Chapter 2

 
(Ephesians 2:1-9 KJV) "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins: {2} Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: {3} Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. {4} But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, {5} Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) {6} And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: {7} That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. {8} For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: {9} Not of works, lest any man should boast."

There was (and is) a pernicious idea that there was one method of salvation for Jews (the law), and another method for Gentiles (Grace). Paul buried that idea in his letter to the Galatians. It rose up again, and Paul buried it again here in the letter to the Ephesians. The emphasis, “lest any man should boast,” utterly precludes a different salvation for Jews. Remember that this is essentially a Gentile church.

(Ephesians 2:10-14 KJV) "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. {11} 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; {12} 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: {13} But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. {14} For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;"

The “middle wall of partition” is described byJosephus as the balustrade or railing that separated the court of the Gentiles from the Temple proper–something not required in the Law of God. There was an inscription on this wall that read: “No Foreigner may enter within the barricade which surrounds the sanctuary and enclosure. Anyone who is caught doing so will have himself to blame for his ensuing death.” This law is purely a tradition of men, a dogma of the Jews.

At the time Paul wrote this, the biggest single set of barriers known to him were those that existed between the Jewish church and the Gentile church. We know from history that this division existed and there are hints of it in the Bible. It was almost as though there were churches for Jews and churches for Gentiles, and never the two should meet. From where Paul sat, this was totally unacceptable.

Some of the Jewish Christians were thinking of unity as an exclusionary process. They were willing to exclude everything that didn’t match their criteria for membership. What Paul wanted was a unity of inclusion. He wanted everyone gathered together in Christ.

Forty years ago, there were over 400 different Christian denominations and sects in America. They could actually be cataloged and described. By now the number is incalculable and I am not sure anyone cares enough to catalog them all. The picture can be very confusing, and it is easy to understand why many churchmen generations ago, were opposed to publishing the Bible in the vernacular. It wasn’t so much that they were afraid someone would find them out, although they may have feared some unanswerable questions. They feared what has finally come to pass.

If you want to find a new niche in Christianity where no one has gone before, you will have to look hard. Every imaginable interpretation of the Bible has spawned every imaginable sect and cult.

Don’t get me wrong, I am all in favor of people reading the Bible in their own tongue. But there are inevitable consequences that arise from this. It is in the nature of man to divide, and that may not be all bad. Something happens to human beings at age two and again in the early teen years. It is almost like a switch is flipped in their brains, and they have to begin asserting their independence. Both periods, terrible twos and early teens, are dangerous in their own way.

In the same way, there is something in man that leads him to want to move beyond the canned corporate worship of the church and find his own personal relationship with God. This, too, is not all bad–we were probably made that way. But this too is dangerous. There are plenty of ways we can mess up our lives and God is not amused by some of the shenanigans of religious people.

But when Paul wrote his letter to the Ephesians, only thirty or so years after the ascension of Christ, things had not developed so far. There was one singular point of division that persisted in the early church, and it clouds Paul’s letters and leads many people to wrong conclusions. That singular division in the early church was between Jew and Gentile, but even to say that is an oversimplification. From the very earliest times, there was an element in the church (which was exclusively Jewish at the time) that wanted nothing to do with Gentiles. They would not eat with Gentiles. They would not socialize with Gentiles in any way. There is a revealing passage in Galatians 2 that shows how it worked:

Now there is something really important in that passage that is all but overlooked by most Christian teachers. There was not a different means of Salvation in the Old Testament from the New Testament. Some Bible students assume that in the Old Testament, men were justified by works of the law, while in the New Testament, men are justified by the grace of Christ. But Paul makes it plain that is not so: “By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.”

Here is another thing that does not seem to be widely understood. There is not a word in the Law of Moses that creates a barrier between Jew and Gentile. Rather the contrary is true. Prepare yourself for a surprise.

There was one service in Israel that required circumcision, but even that service was not forbidden to the Gentiles. Apart from this, there seem to be no restrictions at all on Gentiles, and certainly no command not to eat with them. Consider this passage:

Leviticus 19:33

And here is one more you probably have never heard:

Numbers 15:14

You read it right. A gentile could offer a burnt offering to God. God is at pains to make it clear that he may be worshipped by Israelite and Gentile side by side.

Deuteronomy 10:17-18

Then where did this idea that Jews couldn’t eat with Gentiles come from? It certainly didn’t come from the written Law of Moses. It came from the oral law, the traditions of Pharisaic Judaism. (The very word Pharisee implies separation.)

(Ephesians 2:15 KJV) "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;"

The enmity spoken of here is plainly the enmity between Jew and Gentile. It has been interpreted as an enmity between God and man along with the idea that it is the Ten Commandments that were abolished. The word for “enmity” implies hostility or “a reason for opposition.” The Ten Commandments created no hostility, but the Jewish oral law certainly did. These “ordinances” mentioned in this passage (the Greek word is dogma) have nothing to do with the Ten Commandments, but solely with the dogmas of sectarian Judaism. There was nothing in the law of the Old Testament to cause enmity between Jew and Gentile. That enmity was created by the commandments of men in the ordinances of Judaism.

Note verse 16, that it is “both” Jew and Gentile who must be reconciled to God, and so to one another.

(Ephesians 2:16-17 KJV) "And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: {17} And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh."

In Hebrew, these two expressions, “those who are near and those who are far off,” are ways of describing Jews and Gentiles. Thus the emphasis is on the perceived segregation. Jesus did not abolish the Ten Commandments, but the Jewish laws that created enmity between Jew and Gentile.

The theme of unity is already well under way and will be developed more thoroughly in chapter four, but at this point, Paul begins to shift into his “building” analogy which he will develop more thoroughly in the next chapter. The focus of the letter, as is apparent from vv. 11 and 19, is the Gentile element which has been treated as second class saints by some in the Jewish segment of the church. Both Jew and Gentile must be “fitly framed together” as an “habitation for God in the Spirit.”

(Ephesians 2:18-22 KJV) "For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. {19} Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; {20} And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; {21} In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: {22} In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit."












 

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