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Around our town, I frequently see cars with the bumper sticker COEXIST using symbols from different religions. It’s used to encourage different groups to peacefully live alongside each other. In the sixties, there was a peace movement to protest the Vietnam War. There have been many symbols for peace over the years. The Eagles even had a hit song called, “Peaceful Easy Feeling.” People, in general, like the idea of peace. They want peace at home, work, and in the world.
God’s idea of peace is vastly different than the world’s (John 14:27). Paul uses the word peace four times in Ephesians 2:13-17. Let’s see how God defines peace and the results of peace.
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.[1]
Ephesians 2:11-22 (emphasis added)
Last week, we considered how Gentiles have been brought near by the blood of Christ. They were once far off. They were separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God (vs 11-12). Now, having trusted in Jesus’ finished work on the cross, they have been brought near (language previously used for Israel in relationship to God).
Paul continues: “For” – what follows is the purpose Gentiles have been brought near.
“he himself is our peace” – “he himself” in the “Greek text here has only one pronoun, autos (He), but it is in the emphatic position, as reflected by the addition of Himself in many English translations. The writer emphasizes that Jesus alone is our peace (cf. Isa. 9:6)’”[2] The world tries numerous ways to get peace, but the world ignores, rejects, and even hates the only true means of peace. Old Testament laws, ordinances, ceremonies, sacrifices and good works were never sufficient to bring peace between mankind and God. Only the blood of the Prince of Peace could establish lasting peace (vs 13; Romans 5:1-2). Note that Paul writes Jesus is our peace. He brings peace, and He is peace. True, lasting peace will never be found apart from Jesus, and because we are united to Jesus, we can have peace and unity with other believers.
Adam and Eve enjoyed peace with God and each other before the Fall. What shattered that peace? Sin did, sin flowing from selfishness and pride, which will always divide and disrupt. When Adam and Eve sinned, not only was their peace with God shattered, but they knew they were naked, and they were ashamed. There were already seeds (or fig leaves) of division. When God confronted Adam, he blamed Eve for their sin. Eve blamed the serpent. More division. Childbirth was disrupted by the pain being multiplied. There was further division between Adam and Eve as God said Eve’s desire would be for her husband, and he would rule over her. Work was disrupted. Because of sin, work would now be difficult (Genesis 3:7-19).
In Ephesians 2:13-18, Paul is calling his readers to remember what God has done. In these initial moments after sin, God was already working. By the shed blood of an animal, God clothed Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:21), and He promised the Messiah (Genesis 3:15), who would shed His own blood to make peace between God and mankind.
Jesus took on flesh, became one of us, yet without sin. He daily died to Himself in obedience, even to the point of a shameful death on the cross (Philippians 2:6-8). Our peace with God was bought with a price, the blood of Christ. The peace Paul writes about is not anything brought about by mankind’s effort.
Jesus, our peace, “has made us both one.” If we are in Christ, then our identity is also in Christ not in being a Jew, Gentile, engineer, accountant, wife, parent, ministry leader, or any other label. We are one. We are united to each other because we are united to Christ. Your identity, my identity is in Christ.
Our identity in Christ is not the only aspect of being one. Jesus prayed: “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me” (John 17:20-23). Our oneness with other believers is to be as closely united as Jesus and the Father are united as a testimony to the world who Jesus is and why He came to earth. God’s plan was always to create oneness between Jew and Gentile in one body, His church (vs 15; 3:1-13). Oneness isn’t about trying to coexist with each other. It is being intimately united to one another in Christ just as the Father and Son are one.
Jesus has made us one and “has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.” “Has broken” in the Greek is the aorist verb tense meaning it is a completed action. It was completed “in his flesh,” in Jesus’ atoning death on the cross.
Jesus broke down the dividing wall of hostility. This probably is a reference to the literal wall on the Temple Mount that separated the Gentile court from the rest of the Temple. A sign between the Gentile court and the Temple area beyond read: “No Gentile may enter within the barricade which surrounds the sanctuary and enclosure. Anyone who is caught doing so will have himself to blame for his ensuing death.” The hostility between Jew and Gentile was symbolized in this wall. In fact, Jews were ready to kill Paul because they thought he brought a Gentile beyond the Gentile court (Acts 21:27-36). During Jesus’ earthly ministry, the Gentile court was the place Jesus drove out the money changers, citing Isaiah 6:7: “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” The Gentile court wasn’t really a place where Gentiles who believed in the God of Israel could worship God.
Jesus broke down this dividing wall by His death and resurrection. Jews and Gentiles are now one in Christ. Where there once was hostility, there is now peace. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 2:28). All those in Christ can worship together. They can serve together. They can glorify God together. Together as one, they testify to the world the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Reflection
1. In what ways have you tried to bring peace into your circumstances? How have they been woefully insufficient?
2. John MacArthur stated: “Peace comes only when self dies, and the only place self truly dies is at the foot of Calvary.”[3] Where do you need to die to self both in your relationship with God and your relationships with others?
3. From what have you learned so far, what would it mean to let the peace of Christ rule your heart (Colossians 3:15)?
[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Eph 2:11–22.
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