(412) 749.0455

Info@AnglicansForLife.org

Need help?
Anglicans For Life logo with registered mark

Ephesians 2:11-22

Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

By: The Rev. Prof. Stephen Noll

On Christmas Eve 2007, my wife and I were in the Holy Land and travelled from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. My strongest memory of that visit, I must confess, was the Israeli security wall – going through the checkpoint, changing drivers (Jewish and Palestinian), and once in Bethlehem, noting the Palestinian guards with their Uzis atop every building around Manger Square. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0dpK5O72bI)

“We are the world,” so the celebrities sing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne7fPpxAnuM).

Such sentiments may be noble, but they hardly correspond to the reality of the real world. This is the world into which the Gospel was first preached. To the extent there was any peace among tribes and nations, it was due to the Roman sword and any rebels were summarily crucified. Amazingly, Paul recognized the death of such a Crucified one to be the source of peace – “He is our peace” (verse 14) – not just worldly peace but ultimate shalom, peace with God.

World orders are sustained by world-views which undergird national narratives and laws. In the case of Judaism, the narrative and laws were God-given. But even this old covenant, Paul claims, has been superseded in the Person of Jesus Christ, whose death on the Cross cancelled the dividing wall of hostility between Jews and Gentiles and replaced it by a new covenant community, the Body of Christ (verses 20-22).

In our day, there remain false worldviews, whether of radical Islam or politically correct secularism. These worldviews, whatever their attractions, ultimately divide people and diminish life in its fullness. Christians are “not of this world” in the sense of not giving allegiance to any false worldview, yet they are also to be in the world, bringing the message of God’s ultimate love and reconciliation through the blood of Christ.