Dear Disciple,
“His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both [Jews and Gentiles] to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.” Ephesians 2:15-18
I think one of the most marvelous and underappreciated impacts of our Master’s sacrificial suffering and death was expressed beautifully by our brother, the apostle Paul. In the verses quoted above, he declared that the hostility between Jews and Gentiles was put to death through the cross so that Jesus could unite them into “one new humanity” that could be reconciled to God. So the cross was not just meant to reconcile us to God by dealing with our sinfulness and rebellion, it was also to destroy the barriers between groups of people.
It is difficult for us, I think, to fully grasp how wide the divide between Jews and Gentiles was at the time of Christ’s death on the cross. If the work of Christ on the cross was able to destroy the hostility between these groups and unite them into one body, what power it must have to bridge the divide between any peoples! Paul was delighted to point out that in Christ, among those who embrace what He did on the cross as well as the power of His resurrection, “there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). He wrote something similar elsewhere: “Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all” (Colossians 3:11). Paul’s point was not that there were no more differences between these groups of people, but that these differences would no longer hold power to separate and divide them from each other. The reconciling power of the cross is greater than any divisive human concerns.
The implications of this are staggering, Disciple! This means that the Church holds the most powerful weapon against racism, classism, sexism – and so many more isms – that the world has ever seen. All who belong to Him, no matter their other labels or categories, make up one family, one kingdom, one body, one temple. As crazy as it might seem to the world, I have more in common with disciples of a different gender, nationality, culture, and language than I do with non-believers of my own gender, nationality, culture, and language. For what matters most about my identity is found in Christ, and He has welcomed all who obediently believe into a covenant restricted only by the category of loyal faith. It was He, after all, who told His servants to make disciples of all people groups. Obeying this command is only possible because He died to open the way for all those people groups to come as one into His kingdom.
Reconciled to you and to Him,
Ryan
