Jews and Gentiles Form One Temple
Study Scripture: Ephesians 2: 11 – 22
Background: Ephesians 2: 11 – 22
Devotional: Romans 9:14 – 24
Lesson 12 August 16, 2025
Key Verse
But He responded and said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another which will not be torn down”. Matthew 24:2
INTRODUCTION
Today we are studying what it means for us to be ‘in Christ’, to share the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. The focus will be on the believer ‘in Christ’, and the nature of the congregation of God, which some like to narrow down to its modern manifestation, which we call the Church.
We must first embed in our minds that salvation is by grace. Grace is a gift of God.
This is a fact often perverted. Some will demand circumcision or baptism or some other action before one can be saved.
But our Lesson Study makes it plain what has been wrought in Jesus Christ.
The restoring and unifying work of Jesus Christ, which removes every obstacle and destroys barriers among men that divides and fragments them, is thoroughly discussed. This is a part of the good news of the Gospel.
This Gospel reveals that Jesus will and has begun to unite all things together in Himself. This the ultimate Good News.
Scriptures reveal that mankind has been in a lost condition; impossible to help or change himself. The Fall into sin brought chaos and man could not extricate himself from this state. The former condition before men came to know Christ meant men were “lost”, dead spiritually. They walked in the way of the world following the prince of the world, the spirit of disobedience, following the lusts of the flesh and the desires of the mind.
All men therefore had to have their minds renewed. “All men”, bar none had to be made “alive”.
Even a cursory examination of the history of man after Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden showed that man’s condition became more and more degraded so that the Flood was necessary to destroy all men with the exception of one family God preserved. But even after that experience man still walked according to the power of the flesh and the direction of Satan.
Man remained by nature the children of wrath, and therefore when God called Abraham and gave him great promises, his children kept on demonstrating their true nature.
So God had to as the prophet Hosea stated took the initiative. The prophet summed it up very well,
Thou hast destroyed thyself, But in Me (God) there is hope”.
Such extraordinary love, compassion, and mercy now had to be shown .
Jesus, who has in Himself the great power of God, came and died to restore harmony, peace joy.
The Apostle Paul made it clear that it was God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that had sent His Son the Lord Jesus Christ to bless us with every spiritual blessing, raising us up with Him and making us sit with Him in the heavenly places.
Note therefore we are now related to the Creator.
When we are in Jesus Christ we have all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3), so that whether we realize it or not, as one writer puts it: “The weakest believer holds in his hands all that is ever possessed by the mightiest saint of God.”
In about A.D. 51, a dozen or so years before writing his letter to the Ephesians, Paul participated in a meeting we sometimes call “the Jerusalem Council.” This meeting is described in Acts 15 and Galatians 2. Church leaders convened the council to resolve a pressing question for the first-century church:
Is it necessary for Gentile men to be circumcised in order for them to be considered Christian?
Simply put, the question was whether a person had to become a Jew first before becoming a Christian. Was the gateway to the church only to be found in the synagogue?
The Jerusalem Council decided that circumcision was not to be required for Gentiles. However, this decision was not accepted by all. Even a dozen years later, some taught that Gentiles needed to be circumcised and otherwise “toe the line” regarding the Law of Moses. Thus, Paul found the need to revisit this issue with teaching for both Jew and Gentile.
The Book of Romans Chapters 1 and 2 lays out that both Jew and Gentile had condemned themselves.
The Book of Ephesians gives six figures of speech that teach us the nature of our relationship in Christ. “All the people of God”, and we repeat “all” are presented as members of the body of Christ.
Christ lives in every believer, giving them all the power they will ever need throughout their lives.
They are presented as the ‘holy temple’, showing that God’s purpose for each one of us is to be the home, the dwelling place of God.
We should think of all things that home means to us and try to understand what it means to God to be living in us, as His holy habitation.
We are told that there is a tremendous, sacred secret that only believers can understand, namely that it is through His Church that God will show His manifold wisdom, so that the principalities and powers in the heavenly places will begin to learn the many diverse facets of God’s wisdom.
The congregation of God is the instrument that God is using to educate the invisible realm of reality about him. (3:8-10)
The Apostle describes anyone who is in Christ as a new creation, a new man, so new that we are hardly able to conceive properly this new reality. This new man is created after the ‘likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness’.
Further, this new man, who is given new gifts from Christ, has a new ministry, which must be exercised. (4:4,27)
Next, the Apostle describes this “new body” as the bride of Christ, created for the enjoyment of Jesus Christ, so that He can love His bride and delight in fellowship. Then and only then he pictures the Church as a soldier, fighting the battles, and winning the victories under the leadership of God.
Humanity outside of God is clearly described as ‘dead’, with all the characteristics of the dead, namely totally impotent and powerless to help themselves, corrupt, decaying, guilty of being always dissatisfied, constantly crossing the line, (or dead through trespasses), and worst of all, intentionally and deliberately doing wrong, missing the mark, the perfect standards of God (dead in sin).
These people, the spiritually dead, are actively in rebellion against God and are called sons of disobedience. They live according to the characteristics or patterns of the world, conforming to all the attitudes and styles of the age, always operating under the orchestration of Satan, who lives in a heavenly realm unseen to us.
Since these men are fully under the control of the ‘old man’, ‘the world’, and the devil they show that they rightfully deserve the wrath of God, for by their nature they are not victims but instead they are children of wrath.
All of us were once in that sad state, where we were slaves to the desires of the flesh and of the mind, encouraged by the clever and subtle treachery of Satan. Men were born in this condition, as a part of fallen humanity, under the universal curse, with no escape. This is the world of the non-Christian, with no God and no hope.
But there is a contrasting relationship because of the two words introduced by the Apostle in Ephesians 2:4. He now tells us “But God…..”
God is a God of rich mercy and great love, and for that reason and that reason only, here is a contrast to that ugly picture that describes fallen humanity.
God loves His creatures and though we deserve to be left in our guilt with its consequent death, He makes a way to set us free. When He sees the misery that men are in, He pities us, and His mercy comes to man’s aid.
He does not wait for us to do anything, for He knows that we are dead and therefore impotent, unable to help ourselves.
His love makes Him respond to our needs, for due to His forgiving nature He cannot be in different or unconcerned with our guilt and misery.
But note, not only does He make us alive, we are alive with Christ, He makes us sit with Christ in a new place, so that our citizenship can now be said to be in heaven.
Obviously, since our life is in Christ, if He sits in the heavenly places, we also sit in heavenly places. Note that the Apostle says we presently are in heavenly places.
We sometimes rightfully wonder, when we look at our behaviour, whether in fact we are in Christ, and are presently sitting in heavenly places with Him.
We should examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith. It will not be a nice experience to be told by Christ at His coming that He never knew us.
In addition, we are told that God will in the future continue to show us the exceeding riches of his grace. He will continue to unfold His riches, and we will spend eternity indulging ourselves in the delights provided by God.
Note that now we are only experiencing a mere trickle of His grace. The real riches are to come.
It is important to summarize this new condition and emphasise the reality of the profound changes that occur immediately.
Believers are:
-Made alive together with Christ
-They are joined to Christ, for He lives in us and we become one person with Him.
-God is now their Father
-They are given a great sense of belonging.
-They are raised up with Christ
-They sit with Christ
-They are guaranteed an exceedingly rich heritage of continually unfolding blessings.
Best of all, it is stressed that this is the work of God, and hence a work that is absolutely certain and overwhelmingly powerful and guaranteed to be marvellous.
In no respect is it our work, and so we know that there is no flaw, no foolishness or inadequacy, and no mistakes or imperfection.
Note however the importance of the tenses. All the verbs are in the past tense. This is something that has happened, not something that is going to happen. The believer has been irrevocably changed. The believer is no longer dead, no longer alienated and afraid of God. The life of Christ is now the life of the believer, and his new identity is Christ.
There is an unbreakable union. This of course means several things. One believer lists them as follows:
- The believer can now love the unlovable.
- The believer can now endure the unendurable.
- The believer can now achieve the unachievable.
- The believer can now forgive the unforgivable.
All this rest on the fact that the believer can now do things that would have been impossible to do by himself, but now that he has Jesus Christ, he can amaze himself for he is now joined to Christ and is sitting in the ‘heavenlies’ with Him. It is now possible to win every battle.
Any professing believer who finds himself on a continuing and relatively permanent basis loving the twisted pleasures of the flesh, the self- pleasing and self-indulgent life, more than that of the Spirit, should face up to the fact that no true regenerated Christian can please the flesh and be led by the flesh.
One cannot be a Christian or a believer without this new relationship, where a person is made alive with Christ, raised with new power, and committed to the work of Christ. One writer points to the basic counterfeit of the Christian life, which ignores this and is therefore a fraud and a sham.
“ It is ‘godliness’ without God, ‘ Christianity’ without Christ, ‘ spirituality’ without the Spirit. And it can never accomplish anything except to turn people away. What Paul has outlined for us here, and this alone, is true Christianity. Anything else is wrong.”
We are told emphatically that God has saved Jew and Gentile, all humans, us, from His wrath to make something beautiful of us. We are His workmanship, literally His “poiema” (Greek), His beautiful poem, and His “work of art”.
God has made us thus, so that we will be active in good works. We cannot boast for we did not deserve any of this, but because of His great love and mercy, we are really the masterpiece of God.
Clearly then God is doing a work in all of our lives, making us a tremendous exhibition and display, demonstrating His love, His wisdom, His power, His character, His peace, and His joy; showing the world what His life is really like.
We must note carefully that the Apostle Paul tells us that God has prepared these works beforehand for us to do. Obviously then, He is teaching us, training us, bringing us along, giving us the right doses of trials, tribulation, and discipline, applying the right amount of ‘paint’ to us, so that we will show up to be the amazing masterpiece that He has put on display.
For us Gentiles, we must note that God has called us out of this world of guilt and misery, dead in trespasses and sins, conforming to the pattern of the world, being slaves to the lusts of our flesh, being under the total dominance of the God of darkness.
We were in the genealogical line of those that had stayed and walked according to the course of this world. We were ignorant, dead, helpless, in darkness, and in every respect apart from Jesus Christ, outside of the promises, and outside of the covenants of God.
But thanks to God our Text continues however BUT NOW GOD…
THE TEXT
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—
We should note that God has two different kinds of reconciliation to accomplish. First, there has to be reconciliation between God and every individual on earth.
Second, there has to be reconciliation between the two groups of persons that were hostile to each other, namely, Jews, called the Circumcision, and Gentiles called the Uncircumcision.
Here Paul exhorts the church to remember, to go back in time and remember the state that they were in before God acted to bring them into a new relationship with Him. By asking them to remember, they are able to compare and contrast their previous and present state.
The best way to appreciate what has happened to us, is to look back at what we were like before we were ‘in Christ’, for this heightens our awareness of what God has called us from.
By doing this, it is hoped that they would,
- gain a deeper appreciation for God,
- strengthen their faith, and
- remember their repentance. Paul hopes The Apostle hoped that this would humble them and once again excite their love for the things of God, and further increase their thankfulness to God.
- Paul reminds them that they were once removed from the covenant of God, living in the corruption of their natures, i.e. participating in idolatry, fornication, lying, stealing and the sort; doing what was right in their own eyes. Now they are to be much more, the children of God.
To be Gentiles in the flesh, removes one from God. The name Gentile means that one is not of the Jewish faith and can be described using a derogatory term, such as a heathen or pagan.
The non- Jews were called uncircumcised by the Jewish people who were circumcised, for they regarded circumcision as a distinctive distinguishing mark of a special people who belonged to God. Circumcision meant that they are part of the family of God. The Jews therefore had advantages over the Gentiles who had no such relationship with God.
Some believe that this label of the pagan world as ‘uncircumcised’ points up their tremendous sexual immorality irrespective of their sophistication, as well as their religious ignorance, also irrespective of their level of education.
Being a pagan meant that one was separated from God, separated from Christ. A person might be sophisticated, intelligent, very artistic, good people to be among, but their life and worship was empty and without value.
Those Paul addressed, were those who were not originally Jews, and who didn’t even belong to the family of God, and hence Gentiles in every respect. This circumcision was meant to set a further division between the Jews and the non- Jews.
12. Paul describes their state or condition with respect to God and Christ, as being nonexistent.
These people as Gentiles, did not want to have anything to do with God, His laws, His righteousness, His Holiness and any other attribute that God possessed.
They knew nothing of the love of the true God though they worshipped a large array of gods. They knew that they were faced with a power that was greater than they, and they often did all sorts of things to placate these powers, but the thought of God ever loving them was the furthest thing from their minds.
There was no great sense of belonging. Their lives were sad and in a deplorable state.
The worst thing for these Gentiles was that in the past, there was absolutely no possibility of having Christ. They might come close and admire Him but there was a gap of death. The Gentiles were aliens, distant from a relationship with the living God and from a relationship with the Jews, the people of God. There were two completely contrasting nations.
When dealing with the term commonwealth, we are talking about a group of people who act for the good of the whole. Gentiles, being heathens, those separated from the love of God, by their actions show that they do not care for anyone but themselves. They were not only strangers with respect to God and to Israel, but were strangers to each other.
In contrast to them the people of Israel had a God that ruled over them, that was their head, that had made them a single people, a brotherhood who belonged to God, and who were to be different in that regard. Their actions should always be to support the weak and, assist each other. By showing/demonstrating such behaviour, they would show their love for God.
By stressing this Paul would probably be giving a mild rebuke to his people who were not honoring their obligations.
The obligation of any citizen of a country is to be ready to serve and defend it in times of need. They are to demonstrate some creed or mandate of their country by the way they carry themselves, i.e., act as ambassadors for their country. These people would be mindful of their actions and how it might impact their country. This special relationship holds for almost any country. In relation to the children of God, they have a special relationship with their Master and Lord.
This relationship was started with the promises, covenants or agreements God had made with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and David and by which He guaranteed to do certain things. The covenant with Abraham was extended to his descendants, and therefore every Jew knew that God would provide for him and help him.
He knew that he had agreed to follow the Commandments of God, and his circumcision was always there to remind him who he was and of the promises to which he was entitled.
Every Israelite knew that God would never completely destroy him no matter how badly he behaved. God would destroy a pagan nation when their iniquity had reached its peak, but He would never cut off His people completely, but would save a remnant.
Eventually God would send a Messiah who would straighten out everything, and restore the people.
But Gentiles had no hope. Their gods were unreliable and they were never certain how the gods would respond to them. When they cried to their gods there was no guarantee of a response. So they endured their oppression, lived with their guilt and shame, and indulged in violence and warfare and cruelty to their own people and other nations, for they had to depend on their own schemes for survival.
Their conception of the afterlife, if there was one, was pitiful. The Roman and Greek philosophers as well as thinkers from other nations had a philosophy of despair, of no purpose or sense in life, of nothing significance in the future, of meaningless existence and hopelessness. No wonder the cynical Pilate asked What is truth?
It is interesting to note that though there were many different gods, it is reported that the largest proportion of the Romans and Greeks did not worship these gods but they were really “atheists’, accusing Christians as being “atheists” because they only worshipped one and not many gods.
But pagans were worshiping nothing of value. Unknown to them they were really worshipping Satan and his devils.
They would go through a form of worshiping, but they really didn’t care, many were willing to bow down to Caesar as well as to any of the gods that the people or state demanded.
This world that Paul pictures for us was one where people lived in fear, hostility, hatred, emptiness, superstition, and religious mockery. They lived in fear and superstition, guided by and following the directions of the horoscopes and the signs of the zodiac. They would seek direction from an examination of the insides of animals, follow direction of the flights of birds, and other foolish things.
Life might appear idyllic but it was far from that. Violence and cruelty always resulted from paganism. It also results when men who professed to know the God of Israel ignored his Commandments.
13. In the matter of reconciliation, we recall that Christ’s role was to reconcile all men to God the Father. Now we deal with Christ’s role as a Great Peacemaker among men.
When we look at the history of men, we note that a great divide or gulf between men is the gulf between Jew and Gentile. One clear expression of this gulf is the ever-continuing conflict between the Arabs and the Jews in the Middle East, which has proved impossible to solve.
Jesus however is the bond, the only solution to bind people together, to bring about a reconciliation between every individual and God, and to bring about a meaningful reconciliation and a link between Gentile and Jew. He connects the two nations of people.
It is noteworthy that with respect to the covenant promise, the Jews that will inherit the promises are the Jews who believe and obey the Word of God.
Gentiles are ones who were not Jews by birth, and did not know of God, by their nature were heathens, with no right to the promises, but now if they believe and obey the Word of God, they are through Jesus brought into the fold of God, with full access to the promises. This is the work of Jesus.
Most importantly, it is said that we are brought close to God, or a part of His family again, due to the blood of Christ. The accessibility to God, the communion with God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, even with the other saints in now extended, due to the blood of Christ.
The blood of Christ, His sacrificial death, has made Gentiles ‘near’ to the things of God.
But note also that Gentiles who are not in Jesus Christ are just as far off as they have always been.
It must be stressed again and again that reconciliation can only take place in Jesus Christ.
It gives us boldness to speak and act, and we also have peace, since we know that pardon for our sins is procured, and reconciliation has been made to the Father through Christ.
14. The critical role of Jesus Christ is made clear, so that no one can mistake that Jesus Christ is the only way to God. Salvation is only available through Him.
“He”, is a clear reference to Jesus and the act that He has done which has allowed us to be adopted into the family of God.
Note again that Jesus Himself is our peace. We must never believe that Jesus has simply, only made peace between God and man and Jew and Gentile.
He is our peace, and because He is our peace he can make peace. That is why we must be in Him, the person.
If we are not in Him we are lost. When we are in Him, we will do and want to do what He says, for we are a part of Him.
We will never do what He does not like, for we always want to please Him.Since we are logical and sensible persons we always want to do best for our own body.
When one has peace because of Christ, it means that the enmity that existed between God and that person no longer exists. His peace is the only permanent and meaningful peace. Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross allows us to be reconciled to God. It allows Jews and Gentiles to be reconciled to one another, since the division that existed between them is taken away.
True peace means becoming one, unity. That is the true definition of peace.
When people who are hostile to each other, and fighting each other stop their conflict that does not mean that there is “true peace”.
When armies lay down their weapons and declare a truce, or when a husband and wife agree not to divorce but to stay together for the sake of the children, or to avoid spitting up family assets, that might sound like peace to men, but according to God it is not peace.
When we agree not to fight that is not really peace either, for sooner or later there will be an eventual outbreak, after we have rested and rearmed, since the old animosity is still there, and will eventually resurface.
True peace can only be found in a person, so Jesus is our peace, for in Him there would be permanent, genuine, satisfying, harmony and joy.
Why? Remember that both groups which together constitute the human race, are descended from Adam and Eve, and from Noah and his family, are of one blood, created to serve God, but because of iniquity they were separated, but now find themselves in a like state.
The Jews were divided from the Gentiles (all other peoples) and marked out as distinctive and a special people by God. Because of man’s iniquities and increasing disobedience, God had to call out one man and covenant with him that through him all the nations of the world would be blessed.
It was not that these called out ones were intrinsically better than the others, but God in His grace provided a way through them for saving mankind. They received the promises, the covenants, the ceremonies, traditions, and worship appointed by the Law.
Christ, through His sacrifice has broken down everything that separated the two people, the middle wall of partition, which is an allusion to the removal of the partition wall in the Temple. Now they are treated as one, in both privilege given to them by Jesus, and needed punishment or correction.
15. There are walls which divided Jew and Gentile, and these differences separated them; creating hostility, resentment, bitterness, distrust and hatred between them. Gentiles were forbidden on pain of death to cross a wall which separated the inner court, where only Jews were permitted to enter from the court of the Gentiles.
The Jews had developed an attitude where they despised Gentiles because they considered themselves better than the Gentiles who did not have the law of God. For their part Gentiles hated the Jews because they thought that they were self-righteous and had a superiority complex.
But now, through Christ’s sacrifice and suffering on the Cross, He has taken away the binding power of the ceremonial law, which created the divide, that is to say all the laws and traditions that had restricted the worship of others to God, and locked up true worship to God.
Christ had thereby removed enmity and distance between Jew, Gentile and God, not by eliminating the need to adhere to a law, but bringing both to Him under the New Covenant, and writing the laws on the heart of both Jew and Gentile.
The laws are no longer simply written down on paper. Now the laws and ordinances of God would be written in their hearts. There is now no need for self-righteousness, or for anyone to feel that they cannot have access to God, and therefore hate those that do.
This new relationship would allow for intimate communion and fellowship with God, for both peoples are now in Jesus Christ.
Jesus has formed one church (congregation) from the Gentiles and Jews. He has through His sacrifice united them to Himself as the Head, and now they are renewed and empowered by the Holy Ghost. Enmity between all factions, God and Jew, God and Gentile, and Jew and Gentile are eliminated.
16. Paul alludes to the sacrifices of the Law, which represents the sacrifice that was a type of the true, which would be sufficient for the purpose it was intended.
Jesus had to reconcile man to God. Sin had caused this state of separation. Since Jesus was God, He knew all too well the punishment that man would receive, and that God the Father must act due to His holiness. By His sacrifice on the Cross, He has slain the enmity between God and man.
By the mediation of Jesus in this matter, man has now gained great advantages.
First, Jesus has reconciled a people to Himself and to God. For the moment Jesus’ mission on Earth is done. He has accomplished His mission of salvation.
Note the emphasis the Apostle Paul places on the work of Jesus on the Cross. It brings to mind Jesus’ prayer in John 17 that His followers may be one. He knew that He had to go through agony and death to bring about this oneness between Jew and Gentile.
Note also that Jesus’ work was done to bring about peace with God. Ultimate peace must be with God.
17. For us, we who were afar off, now are brought close to God. We have eternal life as a consequence of the action of Christ. We have freedom, joy, strength, and truth in God. To that end, we now are responsible to deliver Jesus’ truths to people, who have not heard them. Jesus has established victory over death. We being joint heirs can feel joy in knowing that, since Jesus was successful, we too can look forward to victory over death.
18. Notice the steps that were actually established, so that this peace would be brought to both peoples.
The Apostle says that Jesus actually came and preached to “you” of peace.
Now preaching is not arguing or debating. It is simply announcing a fact. Every individual must either accept or reject it. What God is saying is a fact, and if one quarrels with it, it doesn’t really matter except it means that one will be lost.
At the preaching of Jesus then every individual, Jew and Gentile, must accept the facts so that they can lay hold on this special kind of peace. Then and only then will this new relationship come into being, after which a rich series of blessing will unfold.
18. Once Jew or Gentile believe the preaching of Jesus, there is now communication with the Father. Here we see the entire Godhead working, for we are told that it is through Jesus Christ the Son that we have access in one Spirit to the Father.
Both, meaning Jew and Gentile have being made one body, reconciled to God by the work of Jesus and power of the Holy Spirit, and having access to God the Father.
We can now approach the throne of grace. We through Jesus have attained liberty to approach that throne. Our access is through the Holy Ghost, who also provides us with the strength and a right heart to do so.
The Holy Spirit also provides us with the grace to serve God acceptably. Christ has allowed us this opportunity, as He has purchased the ticket for audience. The Gospel of peace once received by children of God, can now be preached to the children of disobedience by the children of God.
Nothing is greater than this relationship, for we now have the closest fellowship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. One writer describes access for us:
“Access is probably the best translation of “prosagoge” though it could be “introduction”. In Oriental courts there was a “prosagoges” who brought a person into the presence of the king.”
19. The Apostle now pointedly addresses the Gentiles in Ephesus who were now members of the church, emphasizing that as they were in Christ, they were now full citizens in the Kingdom of God, full and equal members of the household of God. They were not second-class citizens in any respect.
They had been adopted and give citizenship with all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. They were no longer strangers, but had been brought “near”.
Christ died for our sins, and has reconciled us to God the Father, He has put us in a state where Jew and Gentile are children of God, in the same household.
Note, this does not mean that a Gentile is now the same in every single respect as an ethnic Jew. We cannot simply ignore history, the promises and covenants.
But believing Gentiles know that they have been cut out of the olive tree that was wild by nature and are now grafted into the good olive tree, with them, the saints of old, partaking of the root and fatness of the olive tree. (Romans 11:16-22)
All believers now are in the Kingdom, fellow citizens with the saints, those who are already believers, now with a city that did not belong to them, with all the resources of this city built by God made available.
Those previously called Gentiles are no longer aliens, but now have rights. They cannot be deported, for they now have full rights and are citizens of the land.
We should be reminded that they are two spiritual Kingdoms in the world, according to Scriptures. People either belong to the Kingdom, which is ruled over by the power of Satan, or belong to the Kingdom ruled over by the fellowship of God.
When a person becomes a Christian you are moved out of the kingdom of Satan and into the kingdom of God, experiencing then a total change of government and of rule. That new believer is freed from bondage and the power of Satan’s kingdom, and has a new King, a new Head, and is under new authority.
From the perspective of the Gentile, he can now look in at the things of God. He can now find some common ground with the Jew, with whom he had been at enmity. For both Jew and Gentile, they have together taken a step closer to God, in understanding what God requires of them, namely, true faith and obedience.
Both Jew and Gentile together form a new body and are part of the Body of Christ. To that effect they have rights and privileges extended towards them as any citizens of the Kingdom of heaven may have.
All these saints, people brought to God throughout all the ages, these converted sinners are free from sin, are set apart by the Grace of God, by imputation, through Christ’s being made the sanctification to them, and by the regenerating grace of the blessed Spirit. With this each saint has right by God’s grace, to a name and a place in the church on earth, and citizenship in heaven, or better yet, the Kingdom of God, which they have not purchased, or received by birth or any other means.
20. For all the people of God, Jew and Gentile, there is a common foundation, and that foundation is Jesus Christ. All the prophets mentioned in Scripture, from Genesis to Malachi, have pointed to the coming of the Messiah, and they all have borne witness to him. Jesus, on the road to Emmaus, would rightly rebuke his followers who had a weak understanding of the Scriptures, and weak faith.
The foundation, which the apostles and prophets have always strived to lay, was that in Jesus Christ there is salvation, and redemption. All the scriptures point to Christ and explain why He did the things He did; that His sacrifice had to have been made, in order to reconcile His creation back to the Father.
Christ is the foundation on which the church is built. This is where all true believers derive their strength. Jew and Gentile both meet in Jesus, and realize their true purpose which is to serve God. Together Jew and Gentile form the church of Christ (or God), which the chief corner stone is Christ.
The corner stone is where the support for the entire structure is laid. This is the capstone or binding stone, which holds the whole structure together, and gives the building stability.
Note that when Paul uses this figure of a building, he’s telling us that we cannot separate stones, for if we do that the building would collapse. Therefore, even though true believers may be widely separated, they are still knit together into one building.
The Lord Jesus Christ committed the doctrine of salvation, first to the prophets, and then to the Apostles, the end and substance of which, was Christ. So the prophets build the true and universal church, upon Christ first, then the Apostles followed suit.
21-22. Christ unites all believers of the Word of God. He is the Head of the Church of God, and He is the chief corner stone that supports and maintains the entire church, both spiritual and physical.
Paul’s analogy pictures the Church as a Temple under construction. Each person who is added, regardless of identity or background, is like a stone carefully cut to fit with the others.
There is every reason to pursue unity and no basis to tolerate hostility among the stones of God’s Temple.
God had manifested the presence of His Spirit with a great cloud filling Solomon’s temple at its dedication (1 Kings 8:10–11). That manifestation defined the temple as the place where Israel could meet with God. Now Christians are filled with God’s Spirit (Ephesians 1:13).
Collectively, all Christians form the new covenant’s temple of God (1 Corinthians 6:19–20; 2 Corinthians 6:16). The task of all Christians in every era is to respect and embrace our fellow “stones” of the Temple of the New Testament era as we honor the ultimate stone, Jesus (1 Peter 2:4–6).
This building is a living building, a growing building, fitted together and structured perfectly, so that it will grow and become the dwelling place of God Himself. This building ends up as a holy Temple to the Lord, perfectly prepared by God.
There is no longer Jew or Gentiles due to the sacrifice of Jesus. He has done the job of reconciliation, to bring us back to God and make us worthy to be called saints. He has made us joint heir and accorded us rights and privileges of citizens of heaven, whether our origins were as Gentiles, of Jews.
CONCLUSION
Remember what God is doing with all true believers now; He’s building us into this Temple, where God rest in beauty and glory. One writer sharpens our understanding of this matter with this information which follows: “There are two words in the Greek for the Temple, one describing the whole temple grounds, and one for the holy building itself. Paul uses the word for the holy building itself, because no one is on the outskirts of this building work.
When Solomon’s temple was built, the stones were made ready at a place far from the temple site; you couldn’t hear the sound of a hammer or axe or other iron tools at the site. In the same way, God prepares us first then fits us into his building.”
How then shall we live? Shall we understand and live to show that we are the Temple of the Living God, and that individually our bodies are the Temple of God Himself?
Shall we live as if we understand the relationship that Jesus has brought us into with His Father, and the great resources on which we have to draw?
What a picture Paul gives of Christ’s church! We are a global, multiethnic, transcultural, multiclass people, men and women, adults and children, all reconciled by Christ’s blood, indwelt by God’s Spirit, fulfilling the promise of Israel’s Temple. We are the household of God, His family, fulfilling His purpose to restore humanity to Him as one family.
Being a family takes work. Little wonder, then, that Paul spent half the Ephesian letter, beginning in Ephesians 4:1, instructing Christians to live in unity in a manner worthy of the Gospel.
We have our own issues that divide us today, and circumcision is not one of them. Even so, Paul’s instructions for overcoming a divisive issue of the first century are of great value for us in the twenty-first century.
We see the vision of God’s Temple. Are we willing with the Spirit’s empowerment to live as we must to see it built up and not torn down?
Let us make sure we are not deceiving ourselves. Let us live in the light, that pure and flawless position, in full fellowship with the Father. May we approach the Throne of God and worship Him in spirit and truth, and with the guiding of the Holy Spirit. Then, we will serve God the way we should