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.
So then ye are no longer strangers and foreigners, but ye are fellow-citizens of the saints, and of the household of God,
Paul has just told Gentile believers what they once were: outsiders to Israel's commonwealth, with no share in its blessing. Now he draws the conclusion with a "so then." Two old words no longer fit them. Two new ones take their place — one from public life, one from family life.
The verse opens with two labels that no longer fit. One writer explains what each word meant, and which privilege they shut Gentiles out of. (The ESV has "strangers and aliens"; an older wording is "strangers and foreigners.")
We are no longer "strangers and foreigners". The meaning of the word "strangers" is, "we were not born there"; the meaning of "foreigners" is, "we do not live there". This has to do with the commonwealth of Israel mentioned in verse 12, for as Gentiles we were not born into it, and never belonged to it. Now, however, we do belong to this greater sphere of blessing.
Paul does not name Jerusalem, and he does not name Abraham's family. One writer traces how the two phrases climb, step by step.
Though once as Gentiles we were, "alienated from the commonwealth of Israel," we are now "no longer strangers and aliens." We are "fellow citizens" — not with the people of Jerusalem, but "with the saints." We are "members of the household" — not of Abraham, or even of Moses and Aaron, but "of God." The thought of the Spirit of God moves on in a rising scale. It goes from the negative to the positive. Then, on the positive side, it goes from being joined with the saints to being not only in the kingdom but in the very household of God.
The two halves of the verse are not a repetition. One looks to a city we cannot yet see. The other is ours to enjoy today.
Believing Gentiles were once strangers (unknown) and aliens (unrelated). Now they are "fellow citizens with the saints, and members of the household of God" (v.19). Being fellow citizens, we are of the same city, that is, the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:9-10), so we have the same future prospect in view. Our citizenship is there now, though it will only be shown openly in the future. Being members of the household of God is something we enjoy in the present. God welcomes us inside the house as those whose proper home it is.
Citizenship is a public tie. A household is a family one. That difference decides how near we stand and how we must live.
A household is a place of greater intimacy than a city. The Lord Mayor of London, for instance, appears in greater splendour when he acts as head of the City. But people know him far more closely when he lays aside the proud trappings of his high office and acts as head of his own household. Now we are not merely citizens but are also of God's household. So we are brought near and have this liberty of access. But we are also responsible to wear the character of the One whose household we belong to.
So is the Gentile only catching up with what Israel already had? One writer names who these fellow citizens are, and how far the tie goes beyond Israel's best national blessing.
"Fellow citizens with the saints" means with believers generally, whether Jewish or Gentile. They are "fellow citizens," but not of an earthly country; "our citizenship is in heaven." They are "members of the household of God." That is a closer relationship than the Jew will enjoy when his national blessings reach their highest point.
Jew and Gentile now stand in one place. The old ranking is gone, and no believer has ground to look down on another.
In the body of Christ all national distinctions and privileges are gone. They are gone too in the relationships people commonly hold towards God on the earth. All are upon the same footing, so that no one can boast over the other. The Gentiles are no longer strangers. They are brought in, together with Jews, to be fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Both are built on the same foundation, Christ, the chief cornerstone.
- Distance named. "Strangers" meant not born there. "Aliens" meant not living there. Gentiles were outsiders twice over.
- Distance cancelled. Paul's "so then" rests on all that came before. Those two words no longer describe the believing Gentile.
- Citizenship given. Not in an earthly country, but in the same city as all the saints — ours now, seen later.
- Household given. The house is nearer than the city. We are welcomed inside today, closer than Israel's national blessing will ever reach.
- Conduct follows. Nearness brings responsibility: wear the character of the One whose household this is, and never boast, since all stand on the same footing.
being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the corner-stone,
Paul tells believers that they now stand on a foundation already laid, with Christ Himself set at the corner. Two questions come up here. Which prophets does Paul mean? And how can Christ be the corner stone when Scripture also calls Him the only foundation?
The order of the words matters, and Ephesians 3:5 settles the question:
This does not mean Old Testament "prophets" and New Testament "apostles." It means "apostles and prophets" of the New Testament. Ephesians 3:5 puts that beyond all doubt: "as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit." It is a new work built on a new foundation. Jew and Gentile are now built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit, which was not the case in Old Testament times.
If the apostles themselves were the base, the church would rest on men:
"Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets" does not mean that the apostles are the foundation. The apostles are the foundation through their inspired teachings. As Paul wrote, "I laid a foundation." But he also adds, "For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:9-11). The Lord Jesus Christ and the doctrine of Christ is the foundation. This the apostles taught.
You lay a foundation once, so this work does not repeat in every generation:
They laid the foundation. Once the foundation of a house is laid, you do not need to keep working at it. You then go on with the building. So you would not expect to have them, in their living ministry, in this day. They remain with us, but only in their writings, and in the unfolding of the truth that God has preserved for us in the holy Scriptures. That is where our faith rests.
Other gifts remain. The same letter names them, and they are of a different order:
We must always keep in mind the distinction this same letter makes here. The apostles and prophets are the foundation on which we are built. The evangelists, pastors, and teachers are the gifts that carry on the work.
The Greek word behind "corner stone" has two senses:
The Greek word translated chief corner stone is akrogōniaios. It means a corner FOUNDATION stone, and also a stone at the extreme angle. The first meaning gives us the thought of the church as God's masterpiece, taking its character from Christ as the chief corner stone. It also tells us that this glorious foundation stone was laid in the atoning sufferings of our Lord at Calvary's cross, sufferings beyond words.
The second sense — the stone at the sharp angle — fits a church made of Jews and Gentiles. The stone men threw away is where the two walls meet:
God has raised the One who was rejected and crucified from among the dead by His power, and has glorified Him at His right hand. Now the rejected Stone has become the Corner for those called out from the Jews and those called out from the Gentiles. There both meet and grow into one building in Him. Although rejected, He is the chosen of God. Israel stumbled at the Stumbling Stone. Man refused Him, but God glorified Him.
A corner stone does two things. It ties the building together, and it sets the lines the rest must follow.
Christ is also the corner stone of the house. He gives character to all the building and binds it together. He is not only the underlying foundation on which others build. In Him "the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord" (v.21). As it grows, every stage of the building stays joined to Him and depends on Him at all times.
Israel's temple had a stone that marked it complete. The church's picture has no such stone:
Israel's temple had a capstone (Zechariah 4:7), which seems to mark the completion of the building. As to the Church this does not appear to be mentioned, and there is surely a divine reason. Perhaps this is because the Church will not be displayed on earth as a completed building. As the temple it is not yet complete; it will keep growing until the Rapture, when the Church will be complete for ever.
- Foundation. The apostles and prophets here are New Testament ones; Ephesians 3:5 puts it past doubt. So this is a new work on a new foundation, not a carry-over from Old Testament times.
- Teaching. They are the foundation through their inspired teaching, not through their persons. What they taught is Christ, and no one can lay any other foundation.
- Finished. A foundation is laid once. Their living ministry has passed, but they remain with us in their writings, and that is where faith rests. Evangelists, pastors and teachers carry the work on.
- Corner. The corner stone was laid in the atoning sufferings of Calvary. The stone men rejected is now the angle where believing Jews and believing Gentiles meet in one building.
- Character. As the corner stone, Christ binds the building together and gives it its character. It is still growing, and every stage depends on Him.
in whom all [the] building fitted together increases to a holy temple in the Lord;
Paul has just told the Ephesians they belong to a building that rests on Christ the corner stone. Now he says what that building is: one, joined together, and still growing. The writers below quote an older translation, which reads "all the building, fitly framed together."
Every stone in this building takes its line from Christ, and the work goes on without noise.
All the building is "fitly framed together" in the Chief Corner Stone; that is, every part of the building has reference to Him, and directs the eye to Him. And like Solomon's temple, this temple "grows." It is recorded of that house: "When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built" (1 Kings 6:7). In the same way, this holy temple grows silently, under the skilful eye of the divine builder, according to His own plan.
Some translations read "each several building," which would allow many separate buildings. One writer rejects that reading, on the grounds of what the whole letter argues.
In Ephesians 2:21 the temple is seen as growing; "it grows to a holy temple in the Lord." This takes in every believer of this present age. In this sense the temple is not complete until the Lord comes. "All the building" is the correct idea, not "each several building." That second reading goes against the whole teaching of the letter, which is the unity of those blessed in Christ.
Scripture also speaks of building that men do. One writer points to the phrase that marks the difference.
When Christ builds, He does not commit it to man at all, and no responsibility of man comes in. He dies and rises again, and what He builds on the imperishable foundation of faith in His person in resurrection is secured for ever! Ephesians 2:20-21 shows us this building. Christ builds it, and it is "fitly framed together" — mark those words strongly. This temple began when the Holy Spirit came down from heaven. It "grows" until all is in glory, right to the very end of the church's stay on earth. It is not yet complete. You will not find those words, "fitly framed together," where what man builds comes before us. In verse 21 he looks at the progressive work — the whole temple, which God purposes to be His sanctuary, the home of the brightest display of His glory for ever.
Buildings do not grow. This verb changes how we should think about the church's unfinished state.
The building "grows." Grow is a word that only applies to something that has life. A child grows, a plant grows. At every stage a child, or a plant, is complete. Growth may add size, and qualities hidden in the child or plant come into view. But we never think of either as incomplete at any stage. So God's temple is always seen as complete, yet growing. Yet the end is in view when the last stone is added.
Whatever the stones looked like at the quarry, the finished fit will be exact.
"In whom all the building, fitly framed together, grows up to a holy temple in the Lord." This is the grand future and sure result. The building grows to that. Never did the highly polished stones of Solomon's temple fit more perfectly, or lie more exactly, than these stones will rest together in that completed temple of beauty, grace and holiness. They were once so shapeless, so angular, so mismatched.
Paul changes the image here, and the word he picks carries more than the idea of shelter.
But in the verse before us we have Christians looked at as "a holy temple in the Lord." The figure is changed. This sets before us the great truth of God dwelling among His people on this earth. God dwells there, and there is more. The word temple carries the thought of a shrine — a dwelling place, yes, but joined with the thought of holiness, because of who dwells there. It becomes a sanctuary, a sphere of priestly activity, a place of worship — a place made by the persons who compose it, not by stones and mortar. "God … does not live in temples made by man" (Acts 17:24).
A Christian's place among other Christians is not his own choice.
One stone cannot make a building, and stones do not choose their own place. Each stone finds its place according to the mind of the Divine Architect.
- In Him — every part of the building points to Christ the corner stone, and He sets how it fits.
- All — one building, not many; the whole letter argues the unity of those blessed in Christ.
- Fitted — "fitly framed together" belongs to what Christ builds, never to what man builds, so it cannot fail.
- Growing — a word for living things: complete at every stage, yet still rising until the last stone goes in.
- Holy — the end is a sanctuary, a place of worship made of people, where God dwells among them.
in whom *ye* also are built together for a habitation of God in [the] Spirit.
This verse closes Paul's argument about Jews and Gentiles with a striking claim: God has a house on earth, and it is built out of people. How can God live with people at all, and what should that mean when we gather?
The word "also" points back to people who were once outsiders.
The Gentiles are no longer strangers. They are brought in, together with Jews, to be fellow-citizens with the saints and part of the household of God. Both are built on the same foundation — Christ, the chief corner-stone.
Verse 21 and verse 22 are not saying the same thing twice. One looks ahead; the other describes right now.
But note the difference between the temple of verse 21, and what you find in the last verse. First, in verse 21, he looks at the work still in progress — the whole temple. God's mind and purpose is that it should be His sanctuary, the home of the brightest display of His glory for ever. Second, in verse 22, he looks at the assembly as it is now: a habitation, or dwelling place, of God by the Spirit on earth — in other words, the "house of God."
God visited people long before He ever settled among them. What made the difference was not innocence.
Redemption is the foundation of the relationship. We never read of God dwelling with Adam in the garden of Eden, though he was in a state of innocence. He made a happy dwelling place for him and set him in it, and it seems that He visited him there, but He never dwelt with him. Creation could not furnish a suitable foundation for God's dwelling place on earth.
The material of God's house changed, and so did the effect of His presence.
But now men themselves made up the tabernacle where God did not refuse to dwell. The blood of Jesus had purified them, and made them fit to be the habitation of God through the Spirit. How beautiful is this divine fact! Such is the effect of the death and blood of Christ, and of our reconciliation and purification. His presence does not drive the priests away. Instead, God in grace makes us His habitation!
It would be easy to read this as a promise about our future home with God. The wording runs the other way. (These writers quote an older Bible translation: where it reads "a habitation of God through the Spirit," the ESV has "a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.")
There are two points in this expression, beloved friends. One is that we are the "habitation of God." The other is that this is "through the Spirit." He is not speaking of our dwelling with God (although that is true), but of our being "a habitation of God." Our having glory together with Him is one thing; God's dwelling in us is another. This, I repeat, is clearly a most unusual and special blessing.
Scripture speaks elsewhere of the Spirit living in a single believer. Here the subject is plural — the house is what believers form together.
Here, Paul is not speaking of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of adoption in believers. He says, "you are built together as a habitation of God through the Spirit." That is, together they formed the dwelling place of God. Paul tells us that "The house of God … is the Church of the living God" (1 Tim. 3:15). In 1 Cor. 6:19, we find the other truth, that the individual bodies of believers are the temple of the Holy Spirit.
This truth changes how believers gather. It also changes who they come to meet.
Beloved friends, when you come into the assembly, is this thought before your mind — I am in a place where God dwells? I think it is a wonderful thought that God has a house, and He comes and lives in it by His Spirit. What for? To make Himself known! He is not only the builder and owner of the house. It is a sweet thought that He also lives in it. There alone is He, as we say, at home in this world. It gives the assembly a character that nothing else could, and it should impress us with a sense of seriousness. When I go there, whom do I go to meet? My brothers and sisters? Yes, thank God — but not first of all. The blessed truth is that the Lord is there.
- Redemption first. God visited Adam but never lived with him. Redemption is the foundation for God dwelling with people.
- Then the dwelling. The blood of Christ purified people and made them fit to be God's house.
- Reaching both. The "you also" brings Gentiles in beside Jews. Both rest on the same foundation, Christ the corner-stone.
- Now, not later. Verse 21 shows a temple still growing toward glory. Verse 22 shows a house God lives in today.
- So, reverence. If the church is where God lives, we come first to meet Him — and His presence gives the gathering its character.