Old abolished and new offered
Let us turn back to that which Christ did for the scope of humanity.
We for sure do not see unity the world over, but a new life in Christ, a new unity in Christ has been offered. Verse 15 concludes with words of a new man, a new person.
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, (Ephesians 2:15–ESV)
The ordinances of the Jewish nation were only bandages. Bandaids cover sores but do not heal them. A person with the rot of gangrene may look and smell better right after being attended too, but the story is still one of sickness. Similarly, the connection of broken people back to Holy God was only bandaged, symbolized, by the commandments which came through Moses. These directives did not cure the sin sickness.
While the Gentiles were far off the Jews were only near. Both were sick, one was just a little cleaner. Before Christ right relationship between God and people had yet to be established. Entry into the family of God had to wait until the symbols were fulfilled by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
God always intended to create one new person out of the two by his own ultimate self-sacrifice. The new person was not to bear the label Jew or Gentile, but Christian. Both of these people can be drawn up into the newness offered here and the hostility fractured away. In Christ, they would have unity: peace. Look at that 16th verse now.
16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. (Ephesians 2:16–ESV)
At that time both Jew and Gentile needed to be
In God the
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