Paul uses “therefore” to connect what he said in chapter 2:1-10. He is telling the Gentiles to remember where you came from. “You were called Uncircumcision by the Circumcision.” The Jews knew Gentiles did not have the one true God and assumed they never would. They believed that when the Messiah came, He would destroy the Gentile world. The Jewish leaders and Rabbis believed the Christ would reign on earth and the Gentile race would be killed or enslaved. This is why they could not except Jesus from Nazareth. DNA Science and the Jewish Bloodline by Texe Marrs pg.84
The ESV reads “by what is called the circumcision.” Another translation could be “so-called circumcision.” Paul is making a point that the circumcision (Jews) thought they would be in Heaven with God one day. To a Jew circumcision was salvation. That is why Paul says “so-called” because that was not the way to salvation.
The Gentiles or Non-Jews were separated from God. Only proselytes had access to the Jewish oracles of God. They were considered to be part of God’s people, but not fully excepted. The Jewish leaders tolerated the proselytes. In this passage Paul is telling the Gentile Christians where they came from, and it was not part of God’s Kingdom. Until Christ they did not know Him and having no covenant with God and without Him in their lives.
Read Ephesians 2: 13-16
Vs. 13 – “You who were far off having been brought near”. Look at how Isaiah 57:16-19 says it. Peace, peace to the far and the near…
Through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross we are “brought near”.
Vs. 14 – Christ is the reason we have peace with God. Romans 5:1. As well we now have peace with our Jewish Christians and there is no longer a wall that separates us.
A proselyte, who believed in God and practiced the Jewish religion could not go beyond the outer court in the Temple that was in Jerusalem. The outer court in the Temple was called, “the court of the Gentiles” and if they went beyond the outer court the Temple guards could kill them.
Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross made all those that believe in Him one in the body of Christ and with this fleshly sacrifice on the cross tore the curtain and removed this dividing wall between Jew and Gentile, as well as the divide between God and man.
Vs. 15-16 – through the atonement and fleshly sacrifice Christ abolished the law and created a new man. Replaced the two (Jew and Gentile) and made peace with God.
The reconciliation of both Jew and Gentile into one body was accomplished on the cross and removed the hostility that Adam brought into the world against God.
Read Ephesians 2: 17-22
Vs. 17 – Jesus came preaching peace to those who were far from God (Gentiles). The Gentiles had their own gods and practiced their own religions. The Jews were the chosen people who knew the real God of the universe and had the scripture and the prophets. Paul here calls them near. People near (Jews) and far (Gentiles). Isaiah 57:19. In this passage from Isaiah God is speaking about Jews in the Diaspora, but Paul uses this verse to talk about Jew and Gentile.
Vs. 18-19 – Because of Christ Jew and Gentile has one Spirit and access to the Father. Before Christ no one could approach God without going through a Jewish Priest, making a sacrifice to atone for their sin. No one had access to God. Now through Christ we have access and are no longer strangers and aliens to Yahweh. Stranger refers to a foreigner. Someone not from the Land of the Israelites. An alien was someone living in the land of the Israelites but was not from the 12 tribes of Israel.
Now Paul says we are no longer Aliens nor Strangers, but members of the household of God.
Vs. 20 – 22 – Paul here describes how the new house of God is to be built. Unlike the Temple of the Old Covenant, this new Covenant house is built spiritually. The apostles and prophets helped lay the foundation for the house.
Here Paul is not talking about Old Testament prophets but prophets from Christ. People like Agabus Acts 11:27-30/Acts 21:10-12.
“the cornerstone was the major stone that was set down. It had to be so large to support the super structure. It had to be so accurate because the walls were all conformed to the angle of that stone. And every other block in the entire building fit into that stone. You don’t begin building a wall from the center up and out. You set a cornerstone, and from it, the trajectory of the walls are already set. The builder would place the cornerstone so that the rest of the building would grow out from it. So, the cornerstone was the thing that framed everything. It was the thing to which everything was adapted. The cornerstone was the support, the unifier, the connector, the strength giver, it was everything. And that is Yeshua the Christ.”
With the foundation and especially the cornerstone the new Temple of God is built up with each new conversion. We are the Saints that make up the Temple of God. A temple not made with hands, but now through Christ he dwells in us.
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