"Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone."
-Ephesians 2:19-20
Last week we studied the second half of Ephesians chapter 2. I've really been enjoying our Ephesians Bible studies in YDJ. In the first two chapters, Ephesians talks a lot about how Christ changed our situation. In chapter one, Paul talks about how we were unwanted, but in Christ we are chosen. In chapter two we learn about how we were dead, but are made alive in Christ. In the latter part of Ephesians, we will learn about how we were once separated, but are now reconciled in Christ. Paul wrote the letter of Ephesians at a time when Gentiles and Jews did not get along. This was not a small matter; the Jews and Gentiles did not even like to associate with each other. The Jews knew that they were the chosen people of God, and they did not share that with others. They excluded anyone who was not a Jew from God's covenant. They saw Gentiles as unclean people who could never be a part of God's chosen people. The Jews took all of God's blessings for themselves, and made sure that the Gentiles knew that they were not included. You can imagine that this caused hostility between Jews and Gentiles.
We see in this passage that Paul is writing to Gentiles. He reminds them of the fact that they were not included in all of God's blessings, since they are not Jewish. Paul tells them of how the Jews treated them. The Gentiles were separated from the Jews, and therefore did not have the hope of God that the Jews enjoyed. The Gentiles probably thought that there was no way that they could enter into God's covenant. However, Paul reminds them that in Christ, all can enter into God's promises.
Paul says that Jesus has brought us peace through the cross. All hostility between the two groups is destroyed in the power of the cross. When Jesus died on the cross, the veil separating the most holy place from people was torn in two. This signified the removal of the barrier between God and man. I believe that this also signified the removal of the barrier between Jew and Gentile. Now that the veil was torn, anyone could enter into the most holy place, where God was. In Christ, everyone has access to the Father, regardless of who they are.
This idea that Jew and Gentile both had access to God would probably have been hard for them to accept. How could they reconcile two groups who were so hostile to each other for so long? They have to learn to accept each other in Christ. They probably could never accept each other outside of Christ. There was simply too much separating them. However, think about what Christ has done on the cross. Think about how much separated us from God. We are sinners, unholy and unclean, but God is holy. There is no way God could accept us, except through Christ. In the same way, the only way the Jews could accept the Gentiles is through Christ. Christ has allowed everyone into His Kingdom, as long as they believe.
So how does this apply to us? Simply put, we cannot exclude anyone from God's blessings. All of the blessings that I've talked about in Ephesians one and two are for all people. God has no requirements except that we believe. We can't let our differences separate us from each other. We were all lost at one point, but through Christ we are all God's children. Romans three says it best, "This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." The cross was not only to reconcile us to God, which it certainly has, but to reconcile us to each other.
-Smart
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