In Ephesians 2:1 to 10, we've had a full and rich study over the past several weeks. We've learned so much about the gospel, about salvation, and about God's love and grace and mercy. He not only saved us from the judgment for our sins but also transformed us from our former condition in Adam. That's in Adam, when we were controlled and dominated by indwelling sin, which was manifest continually throughout our members. It's how we walked; it's how we conducted ourselves, Paul says. He will continue with this idea of transformation, redemption, and salvation in the next several verses. 

We will look at verses 11 to 22 this morning. In this text, Paul zeroes in on the Gentiles to whom he is writing to explain further their former condition before Christ and what God is doing in the creation of one new man in the church. This section of scripture gives us further illumination concerning salvation and the work of Christ within the context of God's plan for the church. With this, Paul moves into the transition from the old covenant to the new, from the nation of Israel as the people of God—the channel of blessing to the world—to the age of grace and the end of the law. This is God progressing in his salvation plan, bringing salvation to Jew and Gentile, and creating one new man, the body of Christ, the church, through the coming of the promised one, the savior of the world. 

The emphasis of this text is the work that Jesus accomplished on the cross in His death, burial, and resurrection, and the reconciliation of men to God and men to men. It signifies the end of separation and the bringing of peace through Himself. Paul states that He Himself, in His person, is our peace. In this new covenant, we see the recreation, the regeneration of the man in Adam—Jew and Gentile—into one new man. God is building a holy temple, a dwelling place for God in the spirit. 

This section moves us from the act of salvation and the understanding of the gospel in verses 1 to 10 to the impact of this gospel in the new covenant that Jesus instituted in His blood, the fulfillment of the promise through the covenants and through the nation of Israel of a Messiah, a blessing to all nations, seen in the ministry revealed in the church of one man, one new man in Christ. 

Let's look at our text, Ephesians 2, verse 11. 

“Therefore, remember that you, once Gentiles, were called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hand, and you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from 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 both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near, for through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”

I've provided you with five points on your outline this morning: 

1. No Hope
2. He is Our Peace
3. End of the Enmity
4. Access to the Father
5. Fellow Citizens

First, in our text, we see "No Hope." Verse 11 states, "Therefore, remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands, that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world." 

The word "therefore" points us back to the previous text and in particular to the former condition of life that the Gentiles experienced—the truth of who they were and the condition in which they found themselves in their separation from God, from all promises of the covenants, from the commonwealth of the people of God, with no promise and no hope in the world. This truth should make them, and us, appreciate all the more the grace of God and who we now are in Christ. It should cause us to live for Him in the good works which He prepared in advance. 

We see the definite article before the word "Gentiles," which indicates that Paul is talking about a class of people here. The word is "ethnos." It means a race, a distinct class of people, and this was a pejorative term used by the Jews to designate this class of people as separate from God. The word "flesh" here does not refer to their spiritual state, but rather their condition as men who were part of this distinct class in their physical state, clarified by the phrase "circumcision made by hands." The mark of those who were Jews was circumcision, and they lacked that circumcision in the flesh, in their bodies, is what he is saying. 

Just like in the first three verses of the chapter, we see a completely hopeless condition for the man in Adam—Gentiles in this world. Paul uses very graphic phrases here to remind us of our former state when we were strangers from the promises of God. In verse 12, he says, "You were without Christ. You were aliens from the covenant of Israel. We were strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope in the world." 

What we see here is that apart from God, there is no hope. Apart from God, we live only in this world, controlled by indwelling sin and enticed by the world system. We live under the law, which means aroused by the law, working through our members to bear fruit to death. In this state as Gentiles, we didn't even have a promise; we didn't even have a home. We were completely foreign to the covenants—the hope of the promise of the coming Messiah. 

This is the picture Paul wants to paint for the Gentile in order to remind them of their former state and to exalt the person and work of God in bringing such men into the covenant—the new covenant condition in Christ, by grace through faith. 

And so we see the men of our world today, without Christ, who is their hope of the Messiah. They have no promises, only the promise of judgment and eternal condemnation. There's no covenant with God, no affiliation at all. They have no hope, and their existence is only in this temporal world. 

This is the former condition of the Gentile to whom Paul writes, and it's the present condition of all who are in Adam today. But in verse 13, we find good news—a contrast: "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. 

So we were in an awful state—a hopeless condition—without Christ. But now, in Christ Jesus, this is the key phrase we see over and over throughout this epistle. Paul explains that we who were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ, and He Himself is our peace. Apart from Him, there is no peace. There's no reconciliation, there's no hope, there's no promise. He, in His person, is our peace. And we are in Him. We have Him, He never leaves us or forsakes us; He lives in us, and He has made us both one, it says. 

This is where it gets interesting. This is where Paul is moving to the mystery revealed now in the church—one new man in Christ. And how is it that God in Christ has made one new man out of Jew and Gentile? 

Literally, you see, it's not that the Gentiles were brought into the nation of Israel as it was for the proselyte in the old covenant. It's not that the Gentiles are now Jews—that they're now Israel. What we see in the church is that God has created a new man. One new man becomes something in Christ. 

Verse 14 states, "For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity." 

These are profound verses, and they teach us about what God has done through Christ and His intention for the body of Christ—the church—in this new covenant time. He's made both one, literally creating one new man in Christ. He has done this by breaking down the middle wall of separation—the hedge, the wall that separated Jew from Gentile. Having abolished in His flesh, it says, the enmity. 

Well, what is the enmity? Paul tells us. He writes, "That is." He's abolished the enmity. That is: What is the middle wall of separation? The enmity between Jew and Gentile that Jesus in His flesh has removed, contained in ordinances, to render inoperative. 

What we see here is that Jesus, by His death on the cross, has rendered inoperative the law of commandments contained in ordinances. Listen to Expositor's comment on this. It states, "farther statement of the way in which Christ, by death on the cross, removed the separation and the hostile feeling between Jew and Gentile, namely, by abrogating the dividing law itself." 

Full sense, not the ceremonial law only, but the Mosaic law as a whole, according to the stated use of the phrase. This law is abolished in the sense of being rendered inoperative. The law is mandatory and consists of a multitude of prescriptions and statutes. 

We see this so clearly throughout the New Testament. Finally, we understand this truth. I know I say this over and over again, but weekly, I see things and hear things from Christians that show me they don't understand this. So, I know this is a contentious point, and many Christians within Christendom are confused about this, so I want to give you an overwhelming amount of evidence from the New Testament in order to support this truth found in our text this morning. 

That Christ, in the cross, in His flesh, has fulfilled and ended the Old Covenant law as a whole. Paul's saying if we are to have any understanding of the Christian life—why we can live a new life in Christ and how God intends we live this new life—we have to understand this. 

So, turn over to 2 Corinthians 3 with me first. 

2 Corinthians 3:2 states, "...epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men. Clearly, you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart. And we have such trust through Christ toward God." 

What he says in verse 5, "...not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." 

If the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 

For if the ministry of condemnation...” 

So he says, "the law written and engraved on stone is a ministry of death and a ministry of condemnation." If it had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. 

"For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect because of the glory that excels. For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious. Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech, unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away." 

Do you see the picture here? The metaphor: the glory that Moses is passing away, it's fading, and he had to cover it with a veil. But, their minds were blinded, he says, for until this day, the same reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. 

But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Paul states so clearly here that we are not ministers of the old covenant—that it has passed away—and now we are ministers of the new, not by the letter, but by the power of the Spirit. 

We see the same thing in Romans 7:5 and 6. He says, "When we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were working our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter." 

Did you notice that we are to serve the law? The Ten Commandments are binding on the believer. So, does this mean we can just do whatever we want and sin all we want? No, he says we are to serve. The question is, how are we to serve? Your spirit so violent? What laws is he talking about in Romans 7? The next verse: "Thou shalt not covet." 

The whole book of Galatians is written to explain this truth. Look at Galatians 2:18 with me. 

Galatians 2:18 states, "Now this is just after Paul and Peter had their little discussion there because Peter was becoming legalistic and removing himself from the Gentiles and siding with the Judaizers. Paul's talking about building again all in verse 18. For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I, through the law, died to the law." 

Why, Paul? Why’d you have to die to the law? In order that I might live to God. "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." 

What's he talking about? Living, walking—how he conducts himself. What's he saying? That sets aside the grace of God. Remember what Paul called the Spirit? The New Covenant. 

In Corinthians, we just read righteousness, right? "I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness, righteous holy living comes through the law, Christ died in vain." Look at 3:10—"Foolish truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified." 

"This only I want to learn from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun"—that's justification, salvation—"having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect?" That's sanctification—that's the Christian life. "Are you being made perfect by the flesh?" 

So clear: the law in its whole has been done away with, rendered inoperative. Galatians 3 goes on to tell us that salvation is by promise; that the law came 430 years after the promise, and it entered not as a rule of life to help us to be holy or to live holy, but as a condemning, killing force meant to show us our sin and lead us to faith in Christ. 

And once faith has come, what does Paul say? "We're no longer under the law." Turn to 1 Timothy 1 with me at verse 3. 

An amazing passage in 1 Timothy: Timothy's in Ephesus, meant to straighten things out there. He's a young pastor; he's got serious issues with some older men teaching false doctrine in that church. Paul starts out and tells him he doesn't want him to teach anything but grace by faith. "I want you to teach salvation by grace through faith," he says. 

Verse 3 states, "As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, remain in Ephesus, that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification, which is in faith." 

"Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk." 

So Paul says, "Timothy, I want you to only teach the Christian life by grace through faith." And the purpose of this is love, right? Love manifest through our lives. Then, he says, "Some have strayed from that." Who are those that have strayed from that? 

Verse 7 states, "Desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous person." 

Well, who are the righteous people? Right? Who have been made righteous? "The law is not for those who believe Jesus, as a rule of life, says, but for the lawless, for the insubordinate." 

Who is he talking about, Paul? "The ungodly and the sinners, the unholy and profane, for manslayers, fornicators, for kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine." 

According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. What a powerful text! 

The law is good if we use it lawfully. The law is not for a righteous man, but for sinners—to show them their sin, to condemn them, to kill them, and bring them to faith in Jesus. 

Here we find that the entire point of the book of Hebrews is to show that the law has been replaced by the new covenant. Hebrews 8:1 states, "Now this is the main point of the things we are saying." This is the crescendo of the book here; this is what I'm talking about. 

In this whole letter, we have such a high priest at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man. 

For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; therefore, it is necessary that this one also have something to offer. For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law, who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle, for he said, "See that you make all things according to the pattern shown." 

Inasmuch as he is also mediator of a better covenant which was established on better promises than the law. Do you see that? 

He's not a priest of the law covenant; He's a better mediator of a better covenant, built on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. 

If the law was sufficient for us as a rule of life, as Paul said in Galatians 2, Christ died in vain. But also, we see in Hebrews here that if the law were sufficient to bring holiness in our lives, then we wouldn't need a new covenant. 

Then he says something interesting in verse 8—because finding fault with them—He doesn't say finding fault with the law—you see that? 

He says, "Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord." 

"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. For all shall know Me from the least of them to the greatest of them." 

"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." 

The law kept a record of lawless deeds, and every transgression received a just reward. 

What's this tell us? In the new covenant, their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. "In that He says, 'A new covenant,' He has made the first obsolete." 

He's abrogated it, says in our text. He's made obsolete here. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away, just like the picture where we started in 2 Corinthians 3 of the glory on Moses' face passing away, vanishing away. How much clearer could the scriptures be? 

In the bringing of the new covenant in His blood, He made the first obsolete. It has vanished away. This is the message of our text. 

Jesus has brought peace; He's brought reconciliation, justification, by fulfilling and removing the law covenant of Moses. He has also created one new man in Himself—Jew and Gentile in Christ—a new creation and a new and much more powerful way of holiness of walking in the good works that God prepared for us. 

He Himself is our peace, who has made both one. Literally, it says he’s created one new man—not making Jews or Gentiles Jews—but making Jew and Gentile one new man, a new creation in Christ. 

As a believer in the new covenant, my identity is not Jew; my identity is not Gentile. My identity is not Irish American, right? I am in Christ! In this new covenant time, we see this truth in many places in the New Testament. 

This is our union with Jesus in His death, burial, and resurrection— the death of our old man and our resurrection to newness of life. Colossians 3:1 states, "Since you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above and not on the things of the earth." 

Why? For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ. "When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory." 

We were crucified with Him, buried with Him, raised to newness of life. We have the old man, we have put on the new man, and we are being renewed in the spirit of our mind, who created us. 

"You have put off the old man with his deeds and you have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all." 

My brothers and sisters, it does not matter who you were, Jew or Gentile. If you have believed in Jesus, you are a new man in Christ. 

2 Corinthians 5:14 states, "For the love of Christ compels us." Why? Because we judge thus that if one died for all, then all died, and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. 

"Therefore, from now on we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer." 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation! Old things have passed away; behold! All things have become new! 

Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. We are new creations in Christ! 

We see this perhaps most clearly drawn out in Romans 6, where Paul tells us that when we died, we were placed into Jesus' death, His burial, and His resurrection; and we were raised. He says, "For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man—that old man in Adam—was crucified with Him in order that the body controlled by indwelling sin might be rendered powerless. 

We should no longer be slaves of sin, for he who has died has been freed from sin." 

Here we see that when we believe in Jesus, we were placed into His death, united with Him in His burial and resurrection. Our old man—the man in Adam—was crucified and died. 

We see that we died to sin; we died to the law, as we read in Romans 7, before we were freed from the bondage to fear of death. Our old man was crucified. 

This is the new man that God has created in Christ—one new man from the two.

This is our peace. The end of the game, and in this new creation, in this new man, and the new covenant, we have access to the Father. 

And we become friends with the saints. Verse 17 states, "And He came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near, for through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father." 

Now therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. 

One of the great distinctions between the old covenant and the new is access—access to the Father. If you want to live under the old covenant, if you want to live under the law, here's one thing you don't have: access. No access to God! 

One thing the Israelites in the old covenant time clearly did not have was direct access to God. But in Christ, in this new covenant time, we have direct access into the Holy of Holies through Jesus! 

Romans 5:1 states, "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." 

Hebrews 4:14 speaks of our great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God: "Let us hold fast our confession! For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin." 

And verse 16 states, "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." 

What happened under the old covenant if you came boldly to the throne? A high priest could only go into the Holy of Holies once a year! They put some bells on him, tie a rope to his leg—make sure he doesn't screw something up, because then he's going to die, and I can't go in there and get him out! 

So we'll just drag him out— as long as we hear the bells moving, everything's okay. That's not the kind of life we live in Christ! That's not the kind of relationship we have with God! 

Romans 8 states that God is our Abba, our Papa, our Father. We can crawl up into His lap, as it were, and find grace for help in time of need. 

And perhaps the most graphic picture of this issue of access between the old and the new is found in Hebrews 12. Let's look at Hebrews 12, verse 18: 

"For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched. You have not come to Mount Sinai." He says, "And that burned with fire and to blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore." 

“I hear when you think about Jesus and what He's done for you and who you are in Him and the truth of grace and salvation, you think, 'Oh Lord, please don't say those words to me.'" 

That's not what the new covenant's like! With the old covenant, they begged: "Don't stop, quit it, don't say that word to us anymore!" 

"For they could not endure what was commanded, and if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow. And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, 'I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.' God was up on the mountain, and the Israelites had to set boundaries around the bottom of the mountain." 

They had to sanctify themselves for three days; they could not come near—blackness, darkness, tempest. The law of covenant given on the mount at Mount Sinai. 

Now, let's see the contrast in verse 22. 

"But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect." 

"You have come to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel." 

You've come to Jesus! My brothers and sisters in Christ, we are no longer foreigners and strangers! We are part of the new covenant of God instituted at the cross, through the blood of Christ—partakers of the blessings of these new covenant promises. 

We now see a pre-fulfillment in the church age, as we saw before in Hebrews 8. The fulfillment will come for Israel in the physical kingdom on the earth when Jesus will reign on David's throne. But now, by grace, we experience this spiritual kingdom blessing out of the covenant made with Israel. 

Now in this time, we see in the church that God has removed the old covenant, instituted the new covenant, and made one new man in Christ. What an amazing prophecy! 

Praise God for His gift of salvation for the place in which we now stand! We don't move in and out; we aren't blessed by keeping all of the law; we are blessed in Him! 

He has made us partakers of the divine nature! He has qualified us to become partakers of His Son! 

My friends, we live in grace! We have access to God! We have a promise and hope of eternal life now, today, and forever in heaven with Jesus! 

We, the church, are now a house—the house of God, living stones, the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. 

And now we have a much greater resource to live a holy life. Not only have we been transformed and changed in all things that pertain to life and godliness, and the Holy Spirit and Jesus living in us to live His life out through us, but we have all these things in order to live for Him. 

So that all who live will live for Him! Our motivation is love! Our motivation is: Thank you! He works in us and through us with the very power that raised Jesus from the dead to impart strength to our inner man so that we might live holy lives that bring glory to God in our witness. 

They're a witness of the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They're not a witness of law-keeping like they do down the road in all the mainline denominations. They all have the law. Is there transformation? Is there new life? Is there love? Is there holiness? 

No, because the law cannot bring holiness; the law condemns. Grace teaches us to deny ungodliness, grace, love, guts—the power of Christ's love! 

That's who we are! That's what the New Covenant is!