A New Humanity

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Introduction

The 20th century, the 1900s, is considered the bloodiest century in world history. Our minds jump quickly to the Holocaust where German Nazis killed an estimated 6 million Jews. This doesn’t even include those with disabilities, blacks, Poles, and numerous other people groups. Numbers alone doesn’t take into account how they died. Starvation, brutal bodily experimentation, gas chambers, crematoriums where they burn you alive, new inventions of torture and inhumanity.

That doesn’t even take into account Pol Pot, the Cambodian dictator who killed 25% of Cambodia’s population (2 million people). Pol Pot’s political party was considered to be loyal to China.

We have seen wars in Ukraine and Russia, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, we have seen Hamas and Hezbollah, Al Quaida, ISIS, and more terrorist groups than I can pronounce.

On a smaller scale, we have democrats and republicans, liberals and conservatives, rich and poor, black and white, Muslim and Hindu and Christians oh my, and tensions in our homes, schools, and churches.

Ephesians for You Chapter 4: A New Humanity (Ephesians Chapter 2 Verses 11–22)

Could our species ever stop fighting? Could there ever be lasting peace within our communities and between our cultures?

I want to tell you that although it seems like it’s impossible the answer is “yes!”

Let’s take a look at our Scripture Passage for today:

Ephesians 2:11-22

Ephesians 2:11–22 ESV

11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Lasting Peace

Before, we have been talking about how we’ve been reconciled to God through Christ and brought back to life by His grace. Now Paul is explaining how we can be reconciled to one another through our numerous backgrounds. God brings the people in His Church from numerous ethnic and social backgrounds. Frankly, it’s miraculous.

The second half of Ephesians 2 is kind of like the first half. Our situation of reconciliation is hopeless without Christ. But now, not only can we be reconciled to God, but we are reconciled to one another.

Outsiders to Insiders

Most, if not all of us, in this room are considered “gentiles.” v.11-12.

I’m not going to go into circumcision, because I don’t want to, but what I will say is that this act concerned God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12 and 17. But this sign, which was supposed to be a sign of God’s favor, became a source of pride for the Jews. It made them scorn the Gentiles, who weren’t like them. It became less of a symbol of removing sin before a holy God, and more of a separation between those who were more special and those who were less deserving.

Remember, Paul, a Jew, is writing this. He considers this merely a human ceremony v.11. However, the Jews knew about the Lord from the law He gave them, associated with circumcision. Gentiles didn’t. They are hopelessly distant from God’s people.

Separate from Christ

v. 12. We were Separate from Christ. We didn’t share in the benefits or promises of God’s people.

Excluded from citizenship in Israel

v. 12. We had no right of citizenship of the people of God. No rights. No privileges. We weren’t God’s covenant people. As Westerners, we can get proud and think, “who was God to exclude me from His promises,” but it’s God’s world and as much complaining as we’d like to make, the Supreme Court could not have changed or secured that citizenship for us.

Foreigners to the Covenants of Promise

v. 12. God promised restoration and the gospel to Abraham and His descendants. He promised that the nations would be blessed.

Genesis 12:1–3 ESV

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

God took the Israelites and covenanted with them at Mt. Sinai (Exodus 19:5-6) and made a priesthood to mediate sinners and God.

David’s Son would rule over His people

2 Samuel 7:11–16 ESV

11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, 15 but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ”

And God showed Jeremiah the new covenant

Jeremiah 31:31–34 ESV

31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

In all of these covenant revelations, the Jews were promised reconciliation with God and man. But without Jesus, who loving drew gentiles, non-jews like most of us, into the fold, we were not able to have these blessings. We were…

Without hope and without God in the world

v. 12. Theocritus once wrote. Hopes are for the living; the dead are without hope.” There is no technology, dieting technique, fitness routine, schlastic enterprise, or secret knowledge that will allow us to escape death. As much as we try to defy death, or take it into our own hands, the best resolve atheists like Christopher Hitches want us to pursue is to “eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die!”

As Christians, as Jews and Gentiles brought together in the church, we have something greater; hope for what comes next!

Without Christ, we Gentiles were without hope for eternity and without God in this world.

Ephesians 2:13 ESV

13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Reconciled

Despite our hopeless condition, we are now united in Christ by faith. We’ve been brought near to God and his people through Jesus’s sacrifice. He is our peace (v. 14). And as people filled with peace, we have a new humanity in him

Ephesians 2:14 ESV

14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility

New Humanity

Ephesians 2:15–16 ESV

15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

This word for “reconcile” is really translated “super-reconciled.” It’s like being a new species, like an alien hybrid or something but one that loves Jesus.

Christ is the only one who brings peace!!

Ephesians 2:17 ESV

17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.

Ephesians for You Reinventing the Human Race

However near or far away from God we were—whether Jew or Gentile—through Christ we can have “access” to God (there’s no other route to salvation for Jews or anyone else). There is therefore no room for racial pride, but there is a glorious reconciliation in knowing Christ, “through the cross, by which he put to death [our] hostility” (Ephesians 2:16).

Jew and Gentile alike now share access together, not into a temple building in Jerusalem, but directly to our Father in heaven: “For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit” (v 18). By the work of the Son on the cross, preached to our hearts by his Spirit, we now enjoy constant access to our loving heavenly Father in prayer.

Our recognition of needing the death of Jesus to be reconciled to God is what empowers our humble willingness to be reconciled to each other. So if we’re finding it difficult to be at peace with others, perhaps because we’ve been hurt so deeply or so often by them, we will need time in prayer to seek strength from Jesus, who has loved us enough to reconcile us to God with his blood. For from his reconciliation of sinners to the Father comes the spiritual power for reconciliation with each other.

Questions

How have you seen or experienced, gospel-centered reconciliation between people?

Are there aspects of your background—nationality, ethnicity, social class, education—that you use as a barrier to divide yourself from other Christians (perhaps subconsciously), because you overvalue these things as being intrinsic to your identity?

Ephesians for You Questions for Reflection

Is there another Christian who has hurt you deeply? How does looking at what Jesus did on the cross empower you to forgive them? How could you seek to pursue reconciliation with them?