Ephesians Lesson 17 of 39 part 6

Ephesians 2:15a
"Having abolished in his flesh the enmity,..."
Now we know Romans chapter 8 speaks of enmity with God, but we don't think Paul is speaking of that here. We think here he's talking about enmity between the Hebrew and Gentile. And the curse of hostility between God and fallen man which took place shortly before the vow spoken to Adam and all his sons who would come from him until the end. So Jesus abolished this hostility in our redemption and a condition of the vow spoken to Adam.

We think but not sure everyone caught what we were talking about, when Paul was addressing the Hebrews in Jerusalem in Acts chapter 22, and rehearsing his conversion experience.

Acts 22:21-22
"And he (the Lord Jesus) said unto me, Depart for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles, And they gave him audience until this word, (Gentiles) and then lifted up their voices, and said, "Away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live."

These Jews wouldn't even say the word Gentile. But now when a Hebrew becomes a believer he is as much in fellowship with a Gentile as a Gentile is with a Gentile, or a Jew with a Hebrew. It's all been broken down, because you see it's because of the work of the cross in the flesh of Christ. It is what God had told Adam when He said to him that through him would come a redeemed for all his heirs. As the seed of woman who came from his side would be the redeemer of the world. For He was the shadow of its very existence. It was only to stand until He would come in what was called the end of time, the for ever and later days. At which time all those things hidden would be made known or revealed. Now looking at verse 15 again.

Ephesians 2:15
"Having abolished in his flesh (in death or by its instrumentality) the enmity, (that was between God and humanity) even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;"
On the surface this would sound like Paul is speaking of the separation and hostility of the Hebrews towards the gentiles as this was the situation of the times. However in Christ as the seed of woman comes the promised new man, a believer. When we become a believer we are a new person in Christ. But that's what he's talking about here. Here Paul is talking about the new person, the Body of Christ, a whole new concept made up of Hebrews and Gentiles. Who through their redemption have lost their nationality or ethnicity and identity through what ever form of religion they had been a party to. Because Christ had made by virtue of the work of the cross, twain one new man, and consequently making peace both with man and with God and man. Alright turn to Colossians chapter 2. I like the way this says it. And remember the Colossians were what kind of people? Gentiles. So the language is the same as it is to the Ephesians as he writes to these Gentile believers.

Colossians 2:14
"Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, (what did He do with it?) and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross:"
Can you imagine what it would be like for a Gentile to live under the rules and regulations of Judaism? There was no way they could cope with that. Because you see that was one of the problems that Paul had with his new believers. They were used to the immoral activity of the pagan idolatrous communities in which they lived. And this is true of both the gentile and his fellow Hebrews, and we know this from the language of letter to the Hebrews. They had no compunction about the dietary laws of Israel and so forth. And so for a Gentile to come under that, man that was something they couldn't even think about. So what does Paul say? "All of that was nailed to His cross." And like I said in the last lesson, "What did the cross do? It killed. So His cross killed all of these demands of the Law. It was put to death, it was ended there."

We have to be careful saying that, because since we are now in Grace that doesn't give us a license. Come back to Romans chapter 13 for a moment. Just because we step into the Grace of God does not mean that I'm free to do as I please, for after all God will wink at my sin. And after all I'm under the blood, and I'm forgiven. No. No. You see that kind of thinking goes contrary to the Word. And if I understand the Greek here, it doesn't mean that you can't borrow money to buy a home, or car, but rather it means to defraud no one. Don't take advantage of someone and cheat him. And this is exactly what mans religion does, it cheats those tied to it or bond by it as on bond on earth is bond in heaven also. Christ came to set all of humanity from Adam on to the last person born of woman free from the curse and thereby restore them to God, as the first Adam was in Genesis 1 and 2 before death and sin entered him.