The End of Partition

Read: Ephesians 2:13-15  

God only has one ‘people’ – his elect, the redeemed multitude of every age. We are told about them in Revelation 5:9  This unity of the redeemed people of God is another theme that we will find running through the book of Ephesians, and it is a core belief of Christianity. The people who are in that One Holy Universal Church are those who are saved by grace through faith alone, in Christ alone, as Paul has already explained in Ephesians 2:8. 2 Timothy 2:19.

Now, having said all that, Paul is confronted with a serious problem. Despite this, the Jews actually hate the Greeks, – the Gentile races.  Jews were coming to Christ for salvation. Gentiles too were coming to Christ for salvation – how then to persuade them they were just one people in Christ? Let’s explore the text:-

1. Prejudice and Peace Walls.

Paul uses two illustrations to make his point:-

• Being brought near. Eph 2:13  There were gentiles who saw the Jews living decent moral lives, trying to keep the Law of God, and who wanted to live such lives themselves, so they attached themselves to the local synagogue, became “God-fearers.” Some of these would convert to Judaism, a process including instruction, ritual cleansings, and eventually circumcision. The process of acceptance of these converts, (proselytes), into Judaism was referred to as ‘coming nigh,’ or ‘bringing nigh.’  The Jews, and many of the Gentiles would know what Paul meant when he spoke of the Ephesians being ‘far off’ having been ‘made nigh.’ It is by the atoning death of Christ that we are brought into God’s people …made nigh by the blood of Christ.   
• A wall demolished. Paul now uses a second illustration that would be well known to the Jews,  who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;  This is a reference to the Temple at Jerusalem.  A Gentile could only enter the first of the temple courts, – the court of the Gentiles. READ  Acts 21:28-29  The next court, the ‘Court of the Women’ was strictly forbidden to them, blocked by a WALL on which was posted a series of threatening notices written in various languages, warning Gentiles to go no further, under penalty of death, which would be their own fault.  That wall was the wall that excluded the Gentile. Paul uses that as an illustration – Jesus has broken down that wall, and the Gentile believers are brought right into the presence of God, in Jesus.

So, masterfully, Paul has illustrated for his readers how the old barriers are removed, how they are brought within the covenant promises of God, made nigh, and how there is no longer any barrier to their fellowship with God, for, figuratively speaking, the wall has been demolished by Jesus. So in Christ there are no barriers. Galatians 3:28  Colossians 3:11 Romans 10:12-13  

There are no barriers with God. There is only one way to heaven and that is through Christ. If you want to be in heaven, you must come by the way of the cross, humbly surrendering to Jesus, repenting of all your sin and placing your trust in him. V13.

2. The Peace Process.

How did Jesus ‘bring us near’ and ‘break down the wall of partition that separated us?’ There are two answers given in our text:-

• He brings us near because he is our mutual peace! Now the wording Paul uses is very deliberate. He doesn’t just say that Jesus gives us peace, or creates peace between us or in us, (which would be true) he tells us that it is Christ himself who IS our peace. HE is our peace. In Christ we have a relationship with a living PERSON.  Romans 5:1-2  We can enter into God’s presence, in Christ we can draw high to God. There is peace between us and our creator.  We who were strangers are now friends. We who were aliens are now citizens of the Kingdom of God. We who were outside the Covenant of Grace are now the inheritors of the promises made to Abraham, we who had no hope now have assurance, we have the Lord God with us! We have entered into a relationship with God through Christ and he is our mutual father. V18-19  
• He destroyed barriers because he fulfilled the law. V15  What made Jews think they were different from everyone else, was that they had The Law of God – the Torah. It had to be rigorously applied to everyday life, so that the Jew could then enter into the Temple, and worship God, thinking that his righteousness met God’s standards. It was a hopeless task, for no-one could ever fully keep the Law. So the Jews invented a glut of smaller laws, to make sure that they didn’t break God’s law in the Pentateuch. These ‘ordinances’ regulated life, especially concerning the Sabbath. And still, even with their rigid determination to keep the law they failed. To any impartial observer, what the law did, was that it taught you that you couldn’t keep the law. Paul himself came to this conclusion. Galatians 3:24  But Jesus fulfilled the law, by being the only person who could keep it. He was sinless, and all of the Law was kept by him, for us, Jew and Gentile alike. Matthew 5:17  Romans 10:4   Colossians 2:14.  

So God has brought us all together, all those who rejoice in free salvation, those who are his redeemed people, – those who are saved by grace alone, in Christ. He has done this by bringing us into a personal relationship with His Son, so breaking down the enmity between God and man, and by removing the barriers that previously existed.

So now God only has one people. Not Christians and Jews, – not Jews and Messianic Jews and Christians. He has just one single nation, the true Israel, his covenant people from every age, and what unites them, every one of them, is that they have been rescued out of the slavery of sin by a merciful God, through the work of Jesus Christ, who bore God’s wrath and righteous judgement on the cross for them. 

That leads us to ask, “What is Israel?” I mean the TRUE Israel. Romans 9:6 Israel is all of God’s people, gathered in together, the Jews who have repented and trusted Christ, and the Gentiles who have repented and trusted Christ. Galatians 3:7 Galatians 3:29 All together, God’s people are ‘ALL ISRAEL.’ Romans 11:26 The ‘Israel’ that will be saved on the last day, is not a NATION, or a RELIGION, OR A CULTURAL IDENTITY.  God’s Israel is a collection of believers, remnants from all of history. It was for that vast group that Jesus shed his blood and died.