EPH.2- HOW GOD SHOWS HIS GREAT MERCY IN MAKING JEW AND GENTILE ONE NEW MAN

Edward O’Hara Sun 5/17/2020 11:40 AM…

As we continue in this study of Ephesians we see again Paul saying that God’s desire is to show us the riches of His great mercy toward us in the “ages to come”. This is true because He wants us first and foremost to know how much He loves us. He does not say “age” as referring to heaven only. But, says ages which mean there are more yet to come, where like the age we are in now, we will experience God’s great mercy. Because God loves us and wants us to know that He does. So much so that our finite minds can not comprehend what is the length, depth, or height of His love for us. This is what prompted Paul to write that it has not yet entered into the heart of man the things God has for those who love Him. This is why in ages past and In these “ages to come” God will show His great mercy. 

This great mercy God shows to us is His love in action. His grace. Grace that saves us by His coming as a man to join with a man in our death. So that we could join with Him in His life by trusting in Him in all that we go through in this age and in the ages to come, and His resurrection. This is why Paul said when we confess He is Lord and believe that He has raised from the dead we shall be saved in Rom.10:9,10. Showing clearly that this salvation is not of works. It is of faith. The gift we receive from God when we choose of our own free will to believe the gospel message. Because by believing in Him we show our love for Him in return for His great love He has shown toward us when He gave Himself for us. A believing that without which Heb.11:6 says it is impossible to please God. 

And in Eph.2:10 Paul shows us that this salvation is something that God does. This is why Paul says we are His workmanship. Because it is God who molds us and makes us into the men and women of God that He wants us to be. Blessed beyond measure by becoming that man or woman of God He predestinated all mankind for as Paul teaches in Rom.8:29,30 when he said, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” And because all mankind is predestinated as we see here, when we choose of our own free will to believe God we are finally the person that is who we were predestinated to be. Our very best us. A person who is spiritual who has a personal intimate relationship with God now that was never possible until Jesus came.

It is also important to note that Paul says that we are created in Christ Jesus unto good works. And not by good works. This is so very important because if he taught it was by good works then it would be a contradiction to what he just wrote here in vs.8,9 when he said works have nothing to do with how we are saved. And it would also contradict what Paul taught in Gal.2:16 when he said we are justified, which is to be righteous, by the faith of Christ and not by His works of the law. So it is unto good works that we are saved. Because works, no matter who we believe has done them, have no part in what does the saving when we believe.

And in vs.11-15 Paul reveals that we Gentiles are joined together with Israelites in a New Covenant. Not by the Gentile being joined with Israel under the Old Covenant to be made guilty of lawbreaking as so many falsely teach Rom.3:23 means. No, no, thousand times no. Both Jew and Gentile are joined in the New Covenant when they believe in Jesus. They are joined to one another in better covenant with better promises as Heb.8:6 says. We see this as Paul shows us here in vs.12 that Gentiles never had any part in the Old Covenant that Israel had with God. And that only by Jesus’ death took away the Old Covenant and giving power to the New Covenant is the law in the Old Covenant, the  “middle wall of partition” that separated Jew from Gentile, removed. A partition that must be removed for Jew and Gentile to become the “one new man” that Paul says they become when they believe in Jesus. 

It is because this wall that was the law in the Old Covenant has been removed that Gentiles who were once “afar off” are now “made nigh” by the blood of Christ, which is His death. This is why He is peace for both Jew and Gentile when they believe in Jesus. Because when we trust in Him we have peace with God. A peace that happens by making both Jew and Gentile one by the spirit birth because we are now both related to God by birth. We are no longer bound by our natural desires to relate only to what has been made. The Jew to their law and the Gentile to their idols. But, are now able to relate to God who is a Spirit by the spirit that has been birthed in us. Something Paul says in 1Cor.2:14 the natural man that all men are since Adam was made could never do. Not because being natural is evil. Nor is it because those desires are evil. When God made Adam He called all that was made “very good”. But, it is simply because he is natural and not spiritual. He is only flesh and blood. And the natural man is not equipped to relate to the things of the Spirit. 
All this is accomplished in Christ for both Jew and Gentile because Jesus “abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances”. So the law stood between Jew and Gentile.

 Separating one from the other so that neither could have peace with God. Neither could because of Heb.10:1-9 says the for Jew under the law there is a constant reminder of sin. Because under it they were commanded to constantly offer sacrifices for sin. This enslaves them to sin because it keeps sin at the forefront of their thinking. Never giving them peace with God that Jesus can by purging their consciousness of sin itself. This is why Paul wrote in 1Cor.15:56 “The strength of sin is the law”. This is why Jesus’ sacrifice was needed so that a New Covenant could come to power by taking away the Old Covenant by nailing it to the cross with Him as we read in Col.2:14. 

So the law was for Israel the very unpleasant reminder of sin’s penalty under the law as Paul taught in Rom.6:23 saying “the wages of sin is death”. But, if they trust in Jesus the gift of God is eternal life. This happened to Israel under the law because of its constant demands for repentance because of its inability to purge the conscience of sins once for all time as Heb.10:2-4 says. But, by believing in Christ’s sacrifice it will purge their conscience from sin itself by purging them from the “dead works”(Heb.9:14) that was required under the law. Works of the law that are completely foreign to the New Covenant because in it we are saved by grace through faith without works. And for Gentiles being joined with Jesus by faith takes away sin by their turning from their idolatry to serve the living and true God as Paul instructs in 1Thes.1:9. This is what gives both Jew and Gentile “access by the same Spirit unto the Father” as Paul writes in vs.18. So that now we Gentiles are no more strangers. We are fellow citizens with all other believers, both Jew and Gentile, in the family of God by the new birth that Jesus said we must have to see the kingdom of God. 

Paul then says this family of believers is built upon a foundation. This family of believers, however, is not the foundation. We are the building that is built upon it. Those who are the foundation are those who participated in the writing of the Bible. With Jesus as the chief cornerstone because He alone has conquered death. They gave us the things of God that are immutable and inerrant. Things inspired by God Himself to ensure a strong and impregnable base so that the church that is built upon it will be as strong as it’s adherence to that base. That foundation of which Christ is the cornerstone. So any extra-Biblical or contradictory teaching from which we might be tempted to derive our beliefs will be exposed right away as the crumbling and weak elements, elements also referred to by Jesus when He told the parable of the house built on sand in Mt.7, that they are when they do not agree with the plain teaching of the scriptures. The foundation of the prophets and apostles. And Jesus who makes all the parts of the building fit together so that nothing can affect its integrity. Making for God a building for habitation through the Spirit. 

For it is He who Paul is teaching in vs.22 that indwells us by the Holy Spirit. Which began by our free-will acceptance of the gospel when we heard it. An acceptance that brought the gift of faith that receives the gift of eternal life by the spirit birthed in us. The eternal life that is only possible for those who will believe in Him and His resurrection. 

Will you be born of His Spirit so you too can inherit eternal life? The fleshly birth only prepared you for this natural world where death reigns. Will you too be born again by being born of His Spirit so that as His child you will now have for your inheritance His kingdom that is eternal where there is no death? It is my fervent hope and prayer that you will. 

If you are reading this God is calling you. He loves you and wants you to know Him. Because knowing Him is this eternal life that provides you with the spirit that makes you God’s child.John17:3. Because while all men are created by God, not all men are born of His Spirit so that they are children of God. It is only those who have come to know Him that is spiritual because knowing Him is to be born of His Spirit. So if you do not know Him, but have now believed that He is Lord and that He has raised from the dead to conquer death for you, then please take the time right now to talk to Him and confess to Jesus that He is Lord of your life. And believe that He has raised from the dead to conquer death for you. If you do believe in Him then tell Him something like this and you will have eternal life: 

Dear Jesus, I believe you. Thank you for joining with me in death so that by conquering death by your resurrection I could join with you in eternal life. Thank you that you raised from the dead so that I could raise from the dead too by trusting in, clinging to, and relying solely on you. Thank you for giving me a new spirit now Lord so that I can live with you in your kingdom forever. In Jesus’ name, amen. 

By praying a prayer similar to this one and really meaning it from your heart you have been saved from death to life. From sin to righteousness. And from the wrath to peace with God. And now as you begin reading the Bible and believing what it plainly says it will begin to change the way you think and believe. Because when you trust in Jesus you leave the old life behind where you were only able to relate to and trust in what has been made. And now will be equipped for God’s kingdom because you are no longer only natural flesh and blood, but are a new creature made a spiritual being ready to inherit God’s spiritual kingdom. It is because of Jesus’ resurrection that He is the only WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. Because only Jesus has broken through the wall of death that the flesh and blood natural body can never get through. And only by the new birth are we made ready to receive the spiritual body that can go through the wall of death as Jesus’ did first so we could follow Him in the way He has prepared for us. 

God Bless you in your new life in Christ.  

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