January 23 - New Man

January 23 – New Man

“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations.  His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.” (Ephesians 2:15)

Paul has been writing to the Ephesians regarding the divide between the uncircumcised and the circumcised … the Gentiles and the Jews.

It seems so obvious when we read Paul’s words that the coming of Jesus Christ was to bring unity, but two thousand years later we are still so far away from being that one new mankind … humanity.  We are no more unified than we were in those few years after His crucifixion.  We have great gaping divides between us and allow them to separate us in so many ways – from personal to ideological divides.

Jesus destroyed the barrier between Jews and Gentiles, yet we find new ways to restore it – not just along religious paths, but any other that we can conceive.  He is still able to destroy those barriers, but we have to be committed to their destruction as well.

This is a glorious passage in Ephesians.  Paul talks about how we are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household.  It seems so easy for us to talk about this on Sunday mornings among people with whom we are familiar, but when it comes to real life applications, we celebrate the borders and the divisions, insulating ourselves from the world in as many ways as possible.

When Christ returns, He will find one way or another to break those divisions and borders to pieces.  It may come forcibly and in ways that we will not appreciate.

Ephesians 2:21 says, “In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.”

When all nations and all peoples finally come together we will see that glorious temple, “I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” (Revelation 21:22)

Jesus came to bring the kingdom of heaven to fruition on earth.  We have decimated it in as many ways as we can.  I want to be part of that kingdom of heaven while I live here on earth.  He’s taught us how to do it.  If we have to wait until He returns to bring it about, it is our peace and relationship with Him that is made more difficult while we are yet alive.