Sunday, September
1st
Ephesians 2:11-22
Matt Rawlings
Mary
Catherine came up to me a few weeks ago and said, you know when you were
talking about looking for ways to make disciples in your community and using
the talents God has given you, I just had to share about what just happened to
me when I stepped out and how God is using me. It is still a work in progress
and we pray that all of the necessary details fall into place for her to begin
using this means to reach out to teens in her community soon. But even if
things don’t go the way they seem they are, God has already been at work to
grow Mary Catherine and strengthen her and use her to be a gospel light in her
community. And I’m looking forward to hearing about her reaching
under-privileged kids and those with less opportunity.
It reflects
the heart of Jesus in making disciples. He went to those who were hurting and
in need. Jesus preached peace to those who were far off and peace to those who
were near. He preached reconciliation to those who faced alienation. He came to
tear down the walls of hostility that divided mankind.
And we need
to hear this message still today don’t we? I was thinking that it wasn’t too
long ago that our nation was dramatically and officially divided over the
simple color of our skin. It wasn’t very long ago when our own country was
divided by racial, or really ethnic hostility. It was just 1963 when Martin
Luther King Jr. marched on Washington and made his famous “I have a dream”
speech, because there was a crying need for reconciliation between children who
were born into families that were estranged from each other by the color of
their skin.
The
government mandated separate schools for people of color and there were literal
dividing walls between us. I am not from Greenville originally but the schools
in my own southern hometown of Winchester, Virginia didn’t integrate until 1966
- after the birth of my oldest sister – to put it into perspective. Remember,
it was only 1968 when Dr. King was assassinated at age 39 in Memphis Tennessee.
When my own father was in the army and stationed outside of Washington DC, his unit was called up to man water
cannons on the national mall, in case of
rioting at a protest they were ordered to spray the protestors. It
wasn’t that long ago really.
It was not
until 1970 that Greenville County Schools were integrated and the county
government officially stopped the policy of formal discrimination. It was not
until 1975 that a good school like BJU officially changed their policy to admit
students of any race. And it wasn’t until the year 2000, that BJU repented and
dropped their inter-racial dating ban.
I’m not
picking on BJU – they are a good school. But it does illustrate that we are a
society that has a history of division and tension and hostility and alienation
over different ethnicities. And it isn’t limited to the South or to people
referred to as either black and white – as if there really are people that are
so starkly different.
Divisions
over many ethnicities exist, whether someone is Latino or Hispanic or Asian or
Japanese or Chinese or Middle-eastern or just those who are anti-immigrants
because they are not like us, they are not from here and they don’t belong. Remember
Native Americans and their experience with the ancestors of many of us in the
room. People came to this nation seeking a home – because it is a basic human
desire to find a place where you can call home – to find a place of peace and
rest and safety – a place of security and freedom.
The policies
of Racial discrimination may have officially ended but we still have problems –
we still need reconciliation. The wounds of ethnic divide are still raw here in
the South as they are all over the world.
Divisions and hostility and homelessness still exist. And the Bible
speaks directly to these things. The good news about Jesus Christ is relevant
to these things. And being a disciple of Jesus and sharing the good news means
that we are not supposed to be like the divided world around us, because we
have a message of reconciliation that is greater than any divide we have – we
have a message of reconciliation with God and with humanity.
"Therefore
remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called "the
uncircumcision" by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the
flesh by hands - remember that you were at that time separated from Christ,
alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of
promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus
you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he
himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh
the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and
ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so
making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross,
thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were
far off and peace to those who were near.
For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then
you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the
saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the
whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In
him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the
Spirit." Ephesians 2:11-22
In the first
10 verses of chapter 2, the Apostle Paul was calling the Ephesians to remember
their state before God as dead and walking in sin. Now, in these verses, Paul
is telling the Ephesians to remember that not only were they dead in their sins
and enslaved to their own flesh, the ways of the world and the devil, they once
had no hope of being God’s people. Not only were they dead, there was no way
for them to receive the promises of God.
They didn’t belong
to God’s people and they were part of fallen humanity, doomed to hopelessness
no matter what. The Apostle is calling them to remember that they were
separated from Christ, they were segregated from Israel. They were strangers to
the promise and they were divided simply by being born Gentiles.
And there are
at least three things that our text addresses. In fact, there are many points
we could make from the text this morning but we can’t – so there are three
things we are going to spend some time on this morning. The first thing we are
going to look at is that Paul wants them to know that Jesus came to bring alienated people together in him. And the
second thing we will see in these verses is that Jesus came to break down the dividing wall of hostility. And the final thing we will look at
from these verses is that Jesus came to
give us a real home.
We need to
hear these things – we need the good news that Jesus preached to permeate our
minds and transform our thinking don’t we? So many people are alienated from
each other and alienated from God – this isn’t a condition that is unique to us
– it is part of the fallen condition of humanity. We have been alienated from
God because of our sin and because of our sin and the differences we have in
the flesh and differences of opinion, we are often alienated from each other. But
the good news is that...
1. Jesus came to bring alienated
people together in him.
At the very
outset of these verses, in verse 11, Paul wants them to remember, because he wants them to
understand their past and appreciate where they came from even better, so that
they might grasp the mighty reversal of the past that Jesus Christ has brought
about. Now, not only are they alive, they have privileges that they never would
have had before.
Imagine if you were of African descent here in America just 50 some years
ago? Imagine how it must have felt to be marginalized – for privileges to be
with-held just because you were of a different ethnicity. Remembering how it
used to be makes us all appreciate the privileges we have now. Now people are
allowed to ride on the bus and sit anywhere. Now, people of all colors can get
a drink of water at the same water fountain. Now, everyone can go to the same
schools. But it wasn’t always that way.
The apostle Paul is saying to the Ephesians, remember. Remember, you
couldn’t even dream of being a part. You couldn’t dream of belonging. You were
ethnically different. You came from the wrong people. You had the misfortune of
being born into the wrong family. Your situation was out of your control and it
was hopeless.
Imagine being born onto a Southern plantation as a black slave child in the
1850’s. You didn’t have a choice. Before you did anything right or wrong, you
were condemned to slavery. You were ethnically different. That is what our condition
was. Not only did we need to be saved from sin and saved from slavery, we
needed to be delivered. We needed to be brought out and brought into God’s
family.
Not only does Paul say to remember, He calls them something. He calls them
Gentiles. Now, no Roman or Greek, no citizen of Ephesus would ever refer to
themselves as “Gentiles”. That was a term that the Jews would have used for
anyone who wasn’t a part of God’s people – the Gentiles were the people outside
of God’s promises, who had no access to the covenant. But then he gives a hint
to the fact that their birth into the wrong family doesn’t really matter anymore,
because he calls them “Gentiles in the
flesh”. Their status as gentiles is only a fleshly distinction but it is a
distinction that no longer matters because in light of what Jesus Christ did,
their ethnicity is no longer of any ultimate significance. Sure, people may see
them differently, but that is only the way of looking at things “in the flesh”.
Then, Paul goes on to highlight more differences that they had. Not only
were they of the wrong heritage, they were also uncircumcised. The Jews weren’t
the only ones at the time to practice circumcision but their custom was
distinct enough from the world around them that they referred to everyone else
as uncircumcised. And when they said this, it meant everyone else was
unacceptable – unclean. Circumcision was a sign of being in the covenant family
– it was evidence of their exclusive and privileged status as belonging to the
covenant people of God – they were children of the promise.
And the ‘uncircumcision’ of all those who were not Jews was a sign of the
fact that they were.
Have you ever know what it was like to feel like you weren’t accepted? Have
you ever felt unclean – like you were a pariah – an untouchable. I have a
friend who grew up in India at a time when the class system was very much
alive. He was born into an untouchable class and he was considered the lowest
of the low. I remember him telling me how when he was a child, everyone would
treat him as an outcast and like he wasn’t wanted – like he didn’t belong and
like he wasn’t good enough. He would be thirsty and no one would allow him to
drink their water. And these feelings led him to extreme hatred of the upper
classes and it drove him to want to punish the people who he saw as responsible
for the problems in India.
So, he joined the Communist party and began to hate. He even got to the
point where his hatred spread to Christians because he mistakenly thought that
Christians thought they were better than everyone else too, even though he had
never experienced that. And he persecuted Christians until Jesus miraculously
stopped him and converted him. What had driven this man to a life of hatred was
that he was born unclean, born an untouchable. His life was hopeless.
What Paul is saying to the Ephesians is that your life was hopeless. And
the Holy Spirit is saying to each and every one of us through this letter,
remember – your life was hopeless. You too were Gentiles – you too were outside
of God’s family. You had no hope to ever have any of the privileges of God’s
people. You were outcasts, you were untouchables and you didn’t belong and you
had no say in the matter. You were born on the outside. You were called the
uncircumcised.
I like the way the NASB words it, when it says, they were called
“uncircumcised” by the “so-called Circumcision”. The reality is that those who
were born Jewish were not necessarily any different – they may or may not have
been truly circumcised – with the only circumcision that matters – that of the
heart. In fact, in Christ Jesus it is clear now, that the differences between
Jew and Gentile are fleshly differences – they are differences of birth – of
ethnicity, differences in the rites that were performed.
Circumcision was made in the flesh by hands – or by human hands, so it is
inferior - as opposed to the circumcision of the heart that only God performs.
"...remember that you were at that time separated from
Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the
covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world."
Then, Paul moves on to say remember something else. Remember that they were
separated from Christ. They were segregated. They had no part in the
commonwealth of Israel and they didn’t even know God’s covenants that brought
the promises of God. Because of this, they had absolutely no hope and they were
completely without God in the world. What a lonely terrifying existence. They
didn’t even know what they didn’t have.
And the same is true with us as well. We didn’t even know we needed God
much less how to be a part of God’s covenant people and receive the wonderful
promises of God. We had no hope and we were without God in the world.
Israel had been given wonderful privileges – they had God’s very words, His
promises – they had been adopted as sons and daughters. To them belonged the place where God chose to
dwell on earth in the temple. In contrast, all Gentiles were separated,
alienated, strangers, with no hope and without God in the world. The Messiah of
Israel belonged to the Jews. The Messiah is the true king of Israel through
whom all salvation comes. And no Gentile has a part in the Messiah on their
own. And we are to remember, this is a picture of us as well. We were all
separated from God’s chosen people – we were hopelessly distant from any
covenant relationship with the One true God. Instead we followed after gods of
our own making and we were once god-forsaken.
"But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have
been brought near by the blood of Christ."
In verse 13 though, Paul is saying that we are no longer god-forsaken,
because Jesus Christ was forsaken by God for us, when He cried out on the
Cross, “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me!?” So that now, they and we
are in Christ Jesus. And guess what, the Messiah of Israel is the Messiah of
the Gentiles as well! So we are no longer on the outside looking in. We are no
longer outside of the camp hoping to get in but having no way to enter. We have
been brought near by the blood sacrifice of Christ.
We once had no hope of coming into God’s presence but now, in Christ, we
don’t just get to come into Israel’s camp, we don’t just get to come close and
go into the temple. We can actually go into the very presence of God through
Jesus – and in Christ we all have the same access to God and all of our access to
God all of our hope for nearness to God is now only by coming by the blood – by
the sacrifice of Christ for us. Now, there is no distinction – there is no
distinction spiritually, we all come to God as part of an entirely new humanity
in Christ.And the second
thing we will see in verses 14-17 is that...
2. Jesus came to break down the
dividing wall of hostility.
In verse 14, Paul shifts from saying “you” to the language of “our” and
“us”. It says, "For he himself is
our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the
dividing wall of hostility."
Now, Jesus is not just the Messiah of the Jews, He is the hope of the
Gentiles as well. And it doesn’t say, that Jesus has made peace, although it
could. It doesn’t even say that He has given us peace – even though He has. It
says, He Himself IS our peace. There is no other source of peace with God. Christ
alone is our peace. Not our external differences – not our ethnicity, not our
practices or our methodology – no – Jesus Himself is our peace.
And Christ is the main subject of all of these verses. Jesus has destroyed
the dividing walls of hostility. He has abolished the law to reconcile and make peace. Who is the champion?
We can’t sing the old Queen song “We are the Champions!” no, my friends, He is
the Champion of the World and he has fought for us. He came to tear down the
walls of the flesh that divided humanity. He came to do away with hostility and
to be the source of our peace and in Him we find all of our peace.
That is why when troubles come the Bible says the Lord is at hand,
therefore be anxious for nothing – we have peace when He is at hand because He
is our peace and we weren’t meant to look anywhere else for our peace. Why do
we get anxious, we get anxious because we look to circumstances, we look to
ourselves, we look to all sorts of things and other people, but we forget too
easily that He is our peace.
And Paul uses the word peace four times in these verses as well as related
words like reconcile and “made us both one”. So what does peace mean here? It
is well-being. It is security. It is knowing that we have salvation and
forgiveness and harmony with God. It means that we are completely whole,
lacking nothing before God. It means that we have no reason to fear any
punishment from God ever again. It means that we never have to fear being
rejected by God anymore. It means that we never have to fear being unwanted by
God anymore. No – Christ has established peace in Himself – he not only gives
us peace – He Himself is our peace and He gave Himself for us.
When Caesar Augustus came on the scene, the world knew a time of relative
peace for many years. Caesar established through conquest and military rule the
famous Pax Romana – or the Roman Peace that lasted from 27BC to 180 AD. This was
an unprecedented 207 years across the Middle East and Europe. God sent Jesus
onto the scene at the perfect time didn’t He!? The Roman peace lasted long
enough for the small band of Christians to grow and flourish – but it ended
because no one could establish peace long-term – because even the best rulers
die.
But Jesus Himself is our peace and He never dies. So our peace will never
end. He brought peace not through worldly conquest but through conquering sin
and abolishing hostility, abolishing the law because He fully kept the law and
made a new, better and permanent way to God through Himself.
"...who has
made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of
hostility."
Jesus came to do away with the distinction between Jew and Gentile and to
do away with the dividing wall of hostility. So that now in Christ, “there is neither Jew nor Greek there is
neither slave nor free” like Galatians 3:36 says and as it continues in
Galatians 3:29, “if you are Christ's,
then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise." And
this peace that we have in Christ it is meant to have an effect on human
relationships.
"Here there
is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian,
slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. Put on then, as God's chosen ones,
holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing
with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each
other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive."
Colossians 3:11-13
The peace we have in Christ is meant to result in God’s people being marked
by compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. Because we no longer
are separated from God’s people, we are all to treat each other with the same
love that we have been treated. We are to bear with one another in love –
instead of being irritated at your fellow brother or sister in Christ. Instead
of complaining against one another – we are to forgive each other.
The peace we have in Jesus is meant to function. He calls us to Himself –
Jesus calls us to peace with Him and peace with all of those who are in Him. He
calls us to be at peace and to stop speaking badly of one another. He calls us
to peace and to stop treating each other unlovingly based on your differences and
whatever ethnic group you come from. He has torn down the walls of hostility in
Himself, so we as His people have no right to try to put them back up again.
So let me ask you – who are you irritated with, who are you uncompassionate
towards? Who are you believing the worst about and presuming their motives? Who
are you acting proudly towards, thinking that you are right and that you can’t
possibly be wrong? How are you being unkind and unloving your speech – by
telling others about things you don’t like, by complaining about things to
someone else in the body – by being critical and complaining and spreading a
critical spirit.
Listen – it isn’t difficult to put walls up – it isn’t difficult to make
hostility. It isn’t difficult to cause division in the church by subtly
complaining and spreading discontent. But Christ came to do away with all such
hostility and to tear down the walls and make peace and give us hope in Him and
His peace is meant to affect how we live. Not demanding our own rights and our
own way any longer, because we are fellow brothers and sisters in Him and He
died – He gave His blood to make us one. So what makes us think that it is ok
for us to tear apart what He died to join together in His blood? Verse 15 tells
us He did all of this.
"...by
abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in
himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace"
What makes you a Christian? Is it the keeping of the law or keeping the
commandments? Perhaps being a Christian is all about the way you eat, what you
wear and what you look like – or whether you are separate from those who aren’t
Christians or who aren’t as pure as you? No.
The Pharisees prided themselves in keeping their ordinances and they
separated from those who didn’t keep the same practices. Jesus came to abolish
the law of commandments and ordinances as a means to become God’s people. Now,
no one is part of God’s people through the law-covenant of Moses – every human
comes to God only through Jesus Christ. And in doing so, Jesus made the true
Israel into the church and He made the church into the true Israel.
So now, there is a radical new humanity in Christ in place of Jew and
Gentile alike – there is no longer any distinction – He has made a new Creation.
It says he did this “that He might create
in Himself one new man in place of the two”, so making peace between ethnic
groups who were hostile and opposed to each other. He came to do away with all
of our ethnic divisions and make peace not only with God but between all ethnic
divisions of humanity.
You see, there is no such thing as different races, we are all either part
of the fallen human race, no matter what our ethnicity is and no matter the
color of our skin – or we are part of Christ’s new humanity, regardless of our
ethnic distinctions that are no longer significant. If the Jews talked about
their being two divisions of humanity in Jews and Gentiles, Paul says, there is
now Jews, Gentiles and the church. Jesus came to establish a radically new,
transcendent humanity – a new humanity with its very identity in Christ Himself.
And Jesus has done all of this, so that He...
"...and
might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing
the hostility."
Jesus came to do away with hostility. Through the Cross, Jesus put to death
the hostility between Jew and gentile and between males and females, slaves and
free. He came to kill the hostility between all ethnic groups, between people
of different backgrounds and nations and to kill the hostility between the
sexes and to kill the hostility between different classes and socio-economic
backgrounds. Now, we all come to God through the Cross no matter what our
background or color or where we come from or how smart we think we are or what
we look like – we are all reconciled to God the same way. We are all reconciled
in Christ’s body through the Cross.
I like the way Joseph Robinson put it when he said, “Christ in his death
was slain, but the slain was a slayer too." There is no room for pride –
there is no room for prejudice – there is no room for arrogantly looking down
on anyone else. Jesus slayed the hostility between us and God and between us
and others when He was slain for us. There is no excuse for any kind of racism
or segregation in God’s people. Martin Luther King Jr’s dream of ethnic
reconciliation has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ and it is up to us to live it
out.
The divisions of Jew and Gentile were far deeper than any ethnic division
we can imagine and yet Jesus did away with that and killed all hostility. So
let us put aside any and all hostility towards others,
and because of our reconciliation with Christ, we have been given a
ministry of reconciliation, to reach the rest of humanity that has not been
reconciled to God. Because God has put aside all of the hostility we deserved
and shown us His great love and mercy when we didn’t deserve it and reconciled
us to each other and Himself in Christ. But not only that, verse 17 tells us
that Jesus...
"And he came
and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near."
If you feel far away – distant from others – it can be very painful. But
Jesus came to preach peace to those who were far off and peace to those who
were near – peace to both the Jew and Gentile alike, regardless of any ethnic
differences and who their parents were. Jesus
gave the same peace to Jews who were near and Gentiles who were far off.
Regardless of what our talents are or what our personalities are like,
Jesus came and preached the same peace in Himself to you and I no matter
whether we were far or near. And the peace that had been preached is the gospel
- the good news of Jesus Christ, where we all can have peace with God through
being reconciled to Him in Christ. Then,
in verses 18-22, we can see our final point, which is that...
3. Jesus came give us a real home
"For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the
Father."
Both Jews and Gentiles – in fact, any and all ethnic groups, male and
female, we all have access through Jesus in the Holy Spirit to God the Father. We
all now have a relationship with God the Father through the reconciliation of
Jesus Christ. It says we have access.
For one of my first jobs after High School, I worked in Security for the
government and one of my jobs was to grant access to the government facility by
making sure that people visiting who didn’t have access, were with someone who
had the right clearances and to make sure that they would take the
responsibility to escort the visitor so that the person could be granted access
to the building.
Jesus has granted us both – Jew and Gentile alike, access to the Father –
where before no one could ever go – now, we have been brought near into God’s
presence and granted unprecedented access – in One Spirit. As one new humanity,
we can come into His presence. And we all can come into God’s presence through
Christ and we don’t come to God as judge any longer – we come to Him as Father.
We are now His family and there is no distinction made between children
born Jewish or Gentile, or black or white or red or yellow or all shades of in
between. And the entire Trinity is at work here – God the Son, God the Spirit
and God the Father to bring about the result that verses 19-22 tell us about.
"So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you
are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God..."
Imagine what it must be like to be homeless. Jesus came to give us a true
home. The result of Christ’s reconciling work – the goal of His reconciling
work and the consequence of His work for these Gentile readers and for all of
us was to make us a part of His church. He says we are no longer strangers and
aliens to the household of God. We used to not belong – we were strangers.
My family lived in Canada for 7 years to help plant a church. And while we
were there I was registered as an alien. I was granted permanent residency by
the Government but I wasn’t a citizen and so there were differences in what
rights and privileges I had or didn’t have. Paul is saying that we now are no
longer resident aliens. We are now citizens of His heavenly home. We are fellow
citizens and members of the household of God now.
Paul is saying that the Gentiles are neither homeless nor are they just
resident aliens – they are citizens in God’s Kingdom – they have a homeland
now, along with all the saints. Jew and Gentile alike who have been saved by
Jesus all are living in God’s household – we are at home in God’s family now.
And this means we are to treat each other as fellow household members –
fellow members of God’s holy family.
The household in ancient times was a place of refuge and protection. It was
where you belonged and it was where you were as secure as the master of the
household could make you. Paul is saying, now, we are all members of God’s
household, secure, protected in Him and we take refuge in God’s household,
knowing that Our Great Master is over all things. Verse 20 then tells us that
this household, or this temple, is...
"...built on
the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the
cornerstone..."
We have been given a secure foundation, with Jesus Christ as the
cornerstone. Now, today, most of us don’t know what a cornerstone is or what
its function was for. I used to live outside of Washington DC and one of the
more spectacular specimens of architecture there is the Washington National
Cathedral, which is the 6th largest cathedral in the world and it is
also the church building that functions as the head of the Episcopal Church in
America. And the massive cornerstone for this church building – for the
Cathedral - was originally laid in the presence of President Theodore
Roosevelt. But it takes a while to build a cathedral that large and
construction didn’t end until 83 years later when the "final finial"
was placed in the presence of President George H. W. Bush in 1990.
The cornerstone is significant and the entire building depends upon it. In
old buildings like this or in the massive temples that were built in Roman
days, everything depended on the cornerstone – it had a place of pre-eminent
importance. It anchored the entire foundation and had a special function.
In a similar way, Paul uses the picture of the cornerstone for the Church
and tells us that Jesus Christ is the cornerstone who was laid first as the
basis for the foundation and all other parts of the foundation were oriented by
it and built upon it. In this passage, Paul is saying that the prophets and
apostles, who were commissioned by Jesus Chris, through their testimony and
writing in Scripture have been given to us as a trustworthy foundation.
1 Corinthians 12:28 tells us that “God
appointed apostles first in the church” – meaning that the apostles were
the foundation upon which the church is built – through their teaching. But all
of the Old Testament and New Testament centers on Jesus Christ – who is the
cornerstone that all of the prophets and apostles teaching is joined together
in and rests upon. Even today, we are still being built on the same foundation.
The church is not yet finished being built. And we are all built together on
the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ as the chief
cornerstone. As verse 21 elaborates...
"...in whom
the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the
Lord."
The whole body, the church is joined together and built up into a holy
temple in the Lord. And this building activity is an ongoing project – it is a
work in progress. Not only are we added to the building but we are growing into
a holy temple in the Lord. So, God inhabits His heavenly temple uniquely but it
is still growing.
Old Testament prophecy told us that in the end times, the temple is the
place where every nation will come to pray and worship the living God. Now, in
Jesus Christ, Gentiles and Jews have together become the temple of God – the
place where God’s presence dwells, in fulfillment of the prophecies.
"In him you also are being built together into a dwelling
place for God by the Spirit."
We are being
built as living stones where God lives by His Holy Spirit. We who once had no
access to God and were barred from the temple now have access to God and have
become the temple where God lives by His Spirit. We have been granted access,
brought near, made His people, reconciled to one another and to God. We have
been given a home and we are fellow citizens and members of God’s household and
lastly, we are being built together into a dwelling place for God as His temple
– His Church. What a privilege we have and what cause for rejoicing!
