He Is Our Peace, Eph, 2:14-16

We're looking this morning at Ephesians 2, 14 through 16, and as we look at this passage, we looked last week and we saw that the Gentiles were in the outs. They were outside of the picture because they were outside the law. The law was given explicitly for the Jews, and the very definition of the law put the Gentiles on the outs. They were a party apart. And the only way for them to participate was to become Jewish. They had to walk through the Jewish door to be among those who had all these rights and privileges.

Now we see, here's what God did about it. And one of the fascinating things as we look at it, glance down here and you will see a number of verbs show up. for him who is our peace who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall. As you look down the passage here, you see a number of verbs.

This is God in action. And one of the things you notice is the action is all on God's part. God is the one who took the action here to deal with this issue. God is the one who acts. What's interesting is there's nothing in this that you and I have to do. There's nothing in this that says, okay, make sure you do this. It's God's action. It's God's accomplishment entirely.

So, as we look at this, we put kind of the question, care for another serving of hostility. Everything, as we brought out last week, between the Gentiles and the Jews, Everything about their life here on planet Earth put them apart Nancy and I experienced that when we were down in the Silicon Valley some years back we had neighbors two doors over who were Jewish and Nancy wanted to invite Even the lady over for tea and no that was not allowable couldn't happen. You see, everything about what the Jews ate, even the clothing, some of us here have mixed clothing fabrics, not allowed. Everything about what they said, where they went, what they wore, what they ate, all the habits of life put them apart, separated them.

So now, this passage is explaining how those who are spiritually far off, and that's the term that Paul uses, were made near, as we read in Ephesians 2.13. Pardon the hippies there.

Now, Christ is the peace man, the real one. He is the one man who made peace, as this passage puts it. He is our peace. Now, Paul is talking about Peace here that's specific, and we need to clarify it, because we use the word peace in different ways.

He isn't writing about peace in one's heart. That's not the way he's using the word peace here. Does he write about it elsewhere? Yes, he certainly does. But that's not what he's saying here. That kind of peace is what we were just saying about earlier this morning, and it's among the list of those things that are called the fruit of the Spirit. But that's not the kind of piece he's talking about here.

It's biblical? Yes, it certainly is. Paul writes about it? Yes, he does. But it's not what's meant in this context. It's not between ourselves and God as much as that's absolutely necessary, as much as Paul writes about it, and it is essential to what we are teaching here out of God's Word.

Romans 5.1, for example, puts it this way. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. There is that teaching, but that's not what he's referring to here.

This is a different kind of peace. This is between Jew and Gentile. These are two groups who were apart, very explicitly apart, very clearly apart, and apart over time. Christ brought peace between these two groups. peace between groups who had parted ways over the laws of Moses.

So what did he do? That's what we want to look at here this morning. We want to answer the question, all right, what exactly did he do? How did this come about? For he himself is our peace who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall. Let's take a look at that. One of the things we pointed out last week is when God dealt with it, He didn't just go through it and say, well, we're just going to leave things the way they are.

It's too complicated. He didn't say that we're just going to make everybody Jewish. That's our solution. Everybody will be Jewish. That's not the way that God solved it. You see, He could have just come in and said, okay, we've got these Gentiles and we've got the Jews, and we're just going to mix them up and put them all in one group. but that's not what he did, did he? He didn't just say, let's just make goulash out of this, half kosher, half not. He didn't just put them in one group. What did he do? Instead, he says, no, I'm going to make a special group of people, of those, Gentile or Jew, doesn't matter, who are of the Church, because why? Because they believe. Because they are believers. That's the distinction that I'll make. So the question is, how did he do that? How did he pull that off? How did he make it come to pass?

It says here, he broke down the barrier of the dividing wall. There's a dividing wall that stands as a barrier between the two groups. He says, I'm going to take that down. There's a special way that he did it, and that's what we want to look at here this morning. He broke down this barrier of the dividing wall. The King James have broken down the middle wall of partition between us, okay?

It's standing between the groups. Now, some have said, well, he must mean this is that wall that's in the temple which the Gentiles aren't supposed to go beyond. Eh, okay. Some folks have said that maybe this is that curtain that stands in front of the Holy of Holies. That's what he means.

The only thing is, not only do those not quite fit the case, but he explains exactly what the dividing wall is in verse 15. So we'll go there. We'll look at the context. So in verse 15, he says, how did he do it? He did it by abolishing in his flesh the enmity, which is the law of commandments contained in ordinances. That's what he's talking about. That's the dividing wall. That's the barrier.

And he uses this word here, abolishing, It's translated from this Greek word, katargeo. Now, we need to get real clear what katargeo is. Katargeo is not some cat named Argeo, okay? I'm not talking about that, all right? This word katargeo means to put out of commission.

It doesn't mean to eliminate from existence. So when we hear this word abolish, we need to not think, ah, he just wiped out the law and nobody knows where it is now. No, he didn't put it out of existence. So far as the church is concerned, he put it out of commission. He did this in His flesh, that is, Christ accomplished this as a part of His cross work. Christ accomplished it on the cross. Now, notice what is put out of commission here.

He says it's the enmity. So what is this enmity? And we've got to get this clear, okay? First of all, just to clarify things, it isn't Aunt Middy, okay? Not that at all, okay? Not Aunt Middy. It's not a sea anemone, okay? It's not that, okay? Enmity is hostility. That's what it is. And just so we know, it's like this guy, okay? Enmity is this hostility. The hostility that's between the Jews and the Gentiles.

What? You don't like my food? How come you don't buy my pork? You know? It's those kinds of questions. I don't want to buy your shirt. It's mixed fabric. Okay? Those kinds of things would go on. I'd like to have you over for dinner. You can't. There's the wall. There's the dividing wall. And it's actually far more explicit than that. We'll see it in a minute.

The enmity which is the law of commandments contained in ordinances. Now, Paul is rarely as specific about it as this. The enmity which has its source in, here's the law, this is an absolute statement of what is to happen, the commandments gives the force of it. You must do this. You must not do that. and then contain in ordinances one item, the next item, the next one, item by item by item listed. That's exactly what he's talking about.

It is, you can't go here, you can't go there, you can't touch this, you can't touch that, you can't eat this, you can't eat that, you must do this, all the laws and rules, one by one by one, divided them. You may not go eat with those Gentiles, you may not buy the clothing that they're selling, You may not go in the same place. On this day, you must go here, not there. Even during the Roman Empire, the Jews were exempted from being in their own military service.

You know why? All the things we just said. Here's your clothing. I can't wear it. Here's your food. I can't eat it. I gave you an order. It's Sabbath. See? There's a problem. The source of the enmity is the Mosaic Law. That's where it comes from. The Law of Commandments is obligatory. It's not a bunch of suggestions. It's not guidance. It's not guidelines.

It's obligatory. You must, you must not. One who is living by the Law is living by that external measure that pressure, that force of obligation that says you will do this and you will not do that. The Law of Commandments is 365 ordinances that say thou shalt not. By the way, there's a typo. It should be 248 ordinances, not 246. I want to correct that. Which say thou shalt. 248, you must do this. 365, you must not. For a total of 613. I'm sure that adds up.

We want you to take your binoculars out of your pew pockets because you're going to need that for this next part here. Okay, you're ready? Everybody hold time. All right, now, we have something we want to get you prepared for. This is the first time at Hollyhills Bible Church that, so far as I know, this has ever been presented. So you have to prepare yourself. All 613 laws on one slide. Okay? There it is.

Now, you may be looking at that and saying, Vern, you're kidding me. Those are just a bunch of lines. I assure you they are not, just so you'll know that I'm not kidding. You see that little bunch there that has a little red outline? Let me go here, just make sure. It's this little group right here, okay? That little group is this, okay? So this is really all the laws. This small is one point font, but anyway, it's all there. So here's the laws, let me just grab some.

One of them is don't eat a worm found in fruit, okay? You can't eat a worm. Ever do that? You bite into an apple and you find some little track in there and some little smiley thing? Anyway, if you eat that little worm, that's not good according to the law, okay? And so imagine if you were Jewish, you would be real careful if a piece of fruit had a worm in it. Matter of fact, you go to the Gentile shopkeeper and he's got this little thing with a little wormhole mark in it. eat a little worm, not even a little baby worm.

Okay? You can't do that. That's not allowed. All right? Can't even eat little baby worms. Really bad. Okay. Now, here's all these laws on one side, and you're thinking, okay, Vern, that's a little bit over much. 613? You've got to be kidding. As a matter of fact, that's a little bit beyond my capacity. How about an easier number, a round number would be nice.

10. 10 of them. Yeah, I'll go for 10. Maybe you can just cook up 10, right? And so, all right, we'll cook up 10. There's 10.

The only thing is, if you miss on one of those, you missed the law. There's nothing in the law that says you get to pick. And people oftentimes get real, you know, wrapped around the Ten Commandments. Hey, folks, that was just a down payment, right? That's not the whole thing. All 613 laws you got to follow. Hope you got them memorized. and have good vision. The point being here, the law is meant to be taken the whole thing all at once.

Any Jew that only followed ten would have been looked down at profoundly. Totally unacceptable to just follow ten. The point that were brought together last week, the Jews following the Mosaic Law and the Gentiles not having it, placed This was at the core of the division.

The Gentiles that we said were separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise. The Jews, on the other hand, they had it, and it was theirs. The Gentiles, we said, had no hope. They were without God in the world, and they were far off.

The Jews had it. So what we see is, here is the dividing wall, the source of the enmity. It's the law. And guess whose side it's on. It's on the Jews' side. They own it. Psalm 147, 19, and 20 say that God gave it to Israel and no other nation did He deal with in this way. No other nation. The Jews have it. It's the wall. The Gentiles don't have it. They're on the outs, and that's it. Gentile wants to get close to God? Gotta become a Jew.

The law was indeed the dividing wall, the barrier, as he refers to in verse 14. Now, what Christ did then was put the law out of commission in regards to the church. Now, we commonly will think of Christ dying for our sins. That, of course, every Christian will say, why certainly. But what is often overlooked is that when Christ died on the cross, he died to put the law to commission. He died to put the law to commission.

That's something to think about when we, for example, this evening, take the Lord's Table. We remember that's what the Lord's Table is about. Not just that he died for our sins, but to put the law to commission. That's part of our remembering. The Church often fails to recognize that. Have you noticed that? The very formation of the Church is based on putting the law to commission.

Christ's cross works, according to Romans 7.4 and Galatians 2.19, says that the believer died to the law.

How did that happen? It happened because we've been identified with Christ in his death. That having happened, we've died in relationship to the law. Did the law cease to exist? No, it didn't cease to exist, but we died in relationship to the law when we were identified with Christ in His death. The law, as we see in this passage, was put out of commission. It didn't cease to exist, it was put out of commission. When Christ died on the cross, The law was put out of commission with respect to the Church, specifically the Church. That was done in order to form the Church.

And finally, as we see in Colossians 2.14, the law was nailed to the cross and blotted out, along with the debts declared by it. Wiped out. Christ's cross work involved these things as well, not just specifically dying for our sins, but putting the law out of commission and obliterating it with respect to the Church.

What's going on here? The law describes what happens on planet Earth. Everything from don't murder and don't kill to don't eat that worm and the fruit. Christ's cross work makes us a heavenly people to whom the law does not apply because the law is fit for planet Earth. We are instead and indeed a heavenly people. As Paul has just written to the saints at Ephesus, you've been seated with him in the heavenlies.

Therefore, there is no relevance for the law for you. Now, there's something we have to make clear in the midst of this. I really feel compelled to do this because I don't want anybody to have any misunderstanding, okay? Because we're teaching you, you are not under the law The law has been obliterated. You've got to watch out. It doesn't mean you can ignore the law of the land. What I don't want is to come here next Sunday and find people who have said, but officer, the church said I wasn't under law. That won't work. I need to tell you that. As a matter of fact, the judge won't care what verses you quote to him. That won't help either.

So we're not talking about the law of the land. This is specifically the law given in the Old Testament. Meanwhile, back to the church. So is the law completely out of commission now? We need to ask that question. We need to know that we've died to the law. We need to know that the law has been put out of commission. We need to know that the law was nailed to the cross and obliterated in Christ's cross work. And those are all things that are important.

But the flip side of that is that that is all with respect to the Church. Unbelievers are not exempt. Unbelievers are not exempt. The situation with unbelievers, because they were not identified with Christ, they're not subject to Christ's cross work in that regard. So, here's what we find. The law is still valid for unbelievers, and we find that there are five ways in which the law is still valid.

The law silences anyone who would claim self-righteousness before God. If you say, hey, look, I can do all kinds of good things, the truth is everyone will fall short. Paul's unanimous declaration for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That makes that statement. The law is to create a sense of guilt and therefore a need for God's provision for that guilt.

As Ezekiel 18.4 says, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. Death is the consequence. And all have sinned, right? The law is to provide an objective awareness of sin for all humanity. This is the measure. This is a measure that says, you failed. You've fallen short.

The law serves as a schoolmaster to bring people to Christ. Paul makes this statement in Galatians to say, the law has the service of bringing us to Christ to a place where we no longer need it. And therefore he says, right in this, you're no longer under the schoolmaster, the tutor. Now, what's my point in bringing this up? The point being that as believers, we've grown out of the law. There's a point where people have to grow up.

Now look, the law restrains evil as a continuing reminder to unbelievers of their moral stance before a morally perfect God. There is a place for the law to say, no, this is not acceptable. This is not permissible. And to represent a man, God is by nature a moral God. And even the laws of the land indicate that we fall short.

So we have all five of these laws that apply still to unbelievers. All five of these reasons for the law that still apply to unbelievers. So when we say that the law is put out of commission, as he states here in Ephesians 2, we're saying that is with respect to believers. Unbelievers are still in a state where the law applies.

Now, we need to do some clarifying here to get the picture crystal clear. We have the Gentiles, and Israel and the Church now are the three people groups that are being addressed. For the Gentiles, Romans 2, 14 through 16, makes the picture clear. For the unbelieving Gentile, they have a sense of moral conscience. They have a sense of, you know, this is right and this is wrong.

And it's interesting, I've talked to people who say, oh, there's no such thing as morality, it's all relative, all that. And eventually what you find is there's some point at which they say, no, that's not right for anybody. And if you ever get in a conversation with someone who says, you know, immorality is completely relative, just try that. Let's find their point at which they say, no, that's not good.

There is one. Romans 2 puts it this way, they show the work of the law written on their hearts. They have a sense of conscience. No, that's too far. Everybody may have a different one, but at some point they say, nope, that's not good. For the Jew, clearly they have the law.

Romans 9.4 that we read last week makes that clear. The law is explicitly given to them, and that is their measure. Paul says of his kinsmen, he says, they have the giving of the law. It's explicitly given to them. It is for Israel.

And finally, for the church, both of those who are ethnically Jews and Gentiles, they are a new creation. They have died in relationship to the law. The law is out of commission just with respect to them, not to everyone. just them, because it is Christ's cross work specific to them. And as we saw in Romans 7, verse 4, he says, Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the law through the body of Christ, to be joined to another. So we see that Gentiles have a law that is a matter of their own conscience and their own dictate that says, yes, there is a moral law. the Jews have particularly and specifically been given a law that says this is the standard, to them the law applies. To the Church, neither one is applicable in the spiritual sense here.

Now, interesting, what if the Church brings the law back into it? What happens? What does that mean if the Church brings the law back into it? Now, I'm glad you're sitting down. Make sure your pews are in upright and locked position, because you'll need to be.

Ultimately, if we bring the law back into commission, we're saying we believe in the resurrection of the law and deny the resurrection of Christ. Ultimately, if we bring the law back into the church, we deny the death Christ died, because after all, we have Romans, Ephesians, Galatians, and Colossians all telling us Christ died to put the law out of commission, to obliterate the law with respect to the Christian. We deny the basis for the church. That's what he's telling us in this passage. He said, I'm going to create the church and to do so with respect to the law, I'm going to put the law aside for the church by removing the wall.

We deny it because of Romans 7.4, the means for being joined to Christ. We died in relationship to the law so that we might be joined to another. We bring in the law, we say, I must not be joined to Christ, because it's a denial of what's been stated. And finally, we're cut off from the basis for bearing fruit, because that's what the result is intended in Romans 7-4, that we bear fruit for God. And so bringing back in the law is a denial of the basis for bearing fruit for God.

Wow. Now, so no church has a basis for picking and choosing among which laws they're going to follow. Oh, we like this one. One of them that I bring out here is a lot of churches will like to sit there and beat their people in the congregation over the head with, you got to give a tenth or something, right? Look at this.

It's between the laws about clean and unclean animals and the one about releasing debts and slaves in the seventh year. Now, why do you pick that one out of the middle? You release all your debts every seven years, right? You quit paying your mortgage? Of course, yeah. The law is not to pick and choose from. We've got all 613 laws and just even picking the first 10 is not sufficient. That's just the start.

The church has no basis for acting as if we had an altar. Now, we don't give an altar call here at Holly Hills. Because we don't have an altar. Okay? The altar is heavenly. Okay? And by the way, this Leviticus 6, 12 and 13, that says you've got to keep a fire going on the altar all the time. And I don't know where we'd put one here. It'd make a mess. Okay?

The altar was designed explicitly for the Jewish law and how they carried out the sacrifices. It wasn't designed as a place to be in the church. Our altar is heavenly. That does not at all mean that we're not concerned for unbelievers coming to know the Lord. We are. But we don't call people to the altar because there's no altar to call them to. Not biblically.

And now the really good news. You'll be glad to hear this. I just want you to know. There's no basis for the church stoning people for coming late to church. That's one good thing. It'd be just great. Now, one of the things that he says in the end of verse 15, we need to take a look at, he has made the church into one new man.

This word new is kynos, we brought it up before. It's a word that doesn't have to do with time sequence, but rather new and kind, a difference in kind. That's what's being brought forward. So Paul writes to the church at Corinth and Galatia and tells them that they're a new creature, a new creation. The church isn't just another group, but it's a different group in kind. That's the focus that he's making here. A new man, this is not an organization or an organism, excuse me, it's not an organization or an institution, it is an organism.

It is intended to be a personality. A church is not just an earthly institution, it's not just something, hey, let's organize something. Certainly the purpose isn't to be disorganized, but it is indeed God's creation here of a new man, a new person, that he might reconcile them. Now it's interesting, we talk about being reconciled to God, and there's certainly a need for that, and Scripture teaches it.

This is a reconciliation between the two parties. It was, after all, the law that was constantly dividing them. What he says here is, we're going to take that out of the way. There is nothing to divide them in their position. And so I'll make this statement.

There is nothing in the position of any believer that divides that believer in position from any other believer. See that? There's nothing in the position of the believer that divides him or her from the position of another believer. Positionally, there is no division. It's been taken out of the way. He's going to reconcile them into one body to God through the cross. That's the key.

Through the cross. This is a key part of God's work in Christ. It is, in fact, when we look at Christ dying on the cross, what is He doing? He is taking out of the way that which prevents the creation of the Church and then making making a new body. The cross is thereby a creative process. How about that? We look there and we say, oh man, what a horrible thing. Yes, it was horrible, but it was also a creative process and a key part of the creative process that God was bringing about in the Church.

Paul spells it out this way to the Church at Corinth The law is removed in Christ. He says, whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken out of the way. They begin to see. The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.

The Lord did not just take the law out of the way to take the law out of the way. to make us a different group. The Lord took the law out of the way so that we would be free to behold Him instead of the law. Beholding Him is the means that He spells out for growing from glory to glory. We are intended as believers all to be looking to the Lord and not the law as we grow together. And the Lord does the growing. Let's pray.

Lord, you indeed have done a marvelous thing in creating this body, this new man. And indeed, Lord, it is an organism. It is alive and vital and active. And we thank you for what you're doing, Lord. And we thank you for what you've created and what you've brought about. And Lord, as we continue to look through your word here and understand more and more of what you've accomplished. Lord, we just marvel at it. Continue to be amazed at your marvelous and amazing grace. In Jesus' name, Amen.