The Inheritance of Lasting Peace

Several countries and international efforts have aimed to outlaw war or legislate peace throughout history. Here are a few real-life examples:

1. The Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928)

Description: The Kellogg-Briand Pact, also known as the Pact of Paris, was an international agreement in which signatory states renounced the use of war to resolve disputes or conflicts. It was signed by major powers including the United States, France, Germany, and Japan.

Outcome: Although it was a significant step towards the ideal of outlawing war, the pact lacked enforcement mechanisms and failed to prevent World War II. However, it influenced the development of international law, particularly the concept of crimes against peace used in the Nuremberg Trials after the war .

Peace in our time! Peace with honor!" Some of us still remember those words of British Prime Minister Sir Neville Chamberlain when he returned from conferences in Germany in September

1938. He was sure that he had stopped Adolf Hitler. Yet one year later, Hitler invaded Poland, and on September 3, 1939, Great Britain declared war on Germany. Chamberlain's great peace mission had failed.

It seems that most peace missions fail. I read somewhere that from 1500 BC to AD 850 there were 7,500 "eternal covenants" agreed on among various nations with the hope of bringing peace, but that no covenant lasted longer than two years. The only "eternal covenant" that has lasted —and that will last— is the one made by the eternal God, sealed by the blood of Jesus Christ. It is Chris's peace mission that Paul explained in this section, and three very important words summarize this great work: separation, reconciliation, and unification.

1. ENMITY /

SEPARATION: WHAT THE GENTILES WERE Ephesians 2:11-12

Ephesians 2:11–12 (KJV 1900)

11 Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;

12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

In the first ten verses of Ephesians 2, Paul discussed the salvation of sinners in general, but now he turned to the work of Christ for Gentiles in particular. Most of the converts in the Ephesian church were Gentiles, and they knew that much of God's program in the Old Testament involved the Jews. For centuries, the "circumcision" (Jews) had looked down on the "uncircumcision" (Gentiles) with an attitude that God had never intended them to display. The fact that a Jew had received the physical mark of the covenant was no proof he was a man of faith (Rom 2:25-29; Gal. 5:6; 6:15). Those who have trusted Christ have received a spiritual circumcision "made without hands" (Col. 2:11).

But since the hour that God called Abraham, God made a difference between Jews and Gentiles. He made this difference, not that the Jews might boast, but that they might be a blessing and a help to the Gentiles.

God set them apart so that He might use them to be a channel of His revelation and goodness to the heathen nations. Sad to say, Israel kept this difference nationally and ritually, but not morally. Israel became like the lost nations around her. For this reason, God often had to discipline the Jews because they would not maintain their spiritual separation and minister to the nations in the name of the true God.

The one word that best describes the Gentiles is without. They were

“Outside" in several respects.

Without Christ.

The Ephesians worshipped the goddess Diana and, before the coming of the gospel, knew nothing about Christ. Those who claim that pagan religions are just as acceptable to God as the Christian faith will have a problem here, for Paul cites the Ephesians' Godless state as a definite tragedy. But then, keep in mind that every unsaved person, Jew or Gentile, is "outside Christ," and that means condemnation.

Without citizenship.

God called the Jews and built them into a nation.

He gave them His laws and His blessings: A Gentile could enter the nation as a proselyte but was not born into that special nation. Israel was God’s nation, in a way that was not true of any gentile nation.

Without covenants. While the blessing of the Gentiles is included in God's covenant with Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3), God did not make any covenants with the Gentile nations. The Gentiles were "aliens" and

"Strangers" —and the Jews never let them forget it. Many of the Pharisees would pray daily, "O God, I give thanks that I am a Jew, not a Gentile." Without hope. Historians tell us that a great cloud of hopelessness covered the ancient world. Philosophies were empty; traditions were disappearing; religions were powerless to help men face either life or death.

People longed to pierce the veil and get some message of hope from the other side, but there was none (1 Thess. 4:13-18).

Without God. The heathen had gods aplenty, as Paul discovered in Athens (Acts 17:16-23). Someone in that day said that it was easier to find a god than a man in Athens. "There be gods many, and lords many," wrote Paul (1 Cor. 8:5). But the pagan, no matter how religious or moral he might have been, did not know the true God. The writer of Psalm 115 contrasted the true God with the idols of the heathen.

It is worth noting that the spiritual plight of the Gentiles was caused not by God but by their willful sin. Paul said the Gentiles knew the true God but deliberately refused to honor Him (Rom. 1:18-23). Religious history is not a record of man starting with many gods (idolatry) and gradually discovering the one true God.

Rather, it is the sad story of a man knowing the truth about God and deliberately turning away from it! It is a story of devolution, not evolution!

The first eleven chapters of Genesis give the story of the decline of the Gentiles, and from Genesis 12 on (the call of Abraham), it is the story of the Jews. God separated the Jews from the Gentiles so that He might be able to save the Gentiles also. "Salvation is of the Jews" (John 4:22).

God called the Jews, beginning with Abraham, that through them He might reveal Himself as the one true God. With the Jews, He deposited His Word, and through the Jews, He gave the world the Savior (Rom. 9:1-5).

Israel was to be a light to the Gentiles so that they too might be saved. But sad to say, Israel became like the Gentiles, and the light burned but dimly. This fact is a warning to the church today. When the church is least like the world, it does the most for the world.

2. INTERVENTION

RECONCILIATION: WHAT GOD DID FOR THE GENTILES Ephesians 2:13-18

Ephesians 2:13–18 (KJV 1900)

13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;

15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;

16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.

18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

The "but now" in Ephesians 2:13 parallels the but God" in Ephesians 2:4.

Both speak of the gracious intervention of God on behalf of lost sinners.

"Enmity" is the key word in this section (Eph. 2:15-16), and you will note that it is a twofold enmity: between Jews and Gentiles (Eph. 2:13-15) and between sinners and God (Eph. 2:16-18). Paul described here the greatest peace mission in history: Jesus Christ not only reconciled Jews and Gentiles, but He reconciled both to Himself in the one body, the church.

The word reconcile means "to bring together again." A distraught husband wants to be reconciled to his wife who has left him; a worried mother longs to be reconciled to a wayward daughter; and the lost sinner needs to be reconciled to God. Sin is the great separator in this world. It has been dividing people since the very beginning of human history. When Adam and Eve sinned, they were separated from God. Before long, their sons were separated from each other and Cain killed Abel. The earth was filled with violence (Gen. 6:5-13), and the only remedy seemed to be judgment.

But even after the flood, men sinned against God and each other and even tried to build their unity without God's help. The result was another judgment that scattered the nations and confused the tongues. It was then that God called Abraham, and through the nation of Israel, Jesus Christ came to the world. It was His work on the cross that abolished the enmity between Jews and Gentiles and between sinners and God.

The enmity between Jews and Gentiles (vv. 13-15). God had put a Lerne between Jews and Gentles so that His purposes in salvation might accomplished. But once those purposes were accomplished, there was no more difference. It was His purpose that these differences be erased friends, and they are created through the work of Christ in reconciliation. le was this lesson that was so difficult for the early church to understand. fur centuries, the Jews had been different from the Gentiles in religion, dress, diet, and laws. Until Peter was sent to the Gentiles (Acts 10), the church had no problems. But with the salvation of the Gentiles on the same um as the Jews, problems began to develop. The Jewish Christian Peter for going to the Gentiles and eating with them (Acts 11), and representatives of the churches gathered for an important conference on the place of the Gentiles in the church (Acts 15). Must a Gentile become a Jew n become a Christian? Their conclusion was, "No! Jews and Gentiles are all the same way— by faith in Jesus Christ." The enmity was gone!

The cause of that enmity was the law because the law made a definite distraction between Jews and Gentiles. The dietary laws reminded the Jews that God had put a difference between the clean and unclean (Lev. 11:44-47). But the Gentiles did not obey these laws; therefore they were unclean. Ezekiel, in the the spirit, reminded the priests that their task was to teach the Jews "the difference between the holy and the profane" (Exck. 44:23). The divine ordinances by God to Israel stood as a wall between the Jews and the other nations. la fer, there was a wall in the Jewish temple, separating the court of the Gentiles from the rest of the temple areas.

Archeologists have discovered the ascription from

Herod's temple and it reads like this:

No foreigner may enter within the barricade which surrounds the sanctuary and enclosure. Anyone who is caught doing so will have himself to blame for his ensuing death.

It was this wall that the Jews thought Paul and his Gentile friends crossed when the Jews attacked him in the temple and threatened to kill him (Acts 21:28-31).

For Jews and Gentiles to be reconciled, this wall had to be destroyed, and this Jesus did on the cross. The cost of destroying the enmity was the blood of Christ. When He died, the veil in the temple was torn in two, and the wall of separation (figuratively) was torn down. By fulfilling the demands of the law in His righteous life, and by bearing the curse of the law in His sacrificial death (Gal. 3:10-13), Jesus removed the legal barrier that separated Jew from Gentile. For centuries, there was a difference between them. But today, “there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Rom. 10:12-13).

In Jesus Christ, Jew, and Gentile become one. "He is our peace" (Eph.

2:14). Through Christ, the far-off Gentile is made "nigh" (Eph. 2:13, 17), and both Jew and Gentile are made one. The consequences of Christ's work are, then, the destruction of the enmity by the abolishing of the law, and the creation of a new man—the church, the body of Christ. The word abolish simply means "to nullify." The law no longer holds sway over either Jew or Gentile, since in Christ believers are not under law but under grace. The righteousness of the law, revealing God's holiness, is still God's standard.

But this is fulfilled in the believer by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:1-4). It took the early church a long time to get accustomed to "there is no difference!" Some religious groups have not learned the lesson yet, for they are trying to get Christians back under the law (Gal. 4:8-11; 5:1; Col. 2:13-23).

Christ "is our peace" (Eph. 2:14) and He made "peace" (Eph. 2:15).

The church, the body of Christ, is God‘s new creation Second Corinthians 5:15. Everything in the old creation is falling apart because of sin, but in the new creation, there is unity because of righteousness. Galatians 3:28 you may contrast the old position of the Gentiles with their new position and see how wonderfully Christ worked on their behalf on the cross.

The enmity between sinners and God (vv. 16-18). Not only did the Gentles need to be reconciled to the Jews, but both the Jews and the Gentiles needed to be reconciled to God! This was the conclusion the apostles came to at the Jerusalem Conference recorded in Acts 15. Peter said that God "put no difference between us [Jews) and them [Gentiles], purifying their hearts by faith.... But we believe that through the grace of the LORD Jesus Christ, we shall be saved, even as they" (Acts 15:9, 11). It was not a question of the Gentile becoming a Jew to become a Christian, but the Jew admitting he was a sinner like the Gentile. "For there is no difference: For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:22-23).

The same law that separated Gentile and Jew also separated men and God, and Christ bore the curse of the law.

They had sinned against each other (and the Lord), and there could be no harmony until those sins were canceled. A God of love wants to reconcile the sinner to Himself, but a God of holiness must see to it that sin is judged God solved the problem by sending His Son to be the sacrifice for our sins, thereby revealing His love and meeting the demands of His righteousness.

(see Col. 2:13-14).

Jesus Christ "is our peace" (Eph. 2:14). He "made peace" (Eph. 2:15), and He "preached peace" (Eph. 2:17). As the Judge, He could have come to declare war. But in His grace, He came with the message of peace (Luke

2:8-14; 4:16-19). Jew and Gentile are at peace with each other in Christ, and both have open access to God (Rom. 5:1-2). This reminds us of the rent veil at the time of Christ's death (Matt. 27:50-51; Heb. 10:14-25).

Reconciliation is complete!

3. INTEGRATION

UNIFICATION: WHAT JEWS AND GENTILES ARE IN CHRIST (Ephesians 2:19-22

Ephesians 2:19–22 (KJV 1900)

19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:

22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

Paul repeated the word "one" to emphasize the unifying work of Christ: "made both one" (Eph. 2:14); "one new man" (Eph. 2:15); "one body" (Eph. 2:16); "one Spirit" (Eph. 2:18). All spiritual distance and division have been overcome by Christ. In the closing verses of this chapter, Paul gave three pictures that illustrate the unity of believing Jews and Gentiles in the church.

One nation (v. 19a). Israel was God's chosen nation, but they rejected their Redeemer and suffered the consequences. The kingdom was taken from them and given to "a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" (Matt. 21:43). This "new nation" is the church, "a chosen generation... a holy nation, a peculiar people" (Ex. 19:6; 1 Peter 2:9). In the Old Testament, the nations were reckoned by their descent from Shem, Ham, or Japheth (Gen. 10). In the book of Acts, we see these three families united in Christ. In Acrs 8, a descendant of Ham is saved, the Ethiopian treasurer, in Aa 9, a descendant of Shem, Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul the apos-de, and in Acts 10, the descendants of Japheth, the Gentiles in the household of the Roman soldier, Cornelius. Sin has divided mankind, but Christ unites by His Spirit. All believers, regardless of national background, belong to that "holy nation" with citizenship in heaven (Phil. 3:20-21).

One family (k. 19b). Through faith in Christ, we enter into God's fam-is, and God becomes our Father. This wonderful family of God is found in no place, "in heaven and earth" (Eph. 3:15). Living believers are on earth; believers who have died are in heaven. None of God’s children are “under the earth" (Phil. 2:10) or in any other place in the universe. We are all brothers and sisters in one family, no matter what racial, national, or physical distinctions we may possess.

One temple (v. 20-22).

In the book of Genesis, God "walked" with His people (Gen. 5:22, 24; 6:9), but in Exodus, He decided to "dwell" with His people (Ex. 25:8). God dwelt in the Tabernacle (Ex. 40:34-38) until Incs sins caused "the glory to depart" (1 Sam. 4). Then God dwelt in the temple (1 Kings 8:1-11), but, alas, again Israel sinned and the glory departed (Erck. 10:18-19). God's next dwelling place was the body of Christ (John 1:14), which men took and nailed to a cross. Today, through His Spirit, God dwells in the church, the temple of God. God does not dwell in man-made temples, including church buildings (Acts 7:48-50). He dwells in the hearts of those who have trusted Christ (1 Cor. 6:19-20), and in the church collectively (Eph. 2:20-22).

The foundation for this church was laid by the apostles and New Testament prophets, Jesus Christ is the Foundation (1 Cor. 3:11), and the Chief Cornerstone

Psalm 118:22 KJV 1900

22 The stone which the builders refused Is become the head stone of the corner.

la. S.14). The cornerstone binds the structure together Jesus Christ has united Jews and Gentiles in the church. This ref. price to the temple would be meaningful to both the Jews and the Gentles in the Ephesian church: The Jews would think of Herod's temple in Jerusalem, and the Gentiles would think of the great temple of Diana.

Both temples were destined to be destroyed, but the temple Christ is building will last forever. "I will build my church" (Matt. 16:18). The Holy Spirit builds this temple by taking dead stones out of the pit of sin (Ps. 40:2), giving them life, and setting them lovingly into the temple of God (1 Peter 2:5). This temple is "fifty framed together" as the body of Christ (Eph. 2:21; 4:16) so that every part accomplishes the purpose God has in mind.

As you look back over this chapter, you cannot help but praise God for what He, in His grace, has done for sinners. Through Christ, He has raised us from the dead and seated us on the throne. He has reconciled us and set us in His temple. Neither spiritual death nor spiritual distance can defeat the grace of God! But He has not only saved us individually, He has also made us a part of His church collectively. What a tremendous privilege it is to be a part of God's eternal program!

This leads to two practical applications as we close this study.

First, have you personally experienced the grace of God? Are you spiritually dead? Are you distant from God? Or have you trusted Christ and received that eternal life that only He can give? If you are not sure of your spiritual position, I urge you to turn to Christ by faith and trust Him. Like the nation of Israel, you may have been given many spiritual privileges, only to reject the God who gave them. Or, like the Gentiles, you may have turned away from God and lived deliberately in sin and disobedience. In either case, "there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:22-23). Call on Christ— He will save you.

may have turned away from God and lived deliberately in sin and obedience. In either case, "there is no difference: For all have sinned, come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:22-23). Call on Christ— will save you.

Second, if you are a true believer in Christ, are you helping others to trust Him? You have been raised from the dead—do you "walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4)? Do you share this good news of eternal life with others? You are no longer at enmity with God, but are you spreading the good news of "peace with God" with those who are still fighting Him?

Jesus Christ died to make reconciliation possible. You and I must live to make the message of reconciliation personal. God has "given to us the ministry of reconciliation" (2 Cor. 5:18).

We are His ambassadors of peace (2 Cor. 5:20).

Our feet should be shod "with the preparation of the gospel of peace" (Eph. 6:15). "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God" (Matt. 5:9).

A missionary was preaching in the village market, and some of the people were laughing at him because he was not a very handsome man. He took it for a time, and then he said to the crowd, "It is true that I do not have beautiful hair, for I am almost bald. Nor do I have beautiful teeth, for they are not mine; they were made by the dentist. I do not have a beautiful face, nor can I afford to wear beautiful clothes. But this I know: have beautiful feet!" And he quoted the verse from Isaiah: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace" (Isa. 52.7). Do you have beautiful feet?