Bible Commentaries
Ephesians 2

X

CHRIST THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH

Ephesians 1:22-2:10.

We now come to that part of the analysis, item 5, Christ’s exaltation and its purpose toward the church (Ephesians 1:22-23). These two verses express the following thoughts: Christ exalted, first, to be the head of the church; second, to be head over all things to the church, which is a very different idea; third, that the church is the body; fourth, as his body the church expresses his fulness.

Christ exalted to be the head of the church. – "Head" expresses, first, sovereignty, or rulership. When we say the husband is the head of the family, we mean he is the ruler of the family. Head expresses in the next sense the source of vital connection. In this letter to the Ephesians, as we will find a little later, that vital connection between the head and every member of the body is greatly emphasized and elaborated.

If Christ is the head of the church in the sense of sovereign or ruler, then it is impious to call anybody else the head of the church. Some claim to be the head of the church in the sense of vicegerent, or vicar. For example, the Pope claims to be the head of the church in that he is Christ’s vicar. The only vicar that Christ has is the Holy Spirit. When Jesus went up to heaven he did send a vicegerent to take his place; another Paraclete to abide with and to guide the church. It is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit for a mere man to claim to be the head of the church.

Spurgeon in his many volumes of sermons has one polemical volume. One of the sermons in that polemical volume is the most excoriating denunciation of the claim that the sovereign of England is head of the church that I have ever seen. He read a proclamation: "I, Victoria Regina, by the grace of God head of the church." Then immediately following that he quoted Paul’s words: "J suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority." Everybody should read, particularly, that eighth volume of Spurgeon’s sermons. The greater part of Christendom today is under bondage to the thought that the Pope of Rome is the head of the church. They mean by that that he stands in the place of God, and that whatever he speaks, ex cathedra, is infallibly true, and that his authority is ultimate.

In 1870 the capstone was put on the papacy by the Vatican Council, in servile obedience to the Pope, proclaiming his infallibility as head of the church. The head of the church also carries with it the idea of authority, which is called the key of power. Christ is the head of the church. There is no other. We see on earth a body, but the head is above the clouds; we cannot see it. The head of the church is in heaven, the body here on the earth. It is a vital and fundamental article of the Christian faith that we should accept no head of the church of Jesus Christ except the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The disciples of Pythagoras were accustomed to end a controversy by saying, "Ipse dixit et ipse Pythagoras." But there should be no question of absolute deference to mere human authority.

We will now take up the second thought: Christ the head over all things to the church. Not the head of the church; we have just discussed that, but the head over all things to the church, which is a very different thought. It means that by virtue of his sacrificial expiation here upon the earth, and the atonement made in heaven based upon that expiation on the cross, he received the name which is above every name, was made King of kings and Lord of lords, that he now holds in his hand the scepter of universal dominion, and that he is over all things to, or in behalf, of, the church.

We see him express this thought when by anticipation he commands his church, assembled upon a mountain in Galilee, about 500 being present, to go out and preach the gospel to every creature. The statement, "And all authority in heaven and upon earth is given unto me," means that he is the head of all things to the church; that he exercises the entire sovereignty of the universe in behalf of the church. Oftentimes when we get a little frightened or blue, become intimidated either by the formidable adversaries with whom we have to cope or by the insuperable obstacles that block our pathway, we are prone to forget that the Saviour is head over all things in our behalf; that there is nothing hard for him; that when it comes to exercising his power in behalf of the church there are no limitations; that we can draw on him to the last possibility.

That is why I have said that the Texas Baptist Convention once foolishly got scared over a little financial flurry, forgot that Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords. They ought to have gone on serenely laying out their work, having faith in God, who is able to raise the dead.

Surely if God could in the wilderness for forty years feed so many families, and see to it that their clothes did not wear out, that there was a shade over them every day so that the sun did not smite them, and that their camp was illumined by night – a light brighter than the most luminous display of electric lights in the cities of our time – if he could call rocks to open and send forth waters, and the quail to come at his bidding, and angel’s food to fall at his will, what are we, Christ’s people in New Testament days, that we should hesitate on account of difficulties in the way of discharging duties incumbent upon us?

For illustration, I recall the first mission rally held in Johnson County. I prepared the program. That county was in danger of Antinomianism. Some of the noblest pastors in "hat association purposed to get together and sound a higher note. The program compared missions to a suspension bridge across a mighty river, not a prop under that bridge where the waters rolled, but on each shore there was the basis for the support of the bridge. The first pedestal was "All authority in heaven and earth is given unto me;" on the other shore, the pedestal, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." That is, if he had authority and power, we his people have no right to hesitate at any time in the discharge of his plain commandments. That is what is meant by Christ’s being the head over all things to the church. Consider carefully what that means. Every attribute of God is made contributory to the church – infinite love, infinite justice, infinite compassion, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, all engaged to help the church in the accomplishment of its mission. Note carefully that this headship is headship of an organization. But we come next to a new thought – that the church is his body. Wherever that expression occurs it implies not so much an organization as an organism. An organism is a living thing. John the Baptist, after he was beheaded, had no life. There was a vital relation between the body of John the Baptist and his head. When his head was severed his body died. In the letter to the Romans, again in the first letter to the Corinthians, again in the letter to the Colossians, and preeminently in this letter to the Ephesians, the church is called the body of Christ, which means that whatever sense of the word be employed, then Christ is the head.

Some people unnecessarily" trouble themselves in trying to apply the double sense of headship to the triple sense of the church. That is, the word church is used in the New Testament in three distinct senses:

1. Abstractly as an institution (Matthew 16:18).

2. A particular congregation at one place ( 1 Corinthians 1:2).

3. All the redeemed conceived of as a unit and glorified as a bride or city (Ephesians 5:25-27 and Revelation 21:9-10). In applying this headship we say that Christ is the head of the church and head over all things to the church as an institution, or as a particular congregation, or as the general assembly of the redeemed in glory.

We now come to the last thought in that paragraph, "The fulness of him that filleth all in all." The church is the fulness. If I want a true conception of God the Father, I look at Jesus: "In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, the express image of the person of God." If I want a true conception of Jesus Christ, I look at the church, which is the fulness of Christ, the fulness of authority, the fulness of power, the fulness of divine love, and the fulness of glory, as it ultimately will be. The fulness of Christ in the church is very much like the thought expressed in "The glory of his inheritance in the saints." We have already noted the distinction between our inheritance in Christ and his inheritance in us.

To see the fulness of Christ in the church, turn to the last chapter of Revelation, "And I saw the Holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his peoples, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God; and he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more: the first things are passed away."

Again the angel asked John if he would like to see the Bride, the Lamb’s wife, and there is given a picture of the redeemed in the fulness of their redemption. If when that time comes one should ask, "Where shall I look to see the fulness of the Father?" Look at Christ. "Where shall I look to see the fulness of Christ?" Look at that church in glory. Behold how many nations are represented in it! See the ends of the earth come together in it. Behold how many varieties of men, some very great men intellectually, and some very simple folk; some very wicked, others just as wicked by nature, who were not so wicked by practice, but now all are redeemed. We have the fulness of Christ presented in this, that all peoples, regardless of distinguishing nationalities and distinguishing castes, are there. As the Genesis creation was an expression of God, so that "the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork," so the re-creation, or redemption, will more manifest his glory. Not one of them but has arrived through regeneration and glorification. Not one of them but connects back with the eternal foreknowledge, election, and predestination of God. That is the fulness of Christ.

The next item of our analysis is salvation by grace (Ephesians 2:1-10). That is the text upon which Jerry Clark, in some respects the greatest preacher in Texas, preached his famous sermon before the General Association of Texas in Waco when I was a young pastor there. I had heard a great deal about Clark; that he was the greatest preacher living, if one could only get him to preach. His extreme modesty made him an expert dodger. One of his friends said, "If you want Clark to preach you must challenge him on the doctrines of grace. That will stir him." So I had him assigned to my house and set a trap for him. In a private conversation I said to him that I had heard of preachers who were willing enough to preach salvation by grace in the backwoods, but would shirk if called upon to preach it before a cultured city audience. His eye flashed fire and he said, "I am not afraid to preach it anywhere." "Very well, then, you are appointed to preach Sunday night from Ephesians 2:8-10." He preached from it and made the stars fairly sparkle. It was the greatest pulpit classic I ever read. It stirred all the dry bones in the valley!

Salvation by grace! The first thought is, "And you did he make alive when you were dead." There is the sinner, spiritually as dead as a door nail. Has a dead man power m himself, or is he able to call from any source whatever the power to start to be alive? That is the question. The declaration is: "When you were dead God made you alive." That is what old theologians called regeneration. I do not think that is what the New Testament calls regeneration, because it stops short of a full idea of regeneration as expressed in many scriptures, yet it is that power of the Holy Spirit which makes the soul sensitive. It is a new creation and is antecedent to any manifestation of life. That is perfectly clear in the teaching of the Scriptures.

Of course, with that kind of a start, spiritually dead, if a man is saved at all he is saved by grace. It is impossible for a dead man to make himself alive. Notice how that deadness is expressed in this paragraph: "And were by nature children of wrath." That knocks the bottom out of the thought that sin consists in the wilful transgression of a known commandment, as the Arminians say. Sin is lawlessness, first of all – lawlessness in nature before there have been any external manifestations in overt actions.

We may take a baby rattlesnake, carry him home, feed him on milk, never let him see his father or mother, pet him and try to educate him out of his nature. As that snake grows the poison secretes, the fangs form, and the rattles come, and if we were to put him in heaven he would throw himself into a coil, sound his alarm and strike at the angels passing by. Why? Because the snake is a snake.

This sin of nature – of depravity – digs up by the root any idea of salvation by external ordinances. I recall an illustration before a Sunday school by Harvey Chamberlain, who desired to impress the lesson in John 3:7, "Ye must he born again." He had provided a basin of water with soap and a sealed bottle of ink, and called on the little fellows to come up and wash the black off of that bottle. The outside washing only revealed the blackness yet more. The ""Lowest sham ever imposed upon the credulity and gullibility of exceedingly simple folk is the doctrine of literally washing away sins in baptism. Grace finds us by nature the children of wrath – that is the original sin. Then it found us dead in trespasses and sins – that is practice. From that basis it starts by making alive, or making sensitive, which is the initial touch of the Holy Spirit, superinducing in us contrition, or Godly sorrow for sin, repentance, or a change of mind toward God on account of sin, conversion, or turning from sin, and faith in Christ. So we are born anew.

The second thought is, "dead in trespasses and sins." These are expressions of the inward nature, and sustain the relation of fruit to the tree. They are symptomatic of the inward state. Our Lord declares that out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, evil speech, and evil deeds. Notice the third thought. Dead by nature, dead by actual trespasses and sins, and now "walking according to the course of this world." By the "course of this world" is meant its spiritual trend expressed in its maxims of business, pleasure and every form of selfishness. It erects its own shifting standard of right and wrong. It leaves God out. Yea, it is in its spirit and mind the enemy of God. But the course of the world is not the result of chance.

This leads to the fourth thought that Satan is by usurpation the de facto prince and ruler of this world. There is a guiding intelligence, the directing will of a master. So our text adds: "According to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." What a succession of thought, and what a climax I Dead by nature, dead by practice, swept along on the tide of the world spirit, under the domination of Satan! What a hopeless outlook for salvation by human merit! What a predicate for salvation by grace! What a reinforcement of the thought in Paul’s commission, Acts 26:17-18: "Delivering thee from the [Jewish] people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom I send thee, to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me." He is to "turn them from darkness to light"; so they are in darkness. He is to "turn them from the power of Satan unto God"; so they are under the power of Satan. "That they may receive remission of sins"; so they are unpardoned. "That they may receive an inheritance"; so they are bankrupt. "An inheritance among them that are sanctified"; so they are now unholy. "An inheritance among them that are sanctified through faith in Christ"; so they are without faith. Think of a preacher going out relying on himself to undertake a job like that I

We are not through yet. "Among whom we also once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind." Those whom we found dead by nature, dead by practice) bound up in the chains of the world, under the power of the devil, are also found to be under the dominion of the desires of the flesh. As John puts it: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away and the lust thereof" (1 John 2:15-17). Or, as James puts it: "Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?" (James 4:4).

The reader will note particularly the relation of good works to salvation, expressed both negatively and positively: Not of works" but created and saved "unto good works." They do not cause or even contribute to salvation, but flow from it as a result. As our Lord puts it: "First make a tree good and then the fruit will be good." Or, as Paul later expresses it: “For we also once were foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God, our Saviour, and his love toward man appeared, not by the works done in righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy he saved us, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he poured upon us richly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Faithful is the saying and concerning these things I desire that thou affirm confidently, to the end that they who have believed God may be careful to maintain good works" (Titus 3:3-8). The relation of good works to salvation is here expressed very clearly.

While good works before salvation are impossible, yet it is the instruction of saving grace that they follow salvation. So Paul again says: "For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to the intent that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world, looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who" gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a people for his own possession, zealous of good works" (Titus 2:11-14).

Lest we might, by attributing some merit to faith, place it among good works antecedent to salvation, our text is careful to say, "and not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." True, it is fairly questioned that the "gift" here is grammatically limited to faith. This matters nothing, since it includes faith; elsewhere most unequivocally faith itself is reckoned as a grace, a gift. Like repentance (Acts 11:18) faith is a gift of grace before it is a human exercise, being a fruit of the regenerating Spirit (Philippians 1:29; 2 Peter 2:1; Acts 13:48).

Moreover, as the essence of faith is merely to receive an offered gift, its exercise cannot be classed as a work. The old hymn holds good:

Grace first contrived the way To save rebellious man; And all the steps that grace display Which drew the wondrous plan.

Grace led my roving feet To tread the heavenly road; And new supplies each hour I meet While pressing on to God.

Grace all the work shall crown, Through everlasting days; It lays in heaven the topmost stone, And well deserves the praise.

Let us note particularly that the whole paragraph on salvation by grace is clothed with the imagery of creation, with an evident comparative reference to the Genesis creation, Creation is the bringing into being without the use of pre-existing material, so that "what is seen hath not been made out of the things which appear," and so "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation." This imagery absolutely excludes and forbids the idea of any antecedent good or merit in the subjects of grace. Indeed, redemption is a much higher order of creation than the Genesis creation and deserves and obtains another memorial, as we will later learn from the letter to the Hebrews, which shows that when God had finished the original creation he sanctified the seventh day to commemorate it; but when Jesus finished the creation of redemption, he also rested from his work, as God had done from his, and so "there remaineth a sabbath-keeping for the children of God" – a first day of the week to commemorate the new creation, after Christ had nailed to his cross and blotted out the whole cycle of Jewish sabbaths. (Hebrews 4:9-10; Colossians 2:14-17).

The creative idea in salvation is according to the power put forth when Jesus was raised from the dead and exalted to the throne of the universe. This power is infinitely superhuman. Regeneration is a spiritual resurrection from the dead (Ezekiel 37:1-14; John 5:25-26). The bones in the valley were very dry. There was no life power in them. Only after the divine breath was breathed on these bones did they live.

Pointing to the sinners dead by nature, dead by practice, borne as dead, nonresisting leaves on the tidal course of this world, a course impelled by Satan, until like a frail boat in the suction of Niagara whose fall just ahead is like the doom of eternity – pointing, I say, to such sinners, we may re-echo the words of Jehovah to Ezekiel, "Son of man, can these dry bones live?" The only possible answer is, "Not of themselves – only by God’s creative power of grace."

The reader will notice the distinction in idea between the salvation in Ephesians 2:1-10, and the salvation arising from redemption, justification, and adoption in Galatians and Romans. Here the salvation is in us; there it is for us. There the salvation is in relation to its legal aspects; here, to its spiritual effects. Redemption is Christ’s work – justification and adoption, the Father’s work on account of Christ’s work. Regeneration, sanctification, and glorification are the Spirit’s work applying the benefits of Christ’s work. It is not meant that Romans and Galatians leave out the Spirit’s work, but that the prison letters change the emphasis and stress the internal salvation.

QUESTIONS

1. What are the four thoughts in Ephesians 1:22-23?

2. What two ideas involved in "The head of the church?"

3. Where now is "the Head of the church?"

4. How, then, does "the head" in heaven rule the church on earth?

5. What impious claims have been made as to a human, vicar, or vice-regent?

6. When and by what act was the capstone put on the Roman papacy?

7. What is meant by "Christ head over all things to the church?" Illustrate by the Great Commission.

8. Comparing the Great Commission to a suspension bridge, what is the anchorage on either shore?

9. What idea is involved when the church is called the body of Christ, the head, and what the distinction between this idea and the idea of headship in regard to the execution of the Great Commission just considered.

10. In what three senses does the New Testament use the word “church" and how do you apply the double idea of headship to the triple idea of the church?

11. On whom must I look to find the fulness of God, the Father?

12. Where must I look to find the fulness of Christ? Illustrate.

13. In the paragraph Ephesians 2:1-10, what the first thought?

14. What is the first way ill which the sinner’s deadness is expressed? Illustrate by the snake and ink bottle. What the bearing of this deadness on the dogmas of salvation by external ordinances?

15. What is the second thought of the deadness and its relations to the first? Illustrate.

16. What is the third thought of the deadness, and what the appropriate scriptures?

17. What is the fourth thought, and what the appropriate scriptures from other books of the New Testament? Illustrate by Paul’s commission.

18. What is the relation of "good works" to this salvation, and what the proof texts?

19. What is the imagery of this whole passage, and how does this support the teaching so far?

20. What sabbath commemorated the material creation?

21. What is the additional idea underlies the Jewish sabbath?

22. What scriptures prove the abrogation of the Jewish sabbath?

23. What sabbath supersedes and commemorates the greater work of redemption?

24. Cite passages to prove the creative idea in the Spirit’s application of our Lord’s redemption.

25. What distinction in the idea of salvation in Ephesians 2:1-10 from the idea in Galatians and Romans arising from redemption, justification, and adoption?

Verses 11-22

XI

THE WALL OF PARTITION

Ephesians 2:11-22.

This chapter commences with the seventh item of the analysis – the breaking down of the wall of partition between Jew and Gentile, and the uniting of the two into one church, as an institution, which finds expression in every particular church. The particulars of the statement of the condition of the Gentiles prior to the proclamation of the gospel after Christ’s ascension are thus given in our text:

1. Separate from Christ – having no knowledge of him, or any interest in him – "salvation is of the Jews."

2. "Having been alienated from the commonwealth of Israel" – i.e., as uncircumcised, not entitled to citizenship in it. The force of "alienated" here is about this: The original promise of the gospel was to the race. Through both the antediluvian and Noachic periods the promise was universal in its application. But after these two race falls, particularism in a single nation succeeded. The race probations culminated at the Tower of Babel in the dispersion of the nations, followed by the call of a particular nation. This was the time of their alienation. In the Hebrew politeia or "citizenship condition," including country, constitution, economy, they had no part. The call of one nation made the others aliens.

3. "Strangers from the covenants of the promise." Mark the plural, including all covenants made with Abraham or any of his descendants. Mark the word "promise," not promises in general, but the promise, that is, of the Messiah.

4. "Having no hope." This does not deny desire or aspiration, but expectation based on definite and reliable grounds. Hope is composite – a blending of two elements, desire and expectation. We may desire what we may not expect and expect what we do not desire. Many heathen desired better things, but had no assured ground of hope. They had no accredited revelation. Mommsen in his History of Rome says, "In Hellas [Greece], at the epoch of Alexander the Great, it was a current saying, and one profoundly felt by all the best men, that the best thing of all was not to be born, and the next best to die." Testimonies from the classics might be multiplied on this point.

5. "Without God in the world." Mark the Greek, Atheoi i.e., "atheists," not in the active but passive sense. They had indeed gods many – their own creation. The one true God was unknown to them. See Paul’s speech at Athens referring to the altar inscribed to the "unknown God."

6. "Far off." Compare Romans 1:18-32, to see not only how far off, but just how they sinfully arrive at that dark and guilty distance.

7. "A wall of partition" rigidly separated them from the people who were custodians of the Oracles of God, and the heirs of all the covenants from Abraham to David.

The reader will miss the mark at this point if he does not look back carefully to the first eleven chapters of Genesis. There are in these chapters three distinct race probations. First, in Adam, as head of all human beings. Adam fell, and all his posterity, without distinction, fell with him and in him. Second, after his fall and expulsion from the garden of Eden, the throne of grace was set up at the east of the garden, and all his descendants, without distinction, were privileged to approach the God of grace and mercy through typical sacrifices based on the promise to the race, "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head." This race probation culminated in the flood, and a third race probation commenced with Noah, as the new head of the race and under a special covenant.

When this third race probation failed at the Tower of Babel, and the dispersion of the nations then followed (Gen. 12) the call of Abraham, and the fourth probation, commenced through one family to become a chosen nation under national covenants. The very constitution of one nation to become God’s organized people, by isolating laws and ordinances, left out all other nations as aliens and strangers. These segregating laws and ordinances constituted the wall of partition between the Hebrews and other nations.

Circumcision, the entire sabbatic cycle, priesthood and sacrifices, with their ritual, all social and political ordinances of separation, prescribed limitations of citizenship, a special homeland, indeed the entire Sinaitic legislation, with its later developments in Numbers and Deuteronomy, entered into the wall of separation. There is no parallel in history to the isolating, exclusive legislation of Moses.

We find in the New Testament that Christian Jews wanted to keep up that wall of partition – to deny that Christ had broken it down. They said in order to be saved one had to become a Jew – had to be circumcised. All of these laws with reference to their altar, the way of approach to God, etc., as embodied in the tabernacle, or its successor, the Temple, and its offerings setting forth ways and means by which one could come to God, were in the partition wall. In Galatians Paul says that even believers in Christ, up to the time the object of faith came – that is, until Christ came – were under these laws and had to observe these old ceremonial laws. The heirs by faith were under tutors until Christ died.

So we see Christian Jews in New Testament times still wishing to keep up this wall of partition. When Peter went into the house of Cornelius and ate with the Gentiles he was sharply rebuked by some of the church at Jerusalem, but by patient explanation of all the circumstances he quieted the opposition, but did not conquer it.

It reappeared at Antioch in the demand that the Gentiles must be circumcised in order to be saved. This was a vital and fundamental matter. So Paul and Barnabas sternly resisted it, and as these Judaizing teachers came from Jerusalem and claimed authority from the apostles and the mother church, the whole case was referred to them and resulted in the council described in Acts 15. Paul’s contention was fully sustained. Peter, and even James, sided with him.

But even this solemn decision did not end the matter, so far as the Jews were concerned. The question of eating with the Gentiles was reopened at Antioch. While a Gentile might be saved without becoming a Jew, a Jewish Christian must remain a Jew. In this form of the question Peter and Barnabas were led to dissimulation, the more reprehensible on Peter’s part, since this was the very form of the question on which he had stood so nobly in the case of Cornelius. Paul won again, but the war went on.

How did Christ break down the wall? In the letter to the Colossians is the clearest passage in the whole Bible on how the whole Jewish law was abrogated, Ephesians 2:14: "Having blotted out the bond written in ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us; and he hath taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross, having despoiled the principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of a feast day, or a new moon, or a sabbath day."

Christ nailed the whole thing to the cross – blotted it out. These things were typical. When Christ, the antitype, came they were done away forever. The whole sabbatic cycle is set forth in this passage; feast days, or annual sabbaths; new moons, or monthly sabbaths; a sabbath day, or weekly sabbath, are all blotted out, just as Hosea predicted: "I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feasts, her new moons, and her sabbaths and all her solemn assemblies." Seventh Day Adventists try to get people to go back to keeping the seventh day instead of the first day of the week.

That means Christ has not come – that we are still under the bondage of types and ceremonies. Whoever believes that, announces himself as a Jew of the old kind.

It took a Paul to make people see that the wall was broken down, ground to powder, and swept out of the realm of obligation by the breath of God’s abrogation. It is utterly gone. Paul would sometimes as a matter of expediency, out of consideration for weak brethren who believed it was something awful to eat meat offered to idols, refrain from eating meat. He said, "The idol is nothing. That is all done away with in Christ. And all of these laws about clean and unclean animals have no force now, but so far as I am concerned, if my eating meat will cause some weak brother to stumble and fall down and keep on falling, I will let it alone. I do not let it alone because there is any harm in it to me, but because of these weak brethren for whom Christ died."

While that wall of partition stood, on one side were men without God, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenant, who had no hope in the Messiah, therefore without God. It said to the Gentile, "You stand off yonder." In Mark 7, to show how extreme their position became, in addition to the law, they observed their added traditions; if a Jew went to market, when he came back he must immerse himself to be free from possible defilement by contact; he must immerse the table on which he ate, the couch on which he slept, the pots and vessels which he used. That entire typical ceremonial legislation which shut out the Gentile was abrogated. It was blotted out, abolished, and nailed to the cross of Christ.

We will now see how the thought develops. The old distinction between Jew and Gentile being blotted out, he now uses a series of figures. The first figure is marriage, by which two entirely different individuals become one: "They twain shall be one flesh." The scripture on that is Ephesians 2:14: "He hath made both one." And in Ephesians 2:15: "That he might create in himself of the two, one new man." The wall being broken down, it is the purpose of Christ to take the Jew and Gentile and make one new man, so that in Christ there will be neither Jew nor Greek. That is the first figure.

The next figure is the new commonwealth. He says, "Ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but ye are fellow citizens with the saints." Here is a citizenship, and it is just as good and proper for the Gentiles to be citizens in Christ Jesus as for the Jews. The next figure is the household, or family. This is the language: "And of the household of God." So we have a new man, a new commonwealth, a new family.

He changes the figure again to the Temple, or house of God. Here is the language: "Being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner stone." That Temple at Jerusalem was one of the strongest factors in the wall of partition. Why? There was a certain place that the Gentiles were permitted to go – the court of the Gentiles – but they could not go any further. No Gentile could go up into the Jewish court.

Now Paul says, "That old Temple is out of the way; he builds a new temple that the old one foreshadowed," and in this new temple Gentile material will be used as well as Jewish material. The chief cornerstone in the foundation of this new temple is the rock, Christ Jesus. A cornerstone is one that holds two walls together. We notice in a building where two walls come together a large stone that goes into each wall and holds them together. Of course there are cornerstones all the way up, but the chief cornerstone is down next to the foundation. Every Christian who exercises the holding-together power is a cornerstone. Some just stick in the wall. Others we may call intermediate cornerstones. That is the imagery of the temple.

In Ephesians 2:18 he shows a much more precious thought: "Through him we both [Jew and Gentile] have access to the Father." Before, it was only the Jews who had access, but under this new economy, the Gentiles as well as the Jews have access in Christ to the Father. I stated that when Christ died he nailed to his cross all discriminating legislation. There was a signal token. Just at the time Christ died the veil in the Temple was rent in twain from top to bottom. That veil was said to be 70 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 4 inches thick. Ten yoke of oxen could not have torn it. It was closely woven and beautifully colored. At the moment Christ said, "It is finished," it was rent in twain, commencing at the top and going all the way down. This signified that the way to the holy of holies was then made open to all.

Paul refers to that in the letter to the Hebrews when he says, "Wherein God, being minded to show more abundantly unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us: which we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and entering into that which is within the veil; whither as a forerunner Jesus entered for us, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." Christ destroyed two enmities; first the enmity between Jew and Gentile, and made peace between these two and converted them into one; then he made peace between each one of them and the Father. Being reconciled to the Father through Christ we are reconciled to our fellow men.

We now come to a very important thought. When Paul talks about the new man, and the church is said to be the bride made one with Christ, as Adam and Eve were made one, and when he talks about one commonwealth and one citizenship, and when he talks about them being one housebold, and being made into one temple, he is speaking of the church as an institution. God established a time institution. That institution is exemplified, becomes operative, in particular churches.

This thought is expressed in Ephesians 2:21: "In whom each several building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord." That is to say, each particular congregation, particular church, is an expression of the church as an institution, and its only expression. For instance, a new state may provide for "trial by jury." There, "jury" is an institution, of which each particular jury is an expression. So the expression, "I will build my church," when that institution becomes operative, it is exemplified in a particular church. We must make the distinction in usage according to the laws of language between an institution in the abstract sense and its expression in every particular, concrete case. Speaking abstractly, we may say that the church is a temple. Speaking concretely, each particular church is a temple. Such usage of language is common. We never misunderstand its import in other matters. We never make the abstract sense a conglomeration. If we say abstractly "the husband is the head of the wife" we do not mean all husbands are blended into one big universal husband. But we mean that in every particular case the husband is the head of the wife. Just so in Ephesians 1:22; Ephesians 2:12-20; Ephesians 3:10; Ephesians 3:21 the church as an institution is discussed under several figures. But always Ephesians 2:21-22 (revised text) shows what the institution is in its expression. It becomes operative in particular churches only. Later Ephesians 5:23-33 will discuss the glory church.

The Judaizing Christians fought Paul’s Gospel on every field of evangelism, and notwithstanding his letters to the Corinthians, Galatians, Romans, Philippians, Colossians, Ephesians, and Hebrews, he foresaw the coming of a great apostasy that after his day would revert to a national church with an earthly head and reincorporate into the Christian system the ideas, priesthood and ritual of an abrogated economy. He foresaw the coming of Christian interpreters, who would revert to the Jewish sabbath and insist on this restoration of a Jewish kingdom with a returned Christ a: King at Jerusalem and with the Gentile world in subjugation Tens of thousands of pulpits in Christendom today are seeking in some fashion to rebuild that wall which Christ demolished on the cross, and whose crumbling stone and wasting wood were pulverized and scattered as fine dust.

From the old covenant, and from effete heathen religions and customs, they gathered fragments and blended them into a new yoke of bondage, setting aside the liberty and simplicity of the gospel. And particularly on the ideas of the church there is yet before Baptists a hard battle, whose preliminary skirmishes have already commenced.

So far only the general line of thought has been followed. But we need to look more critically at some particular expressions, even though there be repetition.

Ephesians 2:14. "For he is our peace." What the strict meaning? Is it limited to peace between Jew and Gentile, or is it the peace of both Jew and Gentile with God, or both? The peace under discussion is a reconciliation by the cross.’ The cross must have here an expiatory sense; it must propitiate toward God, making peace between him and the sinner, and as both Jew and Gentile draw near to God they draw near to each other. As all the diverging spores of a wheel come together and unite in the hub, so Jew and Gentile find in Christ, the center, primarily, peace with God, and, secondarily, peace with each other. Isaiah (9:5-6), Micah. (5:6), and Zechariah (10:10) predict peace through the coming Messiah.

Ephesians 2:15. "The enmity." Here again the enmity is not merely or primarily the hatred between Jew and Gentile, but the enmity of both toward God. This is what stood in the way of peace. Enmity which antagonizes and holds nations apart can never be converted to peace until first the giunity toward God on the part of opposing nations is gotten out of the way. In the death of enmity toward God is also the death of enmity toward each other. The thought is beautifully imaged in the two staves of the prophet, the staff, "Beauty," and the staff, "Bands," the first representing the tie uniting Ephraim and Judah to God, the second binding the two together. "Bands" cannot be broken until "Beauty" is first broken.

"Create in himself of the two one new man." This is not demanding that a Gentile shall become a Jew, nor that a Jew shall become a Gentile; this would not be a creation. But he creates a new corporate body, i.e., the church as an institution. But as the two elements, Jew and Gentile, are blended into the new corporation, this would not be a creation on account of the use of pre-existing material. A mere blending, therefore, does not express the thought. The blending would be purely artificial if unchanged, incoherent elements are bound together. By the creating power of regeneration the Jew is made a Christian, and so the Gentile. This Christian material of the new corporation did not exist before. In this way he created in himself of the two one new man, i.e., a new church. As the corporation was new, so the elements which composed it were made new.

Ephesians 2:16. "Reconcile them both in one body, unto God, through the cross." Here it is evident, what has been expressed before, that the reconciliation of peace is toward God, and sacrificially through the cross, and hence their peace with each other is only a secondary thought resulting from the first.

Ephesians 2:17. "And he came and preached peace to them that were far off and peace to them that were nigh." "And he came. When and what this coming? It was the coming m the Holy Spirit on Pentecost – the beginning of the execution of the commission given before this ascension. Instrumentally the church, endued with power by the Spirit, did the preaching.

Ephesians 2:18. "For through him [Christ] we both [Jew and Gentile] have access, in one Spirit, unto the Father." Here in one short sentence we have all the persons of the Trinity in their distinguishing office work.

Ephesians 2:20. "Foundation – Cornerstone." Christ is really the foundation and the cornerstone ( 1 Corinthians 3:10-15; 1 Peter 2:6-7). The New Testament apostles and prophets are the foundation only in the sense that they laid it in their preaching, and in that way their vital doctrines, or what they preached, is called the foundation (Hebrews 6:1). Real foundation = Christ Teaching foundation = the apostles and prophets Doctrinal foundation = what they preached

Ephesians 2:21-22. Let the reader particularly note that the church as an institution, whether called "one new man," "one body," "one commonwealth," "one household," or "one temple," finds expression in "each several building" or particular congregation, and that the leading idea of its mission is to become a habitation of God through the Spirit.

QUESTIONS

1. Cite and explain each particular of the condition of the Gen- tiles prior to the gospel proclamation.

2. What race probations in Genesis 1-11, and what change commences in Genesis 12?

3. What is the wall of partition?

4. When and how abrogated?

5. Prove that this includes abrogation of the Jewish sabbaths of all kinds.

6. In what letters of Paul is all this made plain?

7. Yet what did he foresee?

8. In this chapter what various images are employed to express the idea of the church as an institution?

9. Prove that this institution finds expression in particular churches.

10. What is the meaning of "Christ our peace"?

11. What is the meaning of enmity?

12. What is the meaning of "He came and preached peace, i.e., when and how was this coming?

13. What verse of this chapter presents all the persona of the Trinity, distinguishing between their office work?