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THE KING’S BUSINESS
blood, i.e., having entered into the sphere of the blood’s efficacy by faith, and being thus “ in the blood,” they were'“made nigh,” i. e., made nigh to God, and made nigh to all the covenants, privileges and promises of Israel. Wednesday, July^ y. Eph. 2 : 14 . . Paul now goes on to say why and how they who were formerly “ far off” are “made nigh in the blood o f Christ.” He says, “ He (i. e., Jesus Christ, Jesus Himself and no other, the pronoun is emphatic in the Greek) is our peace.” In what sense is Jesus our peace? First o f all He is our peace with God, He is both the Jews’ and the Gentiles’ peace with God,- but He is also our peace with one another. The peace with one another is the thought prominently in view in the context, but everywhere the deeper truth underlies it that He is our peace with God, and just because He is the peace of each party with God He is also their peace with one another (cf. Isa. 9:5, 6 ), and if the warring nations o f today would really keep in view Christ as their peace with God they would soon be at peace with one another. He is our peace because He secured our peace by making atonement for our sins through His blood shed on the Cross o f Calvary (the blood o f Christ—Col. 1 : 20 ), and because we enjoy this peace in Him, i. e., in vital union with Him. He took the sin o f both Jew and Gentile upon Himself, and thus reconciled both to God (Isa. 53:5, 6 ; Col. 1:20; Gal. 3:13; Rom. 3:25; 1 John 2 :2 ), and reconciling them both to God by the same sacrificial death, He o f necessity reconciled them to one another. How can any one be at enmity with any one else who is reconciled to God by the same sacrifice o f the Cross. In Christ Jesus there can be neither Jew nor Gentile (Gal. 3:28, R. V .; Col. 3:11, R. V .). Christ Jesus “made both things one thing.” The Authorized and Revised Version reads, “made both one,” but the word translated “both” is a neuter plural and means both things. The neuter is used because Paul refers to the different positions o f the Jews and the Gentiles rather than to the
different persons. The word translated “ one” in both the Authorized and Revised, Versions is also neuter, and the same word exactly as the word translated “ one” in- John 10:30. Jesus Christ furthermore “broke down the middle wall of partition” (more literally, “the middle wall o f the hedge” ). By “the middle wall o f partition,” or “the middle wall ofi the hedge,” Paul refers to the Mosaic law. The .law was a hedge between Jew and Gentile, keeping them apart. It was intended by God to be a hedge until Israel’s training to be a nation from which the Messiah should go forth to all nations, should be complete (Isa. 5 : 2 ). When the work for which “the hedge” was intended was finished, then God took it away by the death o f Jesus that fulfilled the law, satisfied its claims, and forever after rendered it inoperative (cf. Col. 2:14; Rom. 10:4; 7:4). But the law was also a wall o f partition between the Jew and God (and also between the Gentile and God) because the Jew did not keep the law, and Jesus by His satisfaction o f the law’s demands, removed the law also as a separating wall between the Jew and God and the Gentile and God (see also Gal. 3:13; Col. 2:14. In this latter passage Paul speaks o f the law as “against us,” i. e., against both Jew and Gentile). In the Jew ish temple there was a balustrade o f stone between the court o f the Gentiles and the inner area o f the temple. It meant death for a Gentile to pass this “middle wall of partition.” This was a symbol o f the law which Jesus took away. But in the temple there was also an inner barrier shutting the Jews themselves out o f the innermost part o f the temple where God was to be met. This also was a symbol o f the law that shut all law-breakers (whether Jews or Gentiles) out from God. Jesus by His atoning death took this away too, opening up not only access o f the Gentiles to the Jewish privileges, but also access of both Jew and Gentile to God. The law is a separater o f Gentile from Jew, and o f both Jew and Gentile from God, was utterly “broken down” (the word translated “ broken down” is a very strong w ord).
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