FREE PREVIEW: Ephesians 2:11-22: One in Christ
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Introduction
Last week we saw how Christ reconciles individuals to God, raising the spiritually dead to new life. This week Paul turns to a second, equally glorious dimension of the cross: how Christ reconciles former enemies to one another, creating out of the two a single new people. The great division of the ancient world was between Jew and Gentile, a chasm that seemed unbridgeable. Paul declares that Christ has demolished the dividing wall and built the two into one household — a holy temple where God Himself dwells.
I. The DIVISION — Once Far Off and Without Hope (vv. 11–12)
“You were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” (Ephesians 2:12)
Paul commands his Gentile readers to remember what they once were: cut off from Christ, excluded from God’s covenant people, strangers to His promises, without hope, and without God in the world. It is a devastating portrait of alienation — and the dark backdrop against which the reconciling work of Christ shines.
II. The DEMOLITION — The Dividing Wall Torn Down in Christ (vv. 13–18)
“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of partition.” (Ephesians 2:13–14)
Then comes the great reversal: “but now.” At the cross, Christ Himself became our peace, tearing down the wall that divided Jew from Gentile and creating out of the two one new humanity. The cross reconciles both to God and to each other, killing the hostility and giving both access to the Father.
III. The DWELLING — Built Together into a Holy Temple (vv. 19–22)
“You are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God... in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:19, 22)
The formerly excluded are now full members — fellow citizens and family in God’s household. And Paul reaches a stunning climax: the reconciled people, Jew and Gentile together, are being built into a holy temple, the very dwelling place of God on earth. Unity is not the end; it is the place where God lives.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain.
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