Ephesians 2: 11-22 Intro.: Latin-American Reformed Seminary Ephesians May 2018

Latin-American Reformed Seminary Ephesians
May 2018
Lecture 4
Ephesians 2: 11-22
Intro.
- Ephesians 1 and 2
o May well contain
 The richest
 Single description
o Of the Gospel
 Ever written.
- In those chapters,
o Really in that chapter and a half,
 Paul covers the totality
 Of the Christian understanding of
salvation,
o Confronting us
 With our horrific
situation in our sin:
 Totally cut off
from fellowship
with God,
 And liable to
the perfect, just
wrath of God,
 In what Paul
described
o As a
living
death.
o But then showing us
 The amazing heights
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 Of the love of
God
 For totally undeserving
sinners.
- In this letter
o That has as its main purpose
 Identity/worldview formation –
 Helping the readers
o To understand how the Gospel
informs and transforms their
lives,
 Paul begins here,
 Because if we
get this wrong,
o Then
we get
it all
wrong.
- If we are to have lives
o That are shaped by the Gospel,
 Then it is vital
 That we understand
o What that Gospel is.
o And here
 Paul says
 It is the gracious work
o Of a loving God
 To totally unlovable
sinners,
 In which He takes them
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o (he takes you)

 From the depths of
your sins
 And sets you on the
heights
 Of sonship.
- But, after
o These 33 verses
 In which
 We are taken to these
o Exalted heights
o To behold
 What God has done for
us,
o We now come
 In verse 11
 To the first imperative statement.
- Having considered
o All that God has done for us
 We are now brought
 To consider
o What we ought to do in
response.
o And the first thing

 That Paul wants them to do
 Is “remember”.
- Now
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o This is closely related

 To what Paul had said
 Was his prayer
 For his readers in chapter 1.
o You remember
 That Paul
 Essentially interrupts
o His meditation on the Gospel
 To tell his readers how
he is praying for them,
- And Paul’s primary prayer for his readers
o Is that they would grasp
 The true wonder of this salvation,
o That they wouldn’t ever
 Stop marveling
 At all that God had done for them in
Christ,
o But would have enlightened
hearts
 That knew the extent of
the hope to which they
had been called,
 A sure and
certain future
as the sons and
heirs of God,
 A future sealed
by the
promised Holy
Spirit (1:13)
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o Enlightened hearts
 That knew the bounty
 Of the riches
that belong to
the Christian in
Christ,
o Enlightened hearts
 That understood that
all of this was rooted in
and secured by
 The
immeasurable
greatness of
God’s power
towards His
children.
 That they would
understand that it was
the same power of God
 That raised
Christ from the
dead
 That now
undergirded
their salvation.
- That was Paul’s primary prayer:
o That the readers of his letter
 Might grasp
 This Gospel
o And stand in awe of it.
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- But now,
o As Paul brings
 The first imperative
 His command to us
o Is that we
 Remember this Gospel.
o He doesn’t just want us

 To know it
 In the sense
o That you know something for a
test.
 There is a sense
 In which
o You know that thing
 Geometry
 Civil War battles
 Or Laws of Physics,
 And you truly grasp it
o You understand it
 Backwards and
forwards
 And are able to
recite it for the
test,
 But then you go on,

o A year, two years
 20 years
 And you don’t
know any of
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that stuff any

longer,
 Maybe a flash
will come into
your brain,
 But that’s
about it.
- That’s not what Paul wants.

o He wants an enduring knowledge,
 He wants this marveling
 At the Gospel
o To be the character
 Of the lives of his
readers.
o Not just something

 Done once or twice,
 Not even something
o That is done every week
 in church.
 He wants this to be a constant presence
 In their lives.
o He wants this remembering the
Gospel
 To be a mark of their
lives.
- That’s why
o He says here
 That the first thing
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 He wants his readers

 To do
o Is remember the Gospel.
- Now,
o This command
 Is repeated throughout
 Your Old Testaments.
o The command to remember

 Runs through
 The whole story-line,
o Especially as God was forming
Israel’s identity as His covenant
people.
 Next time you

 Read through Deuteronomy
o Underline, circle
 Every time you come
upon the command to
remember
 The whole book
o Is practically built around that
command.
- Now we have to realize that

o To a Semitic mind/Hebrew mind
 The notion of remembering
 Is a lot more active
o Than how we understand
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 Remembering.
o You can remember
 That your car keys
 Are on the kitchen table
o Without necessarily rising from
your armchair.
o But the Hebrew understanding of remembering
 Is active:
 It involves action –
o It is a
 recollection that results
in action.
- So,
o The most vivid illustration of this
 Is in the beginning of the book of Exodus –
 The people of God
o Are enslaved in Egypt,
 And it seems like God
has abandoned His
people.
o But in their groaning despair
 Exodus 2:23-25 says this:
During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel
groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for
rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and
God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with
Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.
- It wasn’t that God had forgotten

o What He had promised
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 To Abraham
 And then to Isaac and Jacob.
o It wasn’t as if Israel’s bondage
 In Egypt
 Was because God had absent-mindedly
forgotten
o That they were supposed to be
the most blessed nation in
world,
o What Ex. 2: 24 means
 When it says
 That God remembered
o Is that God was going after His
people.
o He was actively pursuing the
fulfillment
 Of what He had said.
- And it is in that sense
o That Israel themselves
 Are commanded to remember
 Their unique position as the covenanted
people of God
o Throughout the OT.
- It is that sense
o Which undergirds
 The Sabbath command:
 Exodus 20:8–11
o “Remember the Sabbath day, to
keep it holy. Six days you shall
labor, and do all your work, but
the seventh day is a Sabbath to
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the LORD your God. On it you

shall not do any work, you, or
your son, or your daughter,
your male servant, or your
female servant, or your
livestock, or the sojourner who
is within your gates. For in six
days the LORD made heaven
and earth, the sea, and all that
is in them, and rested on the
seventh day. Therefore the
LORD blessed the Sabbath day
and made it holy.”
 Or, more clearly, Deut 5:12–15
o “‘Observe the Sabbath day, to
keep it holy, as the LORD your
God commanded you. Six days
you shall labor and do all your
work, but the seventh day is a
Sabbath to the LORD your God.
On it you shall not do any work,
you or your son or your
daughter or your male servant
or your female servant, or your
ox or your donkey or any of
your livestock, or the sojourner
who is within your gates, that
your male servant and your
female servant may rest as well
as you. You shall remember that
you were a slave in the land of
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Egypt, and the LORD your God

brought you out from there
with a mighty hand and an
outstretched arm. Therefore
the LORD your God
commanded you to keep the
Sabbath day.”
- So important
o Was it
 That Israel
 Remember who they were
o In relationship to God
 Both in Creation and in
Redemption,
 That God established
 A memorial day
o To punctuate
 Their weeks:
 Six days they
would do all
their work,
 But the Sabbath
day
 Would be this
great memorial
day
 In which Israel
would be called
to actively
remember who
they were.
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 To remember
who God is,
 And to
remember how
they were
united by grace.
- Now,
o Obviously
 That remembering
 Was designed
o To set the scene for the whole
of the week.
o Not just confined
 To the Sabbath
 But designed
o To give them
 The properly spiritual
context
 For their life
and work.
- And it is that sense

o That Paul here
 Commands his readers
 To remember the Gospel.
o He wants his readers

 - especially his Gentile readers
 Here at the beginning of the section –
 To actively remember
 This Gospel
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o By which they
 Have been brought
 From the death
of their sin
 And into live in
Christ.
 And he wants that knowledge
 To inform and direct and shape
o Their lives,
 The actions and their
attitudes.
I. What does it say?

- And in particular
o Paul begins here
 By urging his Gentile-background readers
 To keep their minds on
o The particularly dire
 Position that they were
in
 Before their
conversions.
- In verse 4
o By using the word “us”
 Paul has made it clear
 That he was including everyone
o Jew and Gentile
 The Ephesians and
himself,
 In his description
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o Of the alienation from God

 That comes through sin.
- But here
o He turns to particularly address
 The Gentiles
 Within this congregation
 And says to them
o Remember
 That your situation was
particularly perilous
 Because in your
sin
 Not only were
you estranged
from God,
 You were also
strangers to the
covenants of
promise,
 By which God
and Man are
reconciled.
- Yes,
o The Jews
 Like the rest of mankind
 Were/are in their sin
o Alienated from God
 And liable to His just
judgment,
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o (that’s v. 4 –
 Not just “you”
 But “us”
o Jew and Gentile alike.
o That’s the first 11 chapters of Romans:
 That Jew and Gentile alike
 Are in the same
o Spiritual predicament because
of sin)
o The Jews
 Were/are in their sin
o Alienated from God
 And liable to His just
judgment.
o But they at least

 Had the covenants –
 They at least,
o Knew the story of how God
 Would bring a
redeemer to rescue
humanity
 From that sin
 And bring them back to
Him.
- That’s the Gospel that runs through the Bible

o That is the Golden Thread that runs through the Bible
 And holds together the unfolding story-line of
Scripture.
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 What is the Bible about?

o Its about the salvation that God
would bring
 In and through Jesus
Christ.
o From that initial promise
 In Genesis 3: 15
 That God would send a
o Son of the Woman
 Who would crush the
head of the serpent,
o The Old Testament
 Is built around
 A series of covenants
o That each fill out that initial
promise,
 And elaborate
 On just how this Son
would do that
 And what the end
result would be.
o The Old Testament
 Is full of
 Types and anti-types,
o Illustrations and explanations
 That fill out that initial
promise
 That a Son of
the Woman
would crush
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the head of the

Serpent,
 That a Son of
the Woman
would bring
redemption
 And bring His
people back
into Eden.
 (that’s why Sinclair Ferguson
 Once wrote that
o The whole of the Bible
 Is a footnote
 To Genesis 3:
15 –
 Everything else
in the Bible is
filling out and
applying that
core,
foundational
promise)
- So,
o While the Jews
 Are dead in their trespasses and sins
o While the blood of Abraham
 That runs in their veins
 Does nothing to mitigate
o Their sin
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 Before a holy God,

o They at least
 Had the word of hope –
 They at least had the Gospel
o And could lay hold of this
salvation
o And find the forgiveness of sins
 By trusting in this
coming Redeemer.
- But the Gentiles

o Didn’t know any of that.
 They were strangers to those covenants of

promise
 And so were separated from Christ
o And alienated from the
commonwealth of Israel.
- The Gentiles
o Were not only
 Alienated from God
 In their sin
o They were completely ignorant
 Of how to do anything about it.
 Totally lost,
o Without any notion
 Of how they might be
reconciled to God.
- But Paul doesn’t
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o Say this
 Just to stick the ethnic boot in.
 This isn’t just a cheap-shot

o By Paul,
 A Jew
o To the so-called
“uncircumcision”.
- Like in verse 4
o Paul does this
 In order to highlight
 Just how richly blessed
o The Gentiles have been
 By the salvation that
comes through Christ.
o Just as there was a turning point
 In verse 4
 With the words
o “But God”
 So there is a similar turning point
 In v. 13
o With the words
 “But now…”
- That was the position of the Gentiles.
o That was the particularly dark and hopeless situation
 In which they once lived.
- But now, (another of those beautiful conjunctions of Scripture)
o In Christ Jesus
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 Those who were once

 Far off
o Have been brought near
 By the blood of Christ.
- Through the blood of Christ

o That is
 Through the sacrifice
 Of Christ on the Cross,
o Where His body was broken
o And His blood was spilt
 To secure the
forgiveness of sins,
o Through that perfect sacrifice

 The Gentiles
 As well
o As the Jews
 Have been brought in.
- The gates of the Kingdom

o Have been thrown open
 So that anyone
 From any nation
o Any tribe
 Any people
 Any language
 (as John would
put it in
Revelation)
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o Can come in
 And enjoy all the blessings
 Of God’s long-promised
o Redemption.
- In Christ
o There is now peace to be found
 For any and all
 Who would but their faith in Him.
o In Christ
 We are brought into the Psalm 23 Kingdom -
 A place where we can find rest for our
weary souls,
 Where we can lie down
o In green pastures,
 Where we can find peace
o By still waters
 Where our souls can be restored.
- But notice
o That Paul doesn’t say in v. 13
 That it is through Christ
 That we get these things,
o But in Christ.
 “But now in Christ Jesus
you who once were far
off have been brought
near by the blood of
Christ.”
 Sinclair Ferguson “Peace is not a commodity
given to us by Christ;
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 it is a reality experienced in fellowship

with Christ…
o all blessings are ours fully, but
only, in Christ.”
- It is as we are united
o With Christ by faith
 That we are granted this peace.
 It is as we are joined to Christ
o Us in Him
 And He in us
 That we receive
o All the blessings of salvation.
- And the reason is that all these blessings are

o By rights
 His
 And not ours.
o As Paul made clear

 At the beginning of this chapter
 We deserve none of this:
o Just condemnation for our sins,
 But as we are united to Christ

 And joined to Him
o By faith
 That we can say
 (1: 3) we are blessed in Christ with
every spiritual blessing in the
heavenly places.
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o Which includes
 Even primarily
 This peace
o With
God.
- I think we see
o This best in John 15:1–6
 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the
vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not
bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that
does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear
more fruit. Already you are clean because of the
word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me,
and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by
itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can
you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you
are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I
in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart
from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not
abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and
withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown
into the fire, and burned.”
- Jesus is the True Vine.
o The Father is the Vinedresser.
 And we
 Who are found in Christ,
o Are ingrafted into Him
 And are blessed with an
organic union.
- Just as the sap of a vine
o Runs through the ingrafted branch,
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 So the Holy Spirit

 The Spirit of Christ
o Runs through those
 Who have been joined
to Him by faith.
- In ch. 14: 19
o Jesus had said that
 “Because I live, you also will live. In that day you
will know that I am in the Father, and you in
me, and I in you.”
 He had said
o That the nature of our
relationship to God
 In the New Covenant
 Is not just one
of proximity:
o God
near us
 But one of
profound
intimacy:
o Just as
Jesus is
in the
Father,
o So we
are in
Him.
- And in John 15
o We see what that means.
 This is no cold
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 Structural unity
o Of one stone
 Placed on top of
another.
o This is an organic
 Vital
 Living union
o That we are now blessed with.
o Grafted to Christ
 To the true Vine
 We are joined to His perfect obedience
o We are one with Him
 Found in Him
 Inseparably
united to Him,
 And covered
with His
righteousness.
- In Christ
o As Paul says
 In verse 18
 We Gentiles
o Along with the believing Jew
 Are granted access in one Spirit
o To the Father.
o Through the working of the Trinity
 The work of Christ
 As our High Priest
o Being extended and applied to
us
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 By the Holy Spirit

 To bring us to the Father;
 Through the working of God
o In Trinity
 We Gentiles,
 Once aliens to the
covenants and to the
gospel
 Are now granted
 This peace with
God,
 No longer liable
to His wrath
and justice.
- But notice
o That Paul’s big concern here
 Is not,
 Perhaps unexpectedly,
o About peace with God.
o His concern
 Is not so much
 Here
o That his readers remember
 That the hostility
 That arose between
man and God
 Has been killed.
 He’s already covered that
o In chapter 1.
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- What Paul wants us to notice

o Here
 Is how
 Through that restored vertical
relationship
o Our horizontal relationships
 Have also been
restored.
- Right?
o That’s what he is saying
 Verse 13:
 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once
were far off have been brought near by
the blood of Christ.”
 Verse 14
 “For He Himself is our peace,
o Who has made us both one
 and has broken down in
his flesh the dividing
wall of hostility”
- That dividing wall of hostility

o Is not here a wall
 That separates God
 From sinners,
o But a wall
 That separated Jew from Gentile.
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- You see
o What we have to understand
 If we are to understand
 This passage properly
o Is that in the first century
 Jews and Gentiles did
not coexist peacefully.
- To the Gentiles
o The Jews
 Were regarded with suspicion
 Even disdain
o Because of their reluctance to
be involved in Roman culture.
o Their refusal
 To worship the Emperor
 And to offer devotion to the pantheon
of Roman gods
 Meant that they were
 A peculiar presence
o Within Roman cities like
Ephesus,
 Never assimilating to the culture
o In which they lived.
 And we are always
suspicious
 Of people who
do not
assimilate.
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 Its one of the

reasons why
immigrant
communities
tend to be
viewed with
suspicion if not
outright
hostility.
o Their refusal
 To assimilate into the culture,
 And to become Romans,
o Meant that they were viewed
as a potentially dangerous
presence.
- Of course
o The enmity was ever bit
 As strong
 On the other side.
- In fact the Jews went so far

o As to construct a literal
 Dividing wall of hostility
 in the Temple.
 Between the Court of the Gentiles
 From the Temple Courts.
o A low wall
 Wrapped around the Temple
 And had signs
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o That warned that any Gentile

(even a devout, God-fearing
Gentile) who entered in
 Would be liable to the
death penalty.
- It was a monument
o To the hostility
 That had developed
 Between the Jews and the Gentiles
o A hostility
 That descended
 Down to the point of name-calling.
o That’s what Paul refers to in v. 11
 The Jews
 Treated the Gentiles
o With disdain
 For their
uncircumcision:
 They were strangers to
the covenants of
promise,
 They ignored the Law of
Moses
 And were riddled with
ritual uncleanness.
 They regularly referred
 To the Gentiles as
o “dogs.”
- But what Paul wants his readers to see

o And remember.
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o What he wants both his Jewish-background readers

 And Gentile-background readers
 To know and remember
o Actively keep in mind
 And be motivated by,
o Is that because of the blood of Christ
 And the union that they have with God
 Such ethnic division
o Is gone,
 And the two
 Jew and Gentile
are now made
one.
o They are both in Christ.
 They have both been grafted into Christ
 The true vine.
o They have the same Spirit
dwelling with them
o They have received the same
blessings and benefits.
- Verse 15
o “by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in
ordinances
 [that is not to say,
 That Jesus just
o Got rid of the Law
 But that He
o Fulfilled the Law:
 That Jesus performed in Himself
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o All of the requirements of the

Law that had to be fulfilled for
us to be reconciled to God]
o That He might create in Himself one new man in place
of two, so making peace,
 And [v. 16] might reconcile us to God in one
body through the cross,
 Thereby killing the hostility.”
- What Paul wants his readers to see

o Is that the Gospel is so lavish
 That it takes
 Even alienated Gentiles,
 And so perfectly
 Satisfies the demands of the law
o Against their sin,
 That even they (unclean, Gentile dogs)
 Are brought in
o And given all the blessings of
the covenant community.
 Even they
 Have the riches of God’s grace
o Lavished
 Upon them.
- For any and all who come to God

o Through Christ
 By the Spirit
o Regardless
 Of background
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 Or ethnicity
o Or behavior
 Or any other distinctive
qualifier
o For all and any
 Who come to God
 Through Christ
o By the Spirit,
o Is to be found
 The lavish blessings
 That Paul described in chapter 1.
- And because of that

o Where there was once
 Jew and Gentile
 There is now simply
o One new man in the place of
the two.
o So intimately united
 Are those who were once
 Foes
o That they are now knit together
 Into an
indistinguishable
 Whole.
- No Jewish Church
o No Gentile Church
 Just the Christian Church
 United by our shared salvation,
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 United by what we have

o All received
 Through the finished
work
 Of Christ.
- In fact
o So close is this union
 That Paul
 In verses 19-22
o Uses increasingly intimate
language to describe it.
- He says
o V. 19
 “so then you are no longer strangers and aliens,
but you are fellow citizens with the saints and
members of the household of God
 Built on the foundation of the apostles
and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being
the cornerstone,
o In whom the whole structure,
being joined together,
 Grows into a holy
temple in the Lord.”
- He says
o This is what you are
 Becoming in Christ:
 You are now citizens of the Kingdom of
God.
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May 2018
oYou Gentile who was once

firmly outside the city gates
 In the wilderness,
 In the place of
uncleanness
and
condemnation
o You Gentile
 Who was once
condemned with the
condemnation of Cain
 To be a fugitive
and a wanderer
on the earth,
 Restless,
insecure,
o You have now been brought in
 And made a citizen of
the Kingdom of God,
 And have been given
peace.
 You are now in –
o This is your home
o Your not just a sojourner
 Not just close to the
Kingdom,
o But you are in it
 With all the rights
 And privileges
of a citizen.
o But more than that
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May 2018
 You have been made a member

 Of the household of God (v. 19) –
o That’s a reference back to ch. 1
 And what Paul said
there about our
adoption
 As the sons of
God.
 Even you
 Gentile
o You are a son
 A son and an heir.
 You haven’t just been brought close to God
 You haven’t even just been allowed
 To become a citizen in His Kingdom:
 You have been adopted by God
o You, Gentile,
 Once a stranger to the
covenants of promise
o Have been adopted by
 And united to
 The covenant
maker.
o But even more than that
 You are being joined together
 With the Jewish-background believers,
o In one church
 That is being built by
God
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May 2018
 To be His
dwelling place
on this earth.
- Sinclair Ferguson:
o “Think of what this must have meant to believers who
lived their whole lives under the shadow of the Temple
of Diana!
 Dwarfed – both physically and spiritually – as
they sometimes must have felt – they needed
to learn to walk not by sight but by faith.
 They were God’s true temple. Indeed, in
the next chapter Paul will add that they
– not the Diana Temple – were the true
‘wonder of the world’.”
o But he continues,
 “The double emphasis here (joined together [v.
21], built together) reminds us that the church
is not an aggregate of diverse people, but
individuals united to each other in their union
with Jesus Christ.
 They are brought closer to one another
in Christ, united together like the great
stones of the Jerusalem temple.
o The stones were so perfectly
carved by the skilled
stonemasons that they fitted
perfectly,
o sustained one another in place,
and took the weight of the next
level of building.
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May 2018
 What a marvelous
picture of the church!”
(Ferguson)
- And think
o How powerful
 That would have been
 In the first century:
o Not simply because
 Of the Temple of
Diana/Artemis
 That literally
stood over
them,
 But because of that
Jerusalem temple
 That stood
culturally over
them.
- Here,
o Paul says
 That believing Gentiles
 Not only get to go
o Beyond that dividing wall of
hostility
 And into the Temple,
o They are now the Temple:
 They, along with their Jewish-background
 Believing brethren
o Are the Temple of God.
- You understand what that means?
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May 2018
o They are not just close to God,

 Not just citizens of the Kingdom of God
 Not even just the sons of God,
o But they are the very dwelling
place of God on earth.
 So intimate is this union
that we have with God
 Through Christ
 That God
Himself dwells
within us.
II. What does it mean?

- In all of this
o Paul’s big concern
 Just as it has been
 Since the beginning of this letter
o Is to confront his readers
 With the wonders of the Gospel.
 He wants us to see
 The magnificence
o Of what Christ has done
o For totally undeserving sinners
 Like us.
 He wants His readers to
 Remember this
o To actively apply this
knowledge to their lives.
 This is to be a lens
through which
40
May 2018
 They view the

world and their
place in it.
 He wants His readers
 To remember
o The division between God and
man
 That came about by sin
 Rendering us
alienated
 From the
commonwealth
of Israel and
strangers to the
covenants of
promise,
 To remember
o The union we have now
 That that vertical
division has been
removed by Christ,
 And to remember
o What that means
 For how we relate
 To each other
in the church.
 All of us
 Equally in debt
to this God of
grace.
41

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o (he takes you)

o And the first thing

o This is closely related

o He doesn’t just want us

 But then you go on,

that stuff any

- That’s not what Paul wants.

o Not just something

 He wants his readers

o The command to remember

 Next time you

- Now we have to realize that

- It wasn’t that God had forgotten

the LORD your God. On it you

Egypt, and the LORD your God

- And it is that sense

o He wants his readers

I. What does it say?

o Of the alienation from God

o But they at least

- That’s the Gospel that runs through the Bible

 What is the Bible about?

the head of the

 Before a holy God,

- But the Gentiles

 They were strangers to those covenants of

- But Paul doesn’t

 This isn’t just a cheap-shot

- But now, (another of those beautiful conjunctions of Scripture)

 Those who were once

- Through the blood of Christ

o Through that perfect sacrifice

- The gates of the Kingdom

 it is a reality experienced in fellowship

- And the reason is that all these blessings are

o As Paul made clear

 But as we are united to Christ

 So the Holy Spirit

 By the Holy Spirit

- What Paul wants us to notice

- That dividing wall of hostility

 Its one of the

- In fact the Jews went so far

o That warned that any Gentile

- But what Paul wants his readers to see

o What he wants both his Jewish-background readers

o All of the requirements of the

- What Paul wants his readers to see

- For any and all who come to God

- And because of that

 United by what we have

oYou Gentile who was once

 You have been made a member

- You understand what that means?

o They are not just close to God,

II. What does it mean?

 They view the