Jesus Is Our Peace!

Ephesians 2:14–18 NASB95

14 For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, 15 by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, 16 and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. 17 And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; 18 for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.

Thesis: I want to show us all that being In Christ Jesus is a location of peace, and what it took for Jesus to establish peace and why did he do it.

Peace in this passage is simply like two people who couldn’t stand each other previously, but when you see them now and ask them “Y’all good?” They respond, “We’re good!” Meaning the relationship is on better terms now. For two people or groups who couldn’t stand each other, we’d also be asking “How did that happen?” This passage gives every person in Christ, Jew or Gentile, the appropriate answer, “Jesus is our peace!!” But lets see how and why:

HOW?

Unification

Paul uses a building block style to explain how Jesus did it. I would argue that principly, the same is needed for peace to happen with anybody. But particularly peace between Jew and Gentile, the first activity Paul mentions is unification. Which is the process of being joined together. First of all, Jesus is the source of this peace. He is also the initiator and actor. Thus Jesus understands that without them being unified or brought together in harmony, there would be no peace.

Application: Understand then, people can’t consider themselves at peace if they can never come into one room together, sit at the table together, or not do anything TOGETHER. That goes for marriages, brothers and sisters, parents and children, etc. Because Jesus’ concept of peace involves a UNIFICATION

Demolition

But remember Paul is using building blocks. Unification in this passage is the top block, meaning something had happen before Jew and Gentile could be joined together. Because since peace is joining together, the question must be asked, what was keeping y’all apart. Paul says there was fence with a barrier that was keeping them separate. They didn’t desire, need, or have to look at one another. And as long as that was the case, you could forget unification. What did Jesus do, he demolished or knocked down some stuff.

Side note: Some people think peacemaking is all nice, roses, and daisies. Not according to Paul and Jesus.

Application: Remember, this passage is speaking of peace between Israel and non-Israel. The same applies to any relationship. Before we can reach unification, we must question what wall with a barrier is dividing us in the first place.

Decommission

But then there’s even something before demolition. The wall didn’t get there by itself. There was something that caused the wall to be erected. There’s some energy that strengthened the wall. The wall is only evidence that there is a more deep seated issue!! Jesus knew what that was for Jew and Gentile, it was the rites or practices given to Israel in the law. Yes the law came from GOD, and the law is good. However, it produced sin and extreme separation between Israel and non-Israelites. Dietary laws, holiday laws, agricultural laws, etc. Meant to show wisdom and God’s glory, but it erected a wall between Israel and non-Israel. Jesus had to decommission or invalidate that hostility.

Example: Jurassic Park movie, and there’s a large electric fence. In order for them to get across, electricity had to be off. Had to be out of service.

Application: Everybody can see there’s a wall, because some folk won’t even look at each other. The real question is what’s the hostility??

WHY?

Create new humanity

The purpose of those things is so Jesus could create a new humanity in himself, that is not separated by nationality, what you choose to eat, what day you don’t like, you wear your hair this way, you decided to get tattoos, etc. But if there’s a new humanity, there is a different law!!! Unification is bringing them together, end goal. The purpose here is to make one substance from the two!! Paul says the new creation established the peace.

Application: So when folk ask you, why you ain’t trippin with a brother who is Israel in the flesh. We can say, we came to a better understanding of who we were made IN CHRIST!!!

Reconcile to GOD

Yeah Gentile may have been far in terms of all those things we looked at last week. But here it is clear that peace with GOD was also in view. Why because both were in sin, Ro 3. Jer 31, GOD said the second covenant won’t be like the first because they BROKE my covenant! There are no separated reconciliations, but all are together in Christ. Paul takes a moment to bring up the hostility again, but this time it’s not just him pulling the plug, he killed it. He destroyed it.