Body-Ephesians 2:13-19

We have been examining during these days Ephesians 2. The first half of this chapter, verses 1 through 10, is a picture of what God does for all sinners who will trust in Christ. He tells us there that we have been raised and seated on the throne. We read there that the unsaved man is dead in trespasses and sins. That he has no hope. But by faith in Jesus Christ, he is raised from the dead and seated on the throne.

In other words, when you trust Jesus Christ as your savior, God lifts you from the lowest possible position, the graveyard of sin, and raises you to the highest possible position, the very throne of heaven. Now physically speaking, I'm here on earth. My feet are on the ground. But spiritually speaking, I'm seated with Jesus Christ in the heavenlies.

When the president of the United States makes a trip, whether it be to a different city or a different country, it makes no difference where he may be physically, his authority comes from Washington. Because he is the man who sits in the president's chair, he has authority. I recall when Queen Elizabeth II of England came to visit this country, regardless of where she went, she was the queen because she sits upon the throne. Where she was physically made no difference. It's what she was as far as her authority was concerned.

This is true of the Christian. There was a time when we were in the graveyard of sin, coffined in sin, dead, spiritually dead. And then we heard the voice of God, and the word of God spoke to us and we put our faith in Jesus Christ and he quickened us, he made us alive. He raised us from the dead, and then he put us on his throne. And today in Jesus Christ, every believer is seated in the heavenlies.

This is why Colossians 3 says, if ye have been risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. We have our feet on the ground, but our heart in the heavens. And because of this, we have victory. Verses 1 through 10, raised and seated on the throne. Verses 11 through 22, reconciled and set into the temple.

Now in verses 11 through 22, Paul is not talking to all sinners collectively, he's talking to Gentile sinners particularly. Notice what he says in verse 11, wherefore remember that ye being in times past, Gentiles in the flesh. He gives us the condition of the Gentile. He did not have the covenants of God, he was not the circumcised of God as were the Jews. Verse 12, without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

You see the Gentiles had a greater plight than the Jews, although the Jews had a greater guilt. God had chosen the Jews to be his special people. To them he had given the covenants, the law, the promises, the priesthood, the temple, the sacrifices. And yet when Jesus came, they rejected him. Instead of looking to Christ, to whom all of these things pointed, they looked away from Christ and held on to their religion. As a consequence, the nation today has no Messiah, has no altar, no priesthood, no temple, no hope until they turn to Christ. Now the Gentiles had never been given a covenant. God had never given the law to the Gentiles. God had given the law to his own people Israel. God had never given to the Gentiles a temple or a priesthood. They were heathen worshiping idols. Was there any hope for the Gentiles? Yes, there was.

Now the tragedy is back in the early part of the book of Acts, many of the Christians had the idea that the Gentiles had to become Jews before they could become Christians. And they had to be circumcised, and they had to go through the ritual. And in Acts 15, which chapter I trust you'll read in your leisure. In Acts 15, the church called a great council. And they examined the question of whether a Gentile could be saved apart from the law.

Surely, said these Jewish Christians, God doesn't intend to set apart the law. Why all of these centuries the Jews have had their glorious law, their temple, their priesthood. Are they are these things to be set aside? Is the Gentile to be saved without the law? And the answer was yes. Peter and Paul and the other witnesses there in Acts 15 agreed together that the law never saved anybody. It was a yoke of bondage. The law is not going to save you today. I know why people like to keep the law, it builds up their ego. Oh, we like to say we've done something. Our diet is spiritual, we didn't eat something today, or we didn't do this today, or we did this, or we did that. People love to do this. The law is a wonderful way to build your ego, to tell people how spiritual you are.

And yet Galatians, Romans 7, Acts 15, and the whole book of Hebrews make it very clear that the law was never given to save anybody. And it can't save anybody today. The law is the ministry of condemnation, and the law doesn't sanctify anybody. It's only through the work of the Holy Spirit that a person becomes more and more like Jesus Christ.

Don't you sit there and boast about your keeping of the law, because anyone who puts himself under the law is obligated to keep the whole law, and you've never kept the whole law. And if you break one little point of the law, you've condemned yourself. And so the law that you think is your salvation becomes your condemnation.

And so Paul points out here that these poor Gentiles who did not have the law, who did not have the priesthood and the temple and the sacrifices and all the spiritual blessings that the Jews had, nevertheless they did have a savior. Verse 13, but now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off, spiritually, are made nigh by the blood of Christ, for he is our peace. What kind of peace? He is the peace between a sinner and God. And he's the peace between the Jew and the Gentile.

Now for centuries there has been, both in Bible times and in modern times, antagonism between Jew and Gentile. The Gentile many times is prejudiced against the Jew and sometimes hates the Jew. This is wrong. This is wrong. Paul points out here that the only true peace between Jew and Gentile is through Jesus Christ. There never will be peace between Jew and Gentile until that peace is through Christ.

For some reason, and we know what it is partially, it's because of persecution. The Jewish nation has gone through more than any other nation. It's because of the enmity of the human heart against God's chosen people. And yet God has preserved his people. They still go through enmity, they still go through strife. But one of these days there's going to be peace among the nations and to the nation of Israel when Jesus comes back.

But he tells us here in verse 13 that the Gentiles were made nigh by the blood, and that Jesus Christ by dying on the cross has made peace between Jew and Gentile. Verse 14, for he is our peace, who hath made both one, both Jew and Gentile one in Christ, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us. What was the wall that stood between Jew and Gentile?Verse 15, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, the warfare, the contradiction, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances. Now please mark verse 15. It makes it very clear that when Jesus died on the cross, he abolished the law. This frightens people. They say, oh, does that mean that there's no law today? It means there's a new law today, the law of love.

Now nine of the ten commandments are repeated in the epistles for our obedience. Nine of them. The Apostle Paul in his letters repeats nine of the ten commandments. One of them he does not repeat, remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. The Sabbath law was a law given to the Jews, not to the Gentile. You won't find a Gentile nation keeping the Sabbath by nature. The law of the Sabbath was a sacramental law, it was a ceremonial type law given to the Jewish people.

And the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross set aside all legalism. Colossians 2 tells us that he bore on the cross the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, and he took it away, nailing it to his cross. And this is why the Jew and Gentile are one in Christ, because this legal wall has been torn down. In the temple in Jerusalem there was a literal wall between the court of the Gentiles and the rest of the building. On this wall was an inscription that threatened death to any Gentile who went past that wall and broke the law. Any Gentile who went past that wall in the temple and therefore violated the law, any Gentile who did that was to be killed. And yet Paul tells us here that the spiritual wall, the legal wall that stood between Jews and Gentiles was taken down at the cross. You see, at the cross the Lord Jesus Christ tore down a wall and began to build a temple. And that temple was made of living stones, Jews and Gentiles quarried out of the pits of sin, and we're all one in Jesus Christ.

Now, dear Bible student, please keep in mind as you study your Bible, there is a difference between churches and the church. When a person is born again, the instant he is saved, he becomes a part of the church, which only God can see. There are churches, local bodies of believers, and there is the church, the body of Christ. Over in Ephesians 4:3, we're told endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, there is one body.

Now with human eyes, we see many bodies. We see Presbyterians and Baptists and Lutherans and many different kinds of religious groups. In this world today, there are local bodies of believers, churches, and there is the church, the one body. Now I believe that when a person becomes a Christian, he ought to identify himself with a local church and go to work for God. He ought to be baptized, take his stand with God's people and serve the Lord. I do not believe in staying home and working for the invisible church. I don't think any Christian has a right to say, well, I belong to the Lord, that's all it really matters. In the New Testament, people also belong to local churches and went to work for God. Now many groups that call themselves churches are not churches, they're just clubs. God isn't there. Simply because you hang a sign in the front of a building does not mean that the people meeting in there are really a local church. In Revelation 2 and 3, the Lord Jesus Christ warns local churches that he can take away their lampstand, he can take away the light. And there are many groups across the world today who call themselves churches but who never really meet with Jesus Christ. It's just a club, just a religious society.

I trust that the group that you fellowship with is a true New Testament church, preaching the word of God and obeying what God has to say. Now he has made one, verse 14, he made both one. Verse 15, to make in himself of twain, of the two, of the Jew and Gentile, one new man, so making peace. Verse 16, that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.

So the Lord Jesus Christ has made peace between the sinner and God. He's made peace between the Jew and the Gentile, so that in the church there's neither Jew nor Gentile. There's neither bond nor free, there's neither male nor female, spiritually speaking, we're all one in Jesus Christ. This is the unity Paul talks about in Ephesians 4:3.

Now verse 18, for through him, through Christ, we both, Jew and Gentile, have access by one spirit unto the Father. You recall that once a year on the day of atonement, the high priest had access. He took the blood of the sacrifice, went back through the court of the temple or the tabernacle, through the holy place to the veil. That great big thick veil that stood between the holy place and the holy of holies. And with the blood of the sacrifice, the priest went through that veil into the holy of holies, into the presence of God. Once a year he had access into the presence, the throne room of God. You and I as Christians have access constantly through the Holy Spirit into the very presence of God. Ephesians 3:12, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faithfulness of him.

You see because Jesus Christ has died for us, he is our advocate in heaven. 1 John 2 says, my little children, these things write we unto you that you sin not. But if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one. The word advocate means lawyer. We have a lawyer in the throne room of heaven. And if we sin, we merely turn to our lawyer, the Lord Jesus Christ, who has died for our sin, and through him we have access. And we confess our sins and he forgives us and the fellowship is maintained. Access to God.

Now you and I don't have access to the Queen of England. We don't have access to the president. We can write him a letter, but some secretary will probably answer it, he'll never see it. But oh, every moment of the day we have access into the very throne room of God. This is the meaning of Romans 5. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. There's that peace that he brought. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand.

The word access means approach and introduction. It means an invitation to see the king. Hebrews 10 says that the Lord Jesus Christ has opened a new and a living way. Therefore, let us come boldly to the throne of grace. Since we have this wonderful access to the king, we ought to come to see him and fellowship with him through the Lord.

Now therefore, says verse 19, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, outcasts, rejects, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Here are three pictures of God's people. Fellow citizens, this means that we belong to a heavenly country. We're citizens of the same country. Philippians 3:20, but our citizenship is in heaven. From whence also we look for the savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our names are written down in heaven. In Luke 10, Jesus said, rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven. Fellow citizens. And we're also fellow citizens with the saints, and remember a saint is a living saint, not a dead one. And of the household of God. A beautiful picture of the church, God's household. God's household. Ye must be born again.

How do you get into God's household? By birth. God's family, as many as received him, to them gave he the privilege to become the children of God, even to them that believe on his name. God's household. And then God's temple. In our next lesson, the Lord willing, we're going to examine the temple. Stones in God's temple. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ came to build something. On the cross he broke down something. He broke down that wall that separated Jew and Gentile. He broke down that wall that separated sinners from God. But now he's building something. I will build my church. He's building something, he's building a temple. We're going to examine, the Lord willing, in our next lesson, God's temples in the Bible. There's seven of them.

And how the Lord Jesus Christ today is building a temple out of living stones, Jews and Gentiles, sinners who were quarried out of the pits of sin, and cemented by the grace of God into this wonderful spiritual temple that God's building and someday when this temple is completed, God's going to call the temple home to glory. As we close today, may I ask you, do you have this peace? Are you trusting in religion or in law? Are you trusting in something other than the grace of Jesus Christ? As I pray, you ask Christ to come into your heart and to save you.

Heavenly Father, we thank thee for the finished work of the cross. That the blood of Jesus Christ has made peace, and that through him we have access to God. Use this word now to speak to hearts. May there be those who will lift their hearts to Christ and be saved. In his name we pray. Amen.