But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in his flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility through it.
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Ephesians 2:13-16 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “uncircumcision” by that which is called “circumcision” (in the flesh, made by hands), that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in his flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility through it. He came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near. For through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone; in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
Parallel Translations
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But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ.
For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of separation,
having abolished in his flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace,
and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility through it.
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But now in Christ Iesu ye which a whyle agoo were farre of are made nye by the bloude of Christ.
For he is oure peace whych hath made of both one and hath broken doune the wall that was a stoppe bitwene vs
and hath also put awaye thorow his flesshe the cause of hatred (that is to saye the lawe of commaundementes contayned in the lawe written) for to make of twayne one newe man in him silfe so makynge peace:
and to reconcile both vnto god in one body thorow his crosse and slewe hatred therby:
Show all 3 translations
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But nowe in Christ Iesus, ye which once were farre off, are made neere by the blood of Christ.
For he is our peace, which hath made of both one, and hath broken the stoppe of the partition wall,
In abrogating through his flesh the hatred, that is, the Lawe of commandements which standeth in ordinances, for to make of twaine one newe man in himselfe, so making peace,
And that he might reconcile both vnto God in one body by his crosse, and slay hatred thereby,
Cross-references (86)
- Acts 2:39 (v13) For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.”
- Galatians 3:28 (vv13–15) There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
- Colossians 1:20-22 (vv13, 16) and through him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on the earth or things in the heavens, having made peace through…
- Colossians 3:11 (v14) where there can’t be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondservant, or free person; but Christ is all,…
- Colossians 3:15 (v14) And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful.
Show all 78 cross-references
- Colossians 2:14 (vv15–16) wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us. He has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.
- Colossians 1:13-14 (v13) who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have our redemption,…
- Ephesians 2:15 (vv14, 16) having abolished in his flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man…
- Ephesians 2:19-22 (v13) So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, being built on…
- Romans 5:10 (v16) For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his…
- 1 Corinthians 6:11 (v13) Some of you were such, but you were washed. But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the…
- Isaiah 57:19 (v13) I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace, to him who is far off and to him who is near,” says Yahweh; “and I will heal them.”
- 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 (v14) For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. For in one…
- Isaiah 43:6 (v13) I will tell the north, ‘Give them up!’ and tell the south, ‘Don’t hold them back! Bring my sons from far away, and my daughters from the…
- Romans 3:23-30 (v13) for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ…
- Galatians 3:10 (v15) For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t continue in all things…
- Acts 26:18 (v13) to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins…
- Ephesians 2:12 (v13) that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the…
- Revelation 5:9 (v13) They sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your…
- Ephesians 2:16-17 (v13) and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility through it. He came and preached peace to…
- 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 (v16) But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation; namely, that…
- Galatians 6:15 (v15) For in Christ Jesus neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.
- Colossians 1:20 (v14) and through him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on the earth or things in the heavens, having made peace through…
- Colossians 1:21-22 (v15) You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil deeds, yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through…
- Hebrews 8:13 (v15) In that he says, “A new covenant”, he has made the first old. But that which is becoming old and grows aged is near to vanishing away.
- 2 Corinthians 5:17 (vv13, 15) Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
- Colossians 2:20 (vv14–15) If you died with Christ from the elements of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances,
- Isaiah 9:6-7 (v14) For a child is born to us. A son is given to us; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor,…
- Romans 5:1 (v14) Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ;
- Colossians 2:10-14 (v14) and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made…
- Colossians 3:10 (v15) and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator,
- Ephesians 4:16 (vv14–15) from whom all the body, being fitted and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in measure of each…
- Galatians 2:20 (v16) I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live…
- Ephesians 1:7 (v13) in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
- 1 Peter 1:18-19 (v13) knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your…
- 1 Peter 4:1-2 (v16) Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind; for he who has suffered in the flesh has…
- Luke 2:14 (v14) “Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will toward men.”
- Acts 10:36 (v14) The word which he sent to the children of Israel, preaching good news of peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all—
- Romans 6:6 (v16) knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in…
- Romans 8:3 (v16) For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for…
- Romans 8:7 (v16) because the mind of the flesh is hostile toward God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be.
- 1 Corinthians 1:30 (v13) Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption:
- Ephesians 3:5-8 (v13) which in other generations was not made known to the children of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the…
- Hebrews 10:1-10 (v15) For the law, having a shadow of the good to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which…
- Psalms 22:7 (v13) All those who see me mock me. They insult me with their lips. They shake their heads, saying,
- Isaiah 66:19 (v13) “I will set a sign among them, and I will send those who escape of them to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to…
- Acts 10:28 (v14) He said to them, “You yourselves know how it is an unlawful thing for a man who is a Jew to join himself or come to one of another nation,…
- 2 Corinthians 5:20-21 (v13) We are therefore ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to…
- Hebrews 9:18 (v13) Therefore even the first covenant has not been dedicated without blood.
- Hebrews 13:20 (v14) Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an eternal covenant, our Lord…
- 1 Peter 3:18 (v13) Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God, being put to death in the…
- Jeremiah 16:19 (v13) Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the nations will come to you from the ends of the earth,…
- Ezekiel 34:24-25 (v14) I, Yahweh, will be their God, and my servant David prince among them. I, Yahweh, have spoken it. “ ‘I will make with them a covenant of…
- Micah 5:5 (v14) He will be our peace when Assyria invades our land, and when he marches through our fortresses, then we will raise against him seven…
- Luke 1:79 (v14) to shine on those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death; to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
- John 10:16 (v14) I have other sheep, which are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. They will become one flock with one…
- John 16:33 (v14) I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble; but cheer up! I have overcome the world.”
- Romans 5:9-10 (v13) Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. For if while we were enemies, we were…
- Romans 8:1 (v13) There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
- Hebrews 7:16 (v15) who has been made, not after the law of a fleshly commandment, but after the power of an endless life;
- Hebrews 9:9-10 (v15) This is a symbol of the present age, where gifts and sacrifices are offered that are incapable, concerning the conscience, of making the…
- Esther 3:8 (v14) Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your…
- Psalms 73:27 (v13) For, behold, those who are far from you shall perish. You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to you.
- Isaiah 11:10 (v13) It will happen in that day that the nations will seek the root of Jesse, who stands as a banner of the peoples; and his resting place will…
- Isaiah 19:24-25 (v14) In that day, Israel will be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing within the earth; because Yahweh of Armies has blessed them,…
- Isaiah 49:12 (v13) Behold, these shall come from afar, and behold, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.”
- Isaiah 60:4 (v13) “Lift up your eyes all around, and see: they all gather themselves together. They come to you. Your sons will come from far away, and your…
- Isaiah 60:9 (v13) Surely the islands will wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your sons from far, their silver and their gold with them,…
- Ezekiel 37:19-20 (v14) tell them, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his…
- Zechariah 6:13 (v14) even he shall build Yahweh’s temple; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule on his throne; and he shall be a priest on his…
- John 11:52 (v14) and not for the nation only, but that he might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.
- Acts 15:14 (v13) Simeon has reported how God first visited the nations to take out of them a people for his name.
- Acts 22:21 (v13) “He said to me, ‘Depart, for I will send you out far from here to the Gentiles.’”
- Romans 15:8-12 (v13) Now I say that Christ has been made a servant of the circumcision for the truth of God, that he might confirm the promises given to the…
- Ephesians 3:15 (v14) from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
- Hebrews 7:2 (v14) to whom also Abraham divided a tenth part of all (being first, by interpretation, “king of righteousness”, and then also “king of Salem”,…
- Hebrews 10:19-22 (v15) Having therefore, brothers, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and…
- Hebrews 9:23 (v15) It was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens should be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves…
78 distinct cross-references across this passage (86 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (25 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv13–16 13. But now in Christ Jesus. We must either…
13. But now in Christ Jesus. We must either supply the verb, now that ye have been received in Christ Jesus, or connect the word now with the conclusion of the verse, now through the blood of Christ, — which will be a still clearer exposition. In either case, the meaning is, that the Ephesians, who were far off from God and from salvation, had been reconciled to God through Christ, and made nigh by his blood; for the blood of Christ has taken away the enmity which existed between them and God, and from being enemies hath made them sons.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv13, 14, 16 Christ is the only bond of the Jews and…
Christ is the only bond of the Jews and Gentiles, whereby they be reconciled to God.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv13–16 13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes…
13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
Ver. 13. Are made nigh by the blood] Christ hath paved us a new and living way to the throne of God’s grace by his own most precious blood. Oh, happy lapidi pavium! jewel of the peacock. Oh, Golgotha become our Gabbatha! Joh 19:13; Joh 19:17.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv13–16 But now in Christ Jesus; either in the kingdom…
But now in Christ Jesus; either in the kingdom of Christ, or gospel administration, Gal 5:6; or, ye being in Christ, united to him by the Spirit and faith. Being
in Christ, here, is opposed to being in the world, Eph 1:12.
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Ye who sometimes were far off; far from God, from his church, from his promises, &c., having no communion with him by his Spirit. He means a spiritual distance, yet seems to allude to Isa 49:1,12; those Gentiles there mentioned being estranged from God in their hearts, as well as removed from his people in place.
And made nigh; brought into a state of communion with God and his people, and participation of their privileges, and right to the promises.
By the blood of Christ; the merit of his death expiating sin, (which caused this distance), and so making way for their approach to God, and enjoyment of gospel blessings.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv13, 14, 16 The apostle having set before the Ephesians the black…
The apostle having set before the Ephesians the black and dark part of their lives, before their conversion to Christianity, in the foregoing verse; comes here in this to acquaint them with the blessed change which was made in their state, and by whom. Now, says he, in or by Christ Jesus, ye, who were before afar off, namely, from Christ, his church, his covenant, from saving hope, and from God himself, are made as nigh as the Jews, and have as much right to expect the aforesaid benefits as they, the blood of Christ having purchased them for you, and sealed them to you; Ye that were before afar off, are now made nigh by the blood of Christ.
Where note, That persons who are most remote, and at the farthest distance from God, are sometimes unexpectedly brought home unto him: Ye who were afar off, are now made nigh.
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Note, 2. That it is owing to the blood of Christ, to his death and sufferings, that any soul is brought into a state of nearness unto God, and finds acceptance with him: Ye are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v14 We have now come to the last part of…
We have now come to the last part of the chapter, which contains an account of the great and mighty privileges that converted Jews and Gentiles both receive from Christ. The apostle here shows that those who were in a state of enmity are reconciled. Between the Jews and the Gentiles there had been a great enmity; so there is between God and every unregenerate man. Now Jesus Christ is our peace, Eph 2:14. He made peace by the sacrifice of himself; and came to reconcile, 1. Jews and Gentiles to each other. He made both one, by reconciling these two divisions of men, who were wont to malign, to hate, and to reproach each other before. He broke down the middle wall of partition, the ceremonial law, that made the great feud, and was the badge of the Jews' peculiarity, called the partition-wall by way of allusion to the partition in the temple, which separated the court of the Gentiles from that into which the Jews only had liberty to enter. Thus he abolished in his flesh the enmity, Eph 2:15. By his sufferings in the flesh, to took away the binding power of the ceremonial law (so removing that cause of enmity and distance between them), which is here called the law of commandments contained in ordinances, because it enjoined a multitude of external rites and ceremonies, and consisted of many institutions and appointments about the outward parts of divine worship. The legal ceremonies were abrogated by Christ, having their accomplishment in him. By taking these out of the way, he formed one church of believers, whether they had been Jews or Gentiles. Thus he made in himself of twain one new man. He framed both these parties into one new society, or body of God's people, uniting them to himself as their common head, they being renewed by the Holy Ghost, and now concurring in a new way of gospel worship, so making peace between these two parties, who were so much at variance before. 2. There is an enmity between God and sinners, whether Jews and Gentiles; and Christ came to slay that enmity, and to reconcile them both to God, Eph 2:16. Sin breeds a quarrel between God and men. Christ came to take up the quarrel, and to bring it to an end, by reconciling both Jew and Gentile, now collected and gathered into one body, to a provoked and an offended God: and this by the cross, or by the sacrifice of himself upon the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. He, being slain or sacrificed, slew the enmity that there was between God and poor sinners. The apostle proceeds to illustrate the great advantages which both parties gain by the mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ, Eph 2:17. Christ, who purchased peace on the cross, came, partly in his own person, as to the Jews, who are here said to have been nigh, and partly in his apostles, whom he commissioned to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, who are said to have been afar off, in the sense that has been given before. And preached peace, or published the terms of reconciliation with God and of eternal life. Note here, When the messengers of Christ deliver his truths, it is in effect the same as if he did it immediately himself. He is said to preach by them, insomuch that he who receiveth them receiveth him, and he who despiseth them (acting by virtue of his commission, and delivering his message) despiseth and rejecteth Christ himself. Now the effect of this peace is the free access which both Jews and Gentiles have unto God (Eph 2:18): For through him, in his name and by virtue of his mediation, we both have access or admission into the presence of God, who has become the common reconciled Father of both: the throne of grace is erected for us to come to, and liberty of approach to that throne is allowed us. Our access is by the Holy Spirit. Christ purchased for us leave to come to God, and the Spirit gives us a heart to come and strength to come, even grace to serve God acceptably. Observe, We draw nigh to God, through Jesus Christ, by the help of the Spirit. The Ephesians, upon their conversion, having such an access to God, as well as the Jews, and by the same Spirit, the apostle tells them, Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners, Eph 2:19. This he mentions by way of opposition to what he had observed of them in their heathenism: they were now no longer aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and no longer what the Jews were wont to account all the nations of the earth besides themselves (namely, strangers to God), but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, that is, members of the church of Christ, and having a right to all the privileges of it. Observe here, The church is compared to a city, and every converted sinner is free of it. It is also compared to a house, and every converted sinner is one of the domestics, one of the family, a servant and a child in God's house. In Eph 2:20 the church is compared to a building. The apostles and prophets are the foundation of that building. They may be so called in a secondary sense, Christ himself being the primary foundation; but we are rather to understand it of the doctrine delivered by the prophets of the Old Testament and the apostles of the New. It follows, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone. In him both Jews and Gentiles meet, and constitute one church; and Christ supports the building by his strength: In whom all the building, fitly framed together, etc., Eph 2:21. All believers, of whom it consists, being united to Christ by faith, and among themselves by Christian charity, grow unto a holy temple, become a sacred society, in which there is much communion between God and his people, as in the temple, they worshipping and serving him, he manifesting himself unto them, they offering up spiritual sacrifices to God and he dispensing his blessings and favours to them. Thus the building, for the nature of it, is a temple, a holy temple; for the church is the place which God hath chosen to put his name there, and it becomes such a temple by grace and strength derived from himself - in the Lord. The universal church being built upon Christ as the foundation-stone, and united in Christ as the corner-stone, comes at length to be glorified in him as the top-stone: In whom you also are built together, etc., Eph 2:22. Observe, Not only the universal church is called the temple of God, but particular churches; and even every true believer is a living temple, is a habitation of God through the Spirit. God dwells in all believers now, they having become the temple of God through the operations of the blessed Spirit, and his dwelling with them now is an earnest of their dwelling together with him to eternity.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv13–16 But now in Christ Jesus,.... Being openly and visibly…
But now in Christ Jesus,.... Being openly and visibly in Christ, created in him, and become believers in him; as they were before secretly in him, as chosen and blessed in him before the foundation of the world:
ye who sometimes were far off; who in their state of unregeneracy were afar off from God, and from his law, and from any spiritual knowledge of him and fellowship with him; and from Jesus Christ, and from the knowledge of his righteousness, and the way of salvation by him; and from the Spirit, and any acquaintance with the things of the Spirit, and from minding them, and from walking after him; and from the saints and people of God, and from any love to them, and communion with them; and from any solid hopes of happiness, or real peace and comfort; which distance was owing both to Adam's sin and to their own transgressions: it is an observation of a Jewish writer (a) on Gen 3:9 "where art thou?" he (God) knew where he was, but he said so to show him that he was "afar off from" God by his sin: see Isa 59:2, and yet
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are made nigh by the blood of Christ: so as to have nearness of access to and communion with God, Father, Son, and Spirit, and the saints, in virtue of the blood of Christ; which gives boldness and speaks peace; by which their persons are justified, the pardon of their sins is procured, reconciliation is made, and their garments are washed, and made white; and so they draw nigh with confidence by the faith of him.
(a) R. Abraham Seba, Tzeror Hammor, fol. 7. 2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv13–16 Far off - From God and his people. Nigh…
Far off - From God and his people. Nigh - Intimately united to both.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv13–16 Verse 13. Ye who sometimes were far off] To…
Verse 13. Ye who sometimes were far off] To be far off, and to be near, are sayings much in use among the Jews; and among them, to be near signifies,
1. To be in the approbation or favour of God; and to be far off signifies to be under his displeasure. So a wicked Jew might be said to be far off from God when he was exposed to his displeasure; and a holy man, or a genuine penitent, might be said to be nigh to God, because such persons are in his favour.
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2. Every person who offered a sacrifice to God was considered as having access to him by the blood of that sacrifice: hence the priests, whose office it was to offer sacrifices, were considered as being nigh to God; and all who brought gifts to the altar were considered as approaching the Almighty.
3. Being far off, signified the state of the Gentiles as contradistinguished from the Jews, who were nigh. And these expressions were used in reference to the tabernacle, God's dwelling-place among the Israelites, and the sacrifices there offered. All those who had access to this tabernacle, or were nigh to it or encamped about it, were said to be nigh to God; those who had no access to it were said to be far off.
Hence the latter phrase is used to distinguish the Gentiles from the Jewish people; and this appears to be the meaning of the prophet, Isa 57:19: I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord; i.e. I give cause of praise and rejoicing to the Gentile as well as to the Jew. And to this scripture, and to this thing, the apostle seems here to allude. You Gentiles, who were unacquainted with God, and were even without God in the world, are brought to an acquaintance with him; and are now, through Christ Jesus, brought into the favour and fellowship of God. And as the Jews of old approached God by the blood of their sacrifices, so you approach him by the blood of Christ.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv13, 15 Eph 2:13-14. But now in Christ Jesus — In…
Eph 2:13-14. But now in Christ Jesus — In consequence of your union with him, and your interest in him by faith, ye, who formerly were far off — From God and his people, (as in Eph 2:12,) are made nigh to both, by the blood of Christ — Whereby he hath atoned for your sins, and opened a free and honourable way for your approaching God, and becoming entitled to all the privileges of his people. For he is our peace — Not only as he purchased it, and confers it on such as truly believe in him, but as he is the very bond and centre of the union of believers with God and each other; who hath made both — Believing Jews and Gentiles, one church, one flock of Christ. This union of the Jews and the Gentiles, so as to make them one people, was foretold by our Lord, when he said, (Joh 10:16,) Other sheep I have which are not of this fold: are not Jews; and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold: Greek, μια ποιμνη, one flock, though in different folds, and one shepherd. The apostle here describes, 1st, The conjunction of the Gentiles with Israel, Eph 2:14-15; and, 2d, The conjunction of both with God, Eph 2:16-18. And hath broken down the middle wall of partition — The ceremonial law, which the apostle here compares to that wall in the Jewish temple, which separated the court of Israel from the court of the Gentiles. For many of the rites of that law could be performed nowhere but in the temple of Jerusalem. But Christ, having now taken away that law, and prescribed, under the gospel, a spiritual form of worship, which may be performed everywhere, he hath thereby provided for joining Jews and Gentiles in one church, and making them all one people in God: a union which could not have taken place if the Mosaic law had been continued. For the worship of God, as to various branches of it, being confined by that law to the temple at Jerusalem, the greatest part of the Gentiles could certainly not have come thither to worship with the Jews.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv13–16 But now, in Christ Jesus - By the coming…
But now, in Christ Jesus - By the coming and atonement of the Lord Jesus, and by the gospel which he preached.
Ye who sometimes were afar off - Who were “formerly” - ποτὲ pote Tyndale translates it, “a whyle agoo.” The phrase “afar off” - μακρὰν makran - means that they were formerly far off from God and his people. The expression is derived from the custom of speaking among the Hebrews. God was supposed to reside in the temple. It was a privilege to be near the temple. Those who were remote from Jerusalem and the temple were regarded as far off from God, and hence as especially irreligious and wicked; see the notes at Isa 57:19.
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Are made nigh - Are admitted to the favor of God, and permitted to approach him as his worshippers.
By the blood of Christ - The Jews came near to the mercy seat on which the symbol of the divine presence rested (the notes at Rom 3:25), by the blood that was offered in sacrifice; that is, the high priest approached that mercy-seat with blood and sprinkled it before God. Now we are permitted to approach him with the blood of the atonement. The shedding of that blood has prepared the way by which Gentiles as well as Jews may approach God, and it is by that offering that we are led to seek God.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v14 Christ destroyed the enmity which, like a wall of…
Christ destroyed the enmity which, like a wall of separation, stood between Jew and Gentile, and united them into one people. He did this in his flesh, by his own blood, or the sacrifice he made of his flesh on the cross. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv13–16 now--in contrast to "at that time" (Eph 2:12).
now--in contrast to "at that time" (Eph 2:12).
in Christ Jesus--"Jesus" is here added, whereas the expression before (Eph 2:12) had been merely "Christ," to mark that they know Christ as the personal Saviour, "Jesus."
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sometimes--Greek, "aforetime."
far off--the Jewish description of the Gentiles. Far off from God and from the people of God (Eph 2:17; Isa 57:19; Act 2:39).
are--Greek, "have been."
by--Greek, "in." Thus "the blood of Christ" is made the seal of a covenant IN which their nearness to God consists. In Eph 1:7, where the blood is more directly spoken of as the instrument, it is "through His blood" [ALFORD].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv13–16 13. But now—O yes, now! What a glorious contrast…
13. But now—O yes, now! What a glorious contrast between those times past and this now! With what pity from this now may these Christian Ephesians look back upon the heathen Ephesians they were in times past! And with what pity should all Christians look upon the hapless heathens who are still in those sad and hopeless times past! Being in Christ, these Ephesians have every point of contrast to their former miseries. They are not afar, but nigh, unified with the holy Israel, Eph_2:14-18. They are, with Israel, builded into one edifice, Eph_2:19-20; nay, into a temple, where the Holy Spirit resides, Eph_2:21-22.
In Christ Jesus—As identified with him, (note, Rom_6:3,) and incorporated with his mystical person; reverse of without Christ above.
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Far off… nigh—In soul and nature. These were habitual terms with the Jews to designate those who were residents near the temple and the holy of holies, and those who resided at a distance from the temple and the grand altar, and especially pagans of foreign blood. And these terms were in accordance with Isaiah’s magnificent words: “Listen, O isles… from far,” Isa_49:1; and “Peace, peace, to him that is afar off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord,” Isa_57:19. By the blood of Christ, which had fulfilled, and so dismissed, the sacrificial rites of the Old Covenant.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv13–16 13. but now] under the changed conditions of actual…
13. but now] under the changed conditions of actual and accepted Redemption.
in Christ Jesus] In living union with the true Messiah. Just before, Eph_2:12, we have “without Christ” merely; here, “in Christ Jesus.” The Messiah of Prophecy is now known as also the Jesus of the Gospel.
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sometimes] Once, as R. V. The A. V. uses a word now antiquated in this sense, or appearing only as “sometime”—the word used here in Wiclif’s Version (1382), in “The Great Bible” (1539), and the Rhemish Version (1582).
far off … nigh] That is, from and to the Citizenship of Israel and the Covenants of promise; the realm, in fact, of Messiah. Cp. Act_2:39, and see Isa_57:19.—The thought of remoteness and nearness in respect of God is of course implied, and comes out clearly in Eph_2:18; but it is not the immediate thought of this passage, which rather speaks of the incorporation of once heathen souls into the true Israel. But the two views cannot be quite separated.—“Nigh” and “far” were familiar terms with the Rabbis in the sense of having or not having part in the covenant. Wetstein on this verse quotes, inter alia, the following from the Talmud: “A woman came to R. Eliezer, to be made a proselyte; saying to him, Rabbi, make me nigh. He refused her, and she went to R. Joshua, who received her. The scholars of R. Joshua therefore said, Did R. Eliezer put her far off, and dost thou make her nigh?”
by the blood of Christ] Lit. and better, in the blood, &c. To illustrate the phrase cp. Heb_9:22; Heb_9:25; “almost all things according to the law are purged in blood;” “the High Priest entereth the Holy Place … in blood not his own.” Whatever the first use of the phrase, it had thus become an almost technicality of sacrificial language, nearly equalling “with (shed) blood” as the accompanying condition of acceptable approach. It is not necessary to import into the idea here the other, though kindred, idea of washing in blood, or even of surrounding with a circle of sprinkled blood. The “in” is, by usage, as nearly instrumental as possible. The sacred bloodshedding of the Messiah’s sacrificial death for His true Israel was the necessary condition to, and so instrument of, the admission of the new Gentile members. It is the “blood of the covenant” (Exo_24:8; quoted Heb_9:20); and cp. the all-important words of the Lord Himself (Mat_26:28), “This is My blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv13–16 (13) This verse speaks of the restoration of the…
(13) This verse speaks of the restoration of the heathen as taking place, first, “in Christ Jesus”—in virtue, that is, of union with Him through all the acts of His mediation; and next, “by the blood of Christ”—that is, through that especial act of mediation, which is emphatically an atonement for sin—such sin as St. Paul had been declaring above to be the cause of spiritual deadness. They had power now “to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus” (Heb_10:19).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv13–16 But now; antithesis to pote in ver. 11, and…
But now; antithesis to pote in ver. 11, and tw kairw ejkeinw in ver. 12. Another of the very powerful buts" of this Epistle, completely reversing the picture going before (see ver. 4). In Christ Jesus. This expression is the pivot of the Epistle, denoting, not only that Christ Jesus is the Source of blessing, but also that we get the blessing, i.e. by vital union and fellowship with, him. The "without Christ" of ver. 12 contrasts powerfully with "in Christ Jesus" of this verse; and the addition of "Jesus" to the name is significant, denoting his saving power, denoting One who is not merely an official Savior, but to whom we get linked by all manner of endearing qualities and personal attractions, whose human name is Jesus, because he saves his people from their sins. Ye that once were far off are become near. The apostle has slidden into a new figure; formerly the contrast was between death and life, now it is between distance and nearness. Not merely geographical distance, or remoteness in respect of outward position, but moral distance too: ye were far off from God, i.e. from his favor, his fellowship, his gracious pardoning and renewing grace. In this sense too ye are now brought near. God is become your God and Father. Your orbit is changed to a near and blessed position, where the light of God"s countenance falls upon you. In the blood of Christ. This is the particular instrument of the change; not merely Christ manifesting the Father"s readiness to receive you, but shedding his blood to make atonement for you. (see Eph_1:7) The preposition ejn (not merely dia) is again significant, denoting more than the instrumentality, viz. personal connection with the blood, as if sprinkled on us, so that we are symbolically in it. Cleansing us from all sin, it brings us nigh.
Nearness to God in the blood of Christ.
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This chapter speaks of a double alienation and of a double reconciliation: on the one hand, a deep alienation of mankind from God, dating from birth, subsisting along with a moral separation between Jews and Gentiles; on the other hand, it points to the historic fact of Christ"s atone-merit as the divinely instituted method by which both alienations were to be extinguished, and man united to God and to man in a higher unity, so that the two separated elements should henceforth become one new man, one city of God, one temple or habitation of God.
I THE GENTILES REMOTE FROM GOD. "You that were afar off." They were in a geographical sense far off from Palestine, the center of the true religion. This land was, with a truly providential design, selected as the home of God"s chosen people, because it held a central place between Europe, Asia, and Africa. But the nations were still more apart from Palestine, so as to have no share in its theocratic life. In this case, the expression "far from God," or "far off," was a phrase in common use to designate the Gentiles (Isa_49:1; Act_2:39) But there was a moral distance an alienation of the Gentile heart from God which was more serious than any geographical remoteness from the seat of theocratic institutions. It is both the sinfulness and the misery of sin that men are at a distance from God. Unbelief is a "departure from the living God." The Gentiles were far from Christ, from the Church, from the covenant, from hope, from God. There is no divider like sin.
II THE GENTILES MADE NIGH IN THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. Just as Israel at Sinai was by the sprinkling of blood made to be the people of God, brought near to him, kept year by year in covenant, so the blood of Christ was the element or sphere in which the new covenant took its shape with its all-inclusive relations both to Jew and to Gentile. It was the blood that obliterated the interval between the Gentiles and God. They have now communion with God, and are established in their nearness to him. It is not merely in Christ Jesus, but in the blood of Christ, that our nearness is established. It was not the incarnation but the death of the Son of God the designed complement and issue of the incarnation that has secured our privilege of access to God. It often happens in the history of grace that these very far from God in character and hope are made nigh by the blood of the cross. There is a marvelous power in the blood of the lifted-up Redeemer: And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me", (Joh_12:32) irrespective of national distinctions. T.C.
Vers. 13-18.
Christ our Peace.
I CHRIST MAKES PEACE. He was predicted as the Prince of peace. His birth was heralded by the good news, "On earth peace.
1. Peace between man and man. In Christ the enmity between Jew and Gentile ceases. Christianity forbids all envy, jealousy, hatred, and strife. It is cosmopolitan, and will not sanction national selfishness cloaked by the sacred name of patriotism. It is brotherly, and will not favor sectarian animosity sheltering under the mask of loyalty to truth.
2. Peace between man and God. Both Jew and Gentile are reconciled "unto God" (ver. 16). The discord between man and man is but a symptom and after consequence of the deeper quarrel between man and God, just as the unrestrained war of factions is a result of the overthrow of the central authority in a state.
II CHRIST"S PEACE IS STABLE. A hollow peace which like an unstable equilibrium is liable to be upset at any moment, and is little better than an armed truce, is only a deception and a snare. But Christ"s peace is solid and secure, involving two great safeguards.
1. Reconciliation. A duel may be interrupted by the police, and yet the combatants may still cherish mortal hatred to one another. The forced agreement of Jew with Gentile under the Roman empire was no real peace. The order of a state in which criminals are curbed but not reformed, and the decorum of a society in which only social fear prevents outrageous insults to purity and godliness, are no proof of real peace with God and man. But Christ reconciles, takes away all disposition for quarrelling., and establishes peaceable affections between man and man and between man and God.
2. Union. The old fends between Norman and Saxon can never be revived, simply because the two races have been blended together. So Christ would blend Jew and Gentile, and establish a common family union between Christians and also between the whole Christian brotherhood and our one Father in heaven.
III CHRIST"S PEACE DEPENDS ON THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CAUSES OF DISCORD. It does not merely heal the surface-symptoms, but it goes to the root of the evil and cuts this out. The Law, which was the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile, is abolished. The religion of Law, which provoked constant enmity between man and God, is done away. In the place of rigid, painful exactions, never by any possibility fully satisfied, we have the service of the Spirit, which is the same for all and which is possible to all.
IV CHRIST"S PEACE IS BROUGHT ABOUT BY THE SACRIFICE OF HIMSELF.
1. In relation to God. Christ makes reconciliation by his great propitiatory offering of himself. As we look at the cross our enmity to God dies down, and we learn in humble penitence to seek for forgiveness.
2. In relation to man. Christ has died for every man. Before that awful tragic event all mutual enmity should be hushed. In the love of our Peacemaker, which is shown in his dying for us, we have the strongest possible motive for a common fervor of love to him that should quench and drown all petty animosities and unite all Christians into one body. W.F.A.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv13–16 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were…
Eph_2:13
But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
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Sin, the separator
Sin has its dark offices--offices which it is always fulfilling. For sin is that dividing element, which, where it comes in, breaks up the harmony of all things, and sends them out into the distance of chaos and dismay. God, at the beginning, made the heaven to be subservient to the earth; and the earth to be subservient to the harvest; and the harvest to be subservient to His people. But sin has broken the beautiful chain of the material universe. When man fell, nature fell; and the links were severed by the fall. There is an interval, and an interruption now, between the right causes and the right effects in Gods creation. And worse than this, man is divided from man; every one from his fellow. The very Church is broken up--Christian from Christian. And St. James traces it out: From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? The lust of pride, the lust of an opinionated mind--the lust of prejudice--the lust of jealousy--the lust of selfishness--the lust of a worldly ambition: these are the fabricators of all discord. These make foes out of hearts which were meant to love as brethren. And what are these, but some of sins many forms which it loves to take, that it may then better work as a separator between man and man? No wonder, for sin separates a man from himself. I question whether any man is at variance with his brother, till he has first been at variance with himself. But sin takes away a mans consistency. A man is not one; but he is two--he is many characters. What he is one time, that is just what he is not another. Passions within him conflict with reason--passions with passions--feelings with feelings--he is far off from himself. And this the separator does. But never does he do that, till he has done another act of separation--and because he has done that other--he separates man from God. If you wish to know how far sin has thrown man away from God--you must measure it by the master-work which has spanned the gulf. The eternal counsel--the immensity of a Divine nature clothing Himself in manhood--love, to which all other love is as a drop to the fountain, from whence it springs--a life, spotless--sufferings, which make all other sufferings a feathers weight in the balance--a death, which merged all deaths--all this, and far more than this, has gone to make the return possible. And when it was possible; then the life of discipline and struggle--a work of sanctification, going on day by day--many crucifixions--the seven-fold operations of the Holy Ghost--death--resurrection--these must make the possible return a fact. By all these you must make your calculation, if you wish to measure the distance of that far off, which we ewe to that great separator--sin. And this is the reason why God so hates sin, because it has put so far away from Him those He so dearly loves. And now let us deal with this matter a little more practically. Since Christ died, there is no necessary separation between any man and God. Without that death, there was. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Nearness to God
I. We commence, by endeavouring to explain the meaning of the two key words--In Christ Jesus, and, by the blood of Christ. We who sometimes were far off are made nigh.
1. First, because we are in Christ Jesus. All the elect of God are in Christ Jesus by a federal union. He is their Head, ordained of old to be so from before the foundation of the world. This federal union leads in due time, by the grace of God, to a manifest and vital union, a union of life, and for life, even unto eternal life, of which the visible bond is faith.
2. The other key word of the text is, by the blood of Christ.
(1) If it he asked what power lies in the blood to bring nigh, it must be answered, first, that the blood is the symbol of covenant. Ever in Scripture, when covenants are made, victims are offered, and the victim becomes the place and ground of approach between the two covenanting parties. The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is expressly called the blood of the everlasting covenant, for God comes in covenant near to us by the blood of His only begotten Son. Every man whose faith rests upon the blood of Jesus slain from before the foundation of the world, is in covenant with God, and that covenant becomes to him most sure and certain because it has been ratified by the blood of Jesus Christ, and therefore can never be changed or disannulled.
(2) The blood brings us near in another sense, because it is the taking away of the sin which separated us. When we read the word blood as in the text, it means mortal suffering; we are made nigh by the grief and agonies of the Redeemer. The shedding of blood indicates pain, loss of energy, health, comfort, happiness; but it goes further still--the term blood signifies death. It is the death of Jesus in which we trust. We glory in His life, we triumph in His resurrection, but the ground of our nearness to God lies in His death. The term blood, moreover, signifies not a mere expiring, but a painful and ignominious and penal death. It refers directly to the crucifixion of Christ.
3. Experimentally we are brought nigh by the application of the blood to our conscience. We see that sin is pardoned, and bless the God who has saved us in so admirable a manner, and then we who hated Him before come to love Him; we who had no thought towards Him desire to be like Him. The great attracting loadstone of the gospel is the doctrine of the Cross.
(1) The first illustration is from our first parent, Adam. Adam dwelt in the garden, abiding with God in devout communion. The Lord God walked in the garden in the cool of the day with Adam. As a favoured creature, the first man was permitted to know much of his Creator, and to be nigh to Him; but, alas! Adam sinned, and at once we see the first stage of our own distance from God as we perceive Adam in the garden without his God. But, ah! brethren, you and I were farther off than that--much farther off than that, when love made us nigh.
(2) Let me now give you a second illustration, which may place this wonder of love in a still clearer light. It shall be taken from the children of Israel travelling through the wilderness. If an angel had poised himself in mid air, and watched awhile in the days of Moses, gazing down upon the people in the wilderness and all else that surrounded them, his eye would have rested upon the central spot, the tabernacle, over which rested the pillar of cloud and fire by day and night as the outward index of the presence of God. Now, observe yonder select persons, clad in fair white linen, who come near, very near, to that great centre; they are priests, men who are engaged from day to day sacrificing bullocks and lambs, and serving God. They are near to the Lord, and engaged in most hallowed work, but they are not the nearest of all; one man alone comes nearest; he is the high priest, who, once every year, enters into that which is within the veil. Ah, what condescension is that which gives us the selfsame access to God. The priests are servants of God, and very near to Him, but not nearest; and it would be great grace if God permitted the priests to enter into the most holy place; but, brethren, we were not by nature comparable to the priests; we were not the Lords servants; we were not devoted to His fear; and the grace that has brought us nigh through the precious blood was much greater than that which admits a priest within the veil. Every priest that went within the veil entered there by blood, which he sprinkled on the mercy seat. If made nighest, even from the nearer stage, it must be by blood, and in connection with the one only High Priest. If the angel continued his gaze, he would next see lying all round the tabernacle the twelve tribes in their tents. These were a people near unto God, for what nation hath God so nigh unto them? (Deu_4:7). But they are nothing like so near as the priests, they did not abide in the holy court, nor were they always occupied in worship. Israel may fitly represent the outward Church, the members of which have not yet received all the spiritual blessing they might have, yet are they blessed and made nigh. If ever an Israelite advanced into the court of the priests, it was with blood; he came with sacrifice; there was no access without it. It was great favour which permitted the Israelite to come into the court of the priests and partake in Divine worship; but, brethren, you and I were farther off than Israel, and it needed more grace by far to bring us nigh. By blood alone are we made nigh, and by blood displayed in all the glory of its power.
(3) A third illustration of our nearness to God will be found around the peaks of the mount of God, even Sinai, where the various degrees of access to God are set forth with singular beauty and preciseness of detail. The nineteenth chapter of the Book of Exodus tells us that the Lord revealed Himself on the top of Sinai with flaming fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace. Jehovah drew near unto his people Israel, coming down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai, while the tribes stood at the nether part of the mount. No, remember that our natural position was much more remote than Israel at the foot of the mount, for we were a Gentile nation to whom God did not appear in His glory, and with whom He spake not as with Israel. We were living in darkness, and in the valley of the shadow of death; but Israel was privileged to come very near as compared with us; hence the apostle in the chapter from which the text is taken, speaks of the circumcised as nigh. I take Israel to be to us this morning the type of those who live under gospel privileges, and are allowed to hear the joyful sound of salvation bought with blood. The gospel command has come to your conscience with such power that you have been compelled to promise obedience to it: but, alas, what has been the result of your fear and your vow? You have gone back farther from God, and have plunged anew into the worlds idolatry, and are today worshipping yourselves, your pleasures, your sins, or your righteousness; and when the Lord cometh, the nearness of opportunity which you have enjoyed will prove to have been to you a most fearful responsibility, and nothing more.
III. Let us note some of the displays of the realizations of this nearness to God as granted to us by blood through our union with Christ. We perceive and see manifestly our nearness to God in the very first hour of our conversion. The father fell upon the prodigals neck and kissed him--no greater nearness than that; the prodigal becomes an accepted child, is and must be very near his fathers heart; and we who sometimes were far off are as near to God as a child to his parents. We have a renewed sense of this nearness in times of restorations after backsliding, when, pleading the precious blood, we say, Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. We come to God, and feel that He is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart. We come near to God in prayer. Our nearness to God is peculiarly evinced at the mercy seat. But, brethren, we never get to God in prayer unless it is through pleading the precious blood.
IV. Brief exhortation.
1. Let us live in the power of the nearness which union with Christ and the blood hath given us.
2. Let us enjoy the things which this nearness was intended to bring.
3. Let us exercise much faith in God.
4. Let our behaviour be in accordance with our position. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Christians retrospect
I. A state of nature.
1. Moral darkness.
2. Spiritual blindness and deafness.
3. Moral and spiritual death.4. Enmity to and alienation from God.
II. A state of grace.
1. Light.
2. Peace.
3. Joy.
4. Unclouded faith and hope.
III. The characteristics of a natural man.
1. The depravity of his heart and the sinfulness of his unholy affections are stronger than the impulses of his soul.
2. He is destitute of proper knowledge.
3. He is satisfied with this world. He has not raised his affections above temporal joys.
4. He is ignorant, blind, naked, condemned in sin, the slave of his lusts, the servant of Satan, the heir of hell.
IV. The characteristics of a spiritual man.
1. He is penitent. The sins of the past he hopes are forgiven, the sins of the present he daily implores God may be pardoned.
2. He is humble. He is not self-complacent over discharge of known duty.
3. He is dependent upon God.
4. He is a man of active Christianity. He locks up, and is ever moving onward and upward.
5. He is a man of love and forbearance. He wears Gods image, looks like His Son, has the spirit of an angel, and the praise for his God of a seraph.
V. The change of our condition as affected by the application of the text. It intimates that a certain time we were without Christ (verses 11 and 12). At that time ye were without Christ refers to the condition of the heathen. They were without God and hope in the world. The science of Egypt, Chaldea, Greece, and Rome had discovered much as to things pertaining to the present life; but in respect of a hereafter all was enveloped in gross darkness. The text intimates the mode of the great change. Having asserted that those who sometimes were afar off are brought nigh to God, the apostle affirms that this is accomplished in Christ, and through the application of His blood. Therefore--
1. The blood of Christ is the means, when preached, through which sinners are brought near to God. Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
2. By the bleed of Christ, as shed upon the cross, atonement was made, sin was expiated, and a way opened for God to draw near to the sinner, and the sinner to God, This is a proposition of Andrew Fuller. God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin (or by a sacrifice for sin) condemned sin in the flesh. He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? This proposition and this passage are a summary of gospel truth.
3. We are brought into sacred nearness to God, and enter a state of salvation through the blood of Christ. This is applied spiritually, and is the true remission of sins. Divine grace applies spiritually the Divine Redeemers blood, to cleanse from sin. (W. C. Crane, D. D.)
Brought nigh through death
A mother in New York whose son had got into dissipated and abandoned habits, after repeated remonstrances and threats, was turned out of doors by his father, and he left vowing he would never return unless his father asked him, which the father said would never be. Grief over her son soon laid the mother on her dying bed, and when her husband asked if there was nothing he could do for her ere she departed this life, she said, Yes; you can send for my boy. The father was at first unwilling, but at length, seeing her so near her end, he sent for his son. The young man came, and as he entered the sick room his father turned his back upon him. As the mother was sinking rapidly, the two stood on opposite sides of her bed, all love and sorrow for her, but not exchanging a word with each other. She asked the father to forgive the boy; no, he wouldnt until the son asked it. Turning to him, she begged of him to ask his fathers forgiveness; no, his proud heart would not let him take the first step. After repeated attempts she failed, but as she was just expiring, with one last effort she got hold of the fathers hand in one hand, and her sons in the other, and exerting all her feeble strength, she joined their hands, and, with one last appealing look, she was gone. Over her dead body they were reconciled, but it took the mothers death to bring it about. So, has not God made a great sacrifice that we might be reconciled--even the death of His own dear Son? (D. L. Moody.)
Jesus the only hope
A Christian Hindoo was dying, and his heathen comrades came around him, and tried to comfort him by reading some of the pages of their theology; but he waved his hand, as much as to say, I dont want to hear it. Then they called in a heathen priest, and he said, If you will only recite the Numtra it will deliver you from hell. He waved his hand, as much as to say, I dont want to hear that. Then they said, Call on Juggernaut. He shook his head, as much as to say, I cant do that. Then they thought perhaps he was too weary to speak, and they said, Now, if you cant say Juggernaut, think of that god. He shook his head again, as much as to say, No, no, no. Then they bent down to his pillow, and they said, In what will you trust? His face lighted up with the very glories of the celestial sphere as he cried out, rallying all his dying energies, Jesus! (Dr. Talmage.)
The blood of Christ
Captain Hedley Vicars, when under deep conviction of sin, one morning came to his table almost broken hearted, and bowed to the dust with a sense of his guilt. Oh, wretched man that I am! he repeated to himself, at the same time glancing at his Bible, which lay open before him. His eyes suddenly rested on that beautiful verse, The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth from all sin. Then, said he, it can cleanse me from mine; and he instantly believed with his heart unto righteousness, and was filled with peace and joy. From that time to the hour in which he lay bathed in his own blood, in the trenches before Sebastopol, he never doubted his forgiveness, or Gods ability and willingness to pardon the chief of sinners. (S. M. Haughton.)
Aliens brought nigh to God
1. We must so look on our misery as to remember our estate by mercy. The devil will labour to swallow up in sorrow, as well as to kill by carnal security. This teaches ministers how to dispense the Word in wisdom, and Christians how to carry themselves; they must not be all in one extreme, like those philosophers that are either always weeping, or else always laughing; but, if there be heaviness with them in the evening, they must look to that which may bring, joy in the morning; and as a man after hard labour delights to take the air m a garden, so must they, when they have humbled their souls, in viewing their mercy, refresh themselves in walking among those sweet flowers, even the benefits of God.
2. The Lord brings such as are furthest estranged from Him to be near unto Him. If the king pardon one whose goodwill is doubtful, and take him into his favour, it is much; but when one has lived in making attempts on his person, then to forget and to forgive were more than credible clemency. Yet this is what God has done.
(1) None, then, need despair of himself.
(2) No, nor of others, however bad.
(3) Comfort to those already converted.
3. A wonderful change is made in those who are in Christ.
(1) Nearness to God. God dwells with Christ; we, therefore, being in Him, must needs have communion with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
(2) And to our fellow Christians. Christ is the head of His members; we must therefore needs be near to those who are in affinity with Christ, as in wedlock.
4. It is by the blood of Christ that we are reconciled to God. When we think of Christ crucified and shedding of His blood, there we may see--
(1) Our sins punished to the full.
(2) Our sins pardoned to the full.
(3) Our sins crucified and mortified by His blood.
(4) The flesh crucified (Gal_5:14).
(5) Ourselves crucified to the world, and the world to us (Gal_6:14).
(6) There we behold how patient we should be in affliction, even to the death.
(7) There is the picture of our whole life, which must be a continual course of mortification.
(8) There is the seasoning of our death, that whenever it comes it shall be a sweet passage to a better life.
(9) There we see all evils turned to our good.
(10) Therein we see all good things purchased for us: grace, mercy, peace, eternal salvation, yea, a heaven of treasures and riches gathered for us, and that we are made partakers of, by a due view of meditation of Christ crucified. (Paul Bayne.)
The nearness of God
I. A reconciled God. We are all naturally far from God, not as being out of His reach, or out of His sight, or out of His presence, but as differing from Him, as being out of sympathy with Him--as forgetting or not thinking about Him--as disobeying Him, and disliking Him, and thus having incurred His displeasure. Such things as these create a distance between one and another. They need to he brought near, or, as our text puts it, made nigh to each other. And how is that to be done? By their being in some way reconciled; by some one coming between them and making them friends--making them one. That might he done in various ways. I might appeal to them, as a friend of both of them, to lay aside their enmity for my sake, and be friends. I might put the hand of the one in that of the other, and take both in my own; and so they might be said to be made nigh by me. Or if one had wronged the other, I might offer to be responsible for the wrong, and to put it right. If the one had taken money that belonged to the other, and had spent it or lost it, and could not make it good, I might offer to replace it. And so they might be made nigh through me. I have heard of a devoted Christian minister, who lay on his deathbed, getting two friends who were visiting him, and who had quarrelled with each other, to shake hands over his body, as they stood at opposite sides of his bed; and so they were made nigh through him. They did not need to move from where they were standing before in order to be thus made nigh. Or I might illustrate it in another way. In Shetland, between the mainland and a small island rising up into a lofty rock, there is a deep and awful-looking gorge. Looking over the edge you see and hear the sea rushing and foaming below. It makes one dizzy to look down. Two people standing on each side of that gorge, though they could almost join hands across it, might be far enough apart from each other. For many years there was a kind of basket bridge. A basket was swung across by means of a rope, The people got into the basket and slid across in it. They were made nigh by means of it. Two of you wish to meet each other at a canal. You stand one on each side. The drawbridge is up, and though the water is only a few yards in breadth, you cannot get to each other except by going nearly a quarter of a mile round about, which makes it all one as if the canal were a quarter of a mile broad. You may be said to be all that distance apart from each other. But the bridge comes down, and at once makes you nigh. Little more than a step brings you together. Now, as I have said, the sinner and God are thus apart from each other--separated from each other, wide, wide apart. The sinner is without God. His sins have hid Gods face from him. God is not in all his thoughts. How shall they be made nigh? The sinner cannot make himself nigh. He can only get farther away from God. And so the Lord Jesus comes in as the Mediator.
II. God able to see us. That is implied in His being near us--His being not far from every one of us. When we are very far away, we cannot see things at all. If some one were holding out a book to you at a distance, you could not see the letters, you could not read them even though the print were pretty large. You would say, It is too far off; I must have it nearer. And when you get near to it, you can read, without difficulty, even the smallest print. When we are at sea, the land in the distance is seen very dimly. But for being told, we should not know it to be land at all. It is more like cloud. But as we come nearer we can distinguish mountains, and fields, and houses, and as we enter into the harbour we can see everything and everybody. Our being near enables us to see. You cannot distinguish peoples faces at a distance, you cannot tell what people are doing. But when you come near--when you are standing beside them--you see all. Now just so it is with God. He is near. He is a God at hand. He sees your thoughts. He sees your acts--every one of them. He sees every letter you write--every line you write. He can see everything about you, for He is near you wherever you are. Think what it would be if a person were constantly beside you, all through the night and day, never sleeping, his wakeful eye ever upon you. What a knowledge of you he would have! When travelling in the country, I saw a policeman and another man keeping very close together. They went into the railway carriage together and came out together. They sat together, they walked on the platform together. And then I noticed that the one was chained to the other. The handcuff round the wrist of each told how it was. The prisoner could do nothing which the policeman could not see. So it was with Paul when he was chained to the soldier during his imprisonment at Rome. What a knowledge of the great apostle that soldier must have had! So near--so constantly near you is God.
III. As He sees all, as we should with the microscope, so He hears all, as we should with the microphone or telephone--every sound we utter, every word we speak. I saw a very curious thing one day. An old lady whom I knew was very deaf. I could not make her hear a word. But when I was calling at her house, her daughter spoke to her, and though she did not hear a word, she was able to understand the movement of the lips so thoroughly that it was as if she had heard every word, which indeed she repeated exactly as it was spoken. In this way some people do not need to hear in order to know what is being said or done. But, as I have said, it is nearness that is the great help to hearing. People in church who cannot hear well, wish to get as near the pulpit as possible. Deaf people in a room bring their chair close to you, or draw you close to them, and so, if at all possible, they hear. If anything is certain, it is that God hears--hears every one--hears everything, for He is not far from every one of us. If you knew that some one whom you stand in awe of were near, would it not influence you in all that you said? I was one day travelling in a railway carriage, when the conversation of my fellow travellers turned on a particular friend of mine. Suddenly there was silence. One of the party had recognized me, and, with a look and a shrug, indicated that they had better take care what they said. How often that might be done in a different way! If I were at your elbow, might I not often gently whisper, Hush! He is here! Who? God. Or I might point upward--as much as to say, He is listening!--take care what you say.
IV. God able to help us. One reason why friends cannot help us, even when they would, is that they are too far away. This can never happen with God. He is always close at hand, always within reach. The doors of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh are never locked. Above the principal entrance there are two panels. On the one are inscribed the words, I was sick and ye visited Me: and on the other, I was a stranger and ye took me in; and between the panels is the crest of the infirmary, Patet omnibus, which may be rendered, Open to all. And at any hour, night or day, if any accident occurs, there is instant admittance. Might I not say, Gods door is never locked, and it is close to every one of us. At any hour of the day or of the night, He is near--able and willing to help. (J. H. Wilson, D. D.)
Sinners brought nigh by the blood of Christ
I. We were sometime far off. Distance = ignorance of God, and under His displeasure. What the peculiar nature of our erroneous path, our remote situation, was, is comparatively of little consequence. Some of us were lost in the cares of the world. Some were deluded by the deceitfulness of riches. The lust of other things held some captive. While others were intoxicated by pleasure, or enchanted by worldly science, or drawn away by the meaner things which attract the attention of sordid souls. It is enough, more than enough, that we were far from God. Let us now turn our attention to our present situations.
II. Now are we made nigh. These words convey to the mind ideas of Relationship, Friendship, Union, and Communion. Thus we are made nigh; and our text leads us, in the next place, to consider how this blessed, this important, change has been effected.
III. In Christ Jesus--by the blood of Christ.
1. In Christ Jesus. He is our Mediator--God with God; man with men (see 1Ti_2:5; Heb_12:24). It is here the distant parties meet. Here the Gentile meets the Jew (verse 14). Here the returning sinner meets a gracious, a merciful, a forgiving God (Eph_1:6-7, and Eph_1:18). Here persons that were distant, that were hostile, meet, cordially unite, and perfectly agree (see Gal_3:28-29; Col_3:11; Joh_10:16). Here even Saul of Tarsus meets the followers of Jesus of Nazareth on amicable terms. Here all real Christians of every sect and name meet; and here all men may know that they are disciples of Christ, because they love one another (Joh_13:35). Here, too, they all ascribe their salvation to Jesus, and glory in being made nigh.
2. By the blood of Christ. Under the old dispensation this blood was yearly typified by that of the paschal lamb (Exo_12:4-5; 1Co_5:7); daily by that of the sacrificial lamb (Exo_29:38-39; Joh_1:29); and frequently by that of other sacrifices (Heb_9:1-28; Heb_10:1-39). Covenants were ratified by blood (Exo_24:8; Heb_9:18-20); and without shedding of blood is no remission (Heb_9:22). We enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus (Heb_10:19). Almost every important circumstance connected with our salvation has reference to the blood of Christ. We are redeemed by His blood (chap. 1:7; Col_1:14; 1Pe_1:19; Rev_5:9). Justified by His blood (Rom_5:9); washed, cleansed by His blood (1Jn_1:7; Rev_1:5; Rev_7:14); we conquer through His blood (Rev_12:11); we are made nigh by His blood. (Theological Sketchbook.)
Brought nigh by Christs blood
I. What is meant by being afar off.
1. It intimates distance (Eph_4:14).
2. Being destitute of His image (Eph_4:22).
3. Under Gods revealed displeasure (Eph_1:1-3).
4. Unconnected with Christ.
II. What is meant by being made nigh. The renegade is reclaimed; the outlaw is captured; the rebel has Rounded his arms; the ferocious lion is now changed into a placid lamb; and the stoner is now reconciled to, and made one with, God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Hence, being made nigh signifies--
1. Relationship (2Co_3:17-18).
2. Union--the vine and its branches (Joh_15:5).
3. Unity or oneness (1Co_12:13).
4. Stones builded on Christ (Eph_2:22).
5. Friendship (Joh_15:15).
6. Communion (Rom_8:14).
III. The instrument of bringing us nigh: his blood. That which effects such wonderful achievements must itself be astonishingly magnificent. The effect is Godlike, and the cause is with God. To accomplish an union between two opposite and repulsive bodies is beyond the reach of philosophical ingenuity, with all its power. But this is done by--
1. Gods decree in Jesus Christ (Eph_1:5).
2. In whom Jew and Gentile meet (Eph_2:14).
3. By Christs blood we are reconciled (Heb_9:28).
4. Thus we enter into the holiest (Heb_10:19).
5. Redeemed by His blood (Col_1:14).
6. Justified by His blood (Rom_5:9).
7. Washed by His blood (1Jn_1:7).
8. We conquer through His blood (Rev_12:11). (T. B. Baker.)
Made nigh in a new bond
The one gospel of God to the whole world, is that dark and distant spirits can not only be brought nigh, but made nigh in the blood of Christ, as grafts are not simply brought nigh, but made nigh to the tree from which they are to derive their life. The graft is made nigh, taken up into unity with the tree, by the life blood of the tree. Man is made nigh, taken up into unity with God, by receiving the life blood of Jesus into his spirit. As the sun gives out of himself to the earth, and thus brings the earth into fellowship with himself, so Christ gives out of Himself to the human soul and makes man one with God. (John Pulsford.)
Atonement in Christs blood
The Atonement is the great fact of the Bible, and Scripture and history alike bear witness to it.
1. The universal practice of sacrifice points to the atonement of Christ, and shows out the moral sentiments of the nations in the dark but distinct consciousness that expiation is necessary before the sinner can approach God.
2. The whole Jewish economy is based upon the principle of sacrifice, and is to be looked upon as a providential preparation for the gospel, in which the sacrifice of the Cross holds such a conspicuous place, and both Testaments unite in declaring that without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins (Heb_9:22; Exo_24:8; Mat_26:28). Hence the spirit of the Old Testament is realized in the New Testament Victim, offered up upon the cross for the sin of the world. Hence the blood of Christ is presented to our faith as the vindication of Jehovahs love, and the refuge in which our souls may safely await the issues of eternity. (W. Graham, D. D.)
Need of the blood of Jesus
I once heard a very earnest minister say that he had been accosted by a man who had heard him preach, with this criticism: I dont like your theology at all--its too bloody. It savours so of the shambles, its all blood, blood, blood. I like a pleasanter gospel. He replied to his objector: My theology is bloody, I allow; it recognizes as its foundation a very sanguinary scene--the death of Christ, with bleeding hands and feet and side. And I am quite content that it should be bloody, for God hath said, that without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. (C. D. Foss.)
Value of Christs brood
I dare assert, without fear of successful contradiction, that the inspired writers attribute all the blessings of salvation to the precious blood of Jesus Christ. If we have redemption, it is through His blood; if we are justified, it is by His blood; if washed from our moral stains, it is by His blood, which cleanseth us from all sin; if we have victory over the last enemy, we obtain it, not only by the word of the Divine testimony, but through the blood of the Lamb; and, if we gain admittance into heaven, it is because we have washed our robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Everything depends on the blood of Christ, who paid it as the price of cur redemption to eternal life and glory. (Dr. R. Newton.)
Toplady, the writer of the hymn, Rock of Ages, cleft for me, was converted through hearing a working man preach in a barn from Eph_2:13, But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v14 Chapter 10
Chapter 10
THE DOUBLE RECONCILIATION
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Eph_2:14-18
"PEACE, peace-to the far off, and to the near!" Such was Gods promise to His scattered people in the times of the exile. {Isa_57:19} St. Paul sees that peace of God extending over a yet wider field, and terminating a longer and sadder banishment than the prophet had foreseen. Christ is "our peace"-not for the divided members of Israel alone, but for all the tribes of men. He brings about a universal pacification.
There were two distinct, but kindred enmities to be overcome by Christ, in preaching to the world His good tidings of peace (Eph_2:17). There was the hostility of Jew and Gentile, which was removed in its cause and principle when Christ "in His flesh" (by His incarnate life and death) "abolished the law of commandments in decrees"-i.e., the law of Moses as it constituted a body of external precepts determining the way of righteousness and life. This abolition of the law by the evangelical principle "dissolved the middle wall of partition." The occasion of quarrel between Israel and the world was destroyed; the barrier disappeared that had for so long fenced off the privileged ground of the sons of Abraham (Eph_2:14-15). But behind this human enmity, underneath the feud and rancour existing between the Jews and the nations, there lay the deeper quarrel of mankind with God. Both enmities centred in the law: both were slain by one stroke, in the reconciliation of the cross (Eph_2:16).
The Jewish and Gentile peoples formed two distinct types of humanity. Politically, the Jews were insignificant and had scarcely counted amongst the great powers of the world. Their religion alone gave them influence and importance. Bearing his inspired Scriptures and his Messianic hope, the wandering Israelite confronted the vast masses of heathenism and the splendid and fascinating classical civilisation with the proudest sense of his superiority. To his God he knew well that one day every knee would bow and every tongue confess. The circumstances of the time deepened his isolation and aggravated to internecine hate his spite against his fellowmen, the adversus omnes alios hostile odium stigmatised by the incisive pen of Tacitus. Within three years of the writing of this letter the Jewish war against Rome broke out, when the enmity culminated in the most appalling and fateful overthrow recorded in the pages of history. Now, it is this enmity at its height-the most inveterate and desperate one can conceive-that the apostle proposes to reconcile; nay, that he sees already slain by the sacrifice of the cross, and within the brotherhood of the Christian Church. It was slain in the heart of Saul of Tarsus, the proudest that beat in Jewish breast.
In his earlier writings the apostle has been concerned chiefly to guard the position and rights of the two parties within the Church. He has abundantly maintained, especially in the epistle to the Galatians, the claims of Gentile believers in Christ against Judaic assumptions and impositions. He has defended the just prerogative of the Jew and his hereditary sentiments from the contempt to which they were sometimes exposed on the part of the Gentile majority. But now that this has been done, and that Gentile liberties and Jewish dignity have been vindicated and safeguarded on both sides, St. Paul advances a step further: he seeks to amalgamate the Jewish and Gentile section of the Church, and to "make of the twain one new man, so making peace." This, he declares, was the end of Christs mission; this a chief purpose of His atoning death. Only by such union, only through the burying of the old enmity slain on the cross, could His Church be built up to its completeness. St. Paul would have Gentile and Jewish believers everywhere forget their differences, efface their party lines, and merge their independence in the oneness of the allembracing and all-perfecting Church of. Jesus Christ, Gods habitation in the Spirit. Instead of saying that a catholic ideal like this belongs to a later and post-apostolic age, we maintain, on the contrary, that a catholic mind like St. Pauls, under the conditions of his time, could riot fail to arrive at this conception.
It was his confidence in the victory of the cross over all strife and sin that sustained St. Paul through these years of captivity. As he looks out from his Roman prison, under the shadow of Neros palace, the future is invested with a radiance of hope that makes the heart of the chained apostle exult within him. The world is lost, to all outward seeming: he knows it is saved! Jew and Gentile are about to close in mortal conflict: he proclaims peace between them, assured of their reconcilement, and knowing that in their reunion the salvation of human society is assured. The enmity of Jew and Gentile was representative of all that divides mankind. In it were concentrated most of the causes by which society is rent asunder. Along with religion, race, habits, taste and culture, moral tendencies, political aspirations, interests of trade, all helped to widen the breach. The cleavage ran deep into the foundations of life; the enmity was the growth of two thousand years. It was not a case of local friction, nor a quarrel arising from temporary causes. The Jew was ubiquitous, and everywhere was an alien and an irritant to Gentile society. No antipathy was so hard to subdue. The grace that conquers it can and will conquer all enmities. St. Pauls view embraced, in fact, a world-wide reconcilement. He contemplates, as the Hebrew prophets themselves did, the fraternisation of mankind under the rule of the Christ. After this scale he laid down the foundation of the Church, "wise master-builder" that he was. It was destined to bear the weight of an edifice in which all the races of men should dwell together, and every order of human faculty should find its place. His thoughts were not confined within the Judaic antithesis. "There is no Jew and Greek," he says in another place; yes, and "no barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman, male or female. Ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Birth, rank, office in the Church, culture, even sex are minor and subordinate distinctions, merged in the unity of redeemed souls in Christ. That which He "creates in Himself of the twain" is one new man- one incorporate humanity, neither Jew nor Gentile, Englishman nor Hindu, priest nor layman, male nor female; but simply man, and Christian.
At the present time we are better able to enter into these views of the apostle than at any intervening period of history. In his day almost the whole visible world, lying around the Mediterranean shores, was brought under the government and laws of Rome. This fact made the establishment of one religious polity a thing quite conceivable. The Roman empire did not, as it proved, allow Christianity to conquer it soon enough and to leaven it sufficiently to save it. That huge construction, the mightiest fabric of human polity, fell and covered the earth with its ruins. In its fall it reacted disastrously upon the Church, and has bequeathed to it the corrupt and despotic unity of Papal Rome. Now, in these last days, the whole world is opened to the Church, a world stretching far beyond the horizon of the first century. Science and Commerce, those two strong-winged angels and giant ministers of God, are swiftly binding the continents together in material ties. The peoples are beginning to realise their brotherhood, and are feeling their way in many directions towards international union; while in the Churches a new, federal catholicity is taking shape, that must displace the false catholicism of external uniformity and the disastrous absolutism inherited from Rome. The spread of European empire and the marvellous expansion of our English race are carrying forward the worlds unification with enormous strides, -towards some end or other. What end is this to be? Is the kingdom of the world about to become the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ? and are the nations preparing to be "reconciled in one body unto God"?
If Christendom were worthy of her Master and her name, this answer would be answered with no doubtful affirmative. The Church is well able, if she were prepared, to go up and possess the whole earth for her Lord. The way is open; the means are in her hand. Nor is she ignorant, nor wholly negligent of her opportunity and of the claims that the times impose upon her. She is putting forth new strength and striving to overtake her work, notwithstanding the weight of ignorance and sloth that burdens her. Soon the reconciling cross will be planted on every shore, and the praises of the Crucified be sung in every human language.
But there are dark as well as bright auguries for the future. The advance of commerce and emigration has been a curse and not a blessing to many heathen peoples. Who can read without shame and horror the story of European conquest in America? And it is a chapter not yet closed. Greed and injustice still mark the dealings of the powerful and civilised with the weaker races. England set a noble example in the abolition of negro slavery; but she has since inflicted, for purposes of gain, the opium curse on China, putting poison to the lips of its vast population. Under our Christian flags firearms are imported, and alcohol, amongst tribes of men less able than children to resist their evils. Is this "preaching peace to those far off"? It is likely that the commercial profits made in the destruction of savage races as yet exceed all that our missionary societies have spent in saving them. One of these days Almighty God may have a stern reckoning with modern Europe about these things. "When He maketh inquisition for blood, He will remember."
And what shall we say of ourselves at home, in our relation to this great principle of the apostle? The old "middle wall of partition," the temple-barrier that sundered Jew and Gentile, is "broken down,"-visibly levelled by the hand of God when Jerusalem fell, as it had been virtually and in its principle destroyed by the work of Christ. But are there no other middle walls, no barriers raised within the fold of Christ? The rich mans purse, and the poor mans penury; aristocratic pride, democratic bitterness and jealousy; knowledge and refinement on the one hand, ignorance and rudeness on the other-how thick the veil of estrangement which these influences weave, how high the party walls which they build in our various Church communions!
It is the duty of the Church, as she values her existence, with gentle but firm hands to pull down and to keep down all such partitions. She cannot abolish the natural distinctions of life. She cannot turn the Jew into a Gentile, nor the Gentile into a Jew. She will never make the poor man rich in this world, nor the rich man altogether poor. Like her Master, she declines to be "judge or divider" of our secular inheritance. But she can see to it that these outward distinctions make no difference in her treatment of the men as men. She can combine in her fellowship all grades and orders, and teach them to understand and respect each other. She can soften the asperities and relieve many of the hardships which social differences create. She can diffuse a healing and purifying influence upon the contentions of society around her.
Let us labour unweariedly for this, and let our meeting at the Lords table be a symbol of the unreserved communion of men of all classes and conditions in the brotherhood of the redeemed sons of God. "He is our peace"; and if He is in our hearts, we must needs be sons of peace. "Behold the secret of all true union! It is not by others coming to us, nor by our going over to them; but it is by both them and ourselves coming to Christ" that peace is made (Monod). Thus within and without the Church the work of atonement will advance, with Christ ever for its preacher (Eph_2:17). He speaks through the words and the lives of His ten thousand messengers, men of every order, in every age and country of the earth. The leaven of Christs peace will spread till the lump is leavened. God will accomplish His purpose of the ages, whether in our time, or in another worthier of His calling. His Church is destined to be the home of the human family, the universal liberator and instructor and reconciler of the nations. And Christ shall sit enthroned in the loyal worship of the federated peoples of the earth.
But the question remains: What is the foundation, what the warrant of this grand idealism of the apostle Paul? Many a great thinker, many an ardent reformer before and since has dreamed of some such millennium as this. And their enthusiastic plans have ended too often in conflict and destruction. What surer ground of confidence have we in Pauls undertaking than in those of so many gifted visionaries and philosophers? The difference lies here: his expectation rests on the word and character of God; his instrument of reform is the cross of Jesus Christ.
God is the centre of His own universe. Any reconciliation that is to stand must include Him first of all. Christ reconciled Jew and Gentile "both in one body to God." There is the meeting point, the true focus of the orbit of human life, that can alone control its movements and correct its wild aberrations. Under the shadow of His throne of justice, in the arms of His fatherly love, the kindreds of the earth will at last find reconciliation and peace. Humanitarian and secularist systems make the simple mistake of ignoring the supreme Factor in the scheme of things; they leave out the All in all.
"Be ye reconciled to God, " cries the apostle. For Almighty God has had a great quarrel with this world of ours. The hatred of men towards each other is rooted in the "carnal mind which is enmity against God." The "law of commandments contained in ordinances," in whose possession the Jew boasted over the lawless and profane Gentile, in reality branded both as culprits. The secret disquiet and dread lurking in mans conscience, the pangs endured in his body of humiliation, the groaning frame of nature declare the world unhinged and out of course. Things have gone amiss, somehow, between man and his Creator. The face of the earth and the field of human history are scarred with the thunderbolts of His displeasure. God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and the King of the ages, is not the amiable, almighty Sentimentalist that some pious people would make Him out to be. The men of the Bible felt and realised, if we do not, the grave and tremendous import of the Lords controversy with all flesh. He is unceasingly at war with the sins of men. "God is love"-oh, yes! but then He is also "a consuming fire"! There is no anger so crushing as the anger of love, for there is none so just; no wrath to be feared like "the wrath of the Lamb." God is not a man, weak and passionate whom a spark of anger might set all on fire, burning out His justice and compassion. "In His wrath He remembers mercy." Within that infinite nature there is room for an absolute loathing and resentment towards sin, in consistence with an immeasurable pity and yearning towards His sinful children. Hence the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Look at it from what side you will (and it has many sides), propound it in what terms you may (and it translates itself anew into the dialect of every age), you must not explain the cross of Christ away nor cause its offence to cease. "The atonement has always been a scandal and a folly to those who did not receive it; it has always contained something which to formal logic is false and to individualistic ethics immoral; yet in that very element which has been branded as immoral and false, has always lain the seal of its power and the secret of its truth." The Holy One of God, the Lamb without spot and blemish, He died by His own consent a sinners death. That sacrifice, undergone by the Son of God and Son of man dying as man for men, in love to His race and in obedience to the Divine will and law, gave an infinite satisfaction to God in His relation to the world, and there went up to the Divine throne from the anguish of Calvary a "savour of sweet smell." The moral glory of the act of Jesus Christ in dying for His guilty brethren outshone its horror and disgrace; and it redeemed mans lost condition, and clothed human nature with a new character and aspect in the eyes of God Himself. "Now therefore there is no more condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." The mercy of God, if we may so say, is set free to act in forgiveness and restoration, without any compromise of justice and inflexible law. No peace without this: no peace that did not satisfy God, and satisfy that law, deep as the deepest in God, that binds suffering to wrongdoing and death to sin.
Perhaps you say: This is immoral, surely, that the just should suffer for the unjust; that one commits the offence, and another bears the penalty.-Stay a moment: that is only half the truth. We are more than individuals; we are members of a race; and vicarious suffering runs through life. Our sufferings and wrong-doings bind the human family together in an inextricable web. We are communists in sin and death. It is the law and lot of our existence. And Christ, the Lord and centre of the race, has come within its scope. He bound Himself to our sinking fortunes. He became copartner in our lost estate, and has redeemed it to God by His blood. If He was true and perfect man, if He was the creative Head and Mediator of the race, the eternal Firstborn of many brethren, He could do no other. He who alone had the right and the power, -"One died for all." He took upon His Divine heart the sin and curse of the world, He fastened it to His shoulders with the cross; and He bore it away from Caiaphas hall and Pilates judgment-seat, away from guilty Jerusalem; He took away the sin of the world, and expiated it once for all. He quenched in His blood the fires of wrath and hate it kindled. He slew the enmity thereby.
Still, we are individuals, as you said, not lost after all in the worlds solidarity. Here your personal right and will must come in. What Christ has done for you is yours, so far as you accept it. He has died your death beforehand, trusting that you would not repudiate His act, that you would not let His blood be spilt in vain. But He will never force His mediation upon you. He respects your freedom and your manhood. Do you now endorse what Jesus Christ did on your behalf? Do you renounce the sin, and accept the sacrifice? Then it is yours, from this moment, before the tribunal of God and of conscience. By the witness of His Spirit you are proclaimed a forgiven and reconciled man. Christ crucified is yours-if you will have Him, if you will identify your sinful self with the sinless Mediator, if as you see Him lifted up on the cross you will let your heart cry out, "Oh my God, He dies for me!"
Coming "in one Spirit to the Father," the reconciled children join hands again with each other. Social barriers, caste feelings, family feuds, personal quarrels, national antipathies, alike go down before the virtue of the blood of Jesus.
"Neither passion nor pride
His cross can abide,
But melt in the fountain that streams from His side!"
"Beloved," you will say to the man that hates or has wronged you most, -"Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." In these simple words of the apostle John lies the secret of universal peace, the hope of the fraternisation of mankind. Nations will have to say this one day, as well as men.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv13–16 13. But now in Christ Jesus. Once so far…
13. But now in Christ Jesus. Once so far off, separated from God, they have been brought nigh, and the means that brought them is the blood of Christ.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v13 Eph_2:13. Ye who sometimes were far off are made…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Eph_2:13. Ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh.—The Gentile may sing his hymn in Jewish words: “Doubtless Thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: Thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer; from everlasting is Thy name.” “Lo-ammi” (“not My people”) is no longer their name (Hos_2:23; Rom_9:24-25).
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Eph_2:14. For He is our peace, who hath made both one.—“Not the Peacemaker merely, for indeed at His own great cost He procured peace, and is Himself the bond of union of both” (Jew and Gentile). The middle wall of partition.—M. Ganneau, the discoverer of the Moabite Stone, found built into the wall of a ruined Moslem convent a stone, believed to be from the Temple, with this inscription: “No stranger-born (non-Jew) may enter within the circuit of the barrier and enclosure that is around the sacred court; and whoever shall be caught [intruding] there, upon himself be the blame of the death that will consequently follow.” Josephus describes this fence and its warning inscription (Wars of the Jews, Bk. V., ch. v., § 2). It is rather the spirit of exclusiveness which Christ threw down. The stone wall Titus threw down and made all a common field, afterwards.
Eph_2:15. Having abolished in His flesh the enmity.—The enmity of Jew and Gentile; the abolition of their enmity to God is mentioned later. “First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift,” for reconciliation to God. The law of commandments contained in ordinances.—The slave whose duty it was to take the child to his teacher might say, “Don’t do that.” St. Paul does not regard the function of the law as more than that (Gal_3:23-25). One new man.—Trench, in an admirable section, distinguishes between the new in time (recens) and the new in quality (novum). The word here means new in quality, “as set over against that which has seen service, the outworn.” “It is not an amalgam of Jew and Gentile” (Meyer).
Eph_2:16. That He might reconcile both unto God.—The word “reconcile” implies “a restitution to a state from which they had fallen, or which was potentially theirs, or for which they were destined” (Lightfoot, Col_1:20). The cross having slain the enmity.—Gentile authority and Jewish malevolence met in the sentence to that painful death; and both Gentile and Jew, acknowledging the Son of God, shall cease their strife, and love as brethren.
Eph_2:17. Came and preached peace.—By means of His messengers, as St. Paul tells the Galatians that Christ was “evidently set forth crucified amongst them.” To you afar off, and to them that were nigh.—Isaiah’s phrase (Isa_57:19). The Christ uplifted “out of the earth” draws all men to Him.
Eph_2:18. For through Him we both have access.—St. Paul’s way of proclaiming His Master’s saying, “I am the door: by Me if any man enter in he shall be saved”; including the other equally precious, “I am the way: no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” “Access” here means “introduction.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Eph_2:13-18
Christ the Great Peacemaker.
I. His mission on earth was one of peace.—“And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh” (Eph_2:17). His advent was heralded by the angelic song, “Peace on earth, and goodwill toward men.” The world is racked with moral discord; He is constantly striving to introduce the music of a heavenly harmony. It is distracted with war; He is propagating principles that will by-and-by make war impossible. The work of the peacemaker is Christ-like. Shenkyn, one of whose anomalies was that with all his burning passions he was a notorious peacemaker, and had means of pouring oil upon troubled waters, once upon a time was deputed to try his well-known skill upon a Church whose strife of tongues had become quite notorious. He reluctantly complied, and attended a meeting which soon proved to his satisfaction that the people were possessed by a demon that could not easily be expelled. The peacemaker got up, staff in hand, paced the little chapel, and with his spirit deeply moved, cried out, “Lord, is this Thy spouse?” Faster and faster he walked, thumping his huge stick on the floor, and still crying out, “Lord, is this Thy spouse? Slay her!” Then there came, as it were from another, a response, “No, I will not.” “Sell her, then!” “No, I will not.” “Deny her, then!” Still the answer came, “I will not.” Then he lifted up his voice, saying, “I have bought her with My precious blood; how can I give her up? How can I forsake her?” The strife had now ceased, and the people looked on with amazement, crying out for pardon.
II. He made peace between man and man.—“For He is our peace, who hath made both one; … to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace” (Eph_2:14-15). The hostility of Jew and Gentile was conquered; the new spritual nature created in both formed a bond of brotherhood and harmony. The Jew no longer despised the Gentile; the Gentile no longer hated and persecuted the Jew. Where the Christian spirit predominates personal quarrels are speedily adjusted.
III. He made peace between man and God.—“That He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross” (Eph_2:16). The enmity of man against God is disarmed and conquered by the voluntary suffering of Jesus in man’s stead, and by His thus opening up the way of reconciliation of man with God. God can now be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. The violated law is now atoned for, and the violater may obtain forgiveness and regain the forfeited favour of the offended God. There is peace only through forgiveness.
IV. His death removed the great barrier to peace.—This paragraph is very rich and suggestive in the phrases used to explain this blessed result: “Ye are made nigh by the blood of Christ” (Eph_2:13). “By the cross, having slain the enmity thereby” (Eph_2:16). “Hath broken down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in His flesh the enmity” (Eph_2:14-15). It is not the calm, silent, featureless, helpless, forceless peace of death, but a living, active, aggressive, ever-conquering peace. The death was the result of agonising struggle and intense suffering, and the peace purchased is a powerfully operating influence in the believing soul.
“A peace is of the nature of a conquest;
For there both parties nobly are subdued,
And neither party losers.”
Shakespeare.
V. True peace is realised only in Christ.—“But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ” (Eph_2:13). “For He is our peace” (Eph_2:14). “For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Eph_2:18). “Christ takes us by the hand, and eads us to the Father.” Men seek peace in the excitements of worldly pleasures, or in the pursuit of ambitious aims, but in vain. They only stimulate the malady they seek to cure. Christ is the restful centre of the universe, and the sin-tossed soul gains peace only as it converges towards Him. The efforts of men to find rest independent of Christ only reveal their need of Him, and it is a mercy when this revelation and consciousness of need does not come too late.
Lessons.—
1. Sin is the instigator of quarrels and strife.
2. Only as sin is conquered does peace become possible.
3. Christ introduces peace by abolishing sin.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Eph_2:13-18. Nearness to God.
I. They were brought into the Church of God, and admitted to equal privileges with His ancient people the Jews.
II. They were brought near to God as they were admitted to enjoy the gospel, which is a dispensation of grace and peace.
III. They were brought near to God by the renovation of their souls after His image.
IV. This nearness to God implies a state of peace with Him.
V. Another circumstance of the nearness is access to God in prayer.
VI. Another is the presence of His Holy Spirit.—Let us be afraid of everything that tends to draw us away from God, and love everything which brings us nearer to Him. Let us seek Him with our whole heart, preserve daily communion with Him, choose His favour as our happiness, His service as our employment, His word as our guide, His ordinances as our refreshment, His house as the gate of heaven, and heaven as our eternal home.—Lathrop.
Eph_2:13. Our State by Nature and by Grace.
I. Our state by nature.—The distance from God here spoken of is not a local distance, neither is it that which separates us from Him as an infinite Being.
1. It is legal. Banished by a righteous sentence and by a sense of guilt and unworthiness.
2. It is moral. Estrangement. Absence of sympathy. Want of harmony.
3. In both these respects it is ever-widening.
4. It is miserable and dangerous.
II. Our state by grace.—
1. The legal barriers are removed by the blood of Christ shed on the cross.
2. The moral alienation is removed by the blood of Christ as applied to the believer by the Holy Spirit.
3. The nearness to God thus effected is a valuable privilege. It includes reconciliation, friendship, communion. Sinner, apply now to be made nigh. Believer, remember thy obligations.—G. Brooks.
Eph_2:14-15. Death a Peacemaker.—The struggle between the Northern and Southern States of America closed for ever at the funeral of General Grant. The armies of rebellion surrendered twenty years before; but the solemn and memorable pageant at the tomb of the great Union soldier, where the leading generals of the living Union and of the dead Confederacy stood shoulder to shoulder and mingled their tears in a common grief—this historical event marked the absolute conclusion of sectional animosity in America.
Eph_2:16. The Power of the Gospel to dissolve the Enmity of the Human Heart against God.—
1. The goodness of God destroys the enmity of the human mind. When every other argument fails, this, if perceived by the eye of faith, finds its powerful and persuasive way through every barrier of resistance. Try to approach the heart of man by the instruments of terror and of authority, and it will disdainfully repel you. There is not one of you skilled in the management of human nature who does not perceive that, though this may be a way of working on the other principles of our constitution—of working on the fears of man, or on his sense of interest—this is not the way of gaining by a single hair-breadth on the attachments of his heart. Such a way may force, or it may terrify, but it never, never can endear; and after all the threatening array of such an influence as this is brought to bear upon man, there is not one particle of service it can extort from him but what is all rendered in the spirit of a painful and reluctant bondage. Now this is not the service which prepares for heaven. This is not the service which assimilates men to angels. This is not the obedience of those glorified spirits, whose every affection harmonises with their every performance, and the very essence of whose piety consists of delight in God and the love they bear to Him. To bring up man to such an obedience as this, his heart behoved to be approached in a peculiar way; and no such way is to be found but within the limits of the Christian revelation. There alone you see God, without injury to His other attributes, plying the heart of man with the irresistible argument of kindness. There alone do you see the great Lord of heaven and of earth, setting Himself forth to the most worthless and the most wandering of His children—putting forth His own hand to the work of healing the breach which sin had made between them—telling them that His word could not be mocked, and His justice could not be defied and trampled on, and that it was not possible for His perfections to receive the slightest taint in the eyes of the creation He had thrown around them; but that all this was provided for, and not a single creature within the compass of the universe He had formed could now say that forgiveness to man was degrading to the authority of God, and that by the very act of atonement, which poured a glory over all the high attributes of His character, His mercy might now burst forth without limit and without control upon a guilty world, and the broad flag of invitation be unfurled in the sight of all its families.
2. Let the sinner, then, look to God through the medium of such a revelation, and the sight which meets him there may well tame the obstinacy of that heart which had wrapped itself up in impenetrable hardness against the force of every other consideration. Now that the storm of the Almighty’s wrath has been discharged upon Him who bore the burden of the world’s atonement, He has turned His throne of glory into a throne of grace, and cleared away from the pavilion of His residence all the darkness which encompassed it. The God who dwelleth there is God in Christ; and the voice He sends from it to this dark and rebellious province of His mighty empire is a voice of the most beseeching tenderness. Goodwill to men is the announcement with which His messengers come fraught to a guilty world; and, since the moment in which it burst upon mortal ears from the peaceful canopy of heaven, may the ministers of salvation take it up, and go round with it among all the tribes and individuals of the species. Such is the real aspect of God towards you. He cannot bear that His alienated children should be finally and everlastingly away from Him. He feels for you all the longing of a parent bereaved of his offspring. To woo you back again unto Himself He scatters among you the largest and the most liberal assurances, and with a tone of imploring tenderness does He say to one and all of you, “Turn ye, turn ye; why will ye die?” He has no pleasure in your death. He does not wish to glorify Himself by the destruction of any one of you. “Look to Me, all ye ends of the earth, and be saved,” is the wide and generous announcement by which He would recall, from the outermost limits of His sinful creation, the most worthless and polluted of those who have wandered away from Him.
3. Now give us a man who perceives, with the eye of his mind, the reality of all this, and you give us a man in possession of the principle of faith. Give us a man in possession of this faith; and his heart, shielded as it were against the terrors of a menacing Deity, is softened and subdued, and resigns its every affection at the moving spectacle of a beseeching Deity; and thus it is that faith manifests the attribute which the Bible assigns to it, of working by love. Give us a man in possession of this love; and, animated as he is with the living principle of that obedience, where the willing and delighted consent of the inner man goes along with the performance of the outer man, his love manifests the attribute which the Bible assigns to it when it says, “This is the love of God, that ye keep His commandments.” And thus it is, amid the fruitfulness of every other expedient, when power threatened to crush the heart which it could not soften—when authority lifted its voice, and laid on man an enactment of love which it could not carry—when terror shot its arrows, and they dropped ineffectual from that citadel of the human affections, which stood proof against the impression of every one of them—when wrath mustered up its appalling severities, and filled that bosom with despair which it could not fill with the warmth of a confiding attachment—then the kindness of an inviting God was brought to bear on the heart of man, and got an opening through all its mysterious avenues. Goodness did what the nakedness of power could not do. It found its way through all intricacies of the human constitution, and there, depositing the right principle of repentance, did it establish the alone effectual security for the right purposes and the right fruits of repentance.—Dr. T. Chalmers.
Eph_2:18. The Privilege of Access to the Father.—In the Temple service of the Jews all did not enjoy equal privileges. The court of the Gentiles was outside that of the Jews and separated from it by “a marble screen or enclosure three cubits in height, beautifully ornamented with carving, but bearing inscriptions, in Greek and Roman characters, forbidding any Gentile to pass within its boundary.” Such restricted access to God the new dispensation was designed to abolish. The middle wall of partition is now broken down, and through Christ we, both Jews and Gentiles—all mankind—have equal access by one Spirit unto the Father. Observe:—
I. The privilege of access unto the Father.—That God is the proper object of worship is implied in our text, and more explicitly declared in other portions of the sacred writings. According to the nature of the blessings desired, prayer may be addressed to any one of the three Persons in the God-head; but the Bible teaches that prayer generally is to be presented to the Father through Christ and by the Holy Spirit. And so appropriate are the offices of the Persons in the Trinity that we cannot speak otherwise. We cannot say that through the Spirit and by the Father we have access to Christ, or through the Father and by Christ we have access to the Spirit. We must observe the apostle’s order—through Christ and by the Spirit we have access to the Father. Access unto the Father implies:—
1. His sympathy with us.—God is our Creator and Sovereign, but His authority is not harsh or arbitrary. He does not even deal with us according to the stern dictates of untempered justice. On the contrary, in love and sympathy He has for our benefit made His throne accessible. He will listen to our penitential confessions, our vows of obedience, our statements of want. He has sympathy with us.
2. His ability to help us.—That access is permitted to us, taken in connection with God’s perfections, prove this. He raises no hope to disappoint, does not encourage that He may repel, but permits access that He may help and bless.
3. His permission to speak freely.—There is nothing contracted in God’s method of blessing. We are introduced to His presence not to stand dumb before Him, nor to speak under the influence of slavish fear. We have such liberty as those enjoy who are introduced to the presence of a prince by a distinguished favourite, or such freedom as children have in addressing a father. We are brought into the presence of our King by His own Son; to our heavenly Father by Christ, our elder Brother. The results of this access to ourselves:
1. It teaches dependence;
2. Excites gratitude;
3. Produces comfort;
4. Promotes growth in grace.
II. The medium of access.—Under the law the high priest was the mediator through whom the people drew near to God. He went into the “holiest of all, once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people” (Heb_9:7). Under the new covenant “boldness to enter into the holiest” is “by the blood of Jesus” (Heb_10:19). But as the mediation of the Jewish high priest, though “done away in Christ,” was typical, it may serve to teach us how we are to come to God. He sprinkled the blood of the sin-offering on the mercy-seat, and burnt incense within the veil (Leviticus 16), thus symbolising the sacrifice and intercession of Christ.
1. We, then, have access to God through Christ as a sacrifice.—“Without shedding of blood is no remission” (Heb_9:22). But, “that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” we could never, as suppliants, have found acceptance with God.
2. Through Christ as an intercessor.—“But this man,” etc. (Heb_10:12). A disciple in temptation cries for deliverance from evil, and Christ prays, “Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me” (Joh_17:11). A dying saint asks for “an entrance into the heavenly kingdom,” and Christ pleads, “Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am” (Joh_17:24). None need deem himself too unworthy to call on God who comes to Him through Christ’s sacrifice and intercession.
III. The assistance afforded by the Holy Spirit.—As we have access unto the Father through Christ pleading for us, so we have access unto the Father by the Spirit pleading in us.
1. The Spirit kindles holy desire.—It is the work of the Spirit to draw off the hearts of men from the world and raise them to God in prayer. As in playing on a musical instrument no string sounds untouched, so without this influence of the Spirit man would never look heavenward, or his heart fill with desire toward God.
2. Prompts to immediate application.—Blessings are often desired but feebly. The Spirit rebukes this hesitancy, and urges on to immediate application.
3. Aids in that application.—“Without the Spirit we know not what we should pray for” (Rom_8:26). Our thoughts wander, our affections chill, the fervour of our importunity flags, unless the Spirit “helpeth our infirmities.”
Reflections.—
1. Those who do not enjoy this privilege are highly culpable.
2. Those who do enjoy this privilege are indeed happy.—The Lay Preacher.
Access to God, revealing the Trinity in Unity.
I. The end of human salvation is access to the Father.—That is the first truth of our religion—that the source of all is meant to be the end of all, that as we all came forth from a divine Creator, so it is into divinity that we are to return and to find our final rest and satisfaction, not in ourselves, not in one another, but in the omnipotence, the omniscience, the perfectness, and the love of God. Now we are very apt to take it for granted that, however we may differ in our definitions and our belief of the deity of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we are all at one, there can be and there is no hesitation, about the deity of the Father. God is divine. God is God. And no doubt we do all assent in words to such a belief; but when we think what we mean by that word “God”; when we remember what we mean by “Father,” namely, the first source and the final satisfaction of a dependent nature; and then when we look around and see such multitudes of people living as if there were no higher source for their being than accident and no higher satisfaction for their being than selfishness, do we not feel that there is need of a continual and most earnest preaching by word and act, from every pulpit of influence to which we can mount, of the divinity of the Father. The divinity of the Father needs assertion first of all. Let men once feel it, and then nature and their own hearts will come in with their sweet and solemn confirmations of it. But nature and the human heart do not teach it of themselves. The truest teaching of it must come from souls that are always going in and out before the divine Fatherhood themselves. By the sight of such souls others must come to seek the satisfaction that comes only from a divine end of life—must come to crave access to the Father. So we believe, and so we tempt other men to believe, in God the Father.
II. And now pass to the divinity of the method.—“Through Jesus Christ.” Man is separated from God. That fact, testified to by broken associations, by alienated affections, by conflicting wills, stands written in the whole history of our race. And equally clear is it to him who reads the gospels, and enters into sympathy with their wonderful Person, that in Him, in Jesus of Nazareth, appeared the Mediator by whom was to be the Atonement. His was the life and nature which, standing between the Godhood and the manhood, was to bridge the gulf and make the firm bright road over which blessing and prayer might pass and repass with confident golden feet for ever. And then the question is—and when we ask it thus it becomes so much more than a dry problem of theology; it is a question for live, anxious men to ask with faces full of eagerness—Out of which nature came that Mediator? Out of which side of the chasm sprang the bridge leaping forth toward the other? Evidently on both sides that bridge is bedded deep and clings with a tenacity which shows how it belongs there. He is both human and divine. But from which side did the bridge spring? It is the most precious part of our belief that it was with God that the activity began. It is the very soul of the gospel, as I read it, that the Father’s heart, sitting above us in His holiness, yearned for us as we lay down here in our sin. And when there was no man to make an intercession, He sent His Son to tell us of His love, to live with us, to die for us, to lay His life like a strong bridge out from the divine side of existence, over which we might walk fearfully but safely, but into the divinity where we belonged. Through Him we have access to the Father. As the end was divine, so the method is divine. As it is to God that we come, so it is God who brings us there. I can think nothing else without dishonouring the tireless, quenchless love of God.
III. The power of the act of man’s salvation is the Holy Spirit.—“Through Christ Jesus we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” What do we mean by the Holy Spirit being the power of salvation? I think we are often deluded and misled by carrying out too far some of the figurative forms in which the Bible and the religious experience of men express the saving of the soul. For instance, salvation is described as the lifting of the soul out of a pit and putting it upon a pinnacle, or on a safe high platform of grace. The figure is strong and clear. Nothing can overstate the utter dependence of the soul on God for its deliverance; but if we let the figure leave in our minds an impression of the human soul as a dead, passive thing, to be lifted from one place to the other like a torpid log that makes no effort of its own either for co-operation or resistance, then the figure has misled us. The soul is a live thing. Everything that is done with it must be done in and through its own essential life. If a soul is saved, it must be by the salvation, the sanctification, of its essential life; if a soul is lost, it must be by perdition of its life, by the degradation of its affections and desires and hopes. Let there be nothing merely mechanical in the conception of the way God treats these souls of ours. He works upon them in the vitality of thought, passion, and will that He put into them. And so when a soul comes to the Father through the Saviour, its whole essential vitality moves in the act. When this experience is reached, then see what Godhood the soul has come to recognise in the world. First, there is the creative Deity from which it sprang, and to which it is struggling to return—“the divine End, God the Father.” Then there is the incarnate Deity, which makes that return possible by the exhibition of God’s love—the divine Power of salvation, God the Holy Spirit. To the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit. This appears to be the truth of the Deity as it relates to us. I say again, “as it relates to us.” What it may be in itself; how Father, Son, and Spirit meet in the perfect Godhood; what infinite truth more there may, there must, be in that Godhood, no man can dare to guess. But, to us, God is the end, the method, and the power of salvation; so He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is in the perfect harmony of these sacred personalities that the precious unity of the Deity consists. I look at the theologies, and so often it seems as if the harmony of Father, Son, and Spirit has been lost, both by those that own and by those that disown the Trinity. One theology makes the Father hard and cruel, longing as it were for man’s punishment, extorting from the Son the last drops of life-blood which man’s sin had incurred as penalty. Another theology makes the Son merely one of the multitude of sinning men, with somewhat bolder aspirations laying hold on a forgiveness which God might give but which no mortal might assume. Still another theology can find no God in the human heart at all; merely a fermentation of human naturo is this desire after goodness, this reaching out towards Divinity. The end is not worthy of the method. I do not want to come to such a Father as some of the theologians have painted. Or the method is not worthy of the end. No man could come to the perfect God through such a Jesus as some men have described. Or the power is too weak for both; and all that Christ has done lies useless, and all the Father’s welcome waits in vain for the soul that has in it no Holy Ghost. But let each be real and each be worthy of the others, and the salvation is complete. But each cannot be worthy of the others unless each is perfect. But each cannot be perfect unless each is divine; that is, our faith is in the Trinity—three Persons and one God.—Philips Brooks.
The Christian Law of Prayer—
I. To the Father.—
1. How honourable! Right of entry to an earthly sovereign.
2. How delightful! Our pleasures may be graduated according to the part of our nature in which they have their rise. The pleasures of devotion are the highest taste for devotion.
3. How profitable! God is able to bestow all temporal and spiritual blessings.
4. How solemn! The intercourse of our spirit with the Father of our spirits. Heart to heart.
II. Through the Son.—
1. Through His atonement. Legal barriers to our access must be removed. Have been removed by the death of Christ as a satisfaction to divine Justice. He has demolished the wall, He has constructed a bridge across the chasm, He has laid down His own body as the medium of approach. 2. Through His intercession. It perpetuates His sacrifice. The Jewish high priest entering the holy of holies on the Great Day of Atonement. Amyntas, mother of Coriolanus; Philippa after the siege of Calais.
III. By the Spirit.—
1. He teaches us what are our wants. For the most part we are likely to be aware of our temporal wants. In spiritual things the greater our need the less our sense of need.
2. He makes us willing to ask the supply of our wants. Aversion to beg. Aversion to lay bare the symptoms of humiliating disease.
3. He gives us power to spread our wants before God. One person employed to write a letter or a petition for another.
4. He inspires us with confidence to plead with importunity and faith. Confidence in the Father, in the Son, in the power of prayer.—G. Brooks.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v15 new man
new man
Here the "new man" is not the individual believer but the church, considered as the body of Christ in the sense of Eph 1:22; Eph 1:23; 1Co 12:12; 1Co 12:13; Col 3:10; Col 3:11. (See Scofield "Heb 12:23").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v14 The reconciliation effected by Christ:
The reconciliation effected by Christ:
v. 14. For he is our Peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us,
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v. 15. having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
v. 16. and that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the Cross, having slain the enmity there by;
v. 17. and came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
v. 18. For through Him we both have access by one spirit unto the Father.
The thought of the passage is that God, by the redemption of Christ, has gathered His Church out of Jews and Gentiles. So far as the present relation between Jews and Gentiles in the congregation is concerned, Paul writes: For He Himself is our Peace, who made both one and broke own the dividing wall of separation, the enmity, in His flesh. Jesus Christ is our Peace, He established peace between the two parties that seemed irreconcilable, between Jews and Gentiles. This great object of His life he brought about by uniting the two contending parties in one perfect unit. This He did by removing completely the wall, or partition, which separated Jews and Gentiles and caused constant enmity. The Mosaic Law, with all its precepts, institutions, and ceremonies, was a fence, or wall, which shut off the people of Israel from the Gentiles, which shut out the heathen from the privileges of the Jews. Christ abolished the Ceremonial Law and fulfilled the Moral Law.
This the apostle explains: (He removed the wall) by abolishing the enmity in His flesh, the law of commandments in ordinances. In His flesh, by the sufferings of His body, by going into death for the sins of the world, Christ has put the Law out of commission, He Bas abrogated the divine Law as a master of men. The curse, the guilt, the punishment lay upon Him, and so the Law has expended its might and power in His case. See Rom 7:6. Incidentally, Christ removed the enmity between Jews and Gentiles. The separation between the two could not exist without hostility, especially since the Ceremonial Law was a law of precepts in ordinances, and as such challenged opposition and enmity. The Gentiles were deterred from joining the people of God by the prospect of being kept in bondage by the countless and detailed instructions of the Law which governed the minutest acts of daily life, even as today people are not brought into church by the preaching of the Law. So Christ’s purpose in abrogating the Law was: That He might create the two in Himself to one new man, making peace. By making peace between the two estranged parties in the manner described, Christ brought about a union of the Jews and Gentiles to a unit, a gathering of the Christian Church from the Israel according to the flesh as well as from the Gentile nations. The holy Christian Church thus formed is the one body of Christ, and Christ’s work in bringing about this union is an evidence of His creative power.
In the same way and with the same object Jesus effected still more: And (that He) reconcile both in one body to God, having through the Cross killed the enmity in Himself. The word "reconciliation" in this connection does not refer to the removal of the hostile relation between God and man as much as to the abrogation of man’s hostile position and conduct over against God. It was Christ’s intention to bring both Jews and Gentiles before God as a unit people, as a single body, thus establishing perfect communion with God. This plan seemed destined for success from the start because Christ in Himself, by giving Himself into death, killed and removed the enmity between Jews and Gentiles. By sacrificing Himself and becoming obedient even to the death on the cross, He removed the obstacle that stood in the way of peace, the Law, which engendered hostility, thus making way for the union of Jews and Gentiles in one body, thus bringing about the perfect harmony of an evenly balanced and developed organic whole.
How this intention of Christ was realized and is being realized, Paul states: And thus He came and preached peace to you that were afar off and peace to those that were near. Having obtained a perfect redemption for all men, having removed the cause of disharmony and hostility, Jesus now comes in and through the Spirit, Joh 14:18; Act 26:23, in the Gospel. Christ, through the Holy Spirit, is personally present in and with the message of grace as it is preached throughout the world, and through this Word speaks to the hearts of men. It is a good, a joyful news, and its content is peace with God, the salvation earned by Christ on the cross with His suffering and death. This peace is now freely proclaimed to those that formerly were strange and distant, far from the chosen people of God and unacquainted with the evangelical promises, but also to those to whom the preaching of the Kingdom was entrusted of old: to Gentiles and to Jews Christ has proclaimed one and the same peace and thus restored peace between them. All believers in Christ are now united by the bond of this common knowledge and faith. Of them all together it holds true: For through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. To this the experience of both Jews and Gentiles will cause them to agree. Christ is the Way; through Him the way to the Father is opened, through Him all have become partakers of the one Spirit. This unity of the Spirit, the unity of the sonship of God, the same right as children toward the Father of Jesus Christ, that is the bond which unites Jews and Gentiles, all the members of the Church of Christ. They all address Him: Abba, Father, with the same certainty of being heard, for all hindrances have been removed.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v13 But now in Christ Jesus
But now in Christ Jesus
Paul is marking a contrast between the Ephesians before they believed in Christ and after they believed in Christ.
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you who once were far away from God have been brought near by the blood of Christ
Not belonging to God due to sin is spoken of as being far away from God. Belonging to God because of the blood of Christ is spoken of as being brought near to God. AT: "you who once did not belong to God now belong to God because of the blood of Christ" (See: Metaphor)
by the blood of Christ
The blood of Christ is a metonym for his death. AT: "by Christ's death" or "when Christ died for us" (See: Metonymy)
he is our peace
"Jesus gives us his peace"
our peace
The word "our" refers to Paul and his readers and so is inclusive. (See: Inclusive "We")
He made the two one
"He made the Jews and Gentiles one"
By his flesh
The words "his flesh," his physical body, are a metonym for his body dying. AT: "By the death of his body on the cross" (See: Metonymy)
the wall of hostility
"the wall of hatred" or "the wall of ill will"
that divided us
The word "us" refers to Paul and the Ephesians. The Ephesians, as Gentiles, were separated from Paul and the other Jews. AT: "that separated us Jews and Gentiles from one another" (See: Inclusive "We")
he abolished the law of commandments and regulations
Jesus' blood satisfied the law of Moses so that both the Jews and Gentiles can live at peace in God.
one new man
a single new people, the people of redeemed humanity (See: Metaphor)
in himself
It is union with Christ that makes reconciliation possible between Jews and Gentiles.
Christ reconciles both peoples
"Christ brings the Jews and the Gentiles together in peace"
through the cross
The cross here represents Christ's death on the cross. AT: "by means of Christ's death on the cross" (See: Metonymy)
putting to death the hostility
Stopping their hostility is spoken of as if he killed their hostility. By dying on the cross Jesus eliminated the reason for Jews and Gentiles to be hostile toward each other. Neither are now required to live according to the law of Moses. AT: "stopping them from hating one another" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
in Christ
God
blood
Christ
peace
flesh
law
command
reconcile
cross
die
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv13–16 2:13 Only by being united with Christ Jesus through…
2:13 Only by being united with Christ Jesus through trust in him can a person be reconciled to God (see Rom 5:10-12; 2 Cor 5:18-21). The blood of Christ—his sacrificial death—makes this possible (see Eph 1:7; Rom 3:24-25; 5:9; Col 1:20; cp. Heb 9:12-15; 1 Pet 1:19; 1 Jn 1:7; Rev 1:5; 5:9).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.