Ephesians 2:14-15 For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 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 …
God Calls ALL The Broken And Hopeless By Grace
When God called Israel to be His people, He called them by Grace. It was by Grace Adam was given Paradise, and by Grace Adam was not destroyed when he disobeyed the Lord. It was by Grace Noah and his family was spared, and by Grace the world was destroyed by flood but mankind continued on. It was by Grace Abraham was called to follow God, and by Grace Isaac was born, though Abraham sinned with Hagar. It was by Grace Jacob, the younger son, was given the blessing of God, and by Grace Jacob became Israel. It was by Grace God established Israel in Egypt, and by Grace Israel was led out of Egypt. It was by Grace God gave Israel the Promised Land. When you go through the Bible you will see Grace upon Grace. We previously read in Ephesians:
Ephesians 1:7 (KJV) In Whom {Jesus} we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Ephesians 2:7 (KJV) That in the ages to come He might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in [his] kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
The problem with people is that we are fickle creatures. Israel was fickle, we are fickle.
When I say that word (and the Holy Spirit brought it to my mind), it is an adjective that means,
“Characterized by erratic changeableness or instability, especially with regard to affections or attachments; impulsive, unpredictable; not fixed or firm, unstable, not firm in opinion or purpose; of a changeable mind.”
God gave Grace upon Grace upon Grace to Israel. Why did God do this? Because God made a promise to Abraham:
Genesis 12:1-3 (ESV) … Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
God promised (and God is not fickle) to make a GREAT NATION (Israel) out of nothing, for Abraham had no children. But God also promised (and God is not fickle) that He would “BLESS ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH”. Not just what would one day become Israel, but EVERYONE. The Bible says that Israel was supposed to be the Light of the world when Jesus came through her. The Prophet wrote:
Isaiah 60:1-3 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
When Christ came He would be “a LIGHT for revelation TO THE GENTILES and for GLORY to ISRAEL” (Luke 2:32). When Israel kept wandering away from God, God kept bringing them back. It was like herding cats! But God chose Israel. It was through Israel God was going to bring the Messiah! Let me be honest right now.
Israel repeated turned from God to false gods.
From following Christ, to trying to be Christ.
And yet God did not destroy her.
God did not give up on Israel. The prophets nearly gave up on Israel, but God did not! When Isaiah despaired because the people would not listen, When Isaiah cried out to God, saying,
Isaiah 49:4 (ESV) … I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the Lord, and my recompense with my God.
God told Isaiah,
Isaiah 49:6-7 (ESV) … It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. 7 Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation, the servant of rulers: Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves; because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.
God does not give up! What He has planned will always come forth. When Jesus came into the world, He came to save whosoever will believe in Him. Why? Because
1 Timothy 1:15 …. Christ Jesus came into the world to save SINNERS
Jesus is an Israelite, but He came to save the world. Not just Jews, but ALL NATIONS. He came as a fulfillment of the promise God made to Abraham, “In you shall ALL THE NATIONS be blessed”. The Bible says that Jesus Christ came …
Romans 1:16 (ESV) … to the Jew first and ALSO to the Greek.
Not just to the Jews – but to the Gentiles as well. When Christ came to this world through Israel, Gentiles were segregated from the Jews. Unbelief and fickleness crept into the Israel that God saved by Grace, and Israel was no longer the “light to lighten the Gentiles”. The Gentiles were shunned by the Jews, for the Gentiles were not circumcised.
Ephesians 2:11-12 (KJV) Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; 12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world
There was a sad time in our nation’s history when there were “Whites Only” laundromats, “Whites Only” drinking fountains, “Whites Only” restaurants, “Whites Only” schools and businesses. Those who were black were expected to ride in the back of the bus if they rode at all. Imagine how you would feel as a black person in this atmosphere.
This is what the Jews did to the Gentiles.
Not for water, or clothing, or eating, or transportation.
They were told GOD DON’T WANT YOU!
The Gentiles were identified as “Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision”. We were not worthy to go and make sacrifices to God in the Temple. We were not worthy – according to the Pharisees – for us to approach God through a priest. The Outer Court was called the Court of the Gentiles, but even the Jews had taken over this “Blacks only” place. Imagine this.
Listen To This: You walk toward the Temple and into the “Court of the Gentiles”. It’s the only place you are allowed to go because you are the “UNCIRCUMCISION”. There are signs all over the place. “Gentiles NOT WELCOME beyond this point”. You are unworthy, so Israel said. So you approach that Court that you are allowed to go into, and what do you find? People selling sacrifices, making money off of Jews who have come to the Temple to make offerings and atonement to God. Do you understand what the Gentiles saw?
The Jews were selling sacrifices in YOUR space, sacrifices that YOU could not even make to God. YOU WERE TRASH!
Paul was, at one time, one of the Pharisees that did not offer the Gentiles even a glimpse of God. As the Apostle writes these words, he knows how far the Gentiles were from salvation. He says, “at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel”. Since you were not circumcised, were not a Jew, God was not for you. God gave grace to Israel, but there was no Grace for you.
Man’s religion equated circumcision with worth, and race with worthiness to be saved. Since you were neither Jew nor circumcised by a Jewish priest, God did not want you.
Paul goes on to say, that you were “strangers from the covenants of promise”. Not because God didn’t promise this in Abraham, but because unbelieving circumcised people parading as religious experts said God had nothing to do with you! God didn’t say this. We read earlier that God told Abraham, “In You shall ALL THE NATIONS BE BLESSED”. God came for everybody. God saved a useless nation called Israel, and made it useful. God wanted to use Israel to being His Son into the world, and so save all the world. But the PHARISEES – on my Lord, those people are still around today, even in this Church – the PHARISEES discounted the Gentiles as unworthy of salvation, and rejected from the promises of Grace. The Gentiles, “having no hope, and without God in the world”.
Then Jesus came into the world.
Jesus walked into the Court of the Gentiles, where the Jews had hijacked it to sell sacrifices to all BUT THE GENTILES. What did Jesus do? At the beginning of His ministry, we read:
John 2:14-16 (NKJV) {Jesus} found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. 15 When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. 16 And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!”
Jesus called the Court of the Gentiles “My Father’s house”. The Gentiles mattered. Every person matters. YOU matter to God. At the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, just before He went to the Cross, we read that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, as multitudes praised God for Him. Jesus got off that donkey, and we read:
Matthew 21:12-13 Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 13 And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’
The first time Jesus chased the money changers and sellers out of the Court of the Gentiles, He said they were making God’s House a “House of Profit”. But the second time He did so, He said they had made God’s House into a “Den of Thieves”. It’s supposed to be a House of Prayer, a place where ANYONE can come to God.
God Is Calling You
Ephesians 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who SOMETIMES were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
Word Study: See the word “SOMETIMES”. This is no pun – SOMETIMES the King James translates a word not quite correctly. This is the Greek pote (pro. pot-eh’), which means “in time past”. The Apostle has been telling us that there was a time before Jesus when we who are Gentiles “WERE FAR OFF” (makran, a long way away). Israel who was supposed to be “a LIGHT FOR THE NATIONS” (Isaiah 42:6-7) turned from her job. Rather than reach out to Gentiles, she developed religious ways to shun the people that God promised to Abraham.
“BUT NOW IN CHRIST JESUS”. The Church of Christ, His Bride, does not shun anyone. We carry His wonderful Gospel to the world. What is that Gospel. “are made nigh {near to God} by the blood of Christ”. It is the BLOOD of Jesus Christ that saves us from our sins. When the Gentiles went toward the Temple, they could not go past the Court of the Gentiles by reason of death. The Gentiles had no access to God, no Atonement, no Grace. But because of Jesus,
Hebrews 10:19-25 (NKJV) Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and [having] a High Priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of [our] hope without wavering, for He who promised [is] faithful. 24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as [is] the manner of some, but exhorting [one another], and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
Whereas before, under the Old Covenant, we could not bring sacrifices to the High Priest at the entrance of the Holy of Holies, NOW we can enter INTO THE HEAVENLY HOLY OF HOLIES, into the very Presence of God. The High Priest Who represents us is Christ, and it is HIS BLOOD that is the Atonement, the covering for our sins.
We were far off, but if we believe in Him, in Jesus Christ, we are set apart, we are SANCTIFIED by the Blood of the Lamb (Hebrews 13:12). When you call out to God in your brokenness, when you cry out to Him Who “loved you, and gave Himself up for you” (Ephesians 5:2), God the Father sends His Holy Holy Spirit to quicken you, to cause you to be born again into the family of God. Whereas there was a barrier of sin between you and God, through the Blood of Christ we are brought near to God.
We are brought into His family!
Ephesians 2:14-15 For He {Jesus} is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 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;
Word Study: The word translated “ENMITY” is the Greek echthra, which means “hatred between enemies”. Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sins “IN HIS FLESH”. The Law of God is good in that it is diagnostic, it shows that we are all at heart sinners. The Law was weaponized by the Pharisees, twisted by the Sadducees, and ignored by the Herodians. But God gave the Law as a Teacher, as we have previously studied:
Galatians 3:24-25 (KJV) Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster [to bring us] unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
The Jews and the Gentiles were divided, separated by the Law. But now, IN CHRIST, He takes away the divisions. If a person receives Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, then there is no caste distinction. The Bible says:
Galatians 3:28 (KJV) There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Colossians 3:11 (KJV) Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond [nor] free: but Christ [is] all, and in all.
There are no second class citizens in the Kingdom of God. There are no lesser thans. Those who have received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, Who have believed that His Blood paid it all, they are brothers and sisters in Christ, and priests before God.
When John the Revelator was caused to look into Heaven, He saw the Saints of God, the believers in Christ gathered around His Throne. The Bible says:
Revelation 5:9-10 (NKJV) {the Saints} sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll {O Jesus}, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, 10 And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.”
There is only one way to come to God, to have peace with God, and that is through the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ died on that Cross for whosoever will. His Blood is the unifier. He brings us to God. He defeats racism, and brings us together. He reminds us that all are broken, and all need His Cross. The Christian, given the nature of Christ by the Holy Spirit, loves his fellow believer, and respects his fellow man as the creation of God. Jesus is the RECONCILER. We read:
Ephesians 2:16-18 And that He might reconcile both {Jews and Gentiles} unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: 17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. 18 For through him we both {Jews and Gentiles} have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
Oh Beloved, do you have peace with God? Oh Loved ones, are you victims or victors? Are you enjoying the Presence of God daily – or are you still far off? Dear friends, we are reconciled to God by the Blood of the Lamb. We are at peace with God because of Jesus. God has not given up on you, not yet. If you are far off from God, it is not because of Jesus. He calls you today. Will you come? In a moment we’ll be singing our invitation, a song about the Blood of Jesus. Don’t just sing it. LISTEN TO IT. As Jerry comes forward, listen:
1. Jesus, keep me near the Cross,
There a precious Fountain,
Free to all, a healing stream,
Flows from Calvary’s mountain.
In the cross, In the cross,
Be my glory ever.
Till my ransomed soul shall find,
Rest beyond the river.
4. Near the cross! O Lamb of God,
Bring its scenes before me,
Help me walk from day to day,
With its shadow o’er me.
In the cross, In the cross,
Be my glory ever.
Till my ransomed soul shall find,
Rest beyond the river.
May God touch your hearts. Amen.
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