Wherefore remember that *ye*, once nations in [the] flesh, who [are] called uncircumcision by that called circumcision in [the] flesh done with the hand;
Paul has just carried his readers to the heights: saved by grace, seated in the heavenly places. At verse 11 he turns them around. He tells them to look back at what they once were — outsiders, tagged with a name the Jews used with scorn.
The letter has been climbing. Here it tells the reader to look back instead. One writer separates that from a kind of looking inward that only does harm.
How striking that the apostle should tell the saints to look down in verse 11! Verse 7 carries us very high and shows our place as sitting in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Now we are told to remember what we were. There is an important difference between being taken up with yourself and remembering our ruined state. The first leads to doubt and fear; the second to humility and a deeper appreciation of grace.
The opening of the chapter had put Jew and Gentile on the same footing: dead, and children of wrath. Verse 11 looks at them from a different angle.
Here we are on totally different ground. It is no longer "children of wrath" — people who were by nature one as bad and as dead as the other. Here men fall into two groups on earth — the uncircumcision on one side, and the circumcision on the other. So you are on earthly ground. This is the ground of God's dealings in history, where He separates one part of mankind from another by His own will. He does it not because the one was better than the other, but to display His own wisdom and purpose.
The word was not a neutral description. It was what one group called the other, and it carried the sting of exclusion.
In their Gentile state, the Ephesians were called uncircumcision. It was a term of great reproach (1 Samuel 14:6; 1 Samuel 31:4). Circumcision was the sign of relationship with God, and more besides. To be uncircumcised meant being completely outside the circle of relationship and privilege… Earlier in the chapter the apostle sets out what is true of Jew and Gentile alike. Here he stresses what was true of the Gentiles in particular.
The gap between the two groups was not a human invention. It stood until the cross.
The Apostle is about to set out the present position of believers in Christ. First he contrasts the former position of Gentiles in the flesh with their new place. The church is not the sum of all believers from the beginning of the world. In times past — the times before the cross — God had appointed a distinction between Jew and Gentile. As long as that distinction stood, the church could not exist.
Notice Paul's careful wording for the other side. He does not write "the circumcision," but what is called the circumcision, made in the flesh by hands. After the cross, that badge has no standing left.
"The circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands" (Ephesians 2:11) is now simply Judaism. To go back in spirit to Judaism is to reject the cross of Christ. That cross has written for ever the sentence of death on man in the flesh… God judges man in the flesh, whether Jew or Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, as past recovery. In Christ, risen from the dead, there is new creation.
Remembering is not nostalgia or self-punishment. It has a target: the pride that grows in people God has blessed.
Grace alone has taken us out of a completely desolate condition. So we must guard against a natural and shameful tendency: to glory in flesh because the blessing God has given us is so great. Israel fell because they were proud of being blessed by God. Gentiles are now taking the same attitude (Romans 11:18-23). Gentiles had none of the advantages Israel had.
- Remember — the letter that seats you in the heavenly places also tells you to look down at where you started. The memory of ruin breeds humility. Endless self-inspection breeds only fear.
- Remember your name — "uncircumcision" was a label of contempt. It marked you as outside the circle of relationship and privilege.
- Remember the barrier — God appointed the Jew/Gentile divide; men did not invent it. While it stood, the church could not exist.
- Remember the flesh — Paul calls the other side's badge what is called the circumcision, made in the flesh by hands. The cross has passed sentence on man in the flesh, circumcised or not.
- Remember, and stop boasting — Israel fell through pride in being blessed. The greater the blessing, the more the Gentile must recall the desolate state grace lifted him from.
that ye were at that time without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world
After describing what God has done for believers, Paul turns them round to look back at what they once were. It lists five things the Gentile world lacked, and asks why a letter so full of blessing dwells on an empty past.
The apostle does not start with the list. He starts with a command to remember it.
Our souls rejoice not only in the intrinsic blessedness of these various aspects of our salvation, but also in contrasting them with the condition in which our lack of them once left us. And God would have us view matters in this way as we learn to estimate His grace towards us, as we read: "remember that you were at that time… having no hope and without God in the world." The more clearly we see all this, the higher the view of His grace we will rejoice in.
The list opens with Christ Himself. Where older translations read "without Christ," the ESV has "separated from Christ."
But then we were "without Christ." Without, that is, the only One who could bring in any way of salvation from our lost condition.
There is also a narrower sense. It turns on the place God gave Israel among the nations.
Such was their condition as Gentiles, in contrast with that of Israel. The beginning of the chapter shows that the Jews were by nature children of wrath just as much as the Gentiles. Yet as a people on the earth, chosen in God's sovereignty, they had advantages the Gentiles had no title or claim to. So they — the Gentiles — were without Christ; the Messiah as such was never promised to them.
"Commonwealth" describes a settled national order — citizenship, laws, worship — and Israel had one. The Gentiles stood outside the whole arrangement.
In God's ways on earth the Jew enjoyed a national place of outward privilege, and the Gentiles were complete strangers to it. Israel formed an earthly commonwealth, with promises and hopes for this world, and stood in outward relationship with God. God's ordinances regulated their religious worship, their political organisation and their social relations. Everything from the highest act of worship to the smallest detail of life came under them… It was not that the Jews were any better than the Gentiles, for in the sight of God the great mass of the Jews were as bad as the Gentiles, and some even worse.
Israel had promises to rest on. The nations had none, and one writer notes what people put in that empty space.
We have a right to nothing. We have not the smallest claim on God. God never gave us the settled place He gave Israel through the promises… The Gentiles had no hope. They were not expecting God to step in and rescue them on the earth. They might dream what people still dream — that man can become perfect on the earth.
The Greek word here is the one behind our word "atheist," and it did not mean then what it means now.
The Greek word is ἄθεος (atheos), which literally means "without God," and Ephesians 2:12 translates it that way. It describes Gentiles as they are by nature. It was true of the whole pagan world in their ignorance of God. It does not carry the sense the word has today: someone who chooses to refuse to acknowledge God's existence.
It was never a shortage of religion. It was a shortage of God, and the same holds today.
Lastly they were "without God in the world." Idols they had without number, and the modern world has them too, though in a different form. God was, and is, unknown.
The list does not stand alone. Verse 13 sets a second description against it, phrase for phrase.
These are very solemn words. "Having no hope, and without God in the world" is how the Spirit of God describes the condition and position of Gentiles in the flesh, dead in trespasses and sins. The contrast is just as striking: "In Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." On one side it is "no hope" and "without God". On the other side it is "in Christ Jesus" — "brought near by the blood of Christ."
- Remember — The verse commands a backward look. Grace looks as large as the emptiness it filled.
- Without Christ — The root loss. The Messiah was never promised to the nations, and He was the only One who could bring any way of salvation.
- Without privilege — Israel had a commonwealth, promises and ordinances for all of life. The Gentiles had no claim on any of it.
- Without hope — With no promises, there was nothing to expect from God. Into that empty space comes the dream that man can become perfect on the earth.
- But now — Verse 13 answers every "without": Christ's blood brings the far off near.
but now in Christ Jesus *ye* who once were afar off are become nigh by the blood of the Christ.
Two words open this verse and turn everything around: "But now." From there, everything hangs on two short phrases — "in Christ Jesus" and "by the blood of Christ."
This turn is not the first in the chapter. One writer links it to an earlier one.
"But now" (v.13) connects with "But God" (v.4). A divine work, fully accomplished, has established us "in Christ Jesus." Though at one time "far off," we are brought near to God by the blood of Christ. That precious blood satisfies all the requirements of the righteous throne of God. So He is delighted to have near Him everyone that blood has redeemed.
The verse sets a new position against an old one. One writer weighs what the old position meant for Jew and Gentile alike.
This new position of believers no longer views them as in the flesh, but in Christ. So the Apostle begins to speak of this new position with the words, "But now in Christ…". He then draws a contrast with the former position in the flesh. In the flesh, the Gentile was outwardly far off from God. The Jew was outwardly near, but inwardly he was as far off as the Gentile.
The verse names one cause and no other, and states it as something already done.
The ground of all this blessing is the blood of Christ — "brought near by the blood of Christ." Not our efforts, our devotion, our achievements, but the blood of Christ. It is something already done. We may not know it, may fail to grasp it, may not enjoy it. Still, it is done: you "HAVE BEEN brought near by the blood of Christ." Without the death of the Son of God, we must for ever have remained far off from Him, still in our sins and guilt.
The verse gives no measure, so writers measure it by the two ends of the sentence — where we were, and where the blood has put us.
But now in Christ Jesus, and by His precious blood, we who were far off have been brought near. How near? "In Christ Jesus." Farther away we could not have been, nearer we could not be brought. We were as far off as our fallen condition and our hostility toward God could place us. Now we are as near as our acceptance in the Beloved can bring us.
What kind of nearness is it? One writer points first to Christ Himself, then to the blood.
This is not a mere outward nearness through ceremonies. It is a living nearness, seen in Christ Himself, risen from the dead and appearing before the face of God for us. The blood of Christ declares how great the sin was that demanded such a price to take it away. It proclaims a holiness in God that nothing less could satisfy. And it reveals the love that could pay the price. It is not only that the believer can draw near to God, but that in Christ he is "brought near".
In prayer, people often quote the second half of this verse and drop the opening words.
This is only part of the truth, and a most weighty part has been left out. "But now," says the apostle, "in Christ Jesus you who once were far off." So the apostle speaks not only of what the blood accomplishes, but also of the place of the Christian before God — in Christ Jesus. There are the two things: our being in Christ, and our being brought near by His blood. The teaching of this letter never separates the two; "in Christ" is, if we may call it so, its keynote.
Bringing the far-off near did not leave the old arrangement standing.
Once far off, we are brought near by His blood, and through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. So all special privileges of the one class over the other come to an end. This did not happen by lowering the Jew to the Gentile's outward place, nor by raising the Gentile to the privileged platform on which the Jew had been put. It happened by forming in Christ one new man out of the two, and by reconciling both to God in one body through the cross.
- Far — There were two distances: the Gentile was outwardly far off, and the Jew, though outwardly near, was as far off inwardly.
- But — The turn is God's, matching the "But God" of verse 4. A divine work, already complete, has put us in Christ Jesus.
- Blood — The one stated ground of nearness. Not effort, devotion or attainment. And the verse states it as done: you have been brought near.
- Near — As far as sin could push us, so near acceptance in Christ has brought us. The believer does not merely gain permission to approach; God brings him near.
- In Christ — Quote the blood and drop the opening words, and half the verse is gone. Nearness and place in Christ belong together, and together they end the old privilege.
For *he* is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of enclosure,
The verse calls Christ Himself the peace of His people, and points to a wall He tore down. Two questions follow: what was that wall, and whose peace is meant — peace with God, peace between people, or both?
The verse does not say Christ gives peace. It says He is our peace. One writer draws out what rests on that:
Nothing can be more distinct: "For He is our peace" — a most wonderful expression. Our peace is not merely something we enjoy inside us; it is Christ outside us. If people only rested on this, would there be anxiety about full peace?... He is not called our joy, and God is not called the God of joy, but of peace, because He Himself has done it, and it rests entirely on Christ.
Commentators differ on which peace the verse has in view. Some read it only as peace between two groups of people — Jews and Gentiles, meaning everyone outside Israel:
"For He Himself is our peace" (v. 14). This is not a question of peace with God but of peace between Jews and Gentiles, who previously were enemies. Christ Himself is the present Bond between the believers of both groups. He has made both one. His blessed work of redemption has broken down the "middle wall" that had kept them so far apart. That middle wall involved both the law of God, which separated Jews from Gentiles, and the difference in cultures that came mainly from that law.
Others take the phrase to cover both relationships at once, moving from the first to the second:
"For He is our peace." He is our peace if it is a question of our relations with God. He has made peace by the blood of His cross... But He is also our peace as between Jew and Gentile. He has made both one, broken down the middle wall of partition between us, and abolished in His flesh the enmity.
The dividing wall was not a human invention or mere racial prejudice. It was God's own arrangement:
Now, all this separation was not a human but a divine "middle wall of partition." No doubt prejudice and hatred crept in, which the law never intended. The pride of the natural heart is far too ready to nurse such things. But apart from all that, Judaism was as separate from everything Gentile as anyone can imagine — and that separation came by God's command.
That origin explains why only God could take it away:
There we have it plainly set out that the very institutions God set up in His dealings with the Jews are now torn down. God Himself has destroyed the middle wall of partition. He alone is competent to do so. It would have been a sin for anyone else to attempt it.
Readers in Paul's day had a physical image to hand. A barrier stood inside the temple courts marking how far a non-Jew could go:
It is said there was a wall of partition in the court of the temple, with gates in it. The gates let a Jew through, but for a Gentile who dared to pass, it meant death. How sweet that all restraint is gone! Jew and Gentile are lifted into heights outside every feeling of racial hostility and pride.
"Made us both one" does not mean outsiders were promoted into Israel's old privileges. What came instead had never existed before:
Notice: it is not that the Gentiles who believed are raised to the level of the privileges the Jews used to have. There is now "one new man," in whom is neither Jew nor Gentile. Both, then, leave their former states for a new and most blessed position of oneness in Christ. That position had never existed before, except in God's purposes.
This union belongs to those who believe. It is not a statement about the nations at large:
God had raised a wall between the Jews and the Gentiles. Christ's death broke it down for believers, "to make in Himself of the two one new man" (Ephesians 2:14)... This does not touch unbelieving Jews and Gentiles. God keeps them separate in His present and future dealings.
- Person — Peace is not a mood inside you. It is Someone outside you: Christ Himself.
- Wall — God built the barrier, not man. So only He could tear it down; for anyone else it would have been sin.
- Cross — Christ removed it in His death. That ended both the law that divided the two and the enmity between them.
- One — Neither side was absorbed into the other. Both left their old standing for "one new man," which had never existed before.
- Scope — This union belongs to believers only. Commentators differ on whether the verse means peace with God, peace between people, or both.
having annulled the enmity in his flesh, the law of commandments in ordinances, that he might form the two in himself into one new man, making peace;
The wall between Israel and the nations did not just fall. God cancelled the reason for it. Paul points to where this happened — the flesh of Christ — and to why: to create a man who had never existed before.
The phrase points to a definite act. One writer asks what that act made room for:
This shows that Christ did something "in His flesh." It completely settled every question about the law of commandments in ordinances. He did this by His death on the cross, bearing the curse of the law... Christ died to take away one thing and to bring in another. So the second could not be formed until the first was abolished. We have seen what was abolished. The question now is: what was formed? We are told, "one new man" — in other words, the Church of God. Christ is the head and believers are the members, so Christ and His members are this "one new man," made up of believing Jews and believing Gentiles.
The verse names the enmity: "the law of commandments expressed in ordinances." But how much of the law of Moses does that cover?
The law of Moses contained great moral commands, which are never cancelled. But many ceremonial ordinances were also tied to it. These ceremonial rules made Israel a distinct people in their habits, and so separated them from the nations. In fact, they were meant to do so. The death of Christ annulled such ordinances for believers, and at once removed this great cause of hostility.
The separation was no accident of history. Who put that wall there, and who removed it?
Between these two there stood a dividing wall, which separated them. This wall is the law. God Himself had put it up. But now, in the cross of Christ, God has broken down this dividing wall. He has made an end of the enmity that existed between Jews and Gentiles. And the law of commandments and ordinances finds its end in the cross.
So which side moves to the other's level?
It is not the Jew brought down to a Gentile level, nor the Gentile lifted to the level of the Jew. Both are in Christ, and not in the flesh at all. The flesh is the only place where these distinctions exist. The Jew is no longer a Jew, and the Gentile no longer a Gentile: Christ forms both into one new man.
Some older translations say "make" here. One writer explains what the word carries:
The word for make, in "to make in Himself of the two one new man," is actually the word to create. The same word appears earlier in the chapter, in verse 10, where we read, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works." God brings both Jew and Gentile, on equal terms and in the same way, into a new position which He creates. This is as valid today, near the end of the church's history, as it was when Paul wrote those words, very near the beginning.
The last clause, "so making peace," follows from simple arithmetic:
They are no longer two men but one man, and that man is altogether new. This is a complete solution to the enmity problem — "so making peace." Two men might quarrel. One man cannot very well do so. And he has no inclination to do so, for he is a new kind of man.
If nothing of Jew or Gentile survives, something must fill the space:
Neither of these two men could give God pleasure. So an entirely new man had to be created, bearing Christ's features. This new man has been created in God's likeness, in righteousness and true holiness (Eph. 4:24)... The distinctions between these different kinds of men are not found in the new man. And not one of them gives him his features, for all his features come from Christ.
Because the ordinances ended at the cross, going back to them is a snare:
In those days the ordinances of Judaism pictured the real things found only in Christ. Sadly, Christendom has fallen into this snare. In turning back to the shadows, it has largely lost the Substance.
- Cause removed — the hostility came from the ceremonial ordinances that set Israel apart. The moral commands stand, but Christ's death annulled those separating rules.
- Cost paid — the abolishing happened "in His flesh," on the cross, where He bore the curse of the law. One thing had to go before another could come.
- Creation, not repair — "make" is the word for create. It is the same act of new creation as verse 10. It is God's work, not a deal between two peoples.
- Character all Christ's — in the one new man neither side is raised or lowered. No feature of Jew or Gentile survives. Every trait comes from Christ.
- Consequence: peace — two men can quarrel, one cannot. Going back to shadows and ordinances undoes in practice the peace the cross made.
and might reconcile both in one body to God by the cross, having by it slain the enmity;
The cross does more than forgive people one by one. Here God joins two hostile groups, Jew and Gentile, into one body and reconciles them both to Himself. Two questions follow. Which hostility died at the cross? And why does the verse say "one body" instead of "one new man"?
So which hostility did the cross kill — the one between the two groups, or the one both held against God?
Verse 16 brings in a further thought. Believing Jews and Gentiles are not only one new man — that expresses their new character — but they are also formed into one body, and as such reconciled to God. They needed reconciling because both were hostile toward God, as well as hostile toward each other. Again, you notice, the death of Christ comes in; this time as "the cross." By it He killed the hostility — that hostility toward God which was in the hearts of both, and not only the hostility they had nursed against each other.
The wording repays close attention. Paul does not say that God was reconciled; one commentator underlines this with a bracket added to the verse itself.
"And that he might reconcile both unto God [not God to both]." Eph. 2:16.
That grammar answers a common assumption about who held the hostility.
We would also remind the reader that the Word of God gives no ground at all for the idea that God needed to be reconciled to us. You will not find such a thought anywhere in the Bible. It was man who needed to be reconciled to God, not God to man. Man was the enemy of God. He was not only "weak," "ungodly," and "a sinner," but in fact "an enemy."
The cross takes away what each side leaned on — the Jew his law, the Gentile his wisdom. One writer sets it out as a conversation between them.
In Ephesians 2:16 the cross is the Lord's power over the flesh in the Jew and the Gentile, both before God and toward one another… The Jew was far off from God while his nature boasted in the law. The Gentile was without God in the world. They find the cross in front of them. The Jew who believes says, "What a deadly thing man's heart and mind and soul is!" "Yes," says the Gentile, "this is human nature's estimate." Now notice: the Jew is humbled, his religious pride laid low before God; and the Gentile's sin of being without God in the world comes to light. "But," says the Jew, "the cross! That is a Gentile thing. Gentiles, my legal righteousness and my boast in Moses are put to shame; there is my hand!" "Well," says the Gentile, "I take it with all my heart, for I see that all my wisdom is foolishness."
Why does this verse say "one body" and not "one new man"? The answer turns on who needs reconciling.
God was not content to leave the Gentile at a distance from Him. Nor was He content to leave the Jew in a place of mere outward nearness, while in truth as far away as the Gentile… So in the cross He has worked wonderfully: He has brought both near to Himself, and both near to one another, forming them into one Body that God can look on with delight… This verse does not say "One New Man," because that takes in Christ the Head, and no thought of reconciliation can be linked with Christ. It is those who make up the Body who need reconciling, not the One who is the Head.
What then happens to the old labels — Jew and Gentile, circumcised and uncircumcised?
The cross has not only won us forgiveness of sins. It has ended our standing in the flesh. As those who have "died with Christ," distinctions of earth and of the flesh come to an end. In the new creation, that is, in Christ Himself, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, circumcision nor uncircumcision. By the cross we are dead, and the hostilities of the flesh are killed with us… So peace can now be preached alike, says the apostle, "to you who were far off … to those who were near"… Those who were near had forfeited their claim, and those who were far off never had any claim. Both are now dealt with on the same footing of sovereign grace.
This truth is meant to shape how believers treat each other when they meet.
Many thank God for their own personal blessing, but they are missing this side of it — "reconciled in one body to God."… Then I will not sit in a meeting saying, "Oh, I won't take part because so-and-so is here!" I will not be looking at someone in the flesh — James so-and-so, or Thomas so-and-so. No: leaving distinctions in the flesh behind, we will be there knowing that we are one body, in a new creation in Christ, reconciled to God by the cross.
- Hostility: Two hostilities ran through the world — Jew against Gentile, and both hearts against God. The cross killed both.
- Direction: We are reconciled to God, never God to us. The hostility was ours.
- Cross: It humbles the Jew's boast in the law and the Gentile's boast in wisdom. Both then stand on the same ground of grace.
- Body: The verse says "one body," not "one new man," because the Head needs no reconciling. Only the members do.
- Result: Old distinctions are gone, peace is preached alike to far and near, and the reconciled should live now as one body.
and, coming, he has preached the glad tidings of peace to you who [were] afar off, and [the glad tidings of] peace to those [who were] nigh.
Ephesians 2 has just described a cross that tore down the barrier between Jew and Gentile and made the two into one. Verse 17 turns from the work done to the message sent out about it. Who came and preached peace, and to whom?
The verse says He "preached peace." One writer warns against a common mistake: thinking the sinner still has peace to make.
Notice how He preaches peace. He does not come and say to man, You have to make your peace with God. He preaches peace. He does not preach a peace to be made — a peace that is not made. He preaches peace, a made peace. He has "made peace by the blood of His cross." He has sat down at the right hand of God, with the whole work finished. He comes to Jew and Gentile, no matter to whom, and preaches peace — not a progressive work, but a peace completely made.
Because the peace is finished, God can give it away freely.
Peace has been made by the blood of Christ. So He can now, through His servants, proclaim peace to all who will receive the good news of His finished work of atonement. And note the words "preaching peace." God offers peace to those who hear the message, without money and without price. He offers it as His own gift of grace to guilty sinners.
The verse credits the preaching to Christ. But the timing raises a question, since the coming and preaching follow the cross.
The verse presents Christ as a Preacher to Gentiles and to Jews after the cross — that is, in resurrection. Yet Scripture never tells us of any unconverted person seeing or hearing Him since He hung dead on the cross. He did appear in resurrection to His disciples and speak peace to them. But when did He preach peace to either Jews or Gentiles? The only answer we can give is — never at all in person. He only did it by means of the apostolic preaching, or in other words, by proxy.
Another writer names the power at work in that preaching.
All is credited to Him, because it rests on the cross. And it is Christ, by the Holy Spirit, who now proclaims this heavenly peace. He proclaims it to the Gentiles once far off, and to Israel, favoured until now.
Israel's "nearness" was a privilege given at Sinai.
The special privilege of Israel was nearness to God: "You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself" (Exodus 19:4). Compared with all the nations around them, this placed Israel in a priestly standing before God.
The order of the two names echoes a line from Isaiah.
Those who were far off were Gentiles, and those who were near were Jews. This appears to be a quotation from Isaiah 57:19, "Peace, peace, to the far and to the near," says the LORD. Notice how He puts the Gentile before the Jew even in Isaiah. All through this chapter in Ephesians the Gentile comes before the Jew. At the start of the apostle's service the order is "to the Jew first and also to the Greek." But here he no longer puts the Jew first. He writes from the Roman prison, where the Spirit is using him to explain the truth of the mystery.
Why does a message about peace belong in a chapter about the church? One writer shows the chain.
We can understand why the preaching is introduced at this point in a passage that speaks of the formation of the church. The Apostle has just spoken of the cross. Without the cross there could be no preaching, and without the preaching there could be no church. Christ is looked at as the Preacher, though others are the instruments who proclaim the Gospel He preaches.
What makes this peace solid is what Christ went through first.
Christ has been down into death, and this on behalf of sinners. At Calvary the storm of divine judgement broke upon His holy head... But the storm has spent itself now. He is now righteously able to preach peace to men everywhere. The peace He proclaims is not a mere painkiller for the conscience. It is the blessed knowledge that His atoning blood has settled every question justly. And so every storm cloud has been cleared away for ever.
- Made. Christ does not preach a peace still to be arranged. He preaches a peace already made by the blood of His cross, and given without money or price.
- Preached. The Preacher is Christ Himself in resurrection. He never speaks to unbelievers in person. He speaks by the Holy Spirit through His servants.
- Far. Those "far off" are the Gentiles, who had no such nearness.
- Near. Those "near" are Israel, brought to God at Sinai and given a priestly standing among the nations.
- One. Without the cross there is no preaching, and without the preaching no church. In this chapter the Gentile, once last, comes first.
For through him we have both access by one Spirit to the Father.
Paul has just said that Christ made peace and preached it to those far off and those near. Verse 18 names three divine Persons and two kinds of people, and settles who may come to God and how.
The word Paul uses is rare, and it carries the sense of one person bringing another into someone's presence.
The word "access" only occurs in two other passages in the New Testament, both in the Epistle to the Ephesians... Other places use the verbal form of the same word with the sense of bringing someone into the presence of another. Peter speaks of the work of Christ as introducing us to the presence of God. He writes: "Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18).
The old buildings themselves showed who could come near and who could not.
In the old system, in the tabernacle or the temple, the veil was there. It showed that there was no free access into the presence of God. Only a privileged few, the priests, could go in and worship God; everyone else was shut out. The Gentile could not even enter the court; he had only a special place of his own. So there was no free access. But now every believer in Christ has access into the Father's presence, through Christ and in the power of the Spirit.
The word "one" has been sounding through this passage, and verse 18 is where it lands.
The word "one" occurs for the fourth time in verse 18. It is clear that the word carries special emphasis. Verse 14 states that we are one. Verse 15 adds that it is as one new man. Verse 16 shows that we are one body. Verse 18 completes the story: God gives us both one Spirit, and by Him we have access to the Father. How clear it is, then, that in the Christian circle all distinction between Jew and Gentile is completely gone.
That single Spirit is what rules out any ranking between the two groups:
It is to guard against the idea that the Jew may have a right of access that a Gentile does not have. Both have access by the same power, "one Spirit".
Drawing near takes two things: the right to come, and the power to use it. The verse gives both, and rules out anything of human making.
The distance is not only removed on God's side; it is also removed on our side. By the work of Christ on the cross, God can draw near to us preaching peace. By the work of the Spirit in us, we can draw near to the Father. The cross gives us our title to draw near. The Spirit enables us to use that title and draw near to the Father in practice. If access is by the Spirit, then clearly there is no room for the flesh. The Spirit excludes the flesh in every form. It is not by buildings, or ritual, or organs, or choirs, or through a special class of men that we gain access to the Father.
Who we come to is named here, and that name is a relationship.
Note that it is not to God only in sovereign grace above sin, saving the most guilty and wretched. It is to the Father as such. In this access is that relationship of grace which the Son has always known in His own right and title... How wonderful that we should come to the Father, His Father and ours, His God and ours! All glory to Him and His work of redemption, through which alone it could be to us who believe!
All three Persons appear here. The order of our approach reverses the order in which grace came to us.
In this verse we see the way in which we draw near to God, the order of the Spirit in the heart being the reverse of that of grace. The Father acts by the Son, the Son in us by the Spirit, and since we now have the Spirit, it is by the Son that we address the Father. I cannot pray to God without the truth of the Trinity showing itself. It is not an abstract doctrine. It enters into the practical relationships of every day.
Access is given to be used, and the first use of it is worship — where no one arrives on his own credit.
Both have access, but neither of them in his own name or on his own account. Jewish supremacy has no place in the Father's house. And in the peace and gladness of God's adoption, the Gentile's old distance is remembered no more. Christ alone is naturally welcome there, and by Him all who through faith are made bold to draw near.
- Through Him — "access" means that another brings you in. Christ suffered "that he might bring us to God," and His cross gives us the title.
- By one Spirit — the title alone is not enough. The Spirit is the power that brings us near, and that leaves no place for ritual, buildings, or a special class of men.
- To the Father — the goal is not just God as Saviour of the guilty, but God in the relationship the Son has always known.
- We both — the fourth "one" in the passage. Jew and Gentile hold the same right by the same power, so neither can claim a nearer place.
- Every day — this is not abstract doctrine. Every prayer we pray involves Father, Son and Spirit.