The Gospel of Unity
This article is inspired by a sermon on Ephesians 2:19-22 by Kennon Vaughan at Harvest Church in Memphis.
A Threat to Unity
Division has snuck its way into the church from the very beginning. This is evident in the strife between Jews and Gentiles in the first generation of the church. When Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch from their first missionary journey, reporting how the “door of faith had been opened to the Gentiles” (Acts 14:27), some rejoiced in this news and others rejected. Jewish believers responded with skepticism, saying, “Unless [they] are circumcised, [they] cannot be saved” (15:1). The Jews struggled to believe the Gentiles were genuinely saved because they didn’t meet the Jewish demand of circumcision.
This disunity caused a debate in the church that culminated in the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 in which the Apostles themselves considered the issue. Peter’s perspective is recorded for us:
“Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. Now, therefore why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the necks of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear. But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.” (15:7-11)
Peter made it clear. The Gentiles received the same salvation as everyone else:
They heard the same word of the Gospel and believed (v7).
They received the same Holy Spirit from God that bore witness to their salvation (v8).
Their hearts were cleansed in the same way, by faith (v9).
They will be saved through the same grace of God (v11).
The rest of the Council agreed with Peter, recognizing in “one accord” that Jews and Gentiles had the same status and standing before God (15:25). In response, the Apostles wrote to the Gentiles, calling them “brothers,” and laying on them “no greater burden” than to abstain from idolatry and sexual immorality (15:28-29). Through a brief letter, the Apostles fully affirmed the faith of the Gentiles and modeled for the early church that attitude amid cultural differences.
Christ Brought Peace
In Ephesians 2, Paul uses language reminiscent of the Jerusalem Council to make similar points. This beautiful chapter communicates Paul’s weighty perspective on human dynamics in light of the Gospel, using Jews and Gentiles as an example of much deeper truths. He says to his Ephesian, Gentile readers (and to the rest of the church listening in) that they who once were far off have been brought near (2:13). He makes it clear that the believing Gentiles received the same salvation as the Jews, and includes himself when he says that “we” who were dead in “our” trespasses have been made alive together with Christ (v5). Now, Paul says, he and they are raised with Christ and are seated with Him in the heavenly places (v6) and through Christ they have the same access to the Father in the Spirit (v18). Everyone found in Christ is invited to eat at the same table with the same privileges before God, with nothing to boast in but Him (v9). But Paul doesn’t stop there.
“For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility…”
Paul says that a result of Jesus’ work on the cross is peace, that Christ literally came and preached peace to us (v14-17). He uses vivid imagery to illustrate this. The “dividing wall of hostility” that once stood between God and people, and between people and people, has been broken down by Christ. This truth has two effects. First, it conveys that a much higher wall stands between sinful people and a holy God than could be imagined — higher than the often more apparent walls that stand between people who dislike each other. Yet, Christ brought it down! Second, when compared with that which separated people and God, the walls of difference, preference, and prejudice that separate people are minuscule, and Christ has brought them down too.
To convey the power of this, Paul focuses on Jews and Gentiles, stating that these ardent enemies with centuries’ worth of hatred toward each other have been made “one new man” in place of two by the Gospel (v16). Again, Jews and Gentiles alike received the same salvation, were given the same Spirit, and had the same peace with God and each other because of Christ. Thus, there was nothing to legitimately divide them anymore. If Christ could reconcile sinful, dead people to God, then He can do the lesser task of reconciling people to each other.
“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, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”
The Household of God
Ephesians 2 is a remarkable example of how God not only destroys that which isn’t good, but also creates something good out of it. Out of the rubble of the dividing wall of hostility, God builds a holy temple and dwelling place for Himself (v21-22). The bricks for this house are the redeemed people of God — in Paul’s context, the Jews and Gentiles — built on the foundation of the Gospel with Christ as the Cornerstone they’re all modeled after (v20).
This new humanity isn’t just meant to be a people where division doesn’t exist, coexisting in peace, but as strangers. That doesn’t magnify God enough. This new humanity is meant to be a household made up of people who were once strangers and aliens but who now share a familial bond in Christ (v19). This bond is likened to the mortar that transforms individual bricks into a sturdy wall. Imagine being a Jew or Gentile hearing this for the first time: that you are no longer to alienate those unlike you because God has formed one distinct people out of you; that you and the people you once hated and avoided at all costs are bricks joined together by the hands of a Builder who intends to grow you into a holy temple for Himself (v21). Nothing but the Gospel of Jesus can make this possible.
For Jewish listeners, Paul’s words must have been striking. God’s presence and worship was no longer exclusive to the Jerusalem Temple (something they had only known), but was now found widespread in the fellowship of believers, including Gentile ones. Modern readers can’t fully grasp how immense this cultural shift was. But Paul’s Gentile listeners were likely also struck by his words. In Ephesus existed one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World, the Temple of Artemis, an enormous structure that could be seen from all over the city. Despite the sin and idolatry that happened there, the Temple was a place of respite from the city around it, of refuge for those in danger, and of care for those in need. Paul tells his readers, many of whom likely used to worship at either one of these temples, that they are now the temple of the one, true, living God. It’s in their midst that people truly encounter God and where they truly find respite, refuge, and care.
The Temple of Artemis in Ancient Ephesus
Bricks Modeled After the Cornerstone
As I’ve studied these passages, my prayer has become that God would mold our church into the kind of structure Paul describes: one where He desires to dwell and where people experience life in the household of God. Christ has reconciled us to God through the cross and has formed us into one new man: a nation and a family characterized by unity and peace. Like much of what Ephesians depicts, this is a present reality we must live into.
Pursuing unity with others can be challenging. The solution Scripture offers is not to distance ourselves from others to gain the illusion of peace. Remember, we are bricks of the household of God, with nothing but mortar between us. As bricks, we are to be modeled after our Savior, the Cornerstone, our sides made straight and our edges squared off, so that we actually fit together as a sturdy wall. This doesn’t mean that differences or disagreements won’t occur. Of course they will within the close quarters of church family. But when they do, they don’t have to threaten the “structure.” This too is a place where we are modeled after Jesus, responding to conflict with grace, humility, and forgiveness. When we are carved in the likeness of our Savior and allow that to shape how we live with our church family, we bear witness to the work Christ has done to bring peace to His people.
Though not a sacrament, passing the peace each week is a means of grace that I hope reminds us of the truths of Ephesians 2. As we shake hands and greet each other, we manifest the fact that we were at one time separated from Christ, living without hope and without God, but now Jesus Himself is our peace. He has broken down the dividing wall of hostility that stood between us and God and between us and each other. He has brought us who were once far off near and has made us into one new man. May we be encouraged to live that out and may others be brought near too.