Ephesians 2:11-22One New Body from TwoNovember 16, 2008
Background on the Church
We should take careful note of the corporate nature of the church as described in Ephesians.We have noted it already, but we need to emphasize this. The church as a whole local assembly and even universal body is an important concept to understand and to live in. We can see the plurality in Paul’s plural address in 1:1-2 and in his use of “us,” “we,” “our,” and the plural “you” throughout verses 3-9 and 11-19. (The plural “you” is not evident in most translations except KJV “ye.”) We also see the corporate idea in 1:22-23 where Christ is the head of the church. The church is described as a body, a multi-part thing over which He has been placed as the authority.
The church is an assembly or congregation of people. Etymologically the word is often said to be derived from “ek,” out, and “kalew,” to call out, hence a called-out assembly of people, though it is used of other groups—not just the church (Acts 19:39, 32, 40, Acts 7:38, Heb. 2:12).
Background on the Israel Issue
Then, for our interpretation of Ephesians 2:11-22, we have the “Israel issue.” The name of the nation is used 75 times in the NT, 45 times in Acts through Revelation, or about once every four chapters! There is a big question as to whether Israel means Jewish-blooded people or if it is redefined in the New Testament to refer to the church. As plain, old-fashioned Christians who take a dispensational view of the Scriptures, we believe that Israel refers to the national entity, those of physical Jewish descent. By the term “dispensational” in this context, I mainly mean “normal literal interpretation.”
Israel is spoken of in distinct terms from the church and the Gentiles. In fact, the commonly-heard phrase “New Israel” never occurs in the Bible—not at least in the ESV, NIV, NAS, NET, NKJ, and KJV. Note one interesting text—1 Cor. 10:32. The main point is not teaching on this subject, but it does show that a distinction exists in Paul’s mind between the various groups.
The “slam dunk” text on the issue is Romans 11. Check out particularly verses 1-2, 5, 11, 13-14, 25, 26-28. Is God done with Israel? Verse 1 answers: No! The nation has fallen down in the present era while salvation goes out to the Gentiles (v. 11). Paul makes a very clear, presently-applicable distinction between “you Gentiles” and those who are of “Paul’s flesh”—his ethnic heritage (v. 13-14). Israel and Gentiles are once again distinguished in v. 25, and v. 26 says that all Israel will be saved in the end times. All the other passages relevant to this issue can best be handled within this framework.
The bottom line of all this is that, despite popular objections to the contrary, we have to deal with Israel somehow in our theology. We cannot simply redefine the term to mean “church.” It does not. In fact, if it did mean “church” then the passage in Ephesians 2:11-22 would be nonsensical. To that passage we now turn.
Background on the Jew vs. Gentile Issue
At the time when Christ came, there was a real “us versus them” mentality that we have to understand. It was between Jew and Gentile, somewhat akin to the way we understand the black and white race difficulties in our own history. But this was encoded into Israelite law in terms of the clean vs. unclean distinction, mainly because of the pagan idolatrous practices.
The nations were objects of being driven out of the land because of their idolatry (Lev. 18:24, Deut 12:30). Some among these were fit only to be slaves (Lev. 25:44). The “nations” would be a place of punishment for the nation when it was in rebellion against God (Lev. 26:33-34). Israel was to be the head of the nations (Deut. 15:6, 28:1, 13, 44).Inter-marriage between Jews and Gentiles was a real no-no, even though you have historical cases like Samson and even Esau (Gen. 26:34-35).
Acts 11:1-3 shows how this worked into the early church—Jews would not even eat with Gentiles. Circumcision was a big distinguishing factor. Acts 22:21-23 shows how unsaved Jews reacted toward even a mention of the Gentiles. There was great animosity between Jews and Gentiles in the worst cases. There is no excuse a kind of racist attitude today, though believers must maintain a certain separateness from unbelievers in the church and marriage and so on.
Despite how unfair or uneven we may think it is, God selected the Jews as His own special people. Salvation was centered around the Jewish nation and ritual in the OT era. The only way to approach God was through the Mosaic Law and sacrificial system. Of course, faith was and ever is the only way of salvation, but this faith was expressed in a Jerusalem-centered, Mosaic-law-focused way. Gentiles would come to Israel and become proselytes. This obviously all changed with Christ’s death and the Great Commission.
In verse 14 Paul mentions a middle wall of separation. This was not a literal wall, as in the temple wall that separated the court of the Gentiles from the court of the Jews. That was aonly physical manifestation of something more serious—namely the wall of the Mosaic Law which codified many of these Jew vs. Gentile issues. Of course, it did not take them to a sinful extent because the Law was good, but people usually tend to take things a bit farther or not far enough and mess it up!
All of this is important background to have in mind when we approach Eph. 2:11-22. Here we are talking about two groups—not individuals. They are described this way:
Verse / Gentile / Jew2:11 / Gentiles in the flesh
Uncircumcision / Circumcision
2:12 / Aliens / Commonwealth of Israel
Strangers / Covenants of Promise
No hope, without God
2:13, 17 / Far off / Near
2:19 / Strangers, foreigners / Citizens
The problem of Gentiles being on the “outside” is described under the figure of citizenship, and with terms like enmity.The union is considered in similar terms, as well as with the notion of a household and building. Everyone is a sinner (2:1-10 made that clear). But the Gentiles were in a sense farther away from God compared to the privileges of the Jewish people. After all, the Jews had the benefits described in Romans 9:4-5. The Gentiles had nothing of the sort.
Brief Outline of the Passage
1. Introduction to the New Union, 11-13
a. Past Distance, 11-12
b. Present Nearness, 13
2. Making of the New Union, 14-18
a. Making the Peace of the Union, 14-16
b. Proclaiming the Peace of the Union, 17-18
3. Results of the New Union, 19-22
a. Citizenship, 19
b. A “Building” – the Church, 20-22
Conclusion
It seems to me that you can see the significance of this passage, particularly as a Gentile. Not only were you dead in trespasses and sins (2:1), but you also would be very distant from the means of God’s grace if we were still in the Mosaic dispensation (2:12). But since Christ has come, He has broken down that barrier and brought you ever nearer to the means of salvation. If you are a believer, this is cause for great thanks to God. If you have not yet decided to follow Jesus, this points out that there are no serious barriers other than those within yourself—God has taken care of everything else around. You must acknowledge your sinfulness, believe that Jesus, the Son of God, died and rose again because of your sins, and finally call with trust on Jesus to be your Lord and Savior.
MAP
Both were in need of reconciling. We have the creation of a third entity here!
Far off or near from what—Israel? No—GOD!