Ephesians 2.11–22
Isaiah 55.1–5. Psalm 84.1–3, 8–12. Ephesians 2.11–22. John 12.20–32.
A Sermon from St Margaret’s Nedlands 2 August 2026
About 18 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, Christian leaders gathered in Jerusalem to discuss a problem. An increasing number of non-Jewish people were believing in Jesus. How were they to be regarded? The Jews were the chosen people of God. Did non-Jews have any place in the newly formed churches? If so, what entrance requirements were to be imposed on them? Arguments had broken out about these questions. Some said they could become part of the people of God, but only the same way Gentiles always had, who joined the Jewish nation. They should commit to practicing the law of Moses, and their men should be circumcised. This meant turning to Christ required becoming a Jew.
The decision of what came to be called “the Jerusalem Conference” was that Gentiles turning to Christ could maintain their own nationality, and did not need to adopt the Jewish culture; God was now calling all the nations to himself. This set Christianity on a missionary path which has led it to being the faith of people of almost every nation and culture on earth, but at the beginning this movement was deeply shocking to many Jews, and it still is. It is significant that all the delegates at the Jerusalem Conference, who made this decision, were Jews.
In today’s reading Paul explains that this change was always part of God’s plan and purpose, and what he says constitutes one of the most radical political and social statements ever penned.
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— 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. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 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, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Ephesians 2.11–22
The biggest social barrier in ancient times was that between Jew and Gentile. Gentile (= “Ethnic”) means someone from a nation other than Israel. Rome was busy absorbing nation after nation into its empire. Of course, there were any number of racial tensions. Greeks looked on non-Greeks as “barbarians,” but that meant you spoke “ba-ba;” if you learned Greek you were no longer a barbarian. When Rome conquered the Greek empire, it took over the language and culture of Greece. Greek was the main language of the Roman empire. A great levelling was in progress. But Jews stood aloof.
Prominent in the temple of Jesus’ time, separating the Court of the Gentiles from the rest of the temple was a barrier forbidding anyone who was not Jewish from entering and, warning that death would be the penalty. This was the one exception to a law which reserved to Roman governors the right to order an execution. It may surprise us to know that Julius Caesar gave the Jews special rights, different to everyone else in the Empire. They did not have to fight in the army. They did not have to worship the Roman gods. They had rights of assembly on sabbath days. This was because they helped him in his campaigns and gained his affection and respect. It is quite likely that Paul’s grandfather gained his Roman citizenship as a reward for services rendered to Julius Caesar. One thing the Jews were barred from was competing in the sports arenas. Their circumcision was seen as a disfigurement and was an affront to Greeks and Romans. Everyone knew that the Jews were a peculiar people with peculiar customs, who kept themselves separate. Circumcision was an obvious mark of difference, but for Jews it was a mark of honour. They believed themselves to be God’s chosen people, bound to him by covenant, and obligated to keep his laws.
Paul is speaking to a community of Jews and non-Jews, explaining to them how it is no longer God’s will that they be separate; he had done something radical in Christ to undo their apartheid (separateness) and create for them— and for us—a new identity: “one new man in Christ,” the Christian man. We should say, “one new human,” I guess. The Greek word anthropos means a human being, not a male.
We saw last week how God’s plan to unite the universe under the kingship of Jesus works itself out for individuals. He takes us from our state of death, and makes us alive. This is equally so for Jew and non-Jew. We were both equally dead, taken from death to life, created anew in King Jesus, saved by grace. And this has implications for our understanding of the people of God. In today’s passage Paul explains how this affects us as a community.
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— 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.
This is the “before” in a before-and-after story of transformation. Three things in Paul’s description I would draw attention to. First, we were alienated from Israel’s commonwealth(politeia). This means all the benefits that came with being a member of God’s chosen people. One of these was hope: the promise of a good future. We were “without hope.” This doesn’t mean we had no hopes and aspirations, but we had no promise from God, nothing solid to assure us about the future, and this is indeed the situation of our countrymen, because they are “without God (atheoi = atheists) in the world.” This doesn’t mean the Ephesians didn’t have gods; they had many. But their gods were not the living God who created everything and is not himself part of his creation. Their gods were part of the world system. They were like the spirits of Aboriginal tradition, guardians of this waterhole or that river, inside and part of the creation. The Ephesians did not know the creator God who is above it all. Our neighbours may have their beliefs, but if they have not met the living God, the only possible God they are “without God;” their beliefs and traditions are part of the world system—not God at all.
But I confess I am uncertain about the force of Paul’s words, “in the world (kosmos).” I would wish to say, “they were without a God beyond the world.” The problem with their gods is that they were “in the world.” Does he perhaps mean they were living in the world, but without God? Or could his words be a dig at the Gentile worldview. They called Jews and Christians “atheists,” because their God was invisible and they refused to worship the images which were very much visible, and in the world. On the contrary, despite their idols, they were without the true God in their world.
The third thing we should note, is that in terms of identity, we Gentiles were alienated from Israel’s community and strangers to the covenants and the promises. We had no messiah, no promised king. To Jews we were “the uncircumcised,” though Paul reminds them that circumcision was “made with hands;” it may not play a part in the supernatural kingdom under construction.
“But now”—we meet those words again that signal a great change:
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
God has now brought Jew and Gentile together—how? By Jesus’ death on the cross. Paul is alluding here to words of one of Isaiah’s oracles. God was appalled at Israel’s wickedness and punished her severely, but nevertheless promised that one day he would heal her.
Peace, peace, to the far and to the near,” says the Lord, “and I will heal him. Isaiah 57.19
But who are those who are near and who are those who are far off? Jews would tell you it is Judah (the Jews) who is near, and the exiled tribes of the north who are far off. But for Paul it is the Gentiles who are far off. He reasons that as Israel’s apostasy led him to divorce her, rendering her “not my people.”[1] This is how she is described in the Book of Hosea. “Dead in trespasses and sins” Paul describes Jew and Gentile earlier, then on this new level playing-field God can as well call Gentiles “my people,” as he once promised to call renegade Jews, who were once “not my people.”
The point is, God has now signalled his desire to be reconciled to alienated Gentiles and has moved to do it.
But how? Once again, we learn that it is “in Christ Jesus,” meaning “in Jesus our King,” and specifically “by the blood of Christ.” All the New Testament writers are clear on this point: it is Jesus’ sin-bearing, representative, dying in our place that secures our forgiveness and right to enter the presence of God.
For though him, we both have access —the right to approach God—in one Spirit.
God brings us near to himself, by Jesus standing in our place and bearing the penalty of our sins.
Paul must have intended that what he says next would shock Jewish ears—and ours too when we grasp his meaning. For the law of Moses is the glory of Judaism, separating them from the rest of mankind, and the moral law is prized by Gentile Christians too. Many churches, as well as a cross, have on their wall the two tables of the ten commandments. A church in Cape Town was renovated recently, and the commandments were not put up afterwards. It created a storm: accusations of antinomianism. The minister said he did not mind the commandments being displayed somewhere in the church, but not in centre place on the front wall; that should be for the gospel. I think our passage would have been in his mind.
For he himself [Jesus] is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 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, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
Jesus has annulled the law of commandments and ordinances: an utterly offensive statement to Jews! How can the Rabbi Paul, the one-time champion of the law, imagine such a thing?
Jesus revealed several worldview shaking things to Paul on the Damascus Road. First, he, Jesus, the enemy of Judaism as Paul saw it, was indeed the promised King-Messiah. Second, Paul, who thought of himself as out in front in terms of his zeal, understanding, and obedience to the law, discovered he was actually fighting God. When he came to reflect on it later, he saw that his passionate law-keeping was concealing a heart that was as full of jealousies, lusts, and hating as any tax-collector’s. The law had not made him good. And third, Jesus, in sheer mercy had forgiven him and brought him near. Paul makes it clear in other places that the law of Moses is from God and is holy and good, but it had not made him or his people good; it had only exposed their evil. Left to the law, all would be condemned, Gentile and Jew alike. But Jesus interposed himself between condemned-to-death sinners and the law, paid out the demands of the law himself on our behalf, and made peace between us and God. And the point is, that in doing so, he demolished the barrier that had always stood between Jew and Gentile—not by doing away with the law, not by disregarding it, but by fulfilling its demands, and cancelling its power to disqualify. It was as though Jesus had demolished that barrier that stood in the temple, with its warnings of death. There is a lot of temple language in this passage. When Paul wrote Ephesians the temple still stood, and so did those warnings. The huge thing to grasp in this passage is that access was now secured both for Jew and Gentile by Christ on the cross, despite those warnings. It is sobering to think that 8 years later the temple would be no more, those warning inscriptions only to resurface in the rubble in 1871 and 1935.
Paul corrects a common misunderstanding here. Many think Gentiles are no longer subject to the Jewish law, but Jews are. No! It is fine for Jews to keep some of the Mosaic regulations—Gentiles too if they wish to. But there is no obligation, neither Jew nor Gentile is cut off from God by their failure to keep the law. Jews and Gentiles are alike dead in their sins, and made alive by Christ’s sacrificial death. The Mosaic covenant failed to bring people to God and is now cancelled by the death of Jesus. Our relationship with God is now governed by a new covenant, a covenant of forgiveness and the Spirit. One huge consequence of this for those who understand it, is that the barrier that separated Jew and Gentile is gone. This is what Paul wishes so passionately to see manifested in all his churches. There is no longer, “you are a Gentile, I am a Jew,” but “one new man [person],” a Christ person, in place of the two.
Does this have any relevance for the wider question of race relations?
What we call “racism” is actually two different things. Every people group prides itself on something about itself and looks down on others. We will never escape this; just pay attention to international sport. One of my students, a Congolese man, went to Japan as a missionary. On one of his trips home I asked him to address our students. In the questions which followed one of the students asked him whether he experienced racism in Japan. He thought about it and said, “No, not really … of course, the Japanese see themselves as superior to everyone else, but if you’re English, or American, or African you are respected and treated well,” but then he paused and added, “But if you’re Korean you’re dirt.” Every mouth fell open.
But racism proper believes there is some actual fundamental difference which makes us superior and them inferior: our colour, our religion, our superior civilization, our language, our blood-line. It becomes an “ism,” almost a religion, and a justification for ill-treatment of what we see as inferior races. Hitler promoted this for Germans. The Hindu caste system gives it a religious foundation. Some believe there is some inherent goodness in being white. This is where racism becomes dangerous and an evil.
What Paul says is relevant to this question. God removed the barrier between Jew and Gentile by revealing that all are alike sinful and condemned—a level playing field—and then sending Christ to secure our forgiveness. When we look at another person, be they a foreigner, or from another religion, or someone who belongs to an inferior “class,” or has done something evil, we should say to ourselves, “I was evil—still am—dead in my trespasses and sins—and Christ died to make me clean. This person is also one for whom Christ died. If they will accept God’s gift—and he offers it to them—then we stand together as “one new human being in Christ.” It was thinking like this, I believe, that caused the South Africans in the end to abandon apartheid.
And he [Jesus] came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
God is doing more than just dealing with the problem of racism. He is building a new temple. The old temple symbolized the cosmos (creation). God was at the centre in the Holy of Holies, unapproachable except by the High Priest once a year with sacrificial blood on the Day of Atonement. Next was the Holy Place with the altar where the consecrated priests made sacrifice for the sins of the people. Then came the people, then that terrible warning, and outside, the Court of the Gentiles. All of this was destroyed and has never been rebuilt, but as Paul makes clear, the destruction happened years before the war of AD 70; the law was annulled at the cross of Calvary, and with it the temple system.
And what do we have in its place? A new temple, “not built with hands,” its cornerstone being our Lord Jesus himself, the foundations being the New Testament apostles and prophets who gave us the Holy Scriptures, and its walls built of living stones of God’s Spirit-endowed people from every nation. This is the temple of the new age, the church which Jesus said he would build, against which the powers of death would not prevail.
I am conscious there are many questions to be answered, but these will have to wait for another time.
[1] Hosea 1.9; Romans 9.25.