11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands - 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
You have probably noticed a pattern during the past few weeks, as we have progressed through some of the key doctrines on the Christian faith. We began with a definition of salvation, redemption, propitiation and justification. Today our focus is on the doctrine of reconciliation, and we end this series next Sunday with adoption.
In his letter to the Ephesian Church, Paul begins by reminding his readers firstly about where they had come from. In verses 11 and 12 he writes, “At one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called ‘the uncircumcision’ by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands - remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”
The reconciliation that he goes on to teach about is actually two-fold. Because of what God has done for us through Jesus, we are reconciled to Him. That is obviously the most significant part of our reconciliation, which we will look at more closely in a moment, but one of the benefits of being reconciled to God is that we are now also reconciled to one another.
Jesus has, by His atoning death, brought us peace. In fact, as Paul writes in verse 14, He Himself is our peace.
He had just said in verse 12 that the Gentiles were formerly “separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” What this means is that they (the Gentiles) had no spiritual relationship with God. And they certainly had no spiritual relationship with the Jews, so there was a separation between not only them and God Himself, but God’s people too. But God sent His Son, and by His life and death, He brought the peace we need.
We should never forget that sin is the cause of all our trouble in the world. We were all born in sin, we all live in sin, and we all struggle with sin in our daily lives. Sin is the cause of all conflict and division. Whatever conflict we see, and however it manifests itself, at the very root is the sin problem. Sin is the enemy of peace and harmony. Sin is basically rebellion against God, because we rebel against Him by insisting on living for ourselves.
Sin is gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. James 4:1-3 says, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” Here James lays the blame for the mess that the world and our lives are in squarely at our own feet. Yes, there are times when we are the victims of the sins of others, but more often than not, it’s the three fingers pointing back at ourselves while we point at others that remind us of the cause of our problems.
And the only solution to our sin problem and all the social evils that it brings is the peace that Jesus brings us. The world tries to legislate peace and reconciliation, but all that brings is more division and strife. And here the Church has a lot to answer for as well. Critical race theory has become the popular phrase in the world today, but it has been around for years. Churches that drone on and on about liberation theology and the social “gospel” have missed the entire point of where and whom our peace and reconciliation comes from. They have bought into the lies of the world, and by joining hands with the world they have abandoned the truth of the Gospel and are instead preaching a false gospel. The theologian Steve Lawson wrote recently on Twitter, “If the world understands you, you can be sure that you have become too much like the world.”
The world and worldly principles cannot and do not bring peace. True peace and reconciliation comes when a sinner surrenders to the sovereign Lordship of Christ. Peace comes when self dies, and the only place that self dies is at the cross of Calvary. As Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the angels announced His birth to the shepherds and said in Luke 2:14, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased!”
Jesus brought peace by His death on the cross. His death provides the only solution to the problem of sin and alienation from God and each other. His death brought peace to all who put their trust in Him.
So we are going to be taking a closer look at how Jesus brings reconciliation in our relationships with one another, and then of course, the reconciliation we need the most: our need to be reconciled to a Holy God.
In Ephesians 2:14 Paul says that it is Christ “who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility.” Context is important here. We need to have some understanding of the culture in Paul’s day in order for us to appreciate just what he is saying here. The “dividing wall of hostility” he speaks about was an actual, physical wall. The sad thing is, this wall was in the temple in Jerusalem, and it symbolised the separation between the Jews and the Gentiles. On the outside of the temple was the outer court or Court of the Gentiles. This was really the outer perimeter of the temple, and any Gentile who went that far could look up and see the temple itself, but they were not allowed to approach it. They were cut off from it by the surrounding wall, which Paul called “the dividing wall of hostility,” and on this wall were warning signs in Greek and Latin. Archeologists have pieced together the remains of some of these signs, and directly translated into English, they read, “No stranger is to enter within the balustrade round the temple and enclosure. Whoever is caught will be himself responsible for his ensuing death.” In other words, they didn’t say that trespassers would be prosecuted, but trespassers would be executed.
Paul’s words in verse 14 make a lot more sense when we understand the history of the temple. Jesus “has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility.” The temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70AD, but it was spiritually destroyed some 40 years earlier when Jesus died on the cross for sinners. He has “broken down in His flesh” the alienation that existed between Jews and Gentiles.
In the 1st century there were all kinds of dietary and ceremonial laws which clearly defined the differences between the Jews and Gentiles. The various festivals handed down from Old Testament times were exclusively for the Jews, and these laws drew a clear distinction between the people of God and the Gentiles. Dividing people based on race and ethnicity is nothing new, and in Paul’s day it was as bad as it has ever been in human history, but, by His death on the cross, Jesus abolished all of the ceremonial laws, because He fulfilled in Himself all the shadows and types to which these things pointed. And now that there was no more need for the ceremonial laws which separated Jew and Gentile, there was no more need for any separation. That’s the theory at least, but of course, human sin remained which is why the stain of racism continues to this day.
As Jesus died on the cross, He did so “that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility,” as Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:15-16.
In his book “The Message of Ephesians,” the theologian John Stott wrote, “This, then, was the achievement of Christ’s cross. First, He abolished the law (its ceremonial regulations and moral condemnation) as a divisive instrument separating men from God and Jews from Gentiles. Secondly, He created a single new humanity out of its two former deep divisions, making peace between them. Thirdly, He reconciled this new united humanity to God, having killed through the cross all the hostility between us. Christ crucified has thus brought into being nothing less than a new, united human race, united in itself and united to its creator.”
One of the great benefits of us being reconciled to God, is that reconciliation is now possible among people too, and this is what we see (or at least, are supposed to see) in the Church.
The Church refers to all the people who belong to the Lord, those who have been purchased by the blood of Christ. The Church is also called the body of Christ, the family of God, the people of God, the elect, the bride of Christ, the company of the redeemed and the communion of saints.
The Greek word for Church used in the New Testament is ekklesia, which means “called out ones.” We are called out in the sense that God calls us out of the world, away from sin and into a state of grace. This has serious implications for those who are united to God and united to one another through Christ. It is both a privilege, but also the duty of every Christian to be united to the Church of Christ, because we are a family. We are to encourage and admonish each other where necessary as we grow in our faith together. Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
It’s been said that the Church is not so much an organisation as it is an organism. It is made up of living parts, and is called the body of Christ. Just as a human body is designed to function in unity by the cooperation and codependence of many parts, so the Church as a body functions in both unity and diversity. We are ruled by one head, who is Jesus Himself, but the body has many members, each with different gifts to be used for the benefit of the Church and ultimately for the glory of God, but we cannot do that unless if we are a united and a reconciled family.
Of course, we bring our own sin and our own selfishness into the Church, because we remain tainted by our sin, which is why Paul wrote to the Church in 1 Corinthians 10:10, “I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.”
It is in the Church where we live out this new unity we have in Christ. We are reconciled to one another because of Him, and there are no more dividing walls of hostility.
The second, and most significant part of the doctrine of reconciliation, is that God has reconciled us to Himself through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17-20, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”
There are a number of important points in these few verses.
The ministry of reconciliation is God’s call to lost sinners to come to Him with all their sins, and the subsequent condemnation that brings, to be saved and reconciled to God. In these 4 verses in 2 Corinthians 5, we see the words reconciled or reconciliation 5 times.
Firstly, reconciliation is not the same as salvation, because reconciliation goes a step further than salvation, in that it is more than having our sins forgiven as the wrath of God at our sin is satisfied. Reconciliation involves a changed relationship.
When you have two people who have a long-standing issue between them, they can agree to disagree as the old saying goes, but the issue is not resolved. It is just swept under the carpet, and both parties agree not to mention it again. That’s not reconciliation. Reconciliation is a completely changed relationship, and in the context of the ministry of reconciliation we have in the Bible, we soon see that it is all the work of God.
He is the one who did the reconciling. “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself.” That’s in verse 18, and it is repeated in the very next verse.
Reconciliation is the ministry of changing completely, but the question is, who is changing? Not God. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We are changed as God has reconciled us to Himself. Remember that God’s eternal plan of salvation is His from start to finish, and this includes the wonder of lost sinners being restored to a Holy God.
It is also important for us to see that this offer of reconciliation is given to all people. John 3:16 tells us that God so loved the world that He sent His only Son. 2 Corinthians 5:19 says that in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself.
This offer of grace and mercy is given to all sinners, but reconciliation only comes to those who recognise their need to be saved, confess their sins, and who turn to Christ in faith. Salvation, and the subsequent reconciliation it brings is not universal. It is only given to those who come to the Father through Jesus Christ, and through Jesus Christ alone.
It is through Christ, and what He did on the cross that the world is reconciled to God. This wonderful ministry of reconciliation is the work that He has done for us.
Colossians 1:20-22 describes the wonder of what Jesus done like this: “Through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, He has now reconciled in His body of flesh by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before Him.”
Notice that Paul says on earth or in heaven are reconciled to God through Christ. When we compare this passage with Philippians 2:10-11 we see a crucial difference. In Philippians Paul says, “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” The “under the earth” here refers to those in hell. The truth is that there is coming a day when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, but not everyone will do it willingly.
In our Colossians text, when speaking of reconciliation, only heaven and earth are mentioned. Hell is not reconciled to God. Although every being in hell will bow to Him, only those in heaven and earth are reconciled. And how are they reconciled? By the death of Christ. And those who reject the atoning death of Jesus Christ are the ones who are not saved, and therefore not reconciled to God. Look at Colossians 1:21-22 again. “You, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, He has now reconciled in His body of flesh by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before Him.” It is the death of Christ and faith in His act of atonement that reconciles us to God. Nothing else will do. He is our only hope of escaping from this eternal death sentence that hangs over us all.
Ezekiel 18:20 says, “The soul who sins shall die.” When Adam sinned, he died spiritually, and that spiritual death has been passed on to each one of us.
Because we are born spiritually dead, in our natural state we are separate from God and alienated from Him. This is why we need to be saved. This is why we need to be reconciled to Him, and this is why Jesus died.
And because He has died, everything has changed. Now, by His grace, God has His arms outstretched to a lost world, and He calls us to come to Him to be saved and reconciled. Mercy and forgiveness is His gift to us because of His great love for us, and this is the message of hope we have for the world.
2 Corinthians 5 teaches that not only has God reconciled us to Himself in Christ, but in verse 19 Paul says that God has entrusted to us (the Church) the message of reconciliation. What is the number one task of the Church? Preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul continues in verse 20 through to 6:2 as he clearly outlines what we are to do now that we have been reconciled to God. “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Working together with Him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says, ‘In a favourable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.’ Behold, now is the favourable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Have you been reconciled to God through Jesus Christ yet? If not, I implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God!
If you have been reconciled to God, be an ambassador for Christ, as God makes His appeal through His Church.
Homegroup Study Notes
Read Ephesians 2:11-16
Here Paul was reminding his readers that the social and racial divide between the Jews and Gentiles in the 1st century had been dealt with by the death of Jesus (see also 1 Corinthians 12:12-13).
How does the same principle of reconciliation with one another apply today?
Why do we see so little true reconciliation in the world?
Read 2 Corinthians 5:17-20
The Christian faith is unique in that it is God who seeks the lost sinner and goes to the cross in the person of Jesus. The entire plan of salvation is God’s, from beginning to end.
Discuss how Paul teaches this in verses 18 and 19.
How does reconciliation differ from salvation?
As the Church we are to point lost sinners to Jesus. Proclaiming the Gospel means we are to tell the lost about what God has done for them, and how He has provided their greatest need: to be reconciled to a Holy God.
Discuss the way Paul teaches this in 2 Corinthians 5.
What is the “ministry of reconciliation?”
How can we be effective ambassadors for Christ, and how do we implore the lost to be reconciled to God?