Spiritual Warfare: The Battle for Freedom in Christ
Reconciliation Between Enemies Is Possible
SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus
Introduction: In the first half of Ephesians 2 the Apostle describes his audience as those who were dead in their trespasses and sins, who followed the ways of this world and of its ruler, Satan, who gratified the cravings of their sinful natures, and who were objects of wrath. That is an apt description of the status of every human being before God’s love and mercy allows them to become alive in Christ. It’s another way of stating the truth of Romans 3, “All have sinned,” and “there is no one righteous, not even one.” That is true of every human being—Jew or Gentile. And it is what makes Eph. 2:8-9 so amazing: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
In today’s passage, the last half of chapter 2, Paul moves from the theological to the practical. How do people with very disparate and sinful backgrounds live together in peace? Is it even possible? The thorniest problem for the early church was the conflict and downright enmity between Jew and Gentile. In our day the bigger problem may be between black and white, or between rich and poor, or between progressive and conservative. The question is, “Is it possible for us to have a church where all those dividing walls are torn down and where there is peace and harmony?” That is the question addressed in our text today. Keep in mind that the writer is a Jewish man speaking directly to Gentile members of the Church. Pay close attention to the pronouns as we read Ephesians 2:11-22:
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 hostilityby 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.
In this passage Paul is clearly addressing Gentile believers and is focusing on the tension between Jew and Gentile. In Romans 11, a passage quite parallel to ours today, the Apostle talked about how Gentile believers are, in effect, branches grafted on to the root of Judaism, so they have no basis for arrogance or boasting or conceit in their attitudes toward the Jewish people. Their attitude should be (1) gratitude for the heritage the Jewish people have left them, (2) godly fear, based on the awareness that just as the natural branches were broken off when they refused to believe, so grafted branches (Gentile professors) will also be cut off if they refuse to believe, (3) and hope (confidence) that Israel will eventually be grafted back into their own olive tree at a time of national repentance, which hasn’t happened yet, but will when “the full number of the Gentiles has come in.” (Romans 11:25)
I thought I would take a few minutes this morning to address the dire situation in the Middle East today (November, 2023). I think it has some relevance to what we are studying both in Romans in our worship services and in Ephesians here in class. My personal sympathies are clearly with the nation of Israel in the current struggle in the Mideast. I sympathize with them because they are a democracy (the only one in the Middle East), because they are civilized (which is more than one can say for many of their neighbors), because they were promised the Holy Land in perpetuity by God Himself, because they have experienced more hatred and persecution than any other people on earth, and because they have no other place to go.
I personally believe the Jews are still God’s chosen people. I reject Replacement Theology (the view that the Church has replaced Israel in respect to God’s promises). There are several reasons why I believe they are still God’s chosen people. First is the mere fact that they are still here after centuries of efforts to exterminate them. Second, they have been favored with superior intelligence and they excel in virtually every discipline. The percentage of Nobel prizes held by Jews is incredible—22%! And that is while the percentage of the world’s population that is Jewish is .2%! So, they hold more than 100 times the Nobel prizes they should on a per capita basis! Third, the Scriptures make clear that God is not through with them.
But my sympathies for the Jewish people do not translate into unqualified approval of the Israeli government. There is nothing godly about the modern state of Israel. The government is almost totally secular (except that Netanyahu’s party must accept a coalition with Orthodox parties to achieve a majority in Parliament). Most Jews in Israel (and in the U.S.) are non-religious, even atheist. All temples and many synagogues are primarily social institutions, as, of course, are many churches. Israel is not friendly toward Christianity, except that they love our tourism and appreciate the strong political support they receive from many evangelicals. Jewish people are welcome to immigrate to Israel from all over the world, but if they are known to be Messianic Jews, i.e., believers in Christ, they are strictly forbidden to immigrate. The result is that there are far fewer Christians among the Israelis than there among the Palestinian people.
So, we have this dilemma: the Jews are God’s chosen people, but they are, for the most part, anti-God and anti-Christian. Well, what’s new? It was the same in Paul’s day, when he himself tried to exterminate them before his Damascus Rd. experience with Christ. It was the same in the book of Acts, when Jews rioted in nearly every city where the Apostles shared the Gospel.
Did Paul therefore write them off? No. He loved them so much that he was willing to go to hell if that would save them; but of course, that was not possible. Has God written them off? Sadly, many evangelical Bible scholars take the position that the re-establishment of the nation of Israel in 1948 was an historical accident and of no prophetic significance. But Scripture says God has by no means written them off! (Rom. 11:1) He has not abandoned the Jews and they still have a great future, but that requires personal and national repentance, which has not yet happened. Perhaps God is using their current enemies–Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran—to bring them to their knees, much as He used their enemies in Habakkuk’s day.
Do you remember how Habakkuk begged God to judge the wickedness he saw all around him among his fellow Israelites? So, God told Habakkuk that He would use the Chaldeans (Babylonians) to bring judgment on the Jews. So, what was Habakkuk’s response? “God, you can’t do that! The Babylonians are even worse than the Israelites!”
It’s possible God is using Hamas and Hezbollah as he once used the Chaldeans—to discipline His people so that they will come to personal and national repentance. If that is what is going on, and if it’s successful this time, that would mean we may be near the end (I’m talking Christ’s Return)! But I caution you that there have been other times when God brought discipline upon Israel without significant results—70 A.D., the great Diaspora, the Holocaust, the Six Day War (1967), the ‘73 war, etc. They are a stubborn people, and I suspect they will not repent until there is no other option.
It was the last week of my first year at Dallas Seminary (1967) when the Six Day War broke out. That was when Israel regained control of Jerusalem. I distinctly remember Dr. J. Dwight Pentecost, a well-known prophecy expert, telling the class he didn’t expect to see us in September because he fully expected Christ to return before the fall semester. Well, that was more than 56 years ago! I’m not about to predict that Christ’s return is right around the corner. But my advice for all of us would be to wake up, pay attention, and get our own spiritual house in order. But aren’t those things true for all of us, all the time?
BTW, I saw a very good sermon by Gary Hamrick, Pastor of Cornerstone Chapel in Leesburg, VA on YouTube the other day. If you want a biblical perspective on this current war, I strongly encourage you to watch that sermon.[i] Gary was scheduled to take 200 of his church family to Israel on October 8. Obviously, that trip was cancelled.
As we approach Ephesians 2, we must not equate the hostility between the modern state of Israel and its neighbors with the issue the Apostle is dealing with here. It is related but not identical. Paul is not talking about the need for political peace between warring nations, but rather the need for spiritual peace in the Church. Even in the absence of political peace, spiritual peace is possible.
With that as a caveat, let’s jump into our paragraph. I see three parts to the Apostle’s argument: The problem, the solution, and the result.
The problem: Gentiles were once far away from God. (11-13)
Paul speaks of those on the inside spiritually and those on the outside spiritually. The insiders were the Jews, not because they were more godly but because they had opportunities Gentiles never had. Listen to the description of Jewish advantages in Romans 9:4ff: “Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ.” So, the Jewish people had a lot going for them in the spiritual arena.
In contrast, consider the condition of the outsiders, the pagan Gentiles: ridiculed (called “the uncircumcision,” a term of derision, like “pagan”), separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. Talk about hopeless! If you were not Jewish, you were way out in the weeds spiritually, lost as a skunk. This strong contrast in status created hostility between the insiders and the outsiders.
The hatred and disdain Jews and Gentiles had for one another in the first century was every bit as deep-seated as that between Hamas and Israelis today, between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland, between Muslims and Hindus in India, between Tutsis and Hutus in Rwanda, or between Democrats and Republicans in Congress. Jews and Gentiles were polar opposites religiously, morally, culturally, socially, aesthetically, and in every way imaginable. They wouldn’t eat together, play together, live together, worship together, and they wouldn’t intermarry. The only exception they made to excluding one another was economic. If they could make a buck off one another, they would, but of course they would try to cheat in the process (and that went both ways!).
Well, the problem has been clearly stated. What was the solution?
The solution: Jesus, the Prince of Peace, provided reconciliation between God and man, and between Jew and Gentile. (14-18)
Verse 14 describes Jesus as “our peace.” Peace is something everyone desires, but when the secularist speaks of peace, he is usually thinking of the cessation of hostilities between countries, or perhaps labor peace, or racial reconciliation, or maybe even environmental peace.
But when Jesus is called “our peace,” and even given the title, “The Prince of Peace” in Isaiah 6, it was not primarily because of any focus He had on these kinds of peace but because of two incredible facts: (1) He made it possible for those who were far away from God (namely Gentiles) to be brought near to the Father, and (2) He made it possible for all kinds of people–even those who were life-long enemies–to come together as friends in the family of God, the Church. Let’s look at these two amazing facts one at a time.
At the cross He made it possible for God and His enemies to become friends, for those far away to be brought near to the Father. Look at verse 13: “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.” They have been brought near to what or to whom? Well, to God. Those who were His enemies were enabled to become His friends. How? Through the blood of Christ. His death on the Cross enabled Gentiles—including those of us here in this room—to become a part of God’s family. We were grafted into the root stock that was the Chosen People.
But that’s not all Jesus accomplished through His death.
At the cross He tore down the dividing wall of hostility, making it possible for all kinds of people–even those who were life-long enemies–to come together as friends in the family of God, the Church. We talked about the life-long enmity between Jews and Gentiles. Yet in a very short period a faith community came into existence which overcame all these hurdles. It was so unique that in this community, called the Church, Jewish merchants would sit submissively under the teaching of Gentile slaves, Jewish mothers would drink wine from the same communion cup as a recently converted pagan, and young Jewish men were marrying young Gentile women with their parents’ approval. How was all this possible? Only because the founder of this faith was the Prince of Peace.
The peace or reconciliation that Christ achieved through His death is discussed in verses 14-18. “He destroyed the barrier, the dividing walls of hostility by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations.” There’s no better way to describe the problem between Jew and Gentile in the first century than “a dividing wall of hostility.” Jesus took that away. How did he do that? Well, verse 15 tell us that He did it by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. Colossians 2 teaches the same truth as it tells us that Jesus nailed something to the Cross—the written code, with its regulations, that was against us.
The Moral Law of God (codified in the Ten Commandments) is still in effect, but the social, ceremonial, and religious regulations of the Mosaic Law were fulfilled and cancelled. We are no longer required to carry around a code book so heavy that it would cause a hernia, or a code book that creates division between those who do and those who don’t. That’s the whole point of the book of Galatians. Legalism always divides, us against them.
God’s purpose was to create something entirely new. It says in verse 15, “His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two (i.e., out of Jew and Gentile), thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.”
Racial reconciliation in society is not the primary purpose for which Christ came as Prince of Peace, but racial reconciliation in the Church is! When we hear about racism today, it is almost always in the context of economic opportunities, or affirmative action, or equal housing, or racial profiling by police, or “oppressed and oppressor,” or institutional racism. The resolution of these issues is a noble goal for politicians and social workers to pursue, and all of us should be concerned about them. But they are not what Jesus died for! Rather, He came and gave His life so there would be no racial prejudice in the Church, no social exclusion in the Church, no hatred between brothers in the Church.
But please don’t misunderstand me. Redeemed people who love God and love one another in the Church, will also be concerned about justice in society. In fact, they can’t help it. They will fight against all kinds of racial discrimination. They will support equal housing and equal job opportunities. They will support sensible civil rights legislation. (We haven’t always, have we?)
But have you noticed something? All the civil rights progress we have made in our country hasn’t stopped the enmity between the races one iota, has it? Perhaps it has even increased it. The political tactics of Al Sharpton, Ibram X. Kendi, and the American Civil Liberties Union will never change people’s hearts. Only the Gospel can do that. We must start with people getting right with God, then right with their fellow-believers, and finally right with those out in the world. As the Gospel changes people’s hearts, the injustices in society will begin to be solved in a way that legislation and court injunctions can never do.
Now starting in verse 19 the Apostle talks about …
The result: Jesus is the Chief Cornerstone of an amazing building. (19-22)
Every ancient building had a foundation, a cornerstone, and a superstructure. Not surprisingly, God’s building has all three, too.
The foundation consists of the apostles and prophets. (20) Since a building is only as good as its foundation, it is critical that the foundation be solid. God chose some very special individuals to be its living foundation—twelve men, all flawed, but all except one ultimately sold out to Him and willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for their faith. They were given the task of spreading the Gospel around Palestine and throughout the then-known world. They were also commissioned to write the handbook of the Church—the New Testament, a document that set forth the standards of grace and gave direction for the future growth of the building.
But in addition. there were prophets. This might refer to the OT prophets who predicted the Church, but it more likely refers to the NT prophets–men and women who spoke for God and challenged the early Christians to impact their world with the truth. I think we would have to say they fulfilled their responsibility reasonably well, for the building is still standing nearly 2,000 years later, and it’s still growing!
The Chief Cornerstone of God’s building is Jesus Christ. Cornerstones in buildings today are primarily symbolic, but in ancient buildings the cornerstone played a very important role. It was massive and served as the anchor and measure of everything else. It had to be accurately cut, set exactly level and in the right direction, or the entire rest of the structure would be at risk.
When Paul calls Jesus the chief cornerstone, he is not using a word picture he personally thought up. The prophet Isaiah first used this terminology some 700 years earlier. In Isaiah 28:16 he says, “So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed.’” The fact that he was referring to Messiah Jesus is clear because the Apostle Peter quotes Isaiah and applies his words directly to Christ.
Peter tells us some very important facts about Messiah, the cornerstone, in 1 Peter 2. First, He says He was chosen and laid in place by God. Some spiritual leaders appoint themselves; others are picked by people. But Jesus was made the Lord of the Church by God Himself. Second, as the Cornerstone Jesus was precious, both to God and to those who believe. This word “precious” in the original means “costly” or “highly valued.” It speaks of the perfect suitability of Christ as the foundation of the church. Third, the Cornerstone is completely reliable and worthy of trust. Here’s how Peter puts it: “The one who trusts in him will never (an emphatic double negative in the original) be put to shame.” In other words, the one anchored to the foundation will not have to worry about the hurricanes of life.
God’s building has a foundation and a cornerstone, as ours does. It also has a superstructure.
The building stones are all believers, with emphasis upon all. Listen to Peter’s description in 1 Peter 2:4: “As you come to him, the living Stone . . . you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house….” Think about that for a moment. Each believer is a living part of God’s house. Paul has the same truth in mind in Eph. 2 as he describes the superstructure of God’s building. The first thing he tells us is that, of the believers who constitute the living stones of God’s building…,
1. None are considered foreigners or aliens but fellow citizens in God’s family. (19) If you’ve ever watched bricklayers work, it’s interesting to see how many bricks they toss on the ground. They can size up a brick very quickly, and if it is misshaped or too thick or the wrong color, they toss it. God doesn’t do that. He uses all the living stones, i.e., all those who have received new life through faith in His Son. He doesn’t treat any as foreigners or aliens. He doesn’t reject them because they are broken or imperfect.
2. All are members of God’s household. (19) All believers are members of His household. This is as good a time as any to note that the holy temple Paul is talking about here in Ephesians 2 is likely not the local church or a denomination, but the universal church, that is, the Body of Christ that consists of all true believers everywhere. When we hear the word “church” we have a strong tendency to think of our local church or our denomination, but the church God is building transcends all local, national, and denominational distinctions. We sometimes are tempted to think disdainfully of members of other denominations because they baptize infants while we baptize believers, or they speak in tongues as a regular part of their worship, or they have a traditional liturgy, but friends, we’d better get used to these strange people, because we’re going to be spending eternity with a lot of them.
Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not anti-denominational. I can laugh along with you at the little boy who said to his friend, “I’m a Baptist, what abomination do you belong to,” but I don’t consider denominations to be abominations, though there are probably some that fit that bill. Birds of a feather have always flocked together, and denominations provide a sense of identity to people who have common views, common culture, and common comfort zones. But when we begin to introduce spiritual arrogance into the equation, declaring or even thinking of ourselves as superior or as exclusively on God’s team, we have violated the building plan of God for His Church.
The third fact Paul tells us about the building stones is that …
3. All are joined together in the building. Every brick must be tied into the whole with mortar and with steel strips that go into the cement block. Otherwise, individual bricks or entire sections could eventually start falling out. God also is tying His whole building together. Look at verse 21 again: “In him, that is in Christ, the Chief Cornerstone, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.” The key word “together” is mentioned again in the next verse.
There is no such thing as independence in the Body of Christ. An independent church is an oxymoron to my way of thinking. Oh, I am fine with autonomous churches, i.e., churches that are not ruled by an outside hierarchy, but I don’t believe in independent churches. Nor do I believe in independent Christians. Occasionally I hear about a professing believer who has declared independence from what he calls “organized church.” He claims to be able to worship God better on his own than with all the hypocrites, by which he means you and me. But I’ve never found a matureChristian who made that claim. I don’t think I ever will, because God ties us all together in His building.
Another key fact we discover in this passage is that …
God is living in this custom-built home even while it is being constructed. I call the Church a custom-built home because . . .
It belongs to God. When a house is built before it is purchased, it is called a spec home. When it is built for its owner, it is called a custom home. God’s house, the church, is custom-built. He designed it before the foundation of the world. He paid the ultimate price for the Cornerstone–the sacrifice of His one and only Son. He personally supervised the laying of the foundation, calling each individual apostle and prophet into His service. And He purchased every single living stone. He didn’t just order a truckload of stones. He chose each one of us individually. We are a custom-built home that belongs to God.
The building is a holy temple. Verse 21 says, “In him the whole building rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.” The term “holy” means to be set apart for God’s special use. It is the opposite of “common” or “profane.” Whenever we recognize something as holy, we treat it with special reverence. When Moses stood on holy ground, he took off his shoes. When we come to holy communion, we don’t come flippantly or thoughtlessly but rather with a great deal of respect and solemnity.
Well, the Church is a holy Temple. So serious is God about this building that in 1 Cor. 3 he warns us to be very careful how we build on the foundation that has been laid. You see, not only are we individually “living stones,” being added by God to the building, but each of us is also working on the building ourselves. We use either wood, hay, and straw with which to build, or we use gold, silver, and precious stones. Paul tells us that our work will be shown for what it is,
“Because the Day (capital D, the Day of Judgment) will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss, he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.”
Then the very next words are these solemn words of warning:
“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, holy, and you are that temple.”
This passage is not talking about the individual believer’s body being a temple of God. That point in made in another passage–1 Cor. 6. This passage is talking about the Body of Christ being a holy temple of God.
Even now He is living in this custom-built home through His Spirit. Most people who have built a home or done any major remodeling would not recommend living in the house while the work is going on. My wife would certainly tell you that. We recently had our back deck turned into a four-seasons room. The sheetrock dust nearly ruined our marriage.
But God is living in His Church even while it is being built. Look at the last verse: “And in him (i.e., in Christ) you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” It doesn’t say, “in which God will live by his Spirit when it is finished,” but rather “in which God lives right now by his Spirit.”
God certainly isn’t finished with His Church–not in respect to either quantity or quality. He’s still installing new living stones—people who are repenting and turning in faith to Christ for salvation. And He’s still sanding the sheet rock. Some of you have experienced His sanding this year. It’s not fun to be rubbed with 200 grit sandpaper. Occasionally He even uses a power sander. It’s because God is interested not only in quantity, but also in quality.
But the fact that He’s willing to live in the house while it’s being built tells me He’s committed to the project. He’s going to see it through to the end.
Conclusion: The building we sit in today is not a church. It is the home of a church. But it is not home of the church; it is only home of one local expression, one little part of God’s Church. But because a portion of His Church meets here, God is present in power and glory. That is both comforting and convicting. It is comforting in that He knows our every care and concern and sees our every need. It is convicting in that He sees our hearts, He reads our minds, and He observes our worship.
It should be our desire that many additional stones would come to life as we witness to the fact that Jesus died in the place of lost sinners, and as we show them how they can have new life by receiving Him as Lord and Savior. It should also be our desire to help those new living stones grow and become equipped so they can …
become an integral part of the greatest of all buildings–the Church,
being constructed by the greatest of all builders–God,
on the greatest of all foundations–the Apostles and the prophets,
laid upon the greatest of all Cornerstones–the Lord Jesus Christ.
Father, help us to make sure we are securely anchored to the Cornerstone, the Lord of the Church, Jesus Christ. In whose name we pray. Amen.
DATE: November 5, 2023
Tags:
Israel
Antisemitism
Reconciliation
Peace
[i] Here is the link to that sermon: https://cornerstonechapel.net/teaching/20231015/