---
references:
  - Ephesians 2:11-22
  - Ephesians 2:12
  - Ephesians 2:14-17
  - Galatians 2
  - Ephesians 2:15
  - Ephesians 2:14
  - Ephesians 2:16
  - Ezekiel 20:25
  - Genesis 15:6
  - Ephesians 2:11
  - Ephesians 2:20
  - Ephesians 2:21
  - Ephesians 2:22
  - 1 Corinthians 6
---

**Reconciliation in a Fractured World**

Ephesians 2:11--22

We live in a fractured world. Can you feel it? I feel it when I go
online. I don't even have to be there five minutes before I'm bombarded
with things someone says I should be angry about. I see tragedy across
the nation and the globe. I see anonymous accounts that do nothing but
slander brothers and sisters in Christ. Our world is fractured. Maybe
you feel this in your home or among friends. Maybe tensions feel like
they're at an all-time high, maybe you're exhausted from the yelling and
anger. You see divorces happen. It's fractured. Or maybe you just feel
this in your heart with God. Your relationship with him isn't what it
once was. You feel like you can't go to him with your concerns because
you haven't read your Bible in a week or five. It feels fractured.

In many ways, the early church was in a similar position. They were
fractured. The church was divided between the Jews and Gentiles. Most of
Paul's letters deal with some form of Jew-Gentile unity, we see a lot of
tension between the two groups in Acts, and even in the Gospels a bit.
And Paul's passage today speaks directly to this issue. He shows us what
reconciliation in a fractured world looks like. Read with me Ephesians
2:11--22.

This is the word of the Lord.

We find ourselves in the book of Ephesians. And so far, Paul has been
beautifully reminding us of the gospel of grace by which we are saved.
And as you read this letter, you may at this point be wondering what
prompted it. Why did Paul write to the Ephesians? What prompted it? The
cracks begin to show in this verses we have today as we begin to see
that the Jews and Gentiles are not quite together. There seems to be
some fracturing among them. Something is broken. And it appears that
this is part of the reason Paul writes this letter. He wants to
reconcile the Jews and Gentiles and encourage them in unity, and that's
what we come to in our passage today. We find a fractured world and a
fractured church, but this passage teaches us that reconciliation is
available in Christ. We find in this passage three (facts?) about
reconciliation.

**Separation makes reconciliation necessary.**

If you look at the first few verses of what Paul records here, you may
wonder what Paul is talking about. There's a lot of references to
circumcision, maybe you're wondering what the "commonwealth of Israel"
is, it's just a lot to track with. And whatever that all means,
according to Paul it means they're without hope. So what's going on
here?

To understand this, we have to go all the way back to the beginning of
the Bible. Throughout the Bible, God makes covenants with people, and
these covenants are central to the storyline of Scripture. If you don't
know what a covenant is, it's basically a formal relationship. Both
parties of the covenant agree to do certain responsibilities, and if
they do, they receive blessings. If they don't, they receive curses. It
sounds kind of like a contract, but it's more than that. The emphasis of it is on the relationship between the two parties of the covenant. And so, in Scripture, God makes covenants with certain people. He promises to bless them if they uphold certain responsibilities, and he will senddown curses if they don't.

And one of the groups of people that God makes a covenant with is the
nation of Israel. If you remember the story, they're enslaved in Egypt,
God saves them from the Egyptians, and he leads them into the
wilderness. While they're in the wilderness, God makes a covenant with
them. This is called the Mosaic Covenant, referring to Moses. And we
actually have a record of a lot of what this covenant contained in the
book of Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy, you have a lot of laws that God's
people were expected to uphold, and it promises that they will be God's
treasured possession and have long life in the promised land as
blessings if the people uphold the covenant. If they don't, God will
send them into exile and destroy them. If you're familiar with the story
of Scripture, you'll know that this is what happens. They disobey the
covenant and they are sent to Babylon in exile.

But what's really important about this covenant with Israel is that it
separates Israel apart from any other nation. God has made a special
relationship with them---that's the idea of treasured possession---and
that separates them from everyone else in the world. And the sign of
this covenant was circumcision. Just like you wear a wedding ring on
your finger as a sign that you are in a marriage covenant, the
Israelites were circumcised as a sign of their relationship with God. If
you were a part of God's people, you were circumcised. And this was so
important to Israel's identity and culture that when the New Testament
comes around, they can just say "circumcision" and it comes to represent
being a part of God's people.

All that background feeds into this passage as Paul explains the
implications of the gospel for the Gentiles. And so now we come to
Ephesians. And Paul says, "Remember that at one time you Gentiles in the
flesh, called 'the uncircumcision' by what is called the circumcision."
Paul is speaking to the Gentiles, so non-Israelites, and he's reminding
them that they were called "the uncircumcision." It's a euphemism that
just means they were not among the people of God. They were separated
from the people of God. They weren't part of the covenant between God
and Israel. And the fact that "the circumcision"---meaning the
Jews---called them "the uncircumcision" indicates that the Jews
separated themselves from the Gentiles. The Gentiles were "the others."
They were the people you didn't hang around if you were part of God's
people. There was as much separation between Jews and Gentiles then as
there is between Republicans and Democrats today.

And Paul reminds them of this separation. Look at verse 12. "Remember
that you were at that time alienated from the commonwealth of Israel"
(so, the nation of Israel), "and strangers to the covenants of promise."
They weren't part of Israel. They weren't part of the covenants between
Abraham and God or Israel and God. And that means they weren't part of
the people of God. They were separated. And if they were separated from
the people God had a relationship with, that means they were separated
from God. That's why Paul says that they were separated from Christ. And
what do you have if you don't have Christ? Or, better phrased, what do
you *not* have if you do not have Christ? Hope.

If you do not have Christ, you do not have hope. If you do not have a
relationship with God, you do not have hope. Scripture could not be more
clear about this fact. There is salvation and hope in Jesus alone. He is
*the* Way, the *only* way to salvation. And so if you do not have a
relationship with Christ, you do not have hope. If you are separated
from Christ, you do not have hope.

Do you ever remind yourself of this? That apart from Christ, you had no
hope of salvation or life or true and lasting joy. It's humbling. And I
don't mean to just bring you down. But Paul is talking to Galatian
*believers* and he's encouraging them to remember who they were without
Christ: hopeless. They were separated. And I think he has a reason for
encouraging them to reflect on that, and we'll come back to that, but
for now, just sit in this for a moment. Feel the weight of it. There was
a time when you were separated from Christ. When you were destined for
death and destruction. Hopeless.

What you needed was reconciliation. You needed to be reconciled to God.
Your separation from God made reconciliation with him necessary.
Separation makes reconciliation necessary.

And in fact, I think the fundamental need that Paul is expressing in
these first few verses is our need for reconciliation with God. That's
why I think verse 12 is bookended with separation from Christ and
without God in the world. Because it's fundamentally about God. It's
about people, yes. Separation between Jew and Gentile makes
reconciliation with others necessary, but fundamentally, it's about
reconciliation with God. It's about restoring hope to the hopeless,
which leads to our second point.

**Jesus makes reconciliation possible.**

If you look at verses 14-17, you'll find that the major theme is
reconciliation. Paul kind of jumps around a little bit, but you can see
the central focus on reconciliation. Paul mentions peace four times in
these verses, and three times he makes some reference to Jews and
Gentiles being "one."

When you see that word peace, you probably think of simply the ceasing
of fighting. Two nations go to war, and then they make peace. They're
certainly not friends. They might hate each other. But as long as
they're not fighting, it still counts as peace.

But that's not what Paul is talking about here. The word peace in his
culture didn't just mean the stopping of hostility. It carried this idea
of harmony. So it's not just stopping war, it's the opposite of war.
It's not just a truce, it's an alliance. It's not just tolerance, but
friendship. That's the idea of peace here.

This alone is radical. Jews and Gentiles often struggled get along in
the first century. We see the gospel expand to the Gentiles in the book
of Acts, but we also see some tensions. Welcoming the Gentiles into the
church required changes in practices on both sides. Galatians 2 shows
this tension well. Peter is eating food that used to be unclean, and
when some Jews show up, they cause a stir. Things are tense. And this is
not even to mention the temple. In the temple in the first century was
an inscription that forbid the Gentiles from going beyond an area called
the Court of the Gentiles or they would die. That's likely what Paul is
alluding to when he mentions the dividing wall of hostility. And he says
that spiritually speaking, that wall has come down.

How is this possible? How is it possible that two groups of people who
have been fractured for centuries could suddenly be friends? How can
such peace and reconciliation come about?

Well, Paul tells us in verse 15. He writes, Christ "might create in
himself one new man in place of the two, *so making peace*." One new man
in the place of two. Jesus has, in a sense, re-created a new humanity in
himself, and it is this oneness that allows them to have peace and be
reconciled. Jesus made reconciliation possible.

We tend to think that unity flows out of peace. We think that if we're
nice enough and don't cause trouble, then the church will be unified.
That it will create this culture of unity in the congregation. You go to
a member's meeting and you measure the unity of the church by whether
someone opposes a motion. If someone opposes it, that means we're
disunified, so we don't speak up.

And there's a kernel of truth in that. Unity and peace are tied
together, such that where one is, the other will also be. We're not
wrong about the link. But Paul inverts the relationship between unity
and peace. Where we believe that unity flows out of peace with one
another, Paul says it's peace that flows out of unity. Jew and Gentile
are one, so they have peace. We are one, so we can be reconciled.

I think marriage is a really good picture of this difference. Some of
you may know this from experience. Your spouse does something that hurts
you, and you just sweep it under the rug. You don't mention it, you
don't tell them it hurt you, you just keep quiet because you want to
keep the peace. And it happens again. Your spouse hurts you, you keep
quiet about it, and you sweep it under the rug. And it keeps happening,
and you keep sweeping to keep the peace, and do you know what happens?
Eventually there's no more room under the rug, and things start to come
out, and one or both of you ends up with deep wounds. It creates
long-term marriage problems. You've kept the peace, but in so doing
you've actually destroyed the unity of your marriage.

But there's another way this situation plays out. Your spouse hurts you,
and you gently tell them that what they've done has hurt. You forgive
them, you assume the best, and you move on. But it happens again. It
becomes a recurring problem. So instead of sweeping it under the rug,
you go to them, and you say, "Honey, you're hurting me and this can't
continue. But I am with you and I am for you, so we will work through
this *together*, no matter what." And you do. Do you see what's happened
here? You're committed to unity. And that commitment to unity drives
long-term peace. The peace flows out of the unity. So it is in the
church. The peace flows out of unity. You will find lasting peace only
when you seek unity. You can be reconciled because you are one.

And this oneness is grounded in Christ and his work. He makes
reconciliation possible. How? Look at verse 14. Christ "has broken down
in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of
commandments expressed in ordinances." The old covenant laws that
separated Jew from Gentile, Israel from other nations? Gone. Abolished.
In Christ and his work. Why does Christ do this? Look at verse 16: that
he "might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross."

Us both. Paul includes the Jews in this statement. He says the law was
abolished so that both Jew and Gentile can be reconciled through the
cross.

Do you know how people were saved in the Old Testament? Do you ever
wonder this? I used to think it was by the law. They were saved by
obeying the law. But it's not. They weren't saved by obeying the law
because they *couldn't* obey the law. And the law even tells us this. At
the end of his life, Moses prophesied of Israel's disobedience to the
law. They would not obey. Ezekiel 20:25 tells us that the law could not
be obeyed. It was too difficult. The people had hearts of stone. They
were not able to obey the law. But if no one can be saved by the works
of the law, how then can they be saved? By faith. Scripture tells us in
Genesis 15:6 that Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as
righteousness. In context, that belief is the belief in the promised
offspring who would come and deliver God's people from the curse. That
tells us that those in the Old Testament were saved in exactly the same
way that we are: by trusting in the saving work of the Messiah. They
looked forward in faith to the Messiah who would deliver them. We look
backward and trust that he already has. Both of us are saved by faith in
the Messiah.

And yet, the law still mattered. It still promised real curses to those
who disobeyed. But Jeremiah prophesied of a day that God would
circumcise the hearts of his people and establish a new covenant, one in
which the people of God would be enabled to obey his law. And that is
precisely what happens in Christ and his work. He lives a perfect life,
perfectly obeying the law on our behalf, and his death abolishes the old
covenant and inaugurates a new covenant, one in which Gentiles like us
can participate, and in which we are enabled to obey the law. And if you
trust in Christ to save you from your sins, you can partake in this
covenant. His death becomes your death. And in his death, you can truly
and eternally live. His death makes life accessible to all, no matter
where you were born or who you were, if you have faith in Christ, you
have life. In Christ, reconciliation with God is made possible. He fixes
the fracture that existed between God and man.

This is why the law had to be abolished: because it was never intended
to save. It no longer delineates who was in and who was out in God's
people. It is now those who have a circumcised heart who are a part of
God's people. Look back at verse 11. You need a circumcised heart, not a
circumcision made in the flesh by hands. Those last words are important.
You need a circumcision of the heart made by God. And if you have faith
in Christ, that is yours.

That faith is the grounding of unity. It's what creates oneness between
people who could not possibly be more different. Faith in Christ is the
unifying factor. Christ's work on the cross made this kind of
reconciliation possible. Not only reconciliation with God, but
reconciliation with others. Jesus makes reconciliation in a fractured
world possible. But he doesn't just make it possible, he makes it
permanent. This is our third point.

**Jesus makes reconciliation permanent.**

In the final few verses, we return to a focus on the Gentiles. Paul
opened this section by speaking directly to the Gentiles and their
status without God. Then he explains the reconciliation and unity made
possible in Christ, and now he returns to speaking directly to the
Gentiles about their state with God. He comes full circle in the final
few verses, explaining that because of Christ, Gentiles are no longer
strangers and aliens, but citizens and part of the family of God. Do you
see the change here? They're no longer strangers and aliens like they
were with the old covenant. They're citizens. The language is still
reminiscent of nationhood. Aliens, citizens. But the referent isn't the
nation, it's the family of God. The Gentiles have been grafted in
because of Jesus.

If you are in Christ, you belong to the family of God. Trusting in
Christ is all that is required for that to happen. There's no partial
membership, no hierarchy of levels you have to go through. If you trust
in Christ, you're in. If you have been reconciled to God, you are in.

And this is part of why Paul has us remember our former status without
God. We were hopeless, without God. We didn't belong. But now, in
Christ, all that has passed away.

And this reconciliation means you are participating in a work God is
doing. Look at the verbs in these verses. Verse 20, "built on the
foundation," verse 21 "being joined together," verse 22 "being built
together." You can see there's no subject to these verbs. This is what
scholars call the Divine Passive. The idea here is that God is doing the
action. The text doesn't say that, but the passive voice implies it. God
is building a temple through his people.

What does that mean? Under the old covenant, the temple was the place
where God dwelled. Yes, God is omnipresent. He's present everywhere, but
he was present in a unique way in the temple. And the Israelites would
go to the temple to worship, it was there that the priests would perform
sacrifices. If you wanted to meet God, you would go to the temple. That
was under the old covenant.

But now no temple is needed because God dwells in his people. In the
church. You don't have to go to a building to have access to God. The
locus of worship is not a building but a people.

And the people aspect of this is really, really important. Look at what
Paul says in verse 22: "In him *you* are being built *together* into *a*
dwelling place for God." You together---so this is plural---are being
built into *a*---singular---dwelling place. It's corporate. It's a group
of people. Look also at verse 21: "in whom *the whole structure*" that
refers to the house of God. Everyone in the house of God is being joined
together into the temple. It's corporate. The temple is a corporate
thing, not an individual one.

I bring this up and stress it so much because I've often heard this idea
expressed with a focus on the individual. If you've been in church long
enough, you've probably heard the phrase "your body is a temple." It
comes from Paul in 1 Corinthians 6. When Paul says that, the grammar is
important to clarifying what he means. Greek can distinguish between the
you singular and the you plural. When Paul writes "your body," the you
is plural, but the body is singular. If Paul were from Texas he would
have written, "Y'all's body is a temple." He's not talking about the
individual believer, he's talking about the church. Yes, God does dwell
in you, but God also dwells in y'all. Everywhere Paul talks about this
temple idea, it's corporate. It's not individual. It's about the church.

And this is why the idea of reconciliation is so central to this
passage. God has envisioned a group of people united solely by their
faith in Christ to love one another and worship with one another. You
may have nothing else in common with others in this room other than
Jesus, but in God's kingdom, that's a beautiful thing. You set aside
politics and preferences to worship alongside one another, care for one
another, look out for one another, and magnify Christ. None of us have
any claim to be in the family of God outside of Christ. None of us were
born into an advantaged place, none of us had any hope of being part of
the people of God had Christ not saved us.

This is why the cornerstone of this temple is Christ. The cornerstone is
the stone of a building that bears the weight. That means that Christ
bears the weight of the church. He is the one that holds it together,
that keeps its foundation strong. My friends, if you are looking to
anyone but Christ to keep the unity of the church---the unity of *this*
church---together, you will be disappointed. The people around you
cannot sustain the weight of reconciliation. They cannot hold this
together. They will fail.

The people around you, the people in *this* church, will fail you. It's
not an if, it's a when. They will frustrate you, they will hurt you,
they will make your life difficult. And you'll probably do the same for
them at some point.

Only Christ can sustain you in those moments. Only Christ has the power
to hold you together. Go to him with those burdens, with those hurts,
with the sins that people have done against you. He will not turn you
away. He will lift that burden from you.

And when that burden is lifted, true reconciliation is possible. Not
only possible, but permanent. You can go to your brother or sister who
has wronged you and say, "I forgive you" because you know that in Christ
you have been forgiven much. You can go to your brother or sister who
you've wronged and ask forgiveness because you know you've been forgiven
much in Christ, and so have they.

Jesus is your only hope for true, lasting, permanent reconciliation.
He's the only one. Lean on him. He can bear the weight.

And he can bear the weight of your sins, too. Jesus doesn't just make
reconciliation with others permanent; he makes reconciliation with God
permanent. It is only in him that you find reconciliation with God, and
in him, reconciliation is everlasting.

Do you know this? Do you feel it, deep down? This is the essence of the
gospel. There is nothing you can do, no good works you can do, to make
yourself right with God. To earn his favor. His love cannot be earned,
nor can it be purchased. This is the great exchange of the gospel. He
gives you everything---grace, forgiveness, everlasting life---and all
you have to do is bring nothing but your sin. If you bring even an ounce
of works, the deal is off. But if you come to him in faith and trust in
him alone to save you from your sin, you have permanent reconciliation.
Because Christ lived a perfect life and died on the cross to pay for
your sin, God is pleased with you. And there's nothing you can do to
ruin this. What this means is that when you woke up this morning, God
didn't say, "Let's see what you can do. Impress me." And when you fall
asleep on the pillow tonight, he won't say, "Well that was a disaster. I
guess we'll try again tomorrow." There's never a millisecond of any day
where his smile is not on you.

My friends, Jesus makes reconciliation permanent.

Let's pray.
