Eternity Daily Bible Study No. 233

Life In Christ –  11

ONE NEW HUMANITY

( To subscribe just send a blank email to: eternity-dbs-subscribe@strategicnetwork.org )

Ephesians 2:11-18 (ISV)
(11)  So then, remember that at one time you were gentiles by birth and were called "the uncircumcision" by what is called "the circumcision" made in the flesh by hands.
(12)  At that time you were without Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise. You had no hope and were in the world without God.
(13)  But now, in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
(14)  For it is he who is our peace. In his flesh he made both groups one by tearing down the wall of hostility that divided them.
(15)  He rendered the law inoperative, along with its commandments and regulations, so that he might create in himself one new humanity from the two, thus making peace,
(16)  and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, on which he killed the hostility.
(17)  He came and proclaimed peace for you who were far away and for you who were near.
(18)  For through him, both of us have access to the Father in one Spirit.

The cross is the end of the Jewish – Gentile distinction. Now Jews and Gentiles are united as part of  one new humanity created by God.

Before the cross, you had no hope unless you were Jewish and Gentiles were “without God in the world” (ASV).  
(12)  At that time you were without Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise. You had no hope and were in the world without God.

In fact the Gentile religious system was demonic:
1 Corinthians 10:20
(20)  But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have communion with demons.

So the Gentiles, sacrificed to, worshipped  and were controlled by demonic beings led by “the prince of the power of the air” mentioned earlier in this chapter of Ephesians.
Ephesians 2:2
(2)  in which you once lived according to the ways of this present world and according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now active in those who are disobedient.

Thus the Jews had the Law and the Prophets but the Gentiles were in bondage to demons. There was thus a vast difference, in spiritual terms, between a Jew and a Gentile.  One had the God of Abraham the other had frenzied orgies and demonic sacrifices. But both were abolished by Christ.

Jesus did not just put an end to the Gentiles orgies and witchcraft; He also put an end to the Law and the Prophets. 
(Ephesians 2:15)  He rendered the law inoperative, along with its commandments and regulations, so that he might create in himself one new humanity from the two, thus making peace,

Here is what Jesus said about the jurisdiction of the Law and the Prophets:
Matthew 11:13
(13)  For the Law and all the Prophets prophesied up to the time of John,

And Paul makes the matter perfectly clear in Romans 7: 
Romans 7:4-6
(4)  In the same way, my brothers, through Christ's body you also died as far as the law is concerned, so that you may belong to another person, the one who was raised from the dead, and may bear fruit for God.
(5)  For while we were living in the flesh, sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies to bear fruit for death.
(6)  But now we have been released from the law by dying to what enslaved us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit, not under the old written code.

(see also Galatians chapters 3-5)

So the Law and the Prophets had jurisdiction up the time of John the Baptist. After this Jesus began introducing the Kingdom. On the cross the old order finally ended, the temple curtain was torn in two and the penalty of the Law was fully taken in the body of Christ who “became a curse for us” (Galatians 3:10-14).  The Old Testament Law is finished. A new law has been introduced and has replaced it, the law of the Spirit  - the law of life in Christ Jesus “so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit, not under the old written code.”

With the abolition of the Old Testament Law the Gentiles and the Jews were finally put on the same spiritual footing.  Their religious systems were removed from the equation. Now it did not matter whether you were a Jew or a Greek or a Zoroastrian, your system could not get you to God. Your priests, laws, sacrifices and offerings were equally useless and were abolished. The only way anyone could get to God was to dump their religious system entirely and to personally have faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Sure if you were a Jew you could still do Jewish cultural things such as washing your hands and not eating pork, but these acts no longer carried any genuine religious significance.  They did not make you clean, only the blood of Jesus could do that. No-one (Jew or Gentile) could trust in a priest or a ritual or a good deed to put them right with God. All that was finished on the cross. You now had to face God and ask forgiveness, by yourself, on your own, trusting in the blood of Jesus Christ. The cross put an end to religious systems as the means of salvation. (But it has taken a rather long while to get the point).

Now it does not matter if your families religious heritage is Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish or Baptist. You still need Christ and you still need to meet God face to face, personally, by faith. You can attend all the temples of all the religions in the world and do all their rituals if you like. You still won’t be saved. No single religious system, nor any combination of religious systems, however earnestly pursued, followed or committed to, can save you from sin and death.  Only faith in Christ Jesus can do that. You can go to every Billy Graham Crusade for twenty years – but unless you personally believe in Jesus Christ, you will not go to Heaven. There is now no system, there is only faith.

(Ephesians2:16-18)  and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, on which he killed the hostility. He came and proclaimed peace for you who were far away and for you who were near.  For through him, both of us have access to the Father in one Spirit.

Access to God, for Jew or Gentile is not on the basis of race, nor on the basis of adherence to any particular religious system. Rather we both have access to the Father through the one Holy Spirit. The system is finished, the law is abolished, the commandments are emptied of their power, the sacrifices are fulfilled in Christ and now we serve in the Spirit, with our bodies as His Temple and Jesus Christ as the High Priest. Our access is by faith, through grace and is spiritual, not temporal, through the Holy Spirit, not through a shaman, a book or a ritual.

Before the cross there was a deep and very real spiritual hostility between the pagans and the Jews - between demonic festivals and the Law. There was no common ground. But God abolished the Law, in doing so He abolished that which condemned the pagans, and set up a new way of salvation they could easily join. And He asked the Jews to join the same Way. 

Now both Jews who believe in Christ, and Gentiles who believe in Christ are sons of God, are both part of the one family, and are part of the one new humanity in Christ Jesus.

Blessings,

John Edmiston <johned@aibi.ph>

Were you blessed by Eternity Daily Bible Study?  To subscribe just send 
a blank email to: eternity-dbs-subscribe@strategicnetwork.org

Visit the Eternity Daily Bible Study Archives - 
http://www.aibi.ph/eternity/ 

Study at the Asian Internet Bible Institute- Free online non-formal, 
in-service, bible and ministry training: http://www.aibi.ph