Reading: Ephesians 2:11-22
Context: What was the historical relationship between Jews and Gentiles in Paul’s time?
Jews and Gentiles were antagonistically situated. The name Gentile is defined by not being a Jew. Jews were very proud of their identity and had practices that made them distinct from others. Rather than being a bridge to understand their God, the Jew would typically use their position to be standoffish and sceptical of the stranger unless it was a matter of political oppression. In that case, some would seek methods to integrate with power structures. In other cases, they would use it to deepen the division between the two. It is clear from how Paul writes that the Jews felt their identity gave them a sense of superiority over those who were not Jews because of their divine heritage.
This wasn’t just an attitude of the heart — it was written in stone. Literally so, in fact: the Temple in Jerusalem had a low wall known as the soreg, and any Gentile who passed beyond it into the inner courts risked execution, with inscriptions on the barrier warning them off in no uncertain terms. Circumcision was the other great dividing line. Jews saw it as the physical mark of God’s covenant with Abraham, so much so that Gentiles were dismissively labelled “the uncircumcision” — a label that reduced an entire people to what they lacked rather than who they were. It’s this very wall and this very label that Paul has in his sights when he later writes of Christ “breaking down the dividing wall of hostility” — he isn’t reaching for a vague metaphor; he’s pointing his readers to a barrier they could have walked past on any visit to Jerusalem. That’s what makes his argument so striking: he’s not softening the real, physical, and social hostility between the two groups; he’s naming it precisely so that the scale of what Christ has done in tearing it down can’t be missed.
Content: What barriers has Christ broken down, and how?
Barriers broken by Christ include. Barriers between Jews and Gentiles. Barriers between humanity and God. Barriers between humans as a whole. The barriers that prevent humans from experiencing true inner peace. If we stop to consider what Christ has done in breaking down the barriers, enabling access, and encouraging peace, that connects well with what we learned earlier about how we’re saved from the condition we were in. It’s a buildup, if you will, the kind of culmination and crescendo of how amazing it is that rebels against God by nature now have access to all the words God has expressed in connecting with humanity. All of this is done through Christ’s death and resurrection. In particular, the cross is the centre of Christ’s victory in breaking down those barriers. What He carried to the cross, what He bore on the cross, what was slain at the cross and what was overcome through the cross highlight why Jesus is worthy of our praise and adoration. It is not just because of the Cross, though. His resurrection and ascension reinforced and reaffirmed a new reality.
It’s worth being specific about the mechanics Paul names in Ephesians 2:14-16, because he doesn’t just say the barriers fell—he tells us what fell them. Christ “abolished in his flesh the law of commandments and decrees,” meaning it was specifically the ceremonial and ritual law — the regulations that functioned as a wedge between Jew and Gentile — that was set aside, not God’s moral character or standard for holy living. And crucially, Paul describes this as happening in one body, on the cross, so that the horizontal reconciliation between people and the vertical reconciliation between people and God happen at the very same moment and through the very same act. Christ doesn’t first fix our relationship with God and then, as an afterthought, fix our relationships with one another. He kills both hostilities in a single stroke, which is exactly why the “one new humanity” he creates isn’t just a nice sentiment but a structural fact of the gospel — access to the Father and access to each other were purchased together, by one Spirit, through one cross
Concept: What does it mean that believers are “fellow citizens” and “God’s household”?
Fellow citizens. Fellow? With who? With the people who had been entrusted with the precious truths of who God is and how He has always wanted to be with his people. This amazing and incredible development meant that, having been previously strangers to the relationship with God, Gentile believers were together with the Jews in being a part of the Kingdom of God. The way a people is made part of the identity of a tribe and state is what makes Gentiles part of the people of God. That’s a socio-political reality.
Being referred to as part of God’s household makes a socio-political reality now a family reality. It is an incredible affirmation and confirmation of our identity as a part of God’s family. God is calling us to His home. That means that the peace that we’re called to enjoy is the peace that makes us brothers and sisters as well as children in the home of God. We are now supposed to be like Him, as He is our Father, and His presence in us forms, shapes, and influences us.
Paul doesn’t stop at these two pictures — citizenship and family — because he immediately reaches for a third: believers are also living stones in a building, “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone”. That’s a deliberate escalation. A citizen has rights, a family member has belonging, but a stone in a temple has purpose — it exists to hold up something greater than itself and to make God’s presence visible to the watching world. The foundation Paul mentions isn’t a set of buildings or institutions but the revelation the apostles and prophets received and passed on about who Christ is and what He’s done, which means the whole structure only stands because it’s anchored to that testimony, with Christ himself as the cornerstone holding the two walls — Jew and Gentile — together at the point where they meet. So the household we’ve been welcomed into isn’t a static home to move into and settle down; Paul says it’s “growing” into a holy temple, still being built, which fits neatly with what we’ve already noted about being shaped and formed by God’s presence in us — it’s not a finished family photo, it’s a family still under construction.
Conclusions: How does this passage challenge modern divisions in the church?
We are challenged to consider again the huge implications of what Jesus has done. Our faith is not designed to be primarily individual. It is not about what God does for me. It’s what God has done for us. In Christ, the barriers broken lead to a life lived together in unity. We are one with God in Christ by His Spirit. Our identity is marked by how we’re all being built on the same foundation through the same Spirit for the glory of the same God. When Jesus returns, He will be returning for one church. The key factor that makes us one applies to all who believe in the name, the cross and the character of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not permission to compromise truth – because unity is based on truth. It affirms that truth does mean there is unity.
Our tendency to splinter and pursue individual paths, rather than working together, goes against what Jesus has made possible through the cross. We have to be mindful of what Christ has done in making us one. That aspect of the gospel must influence our relationship with the promises given to the Jews. It’s got to shape how we live in the light of Jesus, who has broken down all the barriers. Our access to God in Christ is our access. This truth must be treasured and cherished as we celebrate what He does in us, with us, and through us for His glory.
Next time:
WIWO – Ephesians – Episode Six: Paul’s Ministry to the Gentiles
Reading – Ephesians 3:1-13
What a marvellous truth to know that God has unity in mind for Jew and Gentile! This is why it’s a great privilege to take His Word In so we can live His Word Out.
For His Name’s Sake
C. L. J. Dryden
Shalom
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