#DailyDevotion Christ Jesus Is Our Peace With God And Man
Eph.2:14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.
The Greek here actually has “in his flesh” in verse fifteen. Keep that in mind for now. Jesus is our peace. How is he our peace? He is our peace between God and man having made himself an atoning sacrifice for the sin of the world. God the Father no longer counts our trespasses against us. Jesus also is our peace between Jew and Gentile. How is that so?
That which separated Jew and Gentile was the Law, the Torah given the Israelites through Moses. Indeed it was given for this very purpose to make a distinction between Israelites and Gentiles. The Israelites were to live differently than the surrounding Gentile nations. Of course, it was God’s plan that the Gentile nations going through Israel would hear the word of the Law and covert to worship of him and live under these laws. Instead, the Israelites and by extension the Jews converted to the ways of the nations around them. But God preserved a remnant that that remnant was there in Paul’s day trying to live according to the Law which placed them at odds with the nations.
But Christ Jesus has fulfilled the Law of Moses with all its commands and ordinances. No longer do the Jews need the Torah as a tutor. Now we have the Holy Spirit and the teachings of Jesus as given to us through the apostles. On the cross, Jesus has in his flesh broken down the dividing wall of hostility by abrogating the first covenant with a new covenant, a New Testament in his blood. Jew and Gentile are now brought together at the cross of Christ and made a new creation, a new man, a new people, the fulfillment of Israel.
The Law of Moses is no longer in effect. We have Christ Jesus now. We have peace with Jew and Gentile in Christ. Both Jew (who did not keep the law) and Gentile (who did not have the law) are made one and both have peace with God through Jesus Christ and peace with one another. When our conscience stirs up guilt and the awareness of God’s wrath because of our sins, we can turn to Jesus and know that in our baptism, we have had the penalty, death, applied to us through the death of Christ we participate in, in baptism.
Does this mean then we can go and live immoral lives because the Law of Moses no longer applies to us? God forbid! We have been brought to peace with God and man so we may live in God’s holiness and righteousness. We have been called to believe in Jesus Christ our Lord and to love our neighbor as ourselves. To love Christ and to love our neighbor means to live unselfish, not self-centered lives. So Paul can later say in this letter, Eph 5:3 “But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.” We are called to holiness in Christ.
Heavenly Father, you have called us to peace in Christ Jesus with you and with our neighbor. Grant us your Holy Spirit, that now freed from the Law we may live our lives according to its principles. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.