Bethany Lutheran Church
Ephesians | A Reconciled People
Here Paul digs into some culture ramifications of the Gospel. The Gospel story not only unites us to God, it also unites us to one another. As followers of Jesus, we are no longer defined by age, gender, ethnicity or race. We are one new family in Christ. The only thing that can truly unite us to one another and make us a new kind of humanity is Jesus’ blood.
Questions to wrestle through: How have our human efforts of bringing about peace actually caused more division? How do you sperate yourself from people who are not like you? What would it look like to be a person who brings about gospel reconciliation in your spheres of God given influence?
Ephesians 2:11-22 (ESV)
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 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.
Here Paul digs into some culture ramifications of the Gospel. The Gospel story not only unites us to God, it also unites us to one another. As followers of Jesus, we are no longer defined by age, gender, ethnicity or race. We are one new family in Christ. The only thing that can truly unite us to one another and make us a new kind of humanity is Jesus’ blood.
Questions to wrestle through: How have our human efforts of bringing about peace actually caused more division? How do you sperate yourself from people who are not like you? What would it look like to be a person who brings about gospel reconciliation in your spheres of God given influence?
Ephesians 2:11-22 (ESV)
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 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.