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Ephesians Lesson 2

A NEW HUMANITY IN CHRIST
(JESUS’ PEOPLE)

Ephesians 2:1-22
Key Verse: 2:15

“By abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace.”

Two men in the church became enemies toward each other due to an argument they had. For years, they felt resentful and hadn’t talked to each other. Their hostility caused much trouble and grief even to others. So a concerned deacon prayed that God would use him as a peacemaker. The first thing he did was to visit Mr. A. “What do you think of Mr. B?” he asked. “Well, he is the weirdest guy I have ever known!” “But,” refuted the deacon, “you have to admit that Mr. B is a hard-working man.” “No one can deny that,” said Mr. A. “I’ve never known a person who worked so hard like him.” Next the deacon visited Mr. B. “Do you know what Mr. A said about you?” “No, but I can imagine his lies,” he responded angrily. “This may surprise you,” said the deacon, ‘but he said he had never known a person who worked harder than you.” “He said that?” Mr. B was stunned. “What do you think of him?” asked the deacon. “Well. To be honest, I don’t want to have anything to do with that guy.” “But you must admit that he’s honest in business,” said the deacon. “In business? Yes, he’s a man you can trust.” Later the deacon visited Mr. A again. “Do you know what Mr. B said about you? He said that you’re absolutely trustworthy in business, that you are exceptionally honest.” “Did he really say that?” reacted Mr. A with a smile. Because of the peacemaking deacon, Mr. A and Mr. B began to reconcile, shaking hands, talking again, and even visiting each other. Today they are best friends.

Peacemaking is not easy. The world we live in is full of hostility, hostility between different races, nationalities, cultures and religions, hostility between employees and employers, hostility between parents and children, hostility between coworkers and between husband and wife. The worst thing is hostility between believers. In today’s passage, we learn that Jesus not only came as a peacemaker, but that he himself became our peace, destroying the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. Let’s see why Jesus is our peace.

First, you were dead in your sins but made alive in Christ (1-7)

In the preceding chapter, Apostle Paul mentioned about the riches of God’s spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus.(1:3) We are redeemed because before the beginning of the world God already predestined us to be adopted as his children through Jesus Christ. Many people fall into trouble when they try to see everything based on predestination. But we must know that predestination is only a part of the entire plan of God’s salvation, which is by his grace.

We don’t deserve to be saved because by nature all of us are objects of God’s wrath. According to verses 1-2, we were dead spiritually due to our sins. Look at verses 1 and 2. “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the rulers of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.” Paul said that we were dead spiritually in our transgressions and sins. The word “transgress” in Greek (paraptoma) means to go beyond the limit or to violate the law. The word “sin” in Greek (hamartia) means to miss the target or to fall short of a standard.

When the first man Adam was created in the garden, he had access to eternal life by obeying God’s command. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground – trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Lord said to Adam in Genesis 2:16 and 17, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” Adam could have unlimited access to God through his obedience. But spiritual death came to him as soon as he disobeyed God’s command by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Of course, in spite of his disobedience Adam didn’t die immediately, but he died spiritually. He was cut off from fellowship with God and lost his access to eternal life. He had to hide himself from God. Likewise, we were dead spiritually because we also disobeyed God knowingly and unknowingly. All of us used to live in sin, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. We fail to live up to God’s standard no matter how hard we struggle. Why? It’s because we were born with an evil nature. By nature all of us were objects of God’s wrath, doomed to perish. (3)

But by the grace of God we have been saved. Look at verses 4 and 5. “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.”  Because of our sins, we were spiritually dead. But God made us alive spiritually with Christ. We are not dead anymore because we are made alive in Christ Jesus. Many people would consider themselves lucky if they are barely saved right before dying, like the thief on the cross. That’s true. God’s grace is far greater than all our sins. But we must know that salvation by grace doesn’t just mean to barely escape from punishment or judgment. Salvation by grace means that no matter who we may be we have full access to the riches of God’s grace by the virtue of our union with Christ. In other words, we are completely restored to full rights of God’s children, heirs of God and coheirs with Christ.

For example, in Luke chapter 15, we read the parable of the lost son, who came back to his father’s house after squandering all his father’s wealth with prostitutes. What did his father do for him? Did he send him to boot camp? No. Filled with compassion, he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” But the father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.” Then he threw a big party for his son and said, “Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again.” Here, we learn that our God is full of mercy and his love endures us forever. We deserve to be punished and condemned forever. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace we have been saved. (4,5)

Look at verses 6 and 7. “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” Here, Paul uses the past tense “raised” and “seated” as if we are already raised and seated with Christ in the heavenly realms. This is an amazing grace of God. Once we were dead spiritually, doomed to be condemned forever. But God made us alive and even exalted us to  sit with our Lord Jesus Christ in the heavenly realms.  This reminds us of 2 Timothy 2:11-12a, which says, “Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will reign with him.” In the past, our life was continuous spiritual defeat due to our sin. But in Jesus we have spiritual victory now and forever. Although we were dead in sin, God made us alive in Christ Jesus now and forever.

Second, for we are God’s workmanship (8-10)

Look at verses 8 and 9. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.”  We are saved by God’s grace through our faith. It means that salvation is entirely the gift of God to us. We cannot earn it by our human effort. We learned that before the beginning of the world God predestined us to be adopted through the redeeming work of our Lord Jesus. What about our faith? Isn’t it our work? No. Why not? It’s because faith itself is also a part of God’s grace. (Acts 18:27; Phil 1:29) Therefore, there is nothing that we can boast about in ourselves. If anyone wishes to boast, he should boast only of what the Lord has done.

Look at verse 10. “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” We cannot boast about ourselves because no matter whom we may have become, we are what we are only by the grace of Jesus Christ. If we are spiritually rich with much spiritual fruit, it’s because of God’s grace. If we are spiritually fruitful with many growing shepherds, it’s only because of God’s grace. There should not be any boasting about ourselves, because all we have is given freely by God. God does not like boasting. How can we boast as if we have not received? The Corinthian church was divided because they boasted about their human leaders, saying that they belonged to Paul, Apollos or Cephas. But Paul said that we should not boast about men! Paul worked very hard to serve gospel ministries. But he didn’t boast anything about himself, except the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. He said in 1 Corinthians 15:10, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them – yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”

It is true that anyone who is in Christ is a new creation, God’s masterpiece. (2 Corinthians 5:17) Each of our lives was custom designed by God to be recreated in Christ Jesus. From time to time, we are overly anxious about our future because we are not sure of many things. We worry, “What kind of job shall I take?” “What kind of husband will I have?” But we must be confident of one thing, that is that he who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion until the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Phil 1:6)  We are nothing but clay, not the potter. Our God is the potter, the master of art. We need to entrust ourselves fully into the skillful hand of our master. By nature we were objects of God’s wrath. But by the grace of God we have become God’s masterpiece. We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Saint Peter also said in his letter, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1 Peter 2:9)

Third, Jesus’ people, a new humanity in Christ (11-22)

In verses 11 and 12, Apostle Paul strongly encourages the Ephesian Christians to remember their former state as Gentiles by birth. He told them that they were called “uncircumcised” by Jews. Circumcision is an outward sign of membership of God’s covenant people. Even though all men were created by God, in light of God’s covenant blessing, the Gentiles were not called God’s people. They were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship of Israel and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. They lived in darkness and in the shadow of death. Why do they have to remember their past? It’s for the sake of fresh renewal of God’s grace in their lives. It’s easy to forget God’s grace and take it for granted unless we remember our past hopeless state. A while ago, one of the members of the famous group, called “the Bee Gees,” died at the age of 53 in the hospital. The news of his death reminded me of my past life before conversion. I used to sing many sorrowful songs, one of them was “I started a joke which started the whole world crying. But I didn’t see that the joke was on me. I started to cry which started the whole world laughing. Oh if I’d only seen that the joke was on me.” I viewed my life as a joke at best. Without Christ, I was miserable, having no hope, no shepherd, no promise, full of sorrow, guilt, loneliness and fear. Whenever I remember my past life, the grace of God becomes so fresh to me again and again. I was so-called “uncircumcised,” who was cut off from the Messiah, alienated from the covenants of God’s promise. I was far away from God. But I was brought near to him through the blood of Jesus Christ. (13)

Look at verse 14. “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.” Jesus is not just a peacemaker. He himself is our peace, who has broken down every wall of hostility. There are many kinds of walls of hostility, which separate people and cause so much tragedy among men. There is hostility between Israelis and Palestinians. Our heart aches whenever we hear about what is going on in the Middle East. Many Korean people were separated from their loved ones for more than a half a century because of the dividing wall of hostility between democratic South and communist North. My father who escaped young in 1945 from North to South was not able to see his parents even once and had to die in sorrow. When I was young, he used to tell me to visit his hometown in North Korea if Korea is united. The barrier between the Jews and the Gentiles existed so many centuries and created hostility and tragedy on both sides. So many Jews were killed throughout history because of the hostility. These days, people are so divided with many reasons, such as race, culture, gender, religion, class, ethnicity. There are so many disintegrating families because of the hostility between husband and wife. After all, there is the most fundamental hostility between God and men due to our sins.

Who can destroy all these barriers of hostility? No one can. Why not? It’s because these walls of hostility will exist as long as people remain in their sins, the sin of pride, prejudice, jealousy, greed, anger, selfishness and especially  unforgiving spirit. Division can happen very easily even among believers when they are unforgiving toward each other. But in Jesus, we can have peace and reconciliation because Jesus has made the two one, destroying the dividing wall of hostility.

How could Christ break the walls of hostility between God and men and between Jews and Gentiles? First of all, Jesus abolished the law with its requirements in his flesh. Look at verse 15a. “By abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations.” According to Jewish law one should be circumcised and follow all the Jewish regulations in order to become one of God’s people. That was not possible at all. Actually, Jews themselves could not keep all the regulations perfectly. These laws set the barriers between the Jews and the Gentiles. But Jesus himself perfectly obeyed the law in his life, and in his death he bore the consequence of our disobedience. Thus Jesus, who met all the requirements of the law, could abolish the old system of the law and establish the new system of grace. As a result, all men, both Jews and Gentiles, could have access to God, building one body without the dividing wall of hostility in spite of differences. In fact, it was Jesus’ purpose of abolishing the law in his flesh that he might establish a new humanity in himself.

Look at verse 15b-16. “His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.” Therefore, there can be no division in Jesus Christ. In Jesus all cultural, racial, ethnic and social divisions are broken down, and a single new humanity in Christ has been established. There is no discrimination in Jesus Christ. We are all equal sharers of the riches of God’s inheritance as heirs of God and coheirs with Christ. Galatians 3:28 and 29 say, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

Look at verses 17 and 18. “He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.”  By nature, all of us, Jews and Gentiles, were enemies of God and objects of God’s wrath. But we were reconciled to God through the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus has broken down all the walls of hostility and brought peace to men. We are one; there is no difference because we all have access to the Father by the same Holy Spirit.

Verses 19-22 teaches us more clearly that Jesus our Lord established a single, new community of God’s people out of Jews and Gentiles. Read verses 19-22. “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” All those who believe in Jesus belong to the same kingdom of God, the same household of God and the same temple of God. We can call this new community of believers in Christ as Jesus’ people and the church of Christ. The foundation of the church of Christ is the teachings of the Scriptures, written by the apostles and the prophets. This foundation of the Scriptures cannot be changed, neither be subtracted from nor be modified. And we must always and faithfully follow the teachings of the Bible. We have to go back to the Bible again and again. The chief cornerstone of the foundation is our Lord Jesus who has the key to the Scriptures and gave his life as a ransom for our sins.

We are different in many ways.  But we believers should not be divided in hostility for any reason because Jesus is our peace. When we are truly united with Christ, there is no difference that can divide us. We are one in Christ because we shared the same blood of Christ Jesus and inherited the same Holy Spirit. Jesus is our peace. We are called to bring peace in the hearts and lives of the people of this world through the gospel. May the Lord help us to remain in his grace every day by remembering who we were and truly become one in Christ Jesus our Lord. When we do so, we can please God and glorify his name among the people of this world.