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.