Ephesians 2.15-The Text of Ephesians 1.3-2.10 Supports the Interpretation that Racial Identity is Maintained in the New Humanity
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday January 18, 2024
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 2:15-The Text of Ephesians 1:3-2:10 Supports the Interpretation that Racial Identity is Maintained in the New Humanity
Lesson # 115
Ephesians 2:11 Therefore, each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to make it your habit of remembering that formerly each of you who belong to the Gentile race with respect to the human body, specifically, those who receive the designation “uncircumcision” by the those who receive the designation “circumcision” with respect to the human body performed by human hands, 12 each one of you used to be characterized as without a relationship with Christ. Each one of you used to be alienated from the nation of Israel’s citizenship. Specifically, each of you used to be strangers to the most important promise, which is the product of the covenants. Each of you used to not possess a confident expectation of blessing. Consequently, each one of you used to be without a relationship with God in the sphere of the cosmic world system. 13 However, because of your faith in and your union and identification with Christ Jesus each and every one of you as a corporate who formerly were far away have now been brought near by means of the blood belonging to this same Christ. 14 For He Himself personifies our peace. Namely, by causing both groups to be one. Specifically, by destroying the wall, which served as the barrier, that is, that which caused hostility (between the two). 15 In other words, by nullifying by means of His human nature the law composed of the commandments consisting of a written code of laws in order that He might cause the two to be created into one new humanity by means of faith in Himself at justification and union and identification with Himself through the baptism of the Spirit at justification. Thus, He caused peace to be established (between the two and God). (Lecturer’s translation)
Now, as we noted the second assertion in Ephesians 2:15 is a purpose clause, which presents the purpose of Jesus Christ nullifying the law composed of the commandments consisting of a written code of laws by means of His human nature.
It states that He did this in order that He might cause both Jewish and Gentile Christians to be created into one new humanity.
He accomplished this by means of their faith in Himself at justification and union and identification with Himself through the baptism of the Spirit at justification.
It is extremely important that the reader understand that Paul is not teaching that there is no Jewish section of the church or that the racial distinctions between the Jewish and Gentile races no longer exist.
In other words, the racial identity of both races is not abolished or done away when Paul asserts that Jesus Christ created both Jewish and Gentile Christian communities into one new humanity.
What it does mean is that Jews remain Jews and Gentile remains Gentiles with all their distinctions and differences and so there is a unity with distinctions.
The reason for this is that both Ephesians 2:11-22 and Romans 11 teach that the Gentile Christian is united to the Jewish Christian.
This interpretation that Paul in Ephesians 2:11-22 and Romans chapter 11 is not teaching that there is no Jewish section of the church or that the racial identity of both races is abolished or done away is supported within the text of Ephesians 1:3-2:10.
Specifically, this interpretation is supported by the fact that he employs the second person plural in Ephesians 2:8-9 but then switches to the first person plural in Ephesians 2:10 and in fact, I have addressed this switch in our study of Ephesians 1:1-2:5.
As we noted several times in our studies of Ephesians to this point, many expositors contend that the referent of the first person plurals in Ephesians 1:3-2:4 is Jewish believers and the Gentile believers are addressed with the second person plural in Ephesians 1:13.
I believe that the referent of the first person plurals is both Jewish and Gentile believers with Paul representing the Jewish remnant in the church and the referent of the second person plurals is the Gentile Christian community.
From the beginning of the Ephesian epistle, Paul makes no distinction between Jewish and Gentile believers.
In Ephesians 1:1, he make no distinctions between Jewish and Gentile believers but simply addresses them both as “saints” as well as “faithful” in this verse and then, in Ephesians 1:2, he addresses them with the second person plural form “all of you, you.”
He does this very same thing in Ephesians 1:13.
After addressing the recipients of this epistle in Ephesians 1:3-12 with the first person plurals, he then addresses them in Ephesians 1:13 with the second person plural and he then switches right back to the first person plural in Ephesians 1:14 to address the recipients of the letter.
If Paul is not making a distinction between Jewish and Gentile believers by switching from the first person plural to the second person plural on two occasions in this letter when addressing its recipients, then why is he doing so?
I believe that he employs the second person plural in Ephesians 1:2 but then switches to the first person plural in Ephesians 1:3-12 because he is simply attempting to identify with the recipients of the Ephesian epistle who were Gentile Christians.
This is indicated by the fact that he addresses them as Gentiles in Ephesians 2:11-22 and he of course, was a Jewish Christian.
When he makes this switch in Ephesians 1:13 and 14, it is for the same reason or in other words, he, as a Jewish believer, is demonstrating his solidarity with the Gentile Christian community.
Though Paul never mentions any specific problem or problems taking place within the Christian community in this epistle, it can be inferred from the contents of the letter that he was concerned that the Christian community remained united experientially through practice of the command to love one another.
This is indicated by the fact that Paul opens the practical application of his teaching in the first three chapters by commanding the recipients of the letter to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace in Ephesians 4:3.
This would be accomplished by living in a manner worthy of their calling and by practicing humility, gentleness, patience and tolerance of one another through the practice of the command to love one another, which Paul instructs them to do in Ephesians 4:1-2.
Unity is the first major overriding theme in the Ephesian epistle because as we noted, this is the purpose of the letter.
Again, Paul was concerned that the Christian community remained united experientially through practice of the command to love one another.
They were unified in a positional sense through their union and identification with Jesus Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.
Consequently, this set up the guarantee of being united in a perfective sense when they receive their resurrection bodies at the rapture or resurrection of the church.
This unity in a positional sense is taught in the first three chapters of the epistle and sets up the potential to experience this unity when interacting with each other, which is accomplished through obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ’s command to love one another as He loved them.
In fact, Paul makes a point of mentioning this unity in a positional sense in relation to Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians interaction with each other.
They would experience that which was true of them positionally through the practice of the command to love one another.
Therefore, in Ephesians 1:3-14, when Paul employs the first person plural to address the recipients of the Ephesian epistle, he is using an “inclusive we,” which refers to both himself as the author and the recipients of the letter.
By switching from the second person plural to the first person plural in Ephesians 1:2-12 and then back again to the second person plural to the first person plural in Ephesians 1:13-14, Paul, as a Jewish believer, is attempting to identify with Gentile Christians.
In other words, he is expressing his solidarity and promoting unity among Jews and Gentiles in the Christian community in the Roman province of Asia.
In Ephesians 2:1-2, Paul again employs the second person plural but then switches to the first person plural in Ephesians 2:3-5a.
Paul does this for the same reason as he does it in Ephesians 1:2-12 and 13-14.
This interpretation is supported by the fact that the concessive clause in Ephesians 2:5 is nearly identical to the one in Ephesians 2:1, whose thought we noted is resumed and completed in Ephesians 2:5 by the statement synezōopoiēsen tō Christō (συνεζωοποίησεν τῷ Χριστῷ), “He caused each and every one of us to be made alive together with the one and only Christ” (Lecturer’s translation).
As we noted, the only difference between these two concessive clauses is that the one in Ephesians 2:1 employs the accusative second personal plural form of the personal pronoun su (σύ), which refers to the recipients of the Ephesian epistle.
On other hand the one in Ephesians 2:5 employs the accusative first person plural form of the personal pronoun ego (ἐγώ), which refers to both Paul and the recipients of this epistle.
So therefore, both the concessive clause in Ephesians 2:1 and the one here in Ephesians 2:5 are both completed by the same declarative statement in Ephesians 2:5.
Therefore, this indicates that Paul who is a Jew and the recipients of the Ephesian letter who were Gentile Christians both were made a live with Christ at their justification by the Father through the baptism of the Spirit even though they were both spiritually dead because of their transgressions.
In Ephesians 2:5, Paul, a Jewish believer, is identifying with the Gentile Christians who are the recipients of this epistle and is again attempting to promote solidarity and unity between the Jewish and Gentile Christian communities.
Paul again switches from the second personal plural in Ephesians 2:5b to the first person plural in Ephesians 2:6-7.
Lastly, he does this again by employing the second person plural in Ephesians 2:8 and then switching to the first person plural in Ephesians 2:10.
He does this again because he as a Jewish Christian is identifying with the recipients of this letter who were Gentile Christians according to Ephesians 2:11.
This switch is an attempt to express his solidarity with them.