Ephesians 2:16 – Peace and reconciliation

…making peace and should be reconciling both in one body to God through the cross, killing the enmity in it.

The two become one. That is the big subject in this passage. That is also what reconciliation means: making peace. It is the abolition of enmity and alienation (Col. 1:21). That enmity is directed towards GOD (2:12). And horizontally, the enmity between Jew and ‘heathen’ (2:11). Hence reconciliation: It works two ways. In the cross, the vertical and horizontal lines meet.

The cross is the emblem of Israel’s rejection of the Messiah. Through that rejection the message of “the conciliation of the world” (Rom. 11:15) came to the nations through Paul. Israel as a people is temporarily sidetracked and since then there has been a new formation: the one body of Christ, the ecclesia. Without distinction in lineage.

But, above all, the cross proves through which way GOD makes peace. The world nailed GOD’s Son to the cross, but GOD raised him up three days later in order to give Life to that same world. No enmity can withstand such love!

Delen: