| << | Contents | >> |
Articles 2024-2026
In Old Testament times, we Gentiles were alienated from Israel, the place where God had been revealing Himself for centuries. We were strangers to His covenants of promise. We were without 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.
The great distance separating us from where God was revealing Himself on earth has been erased by the blood of Jesus. Now, instead of simply revealing Himself in one nation, He is making Himself known across the whole earth in His Son. As a result, Jews and Gentiles who have been plunged into Christ can now experience Heaven’s oneness amongst ourselves. And we can now see that it is He Himself who has made us one.
For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation,
Our Lord Jesus has obliterated the divisive line marking Jew–Gentile separation. And He did so by becoming in Himself the new environment for this relationship.
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,
The environment for Jew–Gentile relationships in the Old Testament era was the Law. The basis for Gentiles to have fellowship with the Jewish people was that they had to both honor Israel’s God and then submit to His Law as revealed to Moses. But now, God has established a new environment – even His Son. Jews and Gentiles plunged into Christ through water and Spirit are now experiencing God’s process of integrating them into one new man.
While many Jews went into the Red Sea when they left Egypt, in one sense, one man came out.
all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,
Similarly, millions have been immersed into Christ over the past two thousand years and today God continues His work of fashioning in His Son His one new corporate man. But we must recognize and submit to this process. Ultimately, there will be one man reconciled to God.
and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.
When Jesus died at Calvary the basis for Jew–Gentile hostility was put to death. Therefore, when we together submit to His headship, i.e., His coordinating power to harmonize us around Himself, we will experience an increased corporate integration among ourselves to reveal His mind to the nations. Here is God’s ultimate statement to the world: Christ – first revealed on earth as a man, then revealed from heaven by the power of the Holy Spirit in and through an integrated corporate body, and then finally at His return.
God’s people are an emerging miracle in progress.
Two thousand years ago, Jesus proclaimed in Israel the peace that those in His kingdom would realize first with God and then with each other.
And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near.
We know that he preached peace to the Jews, to those who were near, but how did He do so to the Gentiles who were far away? They were not present to hear His words. But the power of God’s words is not dependent on who is listening; it is rooted in the One who is speaking. For example, was Babylon present to hear when Isaiah prophesied her coming destruction? No. Yet God’s judgment came to pass simply because He had spoken.
So, Jesus was speaking to the whole world just by speaking in Israel. And not only this, He intended that many who listened to Him personally would then go to the nations and share the good news. And then on top of that, He called the gospel writers and apostles to write down what He had taught in Israel giving us much of our New Testament. Clearly, God so loved the world that He sent His Son. Jesus did not simply come for Israel; He came to Israel for the sake of all nations.
Though His listening crowds were primarily Jewish, Jesus was in fact speaking to the whole earth.
For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
Access to the throne room of God has now been granted to all who are in Christ. No more need for a physical temple in Jerusalem. There is only one means of access to the Father. As Jesus said, …No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6). Any other means of admittance that some may proclaim will only be false and will distract from the one and only true door of entrance that God has established.
When Jesus spoke of men destroying God’s temple and that He would then raise it up in three days (speaking about His physical body), he was standing right in front of the temple in Jerusalem (John 2:13 - 21). It seems that God wanted to distinguish between the physically glorious house that men had built and His new spiritually glorious dwelling place – even Christ. In the past, men had destroyed Solomon’s temple and God made sure that it was rebuilt. Similarly, men crucified Jesus, and God raised Him up again.
The point is that God simply will not be stopped from having His dwelling place among men. Today, through the power of the Holy Spirit, He continues the construction of His New Testament house made up of living stones (1Corinthians 3:16 - 17) (1Peter 2:5).
Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
The Gentile believers at Ephesus were now fellow citizens with the saints of previous generations. Though they had not been born in Israel, they could now refer to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, King David, etc. as their spiritual fathers. They were now in God’s household, members of His family, and descendants of Abraham (Galatians 3:29). Since God’s holy nation had expanded beyond the borders of Israel, citizenship now had to do with where one’s spiritual birth had originated from – even heaven. For our citizenship is in heaven… (Philippians 3:20).
And this Jew–Gentile house that God had under construction was now:
…built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,
What a solid foundation. And it seems that God intended for the final constructed house to be as well built as the foundation was well laid. Those who He would send to reveal Christ as the foundation of His construction project were His apostles and prophets. Their main focus and message? Christ, the foundation. Everything built in God’s house would have to be dependent upon and properly related to Him, His initiative, and His power.
in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord,
The whole building, the universal Church, was and today is experiencing Heaven’s project of integrating believers together in Christ. What is to be our strategy today? We must pray to recognize the ones to whom He is connecting us and then to know how to relate properly to each one of them.
in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
If the whole building is the universal Church, then the “you also” in the above verse would be the local church at Ephesus. God wanted to build them into a habitation for Himself. But were they not already His dwelling places individually? Yes. But only as they would submit to His process of building them together would they then discover Him moving into their midst corporately in increasingly more powerful ways. Here is the future of Christianity.
When Solomon finished building the temple in his day, God manifested His glory so powerfully that men could not even stand up. But as amazingly powerful as that event was, it was but a type and shadow of what lies in our future. The many times of God’s visitation among His people down through the past centuries have been bringing us toward His ultimate goal – His house of habitation. Arise O Lord. Build us together and manifest Your glory in our midst corporately in a permanent abiding way in every nation. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Donald Rumble – September 2024
Search Comments
This page has been visited 0064 times.
| << | Contents | >> |
10 per page