Ephesians 2 Part 5
Bible Study Time 7-24-05
Bible Study Time 7-24-05
In Ephesians, Chapter 2, we have been looking at the fact that God was able to abolish the Law which had resulted in a spiritual separation between the Jews and Gentiles. Christ abolished the Law when He was crucified upon the cross. In Ephesians 2:14, we read:
Ephesians 2:14-16
14 For (Christ) Himself is our peace, who has made both (the Jew and the Gentile) one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation,
15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace,
16 and that He might reconcile (both the Jew and the Gentile) to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.
Last week we saw in Romans 11 that during the Acts period, Paul said that Gentiles were being grafted into the root or stock of Israel which is a far cry from the concept expressed by Paul in Ephesians 2. A branch that is grafted to a tree is dependent upon the tree for its survival. All of its sustenance must come from the tree which bears the grafted limb. In Ephesians 2, the Gentiles are not grafted into the Jewish stock, but Jews and Gentiles are reconciled to God in one body with neither being dependent upon the other, while both are completely dependent upon Christ.
In the New Covenant economy of the Acts period, believing Gentiles were waiting for the Jews to be saved because the kingdom could not come until the Jews accepted Christ as their Messiah. God’s blessings for the Gentiles had to flow through the Jewish stock. Paul told the Gentiles in Romans 11:
Romans 11:18 (NKJ)
18 do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.
Another aspect of the New Covenant economy that is seen in the grafted branch is the fact that a grafted branch never really becomes one with the tree. It always maintains its own identity, and it bears its own particular fruit. In like manner, the Jews and Gentiles never could become one under the New Covenant. They each maintained their own separate identities.
Well, this New Covenant economy had become a thing of the past by the time Paul wrote the book of Ephesians. The offer of the New Covenant Kingdom had been set aside, and Paul had been called to reveal the Church which is the Body of Christ. By this time God was reconciling both Jews and Gentiles in one body by the cross.
The analogy of the grafted branch illustrated beautifully the position of the Gentile to the Jew under the New Covenant economy, and the analogy of the body illustrates beautifully the relationship of the Gentile to the Jew in the economy of the Church, the Body of Christ. The various members of a body have different functions, but the identity of each member is lost to the identity of the whole person, while the identity of the whole person is determined by the head.
According to Ephesians 1, God gave Christ to be Head over all things to the Church which is His Body, and according to Ephesians 5, we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bone. We lose our identity as we become identified with Christ.
In Ephesians 3, Paul says that the unique feature of the Church the Body of Christ is that in this Church the Gentiles are fellow heirs and of the same body with the Jews, and they are partakers of God’s promise in Christ through the gospel.
Notice that Paul does not say that Gentiles are now partakers in the covenants of promise with Israel. Paul did not say that in Chapter 2, and neither does he say it in Chapter 3. Paul simply says that we, as Gentiles, are partakers in God’s promise in Christ through the gospel.
Isaiah spoke of the one who would be wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. One who would take upon Himself the chastisement of our peace and would bring healing by His stripes. This is the promise in Christ which comes to us through the gospel.
Praise the Lord, we are partakers in this promise, and the ordinances of the Law no longer hold us back from the spiritual healing that comes through the blood of Christ. The Law was nailed to the cross so that now we can be partakers in God’s promise in Christ through the gospel.
In the Old Testament, Israel was physically near to God because God put His tabernacle in their camp. God talked to them through the prophets, and the required rituals were easily accessible. The Jews were able to observe first hand the Shekinah glory of God in the tabernacle and then in the temple. His glory remained with them until the temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and at that time, Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord depart from the temple.
Later, the temple was rebuilt, but the glory of the Lord never returned. By the time Jesus appeared in Jewish history, Herod had built a tremendously beautiful temple for the Jews, but he had hired his own High Priest. The Shekinah glory never appeared in that temple.
Jesus Christ came unto His own but His own received Him not because their hearts were far from God. The Jews of Jesus day were just as lost as the pagan Gentiles.
As John the Baptist and Jesus came preaching the message of the New Covenant Kingdom, their focus was upon the Jews. John and Jesus went only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel telling them to repent and be baptized for the kingdom of heaven was at hand. After the cross the Apostles went preaching the message of the New Covenant Kingdom and again went only to the Jews until Acts, Chapter 10, when God convinced Peter to talk to Cornelius. God called Paul to go the Gentiles, but as he went preaching the message of the New Covenant, he said that he also went to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
At Mt. Sinai, God had called Israel to be a kingdom of priests, and Peter confirmed this hope when, as the Apostle to the Jews, he said:
1 Peter 2:5 (NKJ)
5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:9 (NKJ)
9 . . . you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
The Jews were given every opportunity to believe, but they never responded to the call of God. God was calling them to Himself. He was offering them the kingdom for which they had been waiting for thousands of years. But when their Messiah stood before them at the Passover, they said, “Crucify Him, we have no king but Caesar.” When the Spirit of God was poured out upon the Apostles at Pentecost, they said, “These men are drunk.”
When God set their program aside and began calling out members of the Church the Body of Christ, God did not focus on any one group of people. In the economy of this church, all people have an equal opportunity to come to God. All people come to God on the same basis, by recognizing their sinful state and clinging to Jesus Christ for the salvation which He freely offers to all who call upon His name. God is now reconciling both Jews and Gentiles to Himself in one body through the cross.
Last week we talked a little bit about when this economy of the Church the Body of Christ began, and this could be an important question. If we see two different programs with different expectations and different manifestations, we might need to know when one stopped and the other started. We might need to know which program we are a part of.
In the New Covenant economy the focus in on the Jews, the rituals of water baptism and circumcision were practiced, and the sign gifts of the Holy Spirit were evident. In the economy of the Church the Body of Christ, we see a focus on all people everywhere while the rituals and sign gifts are absent.
When did the Church which is the Body of Christ begin? Paul stated that it was made possible when Christ abolished the Law at the cross. This tells us that it did not start before the cross.
Paul specifically taught the details of the Church which is the Body of Christ in his prison epistles. Therefore, this church had to have begun before the these epistles were written.
In Acts, Chapter 2, we read that 3000 people were added to the church, but this was a church which clearly was waiting for the New Covenant Kingdom. This is evident by the presence of water baptism and the sign gifts as well as by the fact that they sold all of their possessions and lived together.
Some people believe that the Church the Body of Christ began at Acts Chapter 9 with the salvation of Paul, while others believe that it began in Acts 13 when Paul said to the Jews:
Acts 13:46 (KJV)
46 . . . It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.
Others believe that it began in Acts 28 when Paul quoted Isaiah 6 to the Jews and then said:
Acts 28:28
28 Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and they will hear it.
Well, none of these passages really gives us a definite answer, nor does any other passage. We know that this church started sometime after the cross and before the writing of the prison epistles.
We also know that if God did start the Church which is the Body of Christ during the Acts period, He never allowed Paul to reveal in his writings the unique features of this church until the writing of the prison epistles.
Several times in Paul’s Acts period epistles, he got very close to the doctrines of the prison epistles. In Romans and in I Corinthians, he referred to the body of Christ, but he never specifically referred to this body as the Church whose institutional Head is Jesus Christ.
In Romans and Galatians, Paul said that there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, but it is obvious that Paul was speaking about their spiritual state because in both books he continued to emphasize Israel’s unique position in regard to the New Covenant hope.
Since God did not tell us when the Church the Body of Christ began, it is evident that we do not need to know when it began. It is really more significant to know when the New Covenant ministry was set aside because that is the ministry with which the rituals and sign gifts were associated.
When we look at the internal evidence of the prison epistles, suddenly there is no mention of the New Covenant while the rituals and sign gifts are conspicuously absent. From this we judge that the New Covenant ministry was set aside somewhere between the events of Acts 28 and the writing of the prison epistles.
Next week we will finish Ephesians 2 and maybe even get into Ephesians 3 in more detail than we did today. Thank you for joining me for Bible Study Time this morning. I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
Church links:
http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/
http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/
Ephesians 2:14-16
14 For (Christ) Himself is our peace, who has made both (the Jew and the Gentile) one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation,
15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace,
16 and that He might reconcile (both the Jew and the Gentile) to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.
Last week we saw in Romans 11 that during the Acts period, Paul said that Gentiles were being grafted into the root or stock of Israel which is a far cry from the concept expressed by Paul in Ephesians 2. A branch that is grafted to a tree is dependent upon the tree for its survival. All of its sustenance must come from the tree which bears the grafted limb. In Ephesians 2, the Gentiles are not grafted into the Jewish stock, but Jews and Gentiles are reconciled to God in one body with neither being dependent upon the other, while both are completely dependent upon Christ.
In the New Covenant economy of the Acts period, believing Gentiles were waiting for the Jews to be saved because the kingdom could not come until the Jews accepted Christ as their Messiah. God’s blessings for the Gentiles had to flow through the Jewish stock. Paul told the Gentiles in Romans 11:
Romans 11:18 (NKJ)
18 do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.
Another aspect of the New Covenant economy that is seen in the grafted branch is the fact that a grafted branch never really becomes one with the tree. It always maintains its own identity, and it bears its own particular fruit. In like manner, the Jews and Gentiles never could become one under the New Covenant. They each maintained their own separate identities.
Well, this New Covenant economy had become a thing of the past by the time Paul wrote the book of Ephesians. The offer of the New Covenant Kingdom had been set aside, and Paul had been called to reveal the Church which is the Body of Christ. By this time God was reconciling both Jews and Gentiles in one body by the cross.
The analogy of the grafted branch illustrated beautifully the position of the Gentile to the Jew under the New Covenant economy, and the analogy of the body illustrates beautifully the relationship of the Gentile to the Jew in the economy of the Church, the Body of Christ. The various members of a body have different functions, but the identity of each member is lost to the identity of the whole person, while the identity of the whole person is determined by the head.
According to Ephesians 1, God gave Christ to be Head over all things to the Church which is His Body, and according to Ephesians 5, we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bone. We lose our identity as we become identified with Christ.
In Ephesians 3, Paul says that the unique feature of the Church the Body of Christ is that in this Church the Gentiles are fellow heirs and of the same body with the Jews, and they are partakers of God’s promise in Christ through the gospel.
Notice that Paul does not say that Gentiles are now partakers in the covenants of promise with Israel. Paul did not say that in Chapter 2, and neither does he say it in Chapter 3. Paul simply says that we, as Gentiles, are partakers in God’s promise in Christ through the gospel.
Isaiah spoke of the one who would be wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. One who would take upon Himself the chastisement of our peace and would bring healing by His stripes. This is the promise in Christ which comes to us through the gospel.
Praise the Lord, we are partakers in this promise, and the ordinances of the Law no longer hold us back from the spiritual healing that comes through the blood of Christ. The Law was nailed to the cross so that now we can be partakers in God’s promise in Christ through the gospel.
In the Old Testament, Israel was physically near to God because God put His tabernacle in their camp. God talked to them through the prophets, and the required rituals were easily accessible. The Jews were able to observe first hand the Shekinah glory of God in the tabernacle and then in the temple. His glory remained with them until the temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and at that time, Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord depart from the temple.
Later, the temple was rebuilt, but the glory of the Lord never returned. By the time Jesus appeared in Jewish history, Herod had built a tremendously beautiful temple for the Jews, but he had hired his own High Priest. The Shekinah glory never appeared in that temple.
Jesus Christ came unto His own but His own received Him not because their hearts were far from God. The Jews of Jesus day were just as lost as the pagan Gentiles.
As John the Baptist and Jesus came preaching the message of the New Covenant Kingdom, their focus was upon the Jews. John and Jesus went only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel telling them to repent and be baptized for the kingdom of heaven was at hand. After the cross the Apostles went preaching the message of the New Covenant Kingdom and again went only to the Jews until Acts, Chapter 10, when God convinced Peter to talk to Cornelius. God called Paul to go the Gentiles, but as he went preaching the message of the New Covenant, he said that he also went to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
At Mt. Sinai, God had called Israel to be a kingdom of priests, and Peter confirmed this hope when, as the Apostle to the Jews, he said:
1 Peter 2:5 (NKJ)
5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:9 (NKJ)
9 . . . you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
The Jews were given every opportunity to believe, but they never responded to the call of God. God was calling them to Himself. He was offering them the kingdom for which they had been waiting for thousands of years. But when their Messiah stood before them at the Passover, they said, “Crucify Him, we have no king but Caesar.” When the Spirit of God was poured out upon the Apostles at Pentecost, they said, “These men are drunk.”
When God set their program aside and began calling out members of the Church the Body of Christ, God did not focus on any one group of people. In the economy of this church, all people have an equal opportunity to come to God. All people come to God on the same basis, by recognizing their sinful state and clinging to Jesus Christ for the salvation which He freely offers to all who call upon His name. God is now reconciling both Jews and Gentiles to Himself in one body through the cross.
Last week we talked a little bit about when this economy of the Church the Body of Christ began, and this could be an important question. If we see two different programs with different expectations and different manifestations, we might need to know when one stopped and the other started. We might need to know which program we are a part of.
In the New Covenant economy the focus in on the Jews, the rituals of water baptism and circumcision were practiced, and the sign gifts of the Holy Spirit were evident. In the economy of the Church the Body of Christ, we see a focus on all people everywhere while the rituals and sign gifts are absent.
When did the Church which is the Body of Christ begin? Paul stated that it was made possible when Christ abolished the Law at the cross. This tells us that it did not start before the cross.
Paul specifically taught the details of the Church which is the Body of Christ in his prison epistles. Therefore, this church had to have begun before the these epistles were written.
In Acts, Chapter 2, we read that 3000 people were added to the church, but this was a church which clearly was waiting for the New Covenant Kingdom. This is evident by the presence of water baptism and the sign gifts as well as by the fact that they sold all of their possessions and lived together.
Some people believe that the Church the Body of Christ began at Acts Chapter 9 with the salvation of Paul, while others believe that it began in Acts 13 when Paul said to the Jews:
Acts 13:46 (KJV)
46 . . . It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.
Others believe that it began in Acts 28 when Paul quoted Isaiah 6 to the Jews and then said:
Acts 28:28
28 Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and they will hear it.
Well, none of these passages really gives us a definite answer, nor does any other passage. We know that this church started sometime after the cross and before the writing of the prison epistles.
We also know that if God did start the Church which is the Body of Christ during the Acts period, He never allowed Paul to reveal in his writings the unique features of this church until the writing of the prison epistles.
Several times in Paul’s Acts period epistles, he got very close to the doctrines of the prison epistles. In Romans and in I Corinthians, he referred to the body of Christ, but he never specifically referred to this body as the Church whose institutional Head is Jesus Christ.
In Romans and Galatians, Paul said that there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, but it is obvious that Paul was speaking about their spiritual state because in both books he continued to emphasize Israel’s unique position in regard to the New Covenant hope.
Since God did not tell us when the Church the Body of Christ began, it is evident that we do not need to know when it began. It is really more significant to know when the New Covenant ministry was set aside because that is the ministry with which the rituals and sign gifts were associated.
When we look at the internal evidence of the prison epistles, suddenly there is no mention of the New Covenant while the rituals and sign gifts are conspicuously absent. From this we judge that the New Covenant ministry was set aside somewhere between the events of Acts 28 and the writing of the prison epistles.
Next week we will finish Ephesians 2 and maybe even get into Ephesians 3 in more detail than we did today. Thank you for joining me for Bible Study Time this morning. I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
Church links:
http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/
http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/
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