and 1961.

So in 1961 the East German government built the Berlin Wall and strictly enforcing such defections. The wall stood for almost 30 years as a very real and symbolic divide between the East and the West.

Those who had visited the wall before its destruction in 1989 said that they could feel the built-in suspicion and mutual distrust, the hatred and hostility, and the outright defiance represented by that wall.

East German guards would watch with keen eyes both sides of the wall making certain that no one came in or out. Many were killed trying to escape East Germany.

In 1987 during a speech given by President Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate, a section of the Berlin Wall in West Berlin, the President used the opportunity to encourage freedom and a new peace.

As he spoke about the wall behind him which separated West Berlin from East Berlin for decades, he appealed, “Mr. Gorbechev, tear down this wall!”

In November of 1989, the East German government held a press conference and lifted travel restrictions between the two Germanies. And Germans (both from the East and the West) scaled the wall and danced in celebration!

The wall was torn down and today nothing of it remains in a united Germany and a whole Berlin. The wall is gone, a thing of the past.

The “middle wall of partition,” the religious barrier between Jew and Gentile also has been broken down and is gone, as the dividing wall of the Law, between Jew and Gentile in the past has been removed by the Cross of Christ.

The divine ordinances of the Law were given by God to Israel and they stood as a wall between the Jews and Gentiles. It’s what set Israel apart from the nations.

The religious barrier between Jew and Gentile is seen from the discovery of the following inscription unearthed from Herod’s temple in Jerusalem, which hung between the Court of the Gentiles and the rest of the Temple.

The inscription reads: “No Gentile may enter the barricade which surrounds the Sanctuary and enclosure. Anyone who is caught doing so will have himself to blame for his ensuing death.”

But “in His flesh,” through Christ’s death and shed blood, He abolished the barrier and enmity between man and God and also between man and man.

The barrier between Jew and Gentile was the law, but Christ fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law and has made us free from the law by the Cross.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. He died our death, paid our penalty, and freed us all from the bondage of the law. Romans 10:4: “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.”

Having freed us from the Law, and having brought in the dispensation of Grace through Paul, Christ brought something new into existence: creating in Himself of “twain,” Jew and Gentile, “one new man,” the Church, the Body of Christ.

The word “new” means “previously unheard of, unlike anything existing before.” The Church of today, the Body of Christ, was totally unheard of, never mentioned before anywhere in God’s Word. Only Paul reveals it.

And only Paul reveals it, because Christ revealed it to Paul alone in giving him the revelation of the Mystery, which had been kept secret since the world began.

This “one new man” is made of up of new men and women, who are one and made new in Christ, who have been reconciled to God by the Cross, with the enmity between man and God being “slain” forever.

Romans 5:1 says: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The death of Christ procured peace and by His servants and ambassadors today Christ proclaims peace to this world, both to Gentile, or those which were “afar off” from God, and to the Jews, or “them that were nigh” to God.

Showing how our reconciliation is total and we are truly at peace with God, Paul says that through Christ we “both,” believing Jews and Gentiles, have common, equal, continuous, unbroken, and unhindered approach to God, free access unto the Father.

As members of Christ’s Body, we all have free access at all times to the Father, the God of glory, and He desires us to come to Him, bringing all needs to Him.

Access is to the Father is through the Son, by the Spirit (Trinity!). John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

Ephesians 2:19: “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God.”

Paul says “Now therefore,” or in light of all hostility with God being in your past forever, and reconciled fully to God because of Christ’s shed blood, we are no more strangers and foreigners from God and His promises and hope in Him.

Rather, we are “fellow citizens with the saints,” as we have a permanent citizenship in heaven, with all the other saints of this dispensation.

And we are also members of “the household of God.” We have heavenly citizenship and we have family membership as we are a part of the family of God. As members of Christ’s Body, we are family in Christ, and we are fellow citizens of heaven with all other believing Gentiles and Jews in this dispensation of grace. We are all one in Him.

Ephesians 2:20-22: “And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:

“In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”

The “apostles and prophets” here are apostles and prophets of grace who preached Christ according to his heavenly ministry, and who with Paul, the primary apostle of this dispensation, laid the foundation of Christ according to the mystery.

Paul said in I Thes. 2:6: “Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ.” These are identified in I Thes. 1:1 as Paul, Silas, and Timothy. (Paul and his fellow-laborers).

Paul and his fellow-laborers, the apostles, prophets, teachers and preachers like himself were foundational to the establishment of this dispensation of grace.

Christ is “the chief corner stone” of this foundation, Paul says. One commentator states, “The cornerstone was the major structural part of ancient buildings.

“It had to be strong enough to support what was built on it, and it had to be precisely laid, because every other part of the structure was oriented to it. The cornerstone was the support, the orienter, and the unifier of the entire building.”

This is exactly what Christ is to His Church. He is our support. We orient ourselves to Him and His will for this dispensation, and He unifies us as His Body.

In Christ, Paul says in verse 21, all the building is fitly framed together by Him, as the various parts of the building are precisely, skillfully, strongly, lovingly and beautifully fitted to each other, fitted together perfectly with every other part.

Nothing is out of place, nothing is haphazardly thrown together. Each part is fit exactly as Christ desires, so every part accomplishes the purpose He has in mind.

And this building “groweth” and is in the process of construction because new members, new believers are continually being added to it.

This temple is “holy” because in Christ, with our sins washed away, having Christ’s righteousness, its members are set apart, and perfect, and holy in Him.

Paul says in verse 22 that we Gentiles are being built together with the Jews into a single holy temple. This describes the new relationship between Jew and Gentile in the “one new man,” the new organism, the Church, the Body of Christ.

The Body of Christ corporately is the temple of God, and our individual bodies are temples of God as well.

Paul shows that we are a living, functioning, and precious part of this Temple, and we individually and collectively are a “habitation,” or a permanent dwelling place of God, through the Spirit.