The Abolishing of Hostility

The first thought in Ephesians 2:15—Having abolished in his flesh the enmity—continues the thought of verse 14, which declares that Christ has “broken down the middle wall of partition between us.” The Greek for enmity (echthros) speaks of “the fixed idea of irreconcilable, deep‑rooted ha­tred.” That is strong, indeed, and that hatred had to be destroyed if a body was ever to exist; a body cannot function if the members are at war with each other.

Christ, therefore, has abolished this enmity. The Greek behind abolished is katargeō, “to render inactive, useless, ineffective; to destroy, do away with.” Paul uses this same word in II Timothy 1:10 to refer to the Lord Jesus “who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,” as well as in II Thessalonians 2:8 to refer to the Antichrist, who the Lord will “destroy with the brightness of his [second] coming.”

Racial bigotry is one of the most difficult things in the world to destroy. Among the ancients, Cicero wrote, “As the Greeks say, all men are divided into two classes—Greeks and barbarians.” Aristotle spoke of the “remote tribes of barbarians belonging to the bestial class.” In other words, non-Greeks were animals. Most of us recall Adolf Hitler’s obsession with what he called the “Master Race.” In Mein Kamph, he wrote, “The constructive principle of Aryan humanity is thus displaced by the destructive principle of the Jews. They become the ‘ferment of decomposition’ among nations and races and, in a broad sense, the wreckers of human civilization.” But not only did he hate Jews, but also Negroes, Gypsies, and other groups who also were slated for extermination after the “Jewish Question” was answered.

Other examples of prejudice and bigotry are legion. At one time or another, we have all been guilty of it to one degree or anther. One illustration brings a smile but no less displays the ugliness of this innate problem. Australian Anglican Bishop John Reed recounts one day when he was driving a school bus that carried whites and aborigines. Tired of all the squabbling, when far out in the country he pulled over to the side of the road and said to the white boys, “What color are you?” “White,” they replied. “No,” he said, “you are green; anyone who rides in my bus is green. Now, what color are you?” The white boys replied, “Green.” Then he turned to the aborigines and asked, “What color are you?” “Black,” was the reply. “No,” he said again, “you are green; anyone who rides on my bus is green.” All the aborigines answered that they were green. The situation seemed resolved until, several miles down the road, he heard a boy in the back of the bus announce, “All right, light green on this side, dark green on that side.”

Reed had the right idea. What was needed was a new race, “the greens,” but could he pull it off? No! In himself, man will always be a bigot and no amount of reasoning will change that. Jesus is the only one who could change it.

The crippling result of such prejudice can be seen in an analogy. We see today tragic neuromuscular diseases as well as paraplegia and quadriplegia caused by spinal injuries. In each of these we see that the body will no longer obey the brain. The Church today is tragically in a state of “spiritual paraplegia,” even “quadriplegia;” she is in a state of paraly­sis; she will not do as the “brain” (Christ) instructs. Christ has abolished the enmity, creating instead, as we’ll see next time, “a new race,” but many today are building it back up. 

The Demolishing of a Wall

Not only does Ephesians 2:14 declare that [Christ] is our peace, but it also declares He has broken down the middle wall of partition between us. Here is a truly fascinating point! This middle wall has an important historical meaning. Some expositors suggest that this is a parallel term for the tearing of the veil in the temple at Jerusalem during Jesus’ crucifixion. But this cannot be since the tearing of the veil pictured the removal of the barrier of sin between man and God. This is clearly not what is being pictured here. This middle wall actually refers to a literal wall.

Before looking at that literal wall, let us illustrate with another. While the people slept on the night of August 13, 1961, one faction of their government began closing the border between the two halves of the city. By morning, the job was done and the Berlin Wall was born. Streets had been torn up and barbed wire fences took their place. Over the next few years, the wall evolved until the final result was a 66-mile long, 11.8-foot high concrete wall, complete with 302 watchtowers. Over the 28 years that the wall stood, 192 people were killed and approximately 200 more injured by shooting as they tried to get past that wall to freedom. Is it not interesting how many were killed trying to come west, but how few tried to go east?

It was then on June 12, 1987 that then President Ronald Reagan delivered a speech to the people of West Berlin at the Brandenburg Gate, a speech that could also be heard in East Berlin. Near the end he made that dramatic Cold War plea to Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev that truly signed the Reagan legacy. Gesturing to the wall behind him, he said: “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

Twenty-eight months later the Berlin Wall came down. As part of Mr. Reagan’s legacy, the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), the ninth Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, was commissioned on July 12, 2003. A piece of the wall, adorned with a bronze profile of Reagan by artist Chas Fagan is now displayed aboard that vessel. During a Precommissioning Ceremony, Commanding Officer Captain Bill Goodwin said, “Many of us who served during the Cold War remember what the Berlin Wall represented—oppression, communism, and a lack of trust between two super powers. This piece of the wall honors our namesake, whom many people credit with ending the Cold War.”

What a dramatic picture! The middle wall Paul refers to here, however, was even more daunting, dreaded, and divisive, but it too was eventually destroyed. It was the wall in Jerusalem that separated the court of the Gentiles from the temple area. First Century Jewish historian Josephus records that there was an inscription on the wall in both Greek and Latin “which forbade any foreigner [i.e. Gentile], to go in under pain of death.” Ironically, Paul was wrongfully accused of taking Trophimus (an Ephesian Gentile) past this point (Acts 21:29), and Paul undoubtedly had this incident in mind as he penned this Epistle. Archeological discoveries in 1871 and 1934 confirmed these warning inscriptions, which read, “No foreigner may enter within the barricade which surrounds the sanctuary and enclosure. Anyone who is caught doing so will have himself to blame for his ensuing death.” These “Death Inscriptions” are now on display in the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul and the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem. So, while that wall fell when Jerusalem fell in 70 A.D. (some nine years from when Paul was writing), Paul saw this wall as ALREADY destroyed by Christ on the cross.

All this has a powerful application for today. There was (and still is) an arrogance and bigotry between Jew and Gentile that God never intended. God’s intention was that the Jews use the “court of the Gentiles” as a place to win the Gentiles to Judaism and eventually bring them into the temple, but the Jews used the “dividing wall” to keep the Gentiles restricted, to keep them forever outside God’s favor.

It also challenges us concerning our need today to realize the oneness that should be present in the Body of Christ. We are not advocating a compromise of doctrine, for no church or individual believer should fellowship with the liberals and apostates who deny foundational doctrines such as grace alone, the Deity of Christ, the Virgin Birth, or the Inspiration of Scripture. But we should always strive for unity when doctrine allows it. We will deal with this in more detail in Ephesians 4, but unity is not only a PRACTICAL principle (Eph. 4) but it is first a DOCTRINAL principle (Eph. 2). We will never have true “practical unity” unless we understand the doctrinal truth of what made it possible.

Christ Is Our Peace (2)

Once again contemplating Paul’s statement Ephesians 2:14—For [Christ] is our peace—Scripture reveals that there are two major aspects of peace that the believer possesses, the first of which is peace WITH God.

Second, the believer also possesses the peace OF God. Philippians 4:6-7 is one of those truly wonderful and comforting passages. In it Paul proclaims three principles.

He first voices a Warning, “Be careful for nothing.” “Careful” translates merimnao, which speaks of being anxious, full of care, worried, and nervously concerned. The Lord Jesus used this word in Matthew 6:31, “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?” (emphasis added). He then adds in verses 33-34, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (emphasis added). Literally, our Lord is saying, “Be not anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for the things of itself.” This, of course, doesn’t mean we don’t think ahead or plan ahead; if that were true, the farmer would never plant. Rather, you need not worry of the end result because worry won’t change the outcome. Paul, therefore, gives us this warning because worry will defeat us.

Paul secondly offers an Encouragement, “But in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” Simply put, we don’t worry about anything because we pray about everything.

Paul thirdly adds a Promise, “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” The Greek behind “keep” (phroureō) is a military term that pictures protection by a military guard, either to prevent hostile invasion, or to keep the inhabitants of a besieged city from flight. If we pray and leave it there, God will walk around the ramparts and towers of our lives and protect us from invaders and prevents us from leaving the safety of His care.

This peace comes into two areas. It comes first into our “hearts” to prevent the wrong feelings. We live in feelings-oriented age. Most people are conscious of and are always expressing their “felt needs.” But if we may be so bold, if they would simply turn to Christ and trust only Him, they would stop whining, they would know true comfort, and would keep their emotions in check. Second, this peace will keep our “minds” to prevent the wrong thinking. Many Christians today think the same way the world thinks, but with God’s peace in their minds, they will think the way God thinks.

How can we possibly worry and fret when we believe in the sovereignty of God? I would, therefore, offer this definition: The peace of God is not the absence of trial on the OUTSIDE but a quiet confidence in God on the INSIDE no matter what the circumstances.

Coming back to our text, knowing we have peace with God and the peace of God, makes peace possible between men. Again, as the Bible declares, and history illustrates, there is no hatred greater or conflict sharper than Jew verses Gentile. But Paul declares that Christ is OUR peace. That personal pronoun our (hēmon) is all inclusive, meaning all believers—Jew, Gentile, and all flavors of homo sapiens. As we’ll see in another installment, shame on us if we rebuild any walls that God has already torn down.

Christ Is Our Peace (1)

We look again at the wonderful truth of Ephesians 2:14a—For [Christ] is our peace. We first saw this word peace back in 1:2. The Greek (eirēne, which is similar to the Hebrew greeting “Shalom”) means “a state of tranquility; the opposite of rage and war.” But Paul goes still deeper by stating that Christ is actually peace itself. The literal translation of our text is, “For He Himself is our peace.” Again, men hold “peace-talks,” where they try to “achieve,” “promote,” or “enact” peace. But the Word of God declares that the Lord Jesus Christ IS peace. It’s also significant that Paul did not use the Greek word that means “peacemaker” (eirenopoios). What a great Truth! There are a lot of peacemakers today, those who try in vain to bring peace to the world. But the Lord Jesus is far more than a “peacemaker;” He is PEACE. Scripture reveals that there are two major aspects of peace that the believer possesses.

First, there is peace WITH God. Romans 5:1 is the key verse here: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” In a day when the Gospel is presented as simply something that fixes all our problems or just makes God available when we need Him, the fact of God’s wrath is ignored.

Pastor and author John MacArthur tells of the day he heard a professional football coach say during a pre-game devotional service for his team, “I don’t know if there is a God, but I like having these chapels, because if there is one I want to be sure he’s on my side.” But Scripture declares that because of man’s sin and rebellion against God and His Law, God is actually at war with man; God is, in fact, never on the side of the unbeliever. Romans 1:18 declares: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” That is an absolute.

It was the cross, however, that reconciled man to God, that “made things right between them.” It was, and is, a perfect peace, not one that God looks at one way and man looks at in another. After World War I, a French statesman pointed out that only two types of peace follow a war: first, the peace imposed upon the defeated by the conqueror, and second, the peace accepted by the defeated through surrender. In other words, there’s a vast difference between the peace one party imposes and the one the other party accepts. That was never truer than it was in that same era with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I. The harsh measures imposed upon Germany by the European allies created a seething resentment and made World War II inevitable. It is, in fact, true, as one writer puts it, “when they created the crazy Treaty of Versailles, they also created Hitler.” Some historians even say that every war since World War I has simply been an extension of that war.

But as our Lord declared in John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (emphasis added). Can any of us honestly say that any so-called peace that man has achieved has achieved the promise “let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid?” I certainly can’t find one in any history book. God’s peace is nothing like man’s peace. It is perfect not only for He Who imposed it, but also for those upon whom it is bestowed. As someone has beautifully put it, “As the needle in a compass trembles till it settles in the north point, so the heart of a sinner can get no rest but in Christ.” If I might build upon that, Christ is, indeed, our True North. We’ll continue this thought next time.

NEW BOOK: "Truth on Tough Texts: Expositions of Challenging Scripture Passages"

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Please forgive the brief interruption of our exposition of Ephesians, but I would dare impose upon you to consider a new book just published by an equally new publisher. We will get right back to our exposition in our next post.

Was Matthias God's choice to replace Judas (Acts 1:15–26)? What is the identity of those "sons of God" referred to in Genesis 6? Are the "angels" of the seven churches real angels or pastors (Rev. 1:20)? Is there a so-called call to ministry (Eph. 4:11; 1 Tim. 3:1)? Is "deaconess" a valid church office (1 Tim. 3:11)? What is the “sealing” of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13–14)? Is "regeneration" absent from the Old Testament, being a New Testament doctrine only (Isa. 57:15; Eph. 2:1)? What do other terms that appear in Scripture mean, such as: "fall away" (Heb. 6:4–6) "old man" (Rom. 6:6), and "new creature" (2 Cor. 5:17)?

Those are just a few of the "tough texts" we find in Scripture and just a few of those addressed in this 598-page book (including four indexes), all of which originally appeared in the monthly publication, Truth on Tough Texts, which was launched by the author in August 2005. We hope this book will be a blessing to many. It has been a passion of mine for some time and has been requested by readers of the monthly articles. Available in both hard-copy book (all orders are postage paid) and the Kindle Edition (delivered free, of course).

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Is Peace Truly Possible? (2)

Continuing our thoughts on Ephesians 2:14a—For [Christ] is our peace—when has the world truly known peace?

In recent years, we have all witnessed the warfare that has raged in the Middle East, despite scores of so-called “cease-fires” and “peace initiatives.” In 1948, the less than worthless United Nations ordered a cease-fire on June 11 to end the war that followed Israel’s declaration of its independence. Less than a month later, fighting broke out again. A second truce took effect on July 18 but lasted only into October. An Armistice was signed on February 24, 1949; it lasted seven years before war exploded again in late October 1956. Eight days later, on November 6, another cease-fire came by way of the United Nations. UN troops were based in the region to guard the truce until they withdrew at Egypt’s request in May 1967, just before the infamous Six-Day War began in June. Egypt agreed to yet another UN-ordered cease-fire with Israel on June 8, the fourth day of the war, with Syria coming to terms two days later. Peace was again shattered three years later in August 1970, followed by another cease-fire initiated by the United States, followed by a new conflict on October 6, 1973, and on it went.

Attending a 1974 state dinner in the Saudi Arabian royal guest palace, US President Richard Nixon heard King Faisal express himself clearly with regard to the Middle East problem with these words: “There will never be a real and lasting peace in the area unless Jerusalem is liberated and returned to Arab sovereignty, unless liberation of all the occupied Arab territories is achieved, and unless the Arab peoples of Palestine regain their rights to return to their homes and be given the right of self-determination.” Which means that there can never be peace in the Middle East because the Arab nations do not now have nor have they ever had any legal right to the land they claim is theirs.

Such a state of affairs makes the claim that “peace in the Middle East is the legacy of Jimmie Carter” almost laughable. As a witness for the US, he signed a Peace Treaty on March 26, 1980 between Egypt and Israel that supposedly ended the state of war that had existed for 31 years. We have since seen how empty that treaty was.

On another note, I was also reminded of the motto of the Apollo 11 flight, “We come in peace for all mankind.” This motto was on the plaque that was planted on the surface of the moon, symbolically in the Sea of Tranquility, by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in July 1969. The irony of this is that the race for the moon was actually motivated mostly for military superiority, as the US feared if the Soviets got there first, they would use the moon as a launching pad for nuclear weapons.

Further, during the Cold War, there was the doctrine of “Mutually Assured Destruction,” which held that the way to keep peace was to match the enemies’ number of nuclear weapons, assuring that nuclear war would annihilate both sides. This theory was tested during thirteen days in October 1962 when the world held its breath during the Cuban Missile Crisis. What about disarmament? Men have talked many times of it through the ages, but few have really meant it. Someone has wisely said, “When nations talk about reducing armies, every nation wants the last sword.”

Even today, there is the tongue-in-cheek motto of the military, “Peace through superior firepower.” While that’s certainly an uneasy and frightening method of keeping the peace, in man’s depravity it’s actually the only way. But even that was tested on September 11, 2001 when Islamic fanatics high jacked jet liners and flew them into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon, and intended to fly a fourth into another target but were thwarted by six brave men, at least one of whom, Todd Beamer, was a Christian.

Yes, peace seems to be an elusive dream. But is it? While it certainly is elusive, it’s not a dream, even though most history makes it appear so. Peace is possible, but it’s found only in one way, that is, in one person. It comes not through a diplomat, but through a Savior, the only Savior, Jesus Christ. It comes not through negotiations, but through the finished work of Christ on the Cross. We’ll look deeper into this wonderful truth next time.

Is Peace Truly Possible? (1)

Ephesians 2:14a makes a staggering claim: For [Christ] is our peace. Why is that staggering? Because when has man ever known real peace?

The cost of war in human life is mind-numbing. In World War I alone, the cost was almost eight and a half million. But that almost pales in significance to World War II, the most costly of all, in which the total number of fatalities, including battle deaths and civilians of all countries, is estimated to have been fifty-five million, plus another six million in the Holocaust.

The monetary cost of WW II is also staggering. It can only be roughly estimated at one trillion dollars. To put a trillion in perspective, if you typed a trillion dollar signs on your typewriter, it would take about 3,500 to fill a sheet of paper and then 285,714,286 sheets of paper to hold them all. How long would that take? If you could type non-stop, if would take you about 50 years to type a trillion dollar signs.

True peace has always appeared to be an elusive dream. Men have talked about it, coveted it, and striven for it for millennia. According to the Canadian Army Journal, a former president of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences, aided by historians from England, Egypt, Germany, and India came up with some startling facts and figures. Since 3600 B.C. the world has known only 292 years of peace. During this period there have been 14,531 wars, large and small, in which 3,640,000,000 people have been killed. The monetary value of the destruction would pay for a golden belt around the world 97.2 miles in width and about 33 feet thick.

Similar calculations were made by Gustave Valbert in the The Moscow Gazette in 1861, but he added that from the year 1500 BC to AD 1860 (3,360 years) more than 8,000 treaties of peace, each meant to remain in force forever, were concluded. The average time they remained in force was two years.

Since 1919 alone, the nations of Europe have signed more than 200 peace treaties, each of which in turn was broken. Since the signing of the Armistice of November 11, 1918, which ended World War I, for every year of war there have been only two minutes of peace. In that same year, in an address to the United States Senate, President Woodrow Wilson made the ridiculous statement, “The League of Nations [the predecessor of the United Nations] is the only hope of mankind.” Interestingly enough, many are still saying that today.

Even more foolish was the statement the Prime Minister of England, Neville Chamberlain, made in September 1938 after meeting with Hitler in Munich and then returning home, “I believe it is peace for our time . . . peace with honor.” He had just signed the Munich Pact, which gave most of Western Czechoslovakia to Germany in exchange for Hitler’s promise not to take the rest and hopefully avert war. Of course, less than six months later, he did take the rest, followed by Poland a few months later, which forced Chamberlain’s resignation, made Churchill Prime Minister, and ignited World War II. The foolishness of that statement has been repeatedly demonstrated ever since, and political liberalism is still making the same disastrous mistake today.

Much wiser was a statement made by Summer Wells, US diplomat and one-time U.S. Undersecretary of State under FDR and obviously a student of history. He wrote: “History does not record any example of a military alliance between great nations which has endured. The result of such alliances has invariably been that the partners have jockeyed for individual influence and for selfish advantage. At best they have given rise to only a temporary and precarious balance of power.”

I have yet to find a better example of the truth of that statement than the non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed on the night of August 23, 1939, which agreed that neither country would launch war on the other. It shocked the world because Adolf Hitler had clearly outlined in Mein Kampf that conquering the Soviet Union was the key to ruling Europe, which was always his goal. The sole purpose of that pact was to give him free reign to invade Poland, which he did nine days later on September 1. But less than two years after that, on June 22, 1941, Hitler broke that pact and invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, the largest attack in the history of warfare, with three and a half million men advancing along a thousand mile front.

Is peace truly possible? We’ll continue next time.

NOTE: Our next installment will be delayed until May 21st.