REDEEMED,
RECONCILED, AND FOUNDED ON CHRIST – A BIBLICAL EXPOSITION OF EPHESIANS 2:11-22
By Ezekiel Kimosop
TEXT
Introduction
This passage is
contextually tied to the message conveyed in the preceding passage of Ephesians
2:1-10 which we examined under our previous study. Paul’s flow of thought
spills into the passage by reason of his use of the conjunctive adverb therefore
in v.11. In Ephesians 2:1-10, Paul taught that salvation is by God’s grace and
that the sinner should appropriate it through his exercise of faith. The
apostle also took time to described the pitiable state of sinful depravity in
which the Ephesians [and all sinners] were before God reached out to them in
Christ (cf. vv. 1-3). In today’s study, we shall examine the passage of
Ephesians 2:11-22. This will be done through three sections into which the
passage is theologically divided.
SECTION A
Brought Near by His Blood – Ephesians
2:11-13
11 Therefore
remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by
what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— 12 that
at that time you 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. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you
who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ (NKJV).
In vv. 11-13, Paul
introduces one area of cultural contention that separated Jews from Gentiles.
Jewish Christians insisted that Gentile believers were incomplete and
unacceptable before God unless they submitted to Jewish ritual circumcision.
The Gentiles were therefore derogatively referred to as the Uncircumcision
by ethnic Jews. Uncircumcised Gentiles were not permitted to enter the Jewish synagogue.
We learn from Acts 16:1-5 that Paul was compelled to circumcise Timothy so that
he could be effective in reaching out to the Jewish community because he was of
Greek heritage, a society that never practiced circumcision. Those called the Circumcision in v. 11 were
the radical Jewish group in Ephesus that insisted that Gentile believers must
be circumcised. This divisive issue was not unique to Ephesus. Paul emotively confronted
the circumcision issue in his address to the Galatians where radical Jews
insisted that circumcision was a means to justification for a believer (cf.
Galatians 3:1-9). Scripture however teachers that circumcision or the lack of
it is immaterial to the Christian faith. It does not earn anyone God’s favour. Obedience
to Christ is all that counts.
In the Ephesian
context, we learn that for three months, Paul had unsuccessfully attempted to
engage the Jews in a theological discourse in the synagogue at Ephesus (Acts
19:8-9). He finally gave up and founded an independent theological school known
as the school of Tyrannus (Acts 19:9-10). It is possible that the Gentile
believers in Ephesus were shunned by radical Jewish Christians. This sorry
state of affairs may have continued for a number of years. Paul was therefore
compelled to address this simmering conflict in his Epistle to the Ephesians. Bob
Utley observes that the use of the perfect passive participle in v.12 for
“excluded” (NASB, NJB) or “being aliens” (NKJV, NRSV) or “foreigners” (TEV) is
evidence that the Gentiles “have been and continued to be excluded” from God
without Christ.[1]
They were previously alienated from the commonwealth of Israel under the old
covenant and from a holy and righteous God under Adam. In v. 13, the reference to Gentiles being
brought near to God by the blood of Christ is evidence of the impact of the
atonement on sinners who were previously alienated from God in Adam.
A second
theological observation that can be drawn from this passage relates to the distinction
between the new covenant in Christ and the Old Covenant under Moses from which
radical Jews drew their religious inspiration. The Mosaic covenant excluded and
alienated Gentiles while the New Covenant in Christ brought Gentiles into the
fold of God’s household. The former is therefore a unifying covenant that
obliterates the racial prejudices that kept the two societies apart. It is
instructive that Jews and Gentiles were all alienated from God and that the Old
Covenant was unable to break the curse in Adam until Christ.
Reflection
point: Can you point
out some of the ethnic or religious prejudices that separate Christians
communities today? Sometimes ethnic language is deliberately used in an urban
church to technically keep out Christians from certain/other communities from
joining the church. Have you come across religious groups that insist on some
ritual initiation process that is not commanded in Scripture? In some contemporary
societies, the sophistication and nobility of the influential social class is
asserted in a Christian community to separate the affluent from the materially
disadvantaged members of the society. This practice is ungodly in our Christian
context and is expressly condemned in Scripture (James 2:1-13).
Paul speaks of the
experience of Gentile believers in the past, saying that they were isolated
from God’s covenant people until Christ (v.12). Jesus bridged the racial divide
through His atonement that placed Gentiles and Jews on one divine platform –
the unified church (v.13). Elsewhere in Scripture, Paul confronts the racial
divide that separated Jewish and Gentile believers. The
Gentile believers should therefore not suffer from an inferiority complex. They
should pride in their heritage in Christ.
Galatians 3:26-29 says,
“26 For
you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as
many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There
is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is
neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if
you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs
according to the promise.” (NKJV).
SECTION B
Christ Our Peace – Ephesians 2:14-18
14 For
He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle
wall of separation, 15 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, 16 and
that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross,
thereby putting to death the enmity. 17 And He
came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were
near. 18 For through Him we both have
access by one Spirit to the Father. (NKJV).
Christ is revealed
as a peacemaker who reconciled peoples and nations that were historically
separated by racial and religious distinctions. The middle wall of separation
is an allegorical reference to the deep racial divide that kept the two
societies apart. Christ abolished the law of commandments in ordinances by His
incarnate coming so that He could create a new, universal religious order
though his atoning death. The gospel was meant for those afar off (Gentiles)
and those near (Jews) so that the two diametrically opposed societies were
ultimately united in Christ. Notice that the reference to the
law of commandments contained in ordinances (v.
15) is illustrative of the negative impact of religious legalism in keeping the
two societies apart. Christ abolished this on the cross. A “new man” [a
symbolic reference to the church of Christ] was ultimately created by the
fusion of the two distinct societies so that neither should pride in or be
constrained by those cultural and religious obstacles again.
Three dimensions of peace can be deduced from v.14 –
peace between God and mankind (Colossians 1:20); peace with God through Christ
(John 14:27; Philippians 4:7) and peace between peoples and nations (Ephesians
2:11; 3:13). The text of vv. 16-18 is a rephrase of what has already been
taught in vv.14-15. It serves as a theological emphasis in this context.
Believers are therefore primarily Christians before they
are members of an ethnic or racial community. This is not to suggest that
ethnic identity is irrelevant and offensive per se. Offensive and prejudicial cultural
exigencies or practices should not be embraced or accommodated in a cosmopolitan
Christian society. They should be discarded in our engagement under the
newfound relationship with Christ and with fellow believers.
Reflection Point:
There are Christian sects that place inordinate emphasis on certain divisive practices
or doctrines informed by their traditions but which contradict the fundamental
truths of Scripture. These include:
i)
Overemphasis on particular sets of Christian
liturgy or patterns of worship.
ii)
Insisting that a certain day of the week is
more appropriate for worship.
iii)
Venerating church leaders to divinity.
iv)
Observing dietary laws that are not
commanded in Scripture.
v)
Over shepherding their flock – exerting too
much control on believers or followers.
SECTION C
Christ Our
Cornerstone – Ephesians 2:19-22
19 Now,
therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with
the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief
cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a
holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a
dwelling place of God in the Spirit. (NKJV)
Paul concludes the
passage of Ephesians 2 by exhorting Gentile believers in Ephesus [and us] not
to consider themselves strangers but fellow citizens and members of God’s
household of faith founded on Christ and the apostolic tradition which is
distinct from Judaism. The cornerstone of Judaism was the Mosaic tradition and
the law. The unified church is metaphorically depicted as God’s holy temple in
Christ that grows (v.21). This leaves no doubt that racial prejudices under
Judaism should be a thing of the past. Those who are in Christ are a new community
of God’s people.
CONCLUSION
The passage of
Ephesians 2:11-22 reveals that our Christian faith is complete in Christ and no
additional ritual is required from believers. It confirms that racial or ethnic
prejudice is ungodly and should not be embraced in a Bible-centered Christian
community. All believers irrespective of their racial or ethnic distinctions
are one in Christ. Believers have been drawn into reconciliation and communion
with God by the blood of Jesus Christ which broke the walls that previously
separated them. God has therefore reconciled all men in Christ. Jesus is the
cornerstone of our faith, the foundation on which the church is built and by
which she grows (1 Corinthians 3:5-17).
© Ezekiel Kimosop
2024
[1] Bob Utley, Ephesians
2 in Bible.org., https://bible.org/seriespage/ephesians-2-0 accessed 17
September 2024.
Blessed Rev, thanks for the teaching
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