Christ has Broken Down the Wall Between Jew and Non-Jew
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. Ephesians 2:14 (NIV)
‘For he himself is our peace’ (2:14) in two ways. Not only has He reconciled His people to God through His death, but He has reconciled them to each other. As men and women are found in Him, and continue to live in Him, they find peace with God and a meeting place and unity with one another, whatever may have been their divisions of race, colour, class or creed before. He came to be the Prince of peace (Isaiah 9:6,7; Micah 5:5; Haggai 2:9; Zechariah 9:10). By His coming and supremely by His cross, He ‘has made the two one’ (2:14). Paul literally wrote ‘he has made two things into one thing.’ The organisation of Judaism and the Gentile world no longer stand apart as before. God has made a way for the divided to become one.
The greatest earthly division was that which separated Jews and Gentiles. There had always been a ‘dividing wall of hostility’ (2:14) between the two. There was a barrier both literally and spiritually. In Jerusalem between the Temple proper and the Court of the Gentiles, there was a stone wall on which was an inscription in both Latin and Greek: ‘No one of another nation to enter within the fence and enclosure round the temple. And whoever is caught will have himself to blame that his death ensues.’ Christ had now ‘destroyed the barrier’ between Jews and Gentiles, of which the dividing wall in the Temple had become a symbol. The Jews had formerly tended to speak of the division of humanity into Jews and Gentiles but Paul makes a threefold classification into Jews, Greeks (Gentiles) and the church of God (1 Corinthians 10:32), the last embracing former Jews and former Gentiles.
In the verses that follow Paul will deal with two things that had to be dealt with for the dividing wall between Jews and Gentiles to be broken down. The first was the ‘hostility’ (2:14), the animosity between the two groups. The second was ‘the law with its commandments and regulations’ (2:15; cf. Colossians 2:14,20). Jesus’ death was the means of ‘making peace’ (2:15) between Jew and Gentile by removing the division. The law could no longer be the way by which Jews and Jews alone could come to God. The way of approach is now by grace, by a new creative work of God and the same for both Jews and Gentiles. Christ’s purpose was to ‘to create in himself one new man out of the two’ (2:15).
Christ is our peace. He has ‘made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility’ forever.
Our reconciling “Peace” is Jesus! He has made Jew and non-Jew one in Christ. By dying as our sacrifice, he has broken down every wall of prejudice that separated us and has now made us equal through our union with Christ. Ethnic hatred has been dissolved by the crucifixion of his precious body on the cross. Ephesians 2:14 (The Passion Translation)