From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The 16th verse in the second chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians. And that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. This is one of the phrases in this tremendous statement, this mighty argument that the apostle is developing.

It's difficult to know where to start reading the context. Perhaps we'll start reading at verse 14. For He is our peace who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances. For to make in Himself of twain one new man so making peace, and that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.

It's one, I say, of the links in a great chain, and therefore to understand as we should the meaning of the particular link, we must again remind ourselves of the chain. That's a great principle, incidentally, with regard to the whole of Scripture. The part can only be understood truly in the context of the whole.

Now the general argument therefore is this, the apostle is anxious that these Ephesians should realize what an astounding and marvelous thing it is that they are members of the Christian Church. And particularly that they are members in the Christian Church side by side with the Jews. Because if there was one thing that appeared to be more impossible than anything else in the ancient world, it was that there should ever be any reconciliation between Jews and Gentiles. The world was divided.

But the apostle says that in God's marvelous plan of salvation in Christ Jesus, the impossible has happened. The gospel is always producing the impossible. But He takes it in this way. There were certain things that had to happen before those Ephesians could possibly thus become fellow heirs and fellow members with the Jews.

The first thing was their sinful condition must be dealt with. He's shown us how that was dealt with in verses 1 to 10. Now then He comes to the second problem. This matter of bringing the Gentiles and the Jews together. And here He tells us there is, as it were, a dual problem.

They need first of all to be brought together, but then they both together need to be brought to God. Because you remember that His initial statement was this, that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise. That's their separation from the Jews, having no hope and without God in the world. That's their separation from God.

And both these things are necessary. And what the apostle is showing in this immediate context that we are dealing with is how that has been done. How both things have been done in the Lord Jesus Christ. So that the fundamental postulate of the whole statement is this. He is our peace.

That's the fundamental proposition. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself is our peace in every respect. Now then the apostle first takes up the question as to how Christ is our peace and has made peace actually between Jews and Gentiles. And you remember we saw that He had done two things, negatively.

He had broken down the middle wall of partition. He is abolished that law of commandments in ordinances and thereby has got rid of that enmity. That was the negative part. But last Sunday morning we saw that it was positive also. He did not merely remove the middle wall of partition. That isn't true unity. True unity consists of making peace.

So He has done that also. He has created in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace. There is this new humanity, the body of Christ, the Christian Church, call it what you will. And the unity between the Jew and the Gentile is something absolutely new, something that has been brought into being that was not there before. It's a new creation.

The old has passed away. All things have become new. One new man in Christ. Very well, there's the first problem. But still, says the apostle, there is this other problem. The Ephesians, these pagans as they were, these Gentiles, were not only separated from the Jews, the commonwealth of Israel, they were also separated from God.

And obviously there can be no true unity as between men and men until there is this other unity because the original division into Jew and Gentile was all in terms of God. So the apostle now goes on to show how this second matter has also been dealt with and has been dealt with again in the same way by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

But you notice at once that the apostle puts this in a very interesting manner. Instead of simply telling us how the Ephesians, who were pagans, have been reconciled unto God, He says, and that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. Both Jews and Gentiles. And then He shows us exactly how this has taken place.

Now the teaching here, of course, is absolutely fundamental and vital and especially in this whole question of unity and in respect of this whole matter of peace. If you like it in its general form, we can put it like this. All the minor and secondary divisions and separations and quarreling among men are ultimately due to the fact that they are all together separated from God.

Now that is, I say, a fundamental and a universal proposition. The world is full of divisions and distinctions. We are all aware of that. Countries, nations, blocks, groups, curtains, one side, the other side. In the nation, classes, industrial groups, capital, labor, master and employer and servant, and so on. And within all these groups again, divisions, rivalries, envies, the world is full of divisions and separations.

Yes, but here is the teaching of the Scripture. All these minor, secondary, third-rate, fifth-rate, tenth-rate divisions and separations and quarreling are all of them due to one thing only. And that is that all men are separated from God and are in the wrong relationship to Him.

Now that's the whole case of the Bible. There would be no trouble in life at all were it not that men had rebelled against God and had fallen from God. All the troubles are due to that. So that conversely, we are entitled to say this. Unity therefore among men is only possible as men are reconciled together to God.

Now you see the importance of that statement. There are people who talk glibly about the application of Christian teaching to the problems. It's quite simple, they say. You've simply got to put it before people and tell them to do it and, well, there it is. But according to this teaching, it is impossible until men and women are reconciled to God.

It is a sheer waste of breath and of energy and of time to try to get Christian behavior from people who are not Christians. They cannot do it. A man has to be right with God before he can be right with his fellow men and women.

I remind you again of how our Lord answered the question that was put to Him when He was asked, "Which is the first and the greatest commandment?" His reply was, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind, and all your strength." And then, "The second is like unto it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself." But you can't do the second until you've done the first.

So that you see, this is, as I say, a basic foundational principle. And it is because this is being forgotten that one sometimes is tempted to say that the whole trouble in the world today is that preachers are talking politics and politicians are preaching. And it's because both parties don't understand the Gospel.

Now then, let's see how the apostle works this out. In a sense He's going on, I say, to a new theme. In another sense He's continuing the old one. The fact is, the two themes cannot be separated. That is why He connects them with His word and, which really means here in addition.

Now then, what is He saying? Well, the best way perhaps to approach this is to look at this great word, reconcile. And that He might reconcile both unto God. It's a very interesting word this. The word that the apostle actually used and which is translated reconcile.

It's only found in one other place in the whole Bible and it's the place which we found in the reading just now in the Epistle to the Colossians, the first chapter, verses 20 and 21. He there uses the identical word, but nowhere else. Now you will find in our Bibles, in our English Bibles, the word reconcile in other places. You will find it in Romans 5, in the 10th verse. You will find it in 2 Corinthians 5, verses 18, 19 and 20.

But in all those cases, the word actually used by the apostle was not the same word as He has used here. It's the same root. In a sense, it's the same essential meaning. But here He used a very special word. He put a prefix onto the word which He uses in the other places. And therefore in expanding this, we must take the word as He used it, prefix as well.

What therefore does the word reconcile mean? Well, let me suggest to you that it includes the following ideas and conceptions. It means first of all a change from a hostile to a friendly relationship. That's the simplest meaning. That's the basic meaning. A change from a hostile to a friendly relationship, but it means more.

It does not merely mean in the second place a friendship after an estrangement, but it means really bringing together. Again, to reunite and to reconnect. In other words, it doesn't merely do away with the estrangement. It isn't merely that it brings people into speaking terms again who formerly passed one another without even looking at one another. It isn't merely the doing away with the estrangement. It's a real bringing together again. A reuniting, a reconnecting. It carries that meaning.

It is a word also that emphasizes the completeness of the action. It's not merely a return to favor with one, but it means that the enmity is so laid aside completely that complete amity follows. It's not merely the abolition of the enmity. It is the restoration of a complete amity. And the emphasis here, I say, is on the completeness of the action.

It isn't patching up a disagreement. It isn't a compromise. You know, the conference has gone on for days and there's had been a deadlock. Somebody then gets a bright idea. What about introducing this word? Ah, you can just patch it up. Then you know there'll be another strike in a few months. It isn't that. No, no. It's a complete action.

It's a complete amity and concord where there was formerly hostility. But it also means this in the fourth place. It isn't merely that the two partners to the trouble of the dispute or the quarrel have both decided to come together. This word that the apostle used implies that it's one of the parties that takes the action and it's the upper one that does it.

There is a part of this word which means an action from above. It's the Greek word kata. It suggests this action that comes down from above. It isn't the two sides coming together as it were voluntarily. It's one bringing the other into this position of complete amity and concord.

And finally, in the fifth place, the word carries the meaning that it is a restoration of something that was there before. Now, our word reconcile, which is a sort of transliteration of the Latin word, in and of itself suggests that, doesn't it? The word is reconcile. They were reconciled before, they are now reconciled.

Brought back to where they were. It was all right, it went wrong, it's brought back again. Now, the word carries all those meanings, and it's this last point especially that is introduced by the special prefix that is in the word that the apostle used here, the apo, the prefix.

A bringing back again, the re. That is the thing that is emphasized here. Very well then, what is the apostle's teaching? Well, let me try to put it to you in a number of principles. The first thing obviously that we are taught here is that sin separates from God.

All our troubles are ultimately due to the fact that we are not clear about sin. The apostle has already said it in verse 12. He repeats it here. It can never be repeated too often, that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, without God in the world. And then the opposite is being made nigh, being drawn nigh. All this is the terrible thing about sin.

But I suggest that we all are prone to forget this element in sin. Sin is not mere transgression of the law. It is that. Sin is not only disobedience. It is that. Sin is not only missing the mark. It is that.

But the most appalling thing about sin, the devastating thing about sin, is that it means breaking fellowship. It means that we are cut off from God, that we are out of relationship to God, that we are without God. Now, that is the thing that the apostle is here emphasizing.

But you see, it doesn't even stop at that. Sin is that which produces enmity between men and God. And that according to this teaching everywhere, is the condition of men in sin. You see, it happened at the beginning. God made men for Himself, and man was in fellowship with God.

Oh, that we held onto that idea as we ought. We were made for God. We were meant for God. We were never made for the world and the flesh and the devil. Man was made for God. He was meant for fellowship with God. He was meant to enjoy God. And He was like that.

But alas, sin came in. And you see the terrible thing about sin was not simply that they ate of the forbidden fruit. That was true, that was an action, that was rebellion, that was arrogance, that was breaking God's commandment and ignoring His law. I know. But the terrible thing was that it broke fellowship.

Man was walking with God, and suddenly turns his back on Him. That's the awful thing, I say, about sin. And therefore, that is the problem. That is the thing that needs to be put right. It isn't just a question of our being forgiven for the particular actions. That isn't the problem only. The problem is how can this fellowship be restored? How can it be brought back again?

You see, that is where so many go wrong in their thinking about these matters. That's why they don't understand the meaning of the death of Christ on the cross and see no meaning in a communion service. They say surely there's no great problem. When a child does something wrong, the parent forgives him and all is well. Well, isn't it like that with God? If I confess my sins, if I say I'm sorry, won't God just forgive me?

And the answer of the New Testament is, it's not as simple as that. If it were as simple as that, the Lord Jesus Christ would never have come into the world. He certainly would never have gone to the cross. Now, the problem is a problem of fellowship. How can fellowship be restored?

And this is not only of importance in the initial coming into the Christian life. There is nothing that is more vitally important for all of us who are Christians. And the sooner the better, my friends, we begin to think of sins not in terms of actions which are bad, but in terms of our relationship to God, the better Christians we will be.

Now, all this is set out very perfectly for us in the first Epistle of John, and in his first chapter. There you've got a picture. The Christian is a man who is in fellowship with God and he is walking with God. "Our fellowship is truly with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ," says John. And he says, "We, the apostles, are in this fellowship, and we want you to be enjoying it also." But then the question arises, "How is this possible? God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all."

And I am sinful and I keep on falling into sin. And the moment I fall into sin, what happens? Well, I break my fellowship with God. It isn't only that that action's wrong. I'm insulting my companion. I'm doing something in the presence of the holy God, who is light, that is to Him hateful and abhorrent. How can we walk in fellowship? That's how John puts it.

And I'm emphasizing it for this good reason that in my personal experience and in my experience as a pastor, there is no important discovery that the Christian can make in his battle with sin, with particular sins, than just this very thing. And what I tell people always is this, "Look here," I say, "Stop praying about that particular thing that gets you down.

Make your praying positive. Think of it in terms of your fellowship with God. Don't think of it merely in terms of you are going down and that particular thing. Turn your back on it if you like. Begin to think of yourself as a companion of God and of Christ, and say, 'Now, I'm with Him, and I must do nothing in His presence that He'll dislike and that'll hurt Him.' Think positively, remind yourself that Christ is always with you." And then you'll begin to hate the thing and it'll become unthinkable.

But that's what we tend to fail to do, isn't it? We forget that the terrible thing about sin is that it is a violation of fellowship, that it separates us from God. Very well, the term reconciliation at once brings us face to face with that. We've been out of fellowship. We need to be restored to fellowship.

Now, God, in the call of Abraham and in the forming of the nation of Israel, was already taking this great move to bring that reconciliation to pass. What God did was this: You see, the whole world had sinned in Eden and had fallen away from God, so we are all by nature estranged from God. Very well, now then, man does nothing and can do nothing about that, but God does something, and what He did was this:

Out of all the mass of mankind, He forms a new nation for Himself. A people for His own peculiar possession, a people with whom He can have fellowship and they can have fellowship with Him, a new nation, a new creation. That's the commonwealth of Israel. All the rest were outside that. They were still not in fellowship with Him. These were in fellowship, the rest were not.

Now if we don't grasp that, there is a sense in which we don't understand the Old Testament at all. That is the Old Testament. The story of God's forming this peculiar people for Himself and their relationships between them.

But unfortunately, that was not sufficient. For the apostle tells us here that the Jews, as well as the Gentiles, need to be reconciled to God. It isn't only the Ephesians who needed the reconciliation. The Jews did. Why? Well, here is the answer of the New Testament.

All the Levitical sacrifices, the burnt offerings and the sacrifices, the killing of the paschal lamb and the daily lamb, and the presentation of the blood and all the rest of it, all this rich and elaborate ceremonial was really not sufficient. It was merely a shadow of something that was to come. It was merely a covering over of the sins of men.

It really didn't. The blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer really cannot cleanse the soul. It covered over the sin, but it really didn't really deal with the problem. It was sufficient for the time being.

But according to this same apostle Paul, in the third chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, it was necessary that God should justify all that, and He did justify it on the cross of Calvary. He had to cover Himself for the remission of sins that were past, and here He does it. But not only was that a problem, the Jews also needed to be reconciled for this reason.

That they had so completely misunderstood what God had done in Abraham and in the nation, that they thought that the mere fact that they were physical descendants from Abraham, in and of itself, saved them. You remember John the Baptist knew that because when he began to preach to those Jews, he said, "Begin not to say amongst yourselves, we have Abraham to our father, for I say unto you that God can even of these stones raise up children unto Abraham." But that is what they were saying.

On one occasion the Lord Jesus Christ said unto them, "If you continue in My words, then you are My disciples indeed, and you shall receive the truth, and the truth shall make you free." And they resented it, saying, "We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man. How sayest thou, you shall be made free?" Ah, the Jews had misunderstood it all. They said because we are Jews, we are right with God, and thereby brought condemnation on themselves. They needed to be reconciled.

And furthermore, as we've seen on a previous Sunday, their attitude to the Gentiles was terribly sinful. They regarded them as dogs. They despised them. They were outsiders to them. And therefore they were deeply in sin, and for these various reasons, they needed to be reconciled to God. Very well, that brings us to our next proposition, which is this.

The apostle teaches here that they are both reconciled to God in exactly the same way, not separately. And that He might reconcile both unto God in one body. That's the point. That's His emphasis here.

Now the one body does not mean the physical body of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's covered by the cross. What He means here is this, the one body is the church. As we saw last Sunday. So what He teaches is that the Jew and the Gentile are reconciled to God in exactly the same way. There is no longer any difference between the Jew and the Gentile.

There is only one way of being reconciled to God. There is one God and one Mediator only between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. There are no separate ways into the kingdom of God for Jew and Gentile. There is only one way, and this is it, the one body again.

I'm emphasizing it, you know, for this reason, that there is a teaching which seems to be quite popular, but which seems to me in the light of this verse and others to be so terribly dangerously unscriptural, which says this: that now, during this dispensation, it is in Christ and by His grace and by His death that men are saved. But that in a future time, the Jews will then be saved by the keeping of the law. To them will be preached not the gospel of the grace of God, but the gospel of the kingdom and the law, and they will keep the law and they will enter into the kingdom by the keeping of the law.

I say again quite deliberately that that is a denial of the fact that there is only one way to be reconciled with God, and that that is through Jesus Christ and Him crucified. There is no access into the presence of God except through the one and only Mediator, that He might reconcile both in one body, and it's the only body, the only way.

It is in this one body, the Church, and no man ever has or ever will be reconciled to God save in this way. Abraham and the Old Testament saints, all whose sins had been covered, they are really reconciled in Christ. All in all future ages will be reconciled in the same way. It is by the grace of God, and that alone, that any man can be saved.

So I go on to the next proposition, which I put in this form. The reconciliation is achieved and produced by the Lord Jesus Christ. And that He, He, the Lord Jesus, might reconcile both unto God in one body. He.

Oh, that we might be all clear about this. There is no hope from men apart from Him. He came into the world because it was the only way. No man, I say again, ever can and ever will save himself by his own efforts or striving. Whatever is preached to him, the law had been given, it had failed. No man can ever keep this law. Christ had to come.

God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. And there is no other way. Here the apostle puts the emphasis upon the Lord Jesus Christ. It was God who sent Him. But it is He by coming and by all His passive and active obedience, who has done it. He is our peace.

And He alone is our peace. I say again that unless we ascribe all the praise and the honor and the glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, we are not Christians. It is His action. It is God's action. Man is dead in trespasses and sins. He's an enemy and alien in his mind by wicked works. He's a God hater. That's man. He does nothing. How is reconciliation possible?

I told you in the definition of the word, it's an action from above. It's a move on God's part. It's the God whom we've ignored and rebelled against and on whom we've turned our backs. It's He who initiates the great movement. He began it in the old. He continues it. It's perfect in Christ.

It is His action. It is all in Jesus Christ. It is all the grace of God in Christ. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. That's the message. Oh, yes, but in particular, you notice, He says it's by the cross. And that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross.

I would again call your attention to the way in which the apostle keeps on repeating these things. But now in Christ Jesus, he has said in verse 13. You who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. He doesn't stop here at saying that He might reconcile both unto God in one body in Himself. No, no.

By the cross. He brings it in because He must bring it in. There is no reconciliation apart from the cross. And what does the cross mean? Well, that parallel passage that I read to you out of Colossians 1 puts it very perfectly. Having made peace by the blood of His cross.

It's the death. It's the blood shedding. That's how God makes peace. That's how Christ makes peace. That's how reconciliation comes about. There is no possibility of reconciliation apart from the death of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross on Calvary's hill. Why? Well, that's the last point. Having slain the enmity thereby, therein, by that.

But here we come to the questions people are so fond of asking. Why was this essential? How does the death of Christ upon the cross reconcile us? Well, you will find that strange answers are given to that which seem to me to be quite incapable of being reconciled with this statement. Some people say that what happens is this, that God forgives the cross.

That cruel men put our Lord to death, but that God forgives them even for doing that. That we were all there. Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Yes, you were. You were in one or the other, the soldier, the Pharisee or one of them. You crucified Him. Ah, but this is the message. God even forgives that.

That isn't making peace by the cross. That's making peace in spite of the cross, which is the exact opposite. But what the apostle teaches everywhere is this, that God, Christ, makes peace by the cross, through by means of the cross. Or another way in which it's put, and some of you may have heard it even on the wireless this last week.

This, they say, is the message. God always produces good even out of evil. Joseph, of course, said it. Joseph said to his brothers, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. You sold me in a wrong principle and in a wrong way. You meant something wrong." Ah, yes, but God turned the evil into good, and He always does. And the supreme illustration of that is that God even turned the evil of the cross into good. Men took the action. God turned it into something marvelous.

Is that saving us and reconciling us by the cross? No, I say again, just as a way of saying that He saves us in spite of it. That isn't saving by the blood of the cross. He's not making peace there by, through, by means of the blood of the cross.

Well then, I wonder whether it means this, that as I look at Christ there dying innocently on the cross, my heart shall be broken. As I realize the sinfulness and the enormity of it all. No, because that again is not making peace by the blood of the cross. According to Paul, it's happened. It's been done. It isn't something that only happens when I realize what happens on the cross. It was done once and forever. The action was completed on Calvary. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. He's done it. Once and forever.

No, no, it is something much more profound than this. The teaching is that before reconciliation is possible, something has to happen on God's side as well as on our side. Sin has brought enmity between men and God. God hates sin. God's wrath is manifested against sin.

And before there can be reconciliation, before God can again bless men, this enmity has got to be removed. And the teaching is that it was removed. How? By the blood of the cross. How? Well, doesn't it put it like this: Why does he mention the blood? Why the cross? Why the death? Well, that's an explanation of all the Old Testament teaching. You remember how it was done there, and that was God's own method. It was God who ordained all that as a picture of that which was going to be done in Christ.

Isn't this how they did it? They took the animal. The animal was brought forward. Then they put their hands on the head of the animal. What did that mean? They were taking their sins and the sins of the people and transferring them onto the animal. And then the animal was killed, its blood was shed, and the blood was presented as an offering, and the animal was offered as a sacrifice. That's the teaching.

And that is precisely the New Testament teaching about the death of Christ on the cross. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. Why not? Because He imputed their trespasses unto Him. God took your sins and mine, and He put them on the head of Christ. And then as the Lamb of God, He slew Him.

Not imputing their trespasses unto them, because He has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. By the blood of His cross. By the cross He did it. The enmity, man's enmity against God was put onto Christ, and there was taken away. He slew it there.

That's the teaching. It was because Christ's blood as the Lamb of God was shed on Calvary's hill that the way of reconciliation is open. The enmity has been removed, and God can look on men with benignity, and is again ready to bless Him and to receive Him and to restore Him. The Jews needed that. The Gentiles needed it, and together in Christ, they've received it.

In Christ, by His blood, they can enter together into the holiest of all. Oh, what a wonderful gospel. What an amazing statement. What happened on Calvary? Christ was slain. Yes, but by being slain, He slew the enmity.

He was slain. He slew the enmity. He made an open show of principalities and powers. He nailed the law to the cross, and man is reconciled to God. And all are reconciled in the same way, in Christ.

Whether you're Jew, whether you're Gentile, barbarian, Scythian, bond, or free, male or female, good or bad, high or low, you've got to come this way. He died for the church. Or as the apostle Paul puts it in his great farewell address to the elders of the church at Ephesus, the church which He has purchased with His own blood.

One body. The only way to reconcile God and men, and men and God, by the cross, by His death, which slays the enmity, which takes away all sins. The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin and unrighteousness. Amen.