The second chapter of the great Rabbi’s letter to the congregation at Ephesus is very important. It contains some foundational doctrines: the doctrine of the total depravity of man; the doctrine of salvation by grace alone; and the third main teaching of chapter 2, which is the new relationship between Jews and Gentiles. With the coming of the Son of God, and His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and the giving of the Spirit of the Messiah, something new, something radical, has taken place, both for Jews and Gentiles – but especially for Gentiles; and, something new has happened between Messianic Jews and Messianic Gentiles.
Let’s review: Gentiles, who used to be far off – far from the God of Israel, far from the Jewish Messiah, far from the Chosen People with our many blessings, far from the covenants that contained wonderful promises of salvation, goodness and blessings, far from hope – because of the love and mercy and grace of the God of Israel, and because the Almighty has exerted His divine energy and activity through His Son, the Gentiles who believe have been brought near!
Believers from the other nations have been brought near to the Creator from whom the world is estranged; near to the true God, who is the source of life and blessing and happiness and meaning; near to the only God, the living God, the God of Israel – so near, that He is living in you, and you are living in Him!
Non-Jews have been brought near to our Messiah – Israel’s anointed Prophet who speaks authoritatively for God, Israel’s anointed Priest who is the one and only mediator between humanity and God, who brings God closer to us, and us closer to God; and Israel’s anointed King who is God’s designated Ruler over Israel and the nations. Non-Jews have been brought near to our Messiah so that Israel’s Messiah is also living in you Gentile Christians, and you are living in Him.
Gentiles have been brought near to the promises contained in the Lord’s covenants with Israel. The Lord promised to meet all of our needs, our physical needs, and our spiritual needs, like atonement. The Lord promised to send the Messiah. The Lord promised to bless us and all the families of the Earth. The Lord promised to protect us and to give us ultimate victory. He promised us life in this world and life in the world to come. The Lord committed Himself to be our God forever. Now the Gentiles are entitled to these good promises that are part of the covenants made with Israel.
The believers from the other nations of the world had no hope, but now have been brought near to real, genuine hope. Now they will receive, and can expect, wonderful future realities like participation in the resurrection of the righteous; passing through the Day of Judgment and not being condemned; everlasting rewards, being welcomed in Heaven, experiencing eternal life in the New Heavens and New Earth and the New Jerusalem.
Non-Jews who were far from the Chosen People have been brought near to the nation of Israel – which means that Gentile Christians need to know about, and be sympathetic to, and love and support and stand by as much as possible, and pray for and bless the nation of Israel and the Jewish people. Gentile Christians need to understand God’s covenant with Abraham, which is still in effect, which includes the promise of blessing and cursing found in Genesis 12:1-3. Non-Jews need to understand the promises of the Land of Israel that still apply to the Jewish people, along with the promises of dispersion from the Land and the restoration to our Land. Gentile Christians need to understand that the New Covenant, which promised the coming of the Messiah, and true knowledge of God and His Word, and the complete forgiveness of sins, was made with the House of Israel and the House of Judah.
Gentile, you are now connected to the best parts of the nation of Israel. You have Abraham as your spiritual father, the Jewish saints as your fellow citizens in the New Jerusalem. You share in the spiritual blessings of Israel, all the life, atonement, peace with God, salvation and hope. You are part of God’s family. You have the Jewish saints as your brothers, the God of Israel as your Father, Israel’s Messiah as your elder brother, the Spirit as your Advocate, Protector, Guide and Rabbi!
Among Christians, there is absolutely no place for anti-Semitism, hatred of the Jewish people, resentment toward Israel or support for anti-Semites or those who want to do us harm. Yes, the majority (but not all) of the Jewish people have stumbled and fallen, but your attitude, Gentile Christian, is to view those of us who have fallen as a beloved fallen older brother. You need to know that one day we will be restored, fulfill our calling, and be a source of blessing for the world. Your attitude should be one of showing us love and sympathy and mercy, and reaching out to us with the love of God, and bringing us the Good News of God’s grace and mercy and love and forgiveness.
Gentiles who were far from the God of Israel, and far from the wonderful promises and privileges of Israel, and far from the people of Israel, if they welcome Messiah, are no longer far, but near. How near? Very near. So near that they actually become one with the faithful remnant of Israel, the Messianic Jews. The Christian Gentiles form a new entity with us. We become a unified new humanity, a humanity that will live forever, a new humanity that has been reconciled to God, and reconciled to each other, full of peace and love and unity, with the ancient division between Jew and Gentile gone!
Rabbi Paul continues with this subject of the division of humanity into Jew and Gentile, and the ending of the division, in verse 14: For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. Because of sin, the unity of humanity has been fractured. We are divided in many ways. We are fragmented by the division of language, so that it is hard to understand and be close to those of other language groups. We are divided by religion. We are broken by different values. One of the most significant ways that the unity of humanity has been shattered is due to the division between Jew and Gentile.
A great division occurred among the nations of the world. On one side of the divide is one people – the Jewish people, and on the other side are all the other nations. What caused this division? God did. The Lord looked down at humanity after the Flood, and saw that the nations were getting farther and farther away from Him, and truth, and doing what is right, and salvation, and the Lord intervened. He created and then set apart a special people who were designed to know God and truth and the principles of atonement, and bring that knowledge to the other nations of the world. The Lord chose Israel.
The Lord demanded that Israel be an Am Kadosh, a holy people, set apart from all the other nations, distinct, different, peculiar people, and that we not mix with the other nations, and that we not follow the corrupt ways of the nations, but we remain pure and holy, so that they would learn from us. The Jewish people were separated by God Himself from all the rest of the world. That’s the way it was.
But, it was also the Lord’s intention that this division would, in connection to the coming of the Messiah, come to an end, as Rabbi Paul tells us in verse 14. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall. Gamliel’s greatest disciple uses the barrier of the dividing wall to illustrate this separation between Jews and Gentiles. In the Temple area, there was a wall beyond which Gentiles could not pass. The Jewish people could go beyond the barrier, and get closer to the Most Holy Place, and one Jew could even enter the Most Holy Place, but Gentiles could only go so far. They had to remain outside of the Temple. This wall separated Gentiles from the presence of God, and it also divided Jews and Gentiles.
But now the barrier of the dividing wall is gone. Messiah Himself broke down this barrier, just like He broke down the other barrier in the Temple, the veil, which separated humanity from God. When Messiah died, the great veil in the Temple itself, that shut out almost all of humanity from the presence of God on Earth, was torn in two, from top to bottom, showing that access to God, atonement from God, the forgiveness of God, the welcoming embrace of the Father, was available to humanity in a whole new way!
In the same way, when Messiah died, the barrier that separated Jew and Gentile was likewise removed. Because of what Messiah did on the cross, both Jews and Gentiles have a new and better and equal access to the presence of the living God. Bold can boldly and directly approach God’s throne of grace at any time. Both can worship Him in Spirit and in truth. Both are equally loved and accepted by the Almighty.
Because the barrier that separated Jew and Gentile has been removed, both are united to one another in an entirely new way – united, but not so that Israel is absorbed into the nations, and we assimilate and lose our distinct, God given, set-apart identity, but united in such a way that this ancient division ends and is replaced by love and peace and unity.
It wasn’t easy to bring peace between Jews and Gentiles. A simple peace treaty, some sort of declaration that would end the division couldn’t do it. It took something far greater – the death of the Son of God; it took the blood of the sinless Son of David to provide the basis for reconciliation between Jew and Gentile.
The division between Jew and Gentile can’t be removed by violence, persecution, anti-Semitism, pogroms, wars, holocausts. We are a nation that will endure and live forever. This division between Jew and Gentile isn’t removed by demanding that Jews stop being Jews, and falsely teachings claiming that when we Jews recognize the Jewish Messiah, we are now Christians, and are no longer Jews. This barrier between Jew and Gentile isn’t taken away by Gentiles converting to Judaism, or ceasing to be Gentiles. This division between Jew and Gentile is overcome when Jews become Messianic Jews, and Gentiles become followers of the Jewish Messiah. It is our mutual commitment to the Prince of Peace that brings us peace with God, and peace with each other.
Messianic Jews and Messianic Gentiles come together in a new group, in a new unified community, with peace between the faithful remnant of Messianic Jews who are still Jews, and Christian Gentiles who still are Gentiles, but both groups retaining their own unique, God-given identity, loving each other and working together to serve the same God who loved us, and poured out His mercy and grace and Spirit on us all.
Messiah Himself, and His death and resurrection, and then being personally connected to Him, and a recipient of His Spirit, is the source and the basis and the foundation of this new peace.
Messiah Himself, and His death and resurrection, and then being personally connected to Him, and a recipient of His Spirit, and not just being part of some religion, or merely giving mental assent to some theological truths, is the source of our peace. Do you know Him?
Messiah Himself, and His death and resurrection, and then being personally connected to Him, and a recipient of His Spirit, and not interfaith dialogue that ignores Him and His Messianic Jewish followers, is the basis of our peace! Do you believe in Him?
Messiah Himself, and His death and resurrection, and then being personally connected to Him, and a recipient of His Spirit, is the foundation of our peace, not a common political or social agenda or shared moral concerns. Are you following Him?
The great and wise and inspired emissary that the Lord sent to teach us adds another thought about the reason for the division that existed between Jews and Gentiles: For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is “occasioned by” (this is my addition for clarification) the Law of commandments contained in ordinances.
This passage is interpreted in several ways. The interpretation I prefer is not that the Law of Commandments – the Laws of the Mosaic Covenant, is the enmity, the hostility, between Jews and Gentiles, because the laws of God didn’t teach Jews to hate Gentiles, and it certainly didn’t teach Gentiles to hate Jews. Instead, it taught that the Jewish people were to love the nations and give them the truth, and the nations were to love and learn from us, and bless us.
I like David Stern’s interpretation. “The enmity is not the Torah. Nor did the Torah ‘cause’ the enmity directly. Rather, the Torah occasions sin (in this case the enmity between Jews and Gentiles) by stimulating people’s sinful propensities. This included Gentile envy of the special status accorded by God to Israel in the Torah; Jewish pride at being chosen; Gentile resentment of that pride; mutual dislike of each other’s customs.” So, here is what I think Paul means: The Torah teaches that the Jewish people were chosen by God for special purposes. The Torah contains laws that were designed to keep Israel separate from the nations. For example, there is the law of circumcision that kept us physically distinct from the nations. There are food laws that were designed to keep us distinct from the nations; marriage laws that kept us apart from the nations; laws for clothing that kept us distinct from the nations; laws for worship that separated the nations from God and from us. We had a holy land, and a holy city, and a holy house, and a Holy Place, and a Most Holy Place, where the Holy Spirit lived on Earth in a special way, and the Gentiles did not have the same rights or privileges to these things as did we.
These laws are holy and good, but these good laws can stir up sin and rebellion in fallen humanity. This God-ordain separation, this chosenness, this divine set-apartness frequently stirred up suspicion, envy and hatred from the nations. Often there was hostility, resentment, jealousy and anti-Semitism directed toward us.
At various times the Egyptians, Amalekites, Canaanites, Assyrians, Syrians, Edomites, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, and in more modern times, the English, Spanish, Germans, Ukrainians, Poles, Communists, Arabs and Moslems, and I am sure many others as well, hated us, persecuted us, killed us, and made war against us and tried to exterminate us.
But, with the coming of the Messiah, and specifically His death on the cross, something new, something radical, something that is meant to affect Israel and the rest of the nations of the world, took place. A new kind of unity developed between individuals in the nation that was chosen to be a light to the other nations, and those other nations that received the great light shining in Israel.
Now Messianic Jews and Gentiles share in a new covenant, a new relationship with God that is possible, a new giving of the Holy Spirit. We form a new community, a new body of believers made up of Jew and Gentile. We have a new love that God creates in our hearts, a new willingness to sacrifice and lay down our lives for others.
A real, genuine, radical transformation that results in peace and unity occurs between believing Jews and believing Gentiles – peace between a Jew like me and a born again Arab Christian who formerly would have loved to kill me. Deep calls to deep – something deep within me senses that he is my brother, a co-heir, a son of my Heavenly Father, someone I will be living with throughout eternity, and that we have a oneness and a unity that goes beyond race, culture, language and former hatreds.
Gentile Christian, you are part of a new entity, a new humanity, the Church, the called out ones, the Body of Messiah, that is specifically made up of believing Jewish people and believing Gentiles.
It is sad, but true, that many, most Christian congregations and leaders are not knowledgeable or interested in showing this very important unity between Jew and Gentile. And, if they are interested, they don’t know the right way to go about it.
They try to have peace with the Jewish people, and dialogue yet exclude and ignore the Messianic Jews from their dialogues and discussions and deliberations.
They are not supportive of the nation of Israel.
They don’t pray for Israel or the peace of Jerusalem.
They do not teach about God’s on-going covenants with Israel, or the final restoration and blessing of Israel within our own Land.
They do not take seriously the teaching of Romans 1 that the Good News must go to the Jewish people first.
Some teach that Jewish people don’t even need to believe in Messiah Yeshua in order to be saved!
They do not support Jewish missions and ministries.
They do not encourage Jewish believers to maintain and pass on their Jewish identity, and resists the forces of assimilation. If Jewish Believers are in your church, pastor, you must understand this, and help them remain Jews, and pass their Jewish identity on to their children. You do them a great disservice if you don’t! You diminish from the Body of Christ if there are no Jews. If both groups come together in unity, and one of the groups is assimilated by the dominate culture, then you don’t have both groups. Something important is missing!
May the Lord, by means of His Spirit, who guides us into all truth, guide Messiah’s Holy Community more and more into these important truths about the one new man made up of Jew and Gentile!
This is not an new teaching that was invented by the greatest of Gamliel’s students. Paul reminds us that this desire to bring near those who are far away is something that the Lord had been concerned about, even in the time of the prophet Isaiah. And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near – Isaiah 57:19. The Lord wanted to bring healing and peace to the kah-rov – those who are near, but also to those who are rah-chok – far.