Ephesians - Lesson 15

In Ephesians chapter 2 verses 11 through 22, Paul is now going to infer from the propositions he made in verses 1 through 10. Verses 1 through 10, remember he said that you Gentiles and we Jews were dead in trespasses and sins until God worked. He made us alive together with Christ.

He supernaturally resurrected Jews and Gentiles from the dead and he did what Ezekiel promised he would do in the Messianic Age by means of putting his spirit within his people and giving them spiritual life. So now what Paul is going to do is once again make the argument that these Gentiles are sharing in the redemptive promises that God gave to Jews as Gentiles who are in the Messiah. And Jews have those promises fulfilled in Christ by means of, for them, by means of their union with Christ as well so that Jews and Gentiles together experience the same spiritual blessings.

He begins by talking about these Gentiles who as Gentiles had no natural ethnic connection to these Jewish promises of redemption related to the Messiah. So he says in verse 11, he says, therefore, there's an old preacher saying that that says if you ever see the word therefore ask yourselves why is it there for? And so it's there because the argument that he just made about deadness and trespasses and sins and how God has worked to resurrect them from the dead and the consequences would be therefore you remember you at that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision which is made in the flesh by hands. Verse 12 you remember.

Now I'm going to come back to verse 12 in a moment but I want to first talk about the explicit ethnic language he uses in chapter 2 verse 11. There has been for a long time in certain popular Christian conversations this idea that Christianity is somehow this trans-ethnic community where there is no such thing as a certain ethnicity anymore but we're all just Christians and there's no ethnic distinction. There's much scholarship that has been done to show that that is not the case when you're thinking about the ancient Christian movement.

We see here Paul is emphasizing that these Gentiles are Gentiles and again as I've said before to be a Gentile means you're not Jewish. It means here that you are not part of the ethnic family of Abraham. You're not connected to the ethnic offspring of Abraham and David.

You're not connected by means of circumcision or Torah. You're not connected by means of your relationship to a law and to a land and to a temple and he wants them to understand that as Gentiles before God worked in them that's where he's going but as Gentiles apart from faith in Jesus Christ they had no access naturally to these promises to Jews and in fact he emphasizes this when he says you Gentiles notice this in the flesh. Why would he talk about the flesh? Remember he's talked about flesh in the previous verses in chapter 2 but here he's not talking about flesh as a sinful power.

Here he's talking about flesh as circumcision versus uncircumcision. In other words they did not have the mark of the Abrahamic covenant. He says it doesn't he there in verse 11 he says in the flesh you recall the uncircumcision.

So think back with me if you will to David and Goliath. There's a passage in the Old Testament in that story where David is basically asking the question why are people afraid of this uncircumcised Philistine and that statement is not a statement where he is simply throwing away words. He's making a very important theological point that these Gentiles and particularly this uncircumcised Philistine does not have the mark of the people of God.

He's not part of God's covenantal family therefore since God fights for his people Israel he's going to do so through David. Why is it that people are afraid of this Philistine when God in fact has promised he's going to fight for his people and therefore who is this uncircumcised Philistine to fight with God? We also know going back again to Genesis chapter 17 that circumcision was the mark of the Abrahamic covenant. Now in one sense I think we would all agree that technically Abraham wasn't Jewish right? We know from Abraham's offspring we get the 12 tribes of Israel because Jacob's name is changed to Israel and Jacob's children are the 12 tribes of Israel but technically Abraham was the proto-Jew who was not a Jew and he's circumcised in Genesis 17.

He's the father of all the families of the earth and he's the father of Israel if you will and then the Abrahamic covenant is a covenant that's folded within Leviticus chapter 12 verse 3 the sign of the covenant that is namely circumcision. So Paul is making the point here that Gentiles had no access to that because they were not those who received the mark of circumcision. So he wants them to remember and in that time question for you what time? There's work in Paul Line Scholarship on time in Paul.

Scholars we do have a lot of time on our hands to do research thank God and sometimes we write books about time in the Bible and it's not a recent thing it's been happening for years but a recent book on Paul and time has come out in New Testament Scholarship. When we think about Paul's understanding of salvation and Jew-Gentile relations we always need to ask ourselves what time is it for Paul? The reason why Paul has this massive shift in his thinking is because the time now is the messianic age time. It's the time when the Lord came in and ushered in this inauguration of new creation and the outpouring of the spirit promise and the prophets.

But one thing Paul mentions here in terms of time I think is he wants them to remember that at a particular time in their lives that they he'll say in a moment had no access to Israel. The time to which he refers is the time he's just mentioned in 2 1 through 10. The time which they were dead in trespasses and sins.

So he wants them to remember therefore that when you I'll just say it this way were dead in trespasses and sins as Gentiles who did not receive the mark of the covenant who had no access to the natural promises that God had given to his ethnic people Israel and that time when you were dead in transgressions and sins remember that you were called those who did not receive the mark of the covenant as uncircumcised by the so-called circumcised in the flesh. Verse 12. Remember that you were at that time separated from I'm going to translate it this way from Messiah as Gentiles who were dead in trespasses and sins they had no natural connection to the Davidic offspring.

They had no connection to the promises God to Abraham and to David and David remember given a particular promise in 2 Samuel chapter 7 12 and following that he's going to receive a seed and that seed would be the king the ruler forever these Gentiles had no natural biological ethnic connection. Let me say it this way we Gentiles had no natural ethnic biological connection to these promises but instead we were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. That word Israel is important.

There's also recent work on who is Israel in the Bible. The question that one scholar is asking is is that when the Bible talks about Jew is that a separate category from Israel? The reason he's asking the question is because when you think about Israel, Israel being one part of the kingdom the northern part of the kingdom and Judah being the southern part of the kingdom and Samaria being part of that northern part of the kingdom known as Israel. So one argument that's being made is that that all Jews have some connection to Israel but not all who are of Israel are Jews hence the Samaritans.

So a question we must ask ourselves then when we see this word commonwealth of Israel what is he saying? Is he saying you were not part of the twelve tribes or particularly a part of the northern kingdom or is he using Israel synonymous with Jew? That's a question that I can't answer in detail in this lecture but at the very least I think we can say the point is that they are not ethnically connected with the commonwealth of Israel. They're not Abraham's offspring. He's not merely in other words in my view making a geographic statement.

He's making a statement about whether they are in fact part of the original promises given to this ethnic people connected to Abraham's offspring and since he's used the word Gentiles he seems to be basically making the point that these Gentiles are not Jews even if Israel has a specific designation in how Paul uses the term in other places. So they're alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and they're strangers to the covenants of promise. What covenants is he to which is he referring? At the very least I think he's referring to the Davidic covenant, 2 Samuel chapter 7 verses 12 and following.

It's a very important covenant that God made with David. Could also be referring to the Mosaic covenant perhaps where you had God at Sinai promising that our covenant with Israel to be their God and giving them stipulations to follow that that was given those covenants and those promises were given to ethnic Jews. At the very least we could say he's talking about those two covenants the basic point being that Gentiles had no natural connection with that.

Gentiles did have a connection with the Abrahamic covenant because Abraham technically was not a Jew and so God is going to bless Abraham. He's going to bless all the families of the earth through Abraham, for Abraham, and in Abraham. So in my reading at the very least he seems to be saying that Jews had or Gentiles rather had no natural connection to the promises that God or the covenants that God made with Israel at Sinai.

The promise of for example if you do what the law says you live long in the land. There's a covenant that he made with Israel that comes with that promise. Likewise with David perhaps as well.

But instead these Gentiles were strangers and they had no hope. Remember the word for hope for Paul is a word of certainty, confident expectation that God will do everything he's promised to do. It's not a question of uncertainty and that the Gentiles had no hope.

No hope with respect to what? No hope with respect to being the recipients of God's redemptive promises that he gave to his people. But instead, verse 12, they were without God in the world. Now it's Paul's second use by my count of the term world here.

I think previously as I said he used the term world to talk about the realm over which the anti-God powers are ruling and reigning. The cosmic forces of evil of this world. Here he simply I think is using the term world to talk about within the universe in which they live that they were without God in the world.

They were not part of the commonwealth of Israel. They were not part of the promises of God given to Israel. They were strangers to those promises.

Atheists if you will in some sense in the world. But then something happened in verse 13. But now notice that adverb there verse 13.

But now notice Paul's shift in time. So again Paul's about to answer a question for these Galatians or Ephesians that they're not answering. What time is it? The time is Messiah time.

This was true of who you were as Gentiles prior to your faith in Christ. This is true about who you were prior to God raising you from the dead. But now verse 13 in Christ Jesus once again emphasizing union with Christ in Christ Jesus you notice the shift of adverb the shift of pronoun again you who who once were far off you've been brought near by the blood of Christ.

So important statement there. This language of far off and being brought near he uses it again here in a moment. And if you read Isaiah chapters 40 through 66 we see that Israel was far off because she had disobeyed God's law and God had taken her into exile and is promising yes future restoration.

And he is he is calling those out of exile who were far off that is Jews who were far off not following the law but Jews who were also following the law who were who went into exile with those who disobeyed the law. He is drawing those Jews and Isaiah who are far and near back to the land delivering them out of exile. He says in 40 to 66 I think specifically of 57 verse 19.

However here he's applying that language of far and near to Gentiles in order to give us a Christological eschatological reading in which he's redefining who are the people of God and the Messiah Jesus. You Gentiles who were once far off you've been brought near by the blood of Messiah the blood of Messiah Isaiah 53 for example the redemption that the Lord promised is realized through the blood of the Messiah for these Gentiles not by means of these Gentiles adopting a Jewish way of life by entering into the covenant community via Torah observance. It's so important that we hear that.

The argument that he is making here is not an argument that says Judaism no grace Christianity grace that's not the argument. The argument is that these Gentiles receive these redemptive promises that he gave to Jews in Christ Jesus by the blood of Christ not by observance of Torah. Now parenthetically that's also true for Jews as well that Jews as Paul has said previously in the verses that we read that Jews were dead in trespasses and sins and they were children of wrath until God worked and made Jews and Gentiles alive together with Christ.

But at least ethnic Jews had an ethnic connection to these promises that Gentiles did not have. And here he's emphasizing Gentile inclusion into these promises and the means by which they were brought near are by the means by the blood of Christ. So remember in chapter 1 verse 7 Paul says in Christ Jesus we have redemption by his blood the forgiveness of our trespasses.

Notice how he says we have redemption by his blood. And here in chapter 2 he's saying these Gentiles are brought near by his blood the sacrificial death of Jesus. I hope you hear the cultic language here.

The sacrificial death of Jesus shed for Jews and Gentiles. The basis upon which these Gentiles are included in the promises of God in Christ. It's the means by which they are included in these messianic promises their union with Christ because of Jesus's shed blood and their belief in the gospel brings them near.

So a word here about theologically about the blood of Christ this is Paul's way of talking about at my view substitution at some level that it's not something they experience because of their ability to live a Jewish way of life is that Jesus's blood was shed for them and as a result of Jesus's death for them his blood shed for them they receive the saving benefit of Gentile inclusion. In my view that is one of the basic truths about the concept of substitution that Jesus is dying vicariously in order to provide a soteriological benefit for those for whom he dies. Here his blood is the reason for which these Gentiles have been brought near to these promises.

That's what he means when he says brought near brought near to the commonwealth of Israel. They're no longer strangers and aliens. Remember Abraham was a sojourner headed toward a land.

These Gentiles were outside of these promises but now in Christ they are included and they're headed toward the inheritance. They're headed toward the kingdom of God along with these Jews. They're brought near the family of God.

Why? Well he says it in part at the end of verse 13 but he's going to further explain it in verses 14 and following. As you can tell in my teaching style I get a little bit worked up from time to time. I want to warn you in advance I'm going to get really worked up here in verses 14 and following because what Paul says in 14 and following is a massive shift in thinking for verse 14.

Here's why what he said about these Gentiles is true for he himself is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. All right so much there let me pause at verse 14 and unpack some of these words here and we'll continue into verse 15. First in verse 14 notice the reason why these Gentiles while we are brought near by the blood of Christ because Jesus is our peace.

He's the prince of peace drawing from Isaiah again. He's the prince of peace. He is the one who brings reconciliation.

He is the one who has made us notice it both one and has broken down this hostility. He has made Jews and Gentiles two separate groups of people to be one by means of coming to make peace. When Paul thinks about Gentiles as I've said everybody who is not a Jew is a Gentile.

It doesn't matter where you're from. It doesn't matter your skin color. It doesn't matter your dialect.

It doesn't matter what your political party is. If you're not a Jew you are a Gentile and Gentiles were ethnically diverse as well. You had Gentiles in Greece and Rome and Africa all over the world.

Gentiles from Kentucky, from New York, from Nigeria all over the world. In fact, Jews themselves were diverse and spread throughout the world. Paul’s point here is that you have these two groups: Jews on the one hand, who had an ethnic connection to the promises, and Gentiles on the other hand, who did not. Yet they are brought together by means of a bloody cross. Hear this: Jesus Christ is forever and always a Jew from Nazareth. This Jewish Messiah the second person of the Trinity chose to take on Jewish flesh, not American flesh. God did not become generic humanity; God became a Jewish man. He took on a Jewish way of life, Jewish customs, and entered into a Jewish family because God promised to do something for the Jewish people and to include Gentiles in those promises. And the way He did it was by means of the bloody cross of His Jewish Son, which created peace between these groups of people. This peace anticipates reconciliation, which we will talk more about in a moment. Notice Paul says that Jesus is our peace, who has made us both one. He does not say He made us both the same. In Paul’s theology, ethnic difference is not erased but transformed. The power of the gospel is not that ethnic identities disappear, but that people from different ethnic groups become brothers and sisters in Christ while maintaining real distinctions. We are one not because we are the same but because we are in Christ.

So Paul says He has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh by His death the dividing wall of hostility. What is this dividing wall? Paul is offering a Christological reflection on the law and on Jew-Gentile relations. As a Christ-following Jew who did not stop being Jewish, Paul now understands the law differently in the messianic age. The law was not evil; it was holy, righteous, and good. God gave the law to Israel after election and redemption, not so Israel could earn salvation, but to live distinctly for Yahweh. However, the law functioned as a wall of hostility because it separated Jews and Gentiles through patterns of purity and behavior. It marked Israel off from the nations and their gods. Second Temple Jewish texts, such as the Letter of Aristeas, even describe the law as a wall dividing Jews and Gentiles to prevent improper mingling. The law did not provide the peace Jesus provides; it did not create one new humanity. Gentiles could only cross that boundary through Torah observance in some Jewish perspectives. But now, Paul says in verse 15, Jesus has become our peace by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances.