Reconciled (2)

We have to understand the context for the book of Ephesians. A spiritual leader, Paul, is writing to give spiritual instruction to a church he started in a city called Ephesus. And in this church were two kinds of people: Jews and Gentiles.

And between the Jews and the non-Jews, there were centuries of hurts and abuse and disagreement and suspicion.

The Jews were God’s chosen people. And they had become proud and developed an attitude toward everyone else. They viewed non-Jews as “uncircumcised dogs.” They shook the dust off their feet after traveling in non-Jewish territory before coming back to the Holy Land because they didn’t want to defile their land. They weren’t supposed to even eat with a Greek or a Roman.

So, keep this in mind as you read the Bible today. We can’t even begin to understand the radical nature of what we’re going to read here unless we keep in mind this centuries-long hostility that had existed between the Jews and the Gentiles.

Here, Paul is writing to non-Jewish followers of Christ there in Ephesus.

12 You were… separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

This is the second time in Ephesians 2 that we are reminded of our lives apart from Christ. We see “The Way We Were.” In Ephesians 2:1-3, we learned that we were dead, disobedient, and doomed. Here, we learn that we had no relationship with Christ; we were not on friendly terms with the promises of God; we had no ultimate hope; we had no saving knowledge of God. We were Christ-less, friendless, hopeless, and God-less. That’s what we were like apart from Jesus Christ. That’s bad news.

In Ephesians 2:4, we see a turning point in the passage: But God. And in Ephesians 2:13, we see another turning point. It’s similar: But now in Christ… Christ shows up and changes everything for Christ-less, friendless, hopeless, and God-less people.

13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility
15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,
16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
17 And He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.
18 For through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
Ephesians 2:12-18 (ESV)

Being in Christ Jesus changes everything. We have been reconciled to God. If we’ve been reconciled to Him, how dare we stay un-reconciled to another?