The Word Made Fresh
1You were dead because of the sins 2in which you once lived. You followed the way of the world and the one who rules it, the spirit of the kingdom of the air now at work among the disobedient ones. 3We all once lived just as they did, in the passions of the body, obeying the desires of the flesh and the senses. We were the children of wrath along with everyone else. 4But God the merciful loved us greatly, 5even when we were dead because of our sins, and made us alive in Christ. We are saved by grace. 6God has lifted us up with him and seated us with him in heaven, 7so that he might demonstrate the riches of his grace through his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. 8We have been saved through faith by God’s grace. It is not our doing; it is God’s gift. 9It is not because of anything we have done; no one can brag about that. 10We are what God has made of us. We have been born in Christ Jesus for good works. God decided this would be our way of life even before we were born.
11So, you who were born as Gentiles and called “the uncircumcised” – circumcision being a physical condition made by human hands – 12remember that when you were born you were without Christ. You were outside the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the promises, with no hope and without God in your world. 13But now the blood of Christ Jesus has drawn you near to God. 14He is our peace; in his body he has made us both one and has broken down that which divided us and he has taken away the hostility between us. 15He has done away with the law and all its rules and ordinances so that he might make of us a single body instead of two, and give us peace, 16and bring us together before God as one through the cross, and put to death the enmity that was between us. 17That is why he came, to announce peace between us who were near to him, and you who were far off. 18Through him, then, we both have access together to the Father.
19Therefore you are no longer strangers or aliens, but citizens with the saints, and members as well of God’s family, 20together as part of the foundation laid by the apostles and the prophets, with Christ himself as our cornerstone. 21In him the whole building is joined together and enlarged into a holy temple in the Lord. 22And in the Lord you, too, are gathered in the Spirit, and have been made into a dwelling place for God.
Commentary
1-10: It is such a simple faith. People were living according to the passions of the flesh (which results in all kinds of ills such as jealousy, deceit, anger, lust, etc.), under the influence of “the spirit of the kingdom of the air,” a reference to a popular belief in evil spirits that work counter to God’s will. Even so, God’s love for us did not fail, but though we were dead through sin God saved us by “lifting us up” with Christ. Verse 8 was frequently quoted by John Wesley in his sermons. God’s grace does not depend on anything we do, but solely on God’s love for us.
11-22: Paul assumes, of course, that the Jewish people are God’s chosen people, and that Gentiles were initially left out of the covenant God shared with them. But through Christ those who were “far off” have been brought near. Christ has broken down the wall between Gentile and Jew. It is no longer the law that binds us in covenant to God, but faith in Christ reconciles us to God and to one another. Christ is the cornerstone that holds the temple of faith together. In those days the cornerstone was not a decorative feature. It was the capstone at the top of the arch which bore the weight of the wall. We can picture the two sides of the main entrance curving to a point at the top where the cornerstone joins them, symbolic of Jews and Gentiles joined in the saving sacrifice of Christ.
Takeaway
The invitation to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior should not be withheld from anyone, regardless of lifestyle or nationality or gender or race or background or anything else. Our task is not to judge, but simply to invite. If the invitation is accepted, then comes the task of teaching and providing spiritual support.