The Gospel of Reconciliation and Peace

**Joshua Kirstine** (0:00)
And now intercedes for us before the Holy Father. He is our bloody champion. In Christ alone, we are forgiven of our sin and reconciled to God. He is our true and lasting peace. Will you grab your Bibles with me this morning and turn to the pastoral epistle of Ephesians, Chapter 2 Here at Disciples Church, we're humbled by God's Word and inspired to be faithful for the preaching of it. We're currently at almost the 100th sermon mark through the Gospel of Luke in a multi-year study that's been so sweet and potent. Taking a break from that for this Good Friday and today, Resurrection Sunday, but we'll return to it as we pick up in Chapter 16 next week. I pray that you will join us. Today, look with me at Paul's words. First, preceding what we'll look at in depth, Ephesians 2, verse 13 But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Praise God for the sacrifice of Jesus in our place on Good Friday. Without it, we would have no hope, no salvation, and as we will see today, we would have no peace. Look with me at what Paul says next in verse 14 Ephesians 2, 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. Acts 14 acts as an overarching statement for what Paul is about to say in the coming verses. It builds on what he just said in verse 13 by highlighting what the gospel has done for those of us who trust in Christ. Three things, that Christ's life, death, and resurrection is the means to true and lasting peace. That Christ's life, death, and resurrection have made reconciliation among men, among mankind, specifically among those who are saved in the church. Number three, that Christ's life, death, and resurrection have made reconciliation between God's elect and God himself. Church, this is the gospel. It is the good news. Paul is highlighting here what Jesus accomplished in his flesh for us. He, speaking of Jesus, God the Son, took on flesh, speaking of the incarnation, sacrificed himself, sacrificed his flesh in our place, the substitution, and the victory of the cross meant the dividing wall between us and each other, between us and God is torn down. Jesus fulfilled what was needed so that we can be reconciled to him and to each other. Paul builds on this with what he says next in Ephesians 2.15, by abolishing the law of commandments, expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of two, so making peace. Jesus reconciles us to each other and to God by fulfilling all of the old covenant law and what it demanded, specifically all of the positive laws, including the laws of ceremony and the judicial laws of the old covenant. These were types and shadows that God put in place in the old covenant to point us towards and ultimately be fulfilled in Christ alone. Because Jesus did the work that we could not do, and he did it perfectly, and under completion, this means the covenant of works is fulfilled and is now abolished. Paul is saying the old covenant, positive law is done away with and not necessary anymore, because it is Christ's finished work on our behalf that puts us into a better covenant with God, called the covenant of grace. The new covenant is a lasting covenant between God and his eternally chosen people, a people made up of ethnic Jews and Gentiles, a people, as scripture teaches us, who will be of every tribe, tongue, and nation. The law of commandments that were expressed in ordinances is made obsolete, because it always pointed to the new covenant, to a better covenant, which Christ has now in place of, in place with new ordinances that we practice, testify of them and of him. These new ordinances given in the new covenant are believers baptism and the Lord's Supper, which we just celebrated together. Jesus, who was born under the law of the old covenant, as a Jew, living fully human and yet without sin, see Jesus fulfilling all of what God demanded in the old covenant. He fulfilled it perfectly on our behalf. See that only because of Jesus' sinless life, substitutional death, and victorious resurrection, are we who are in Christ by faith, therefore in the new covenant, we're able now to be reconciled to God now and forever. This is not a small point for Paul, as he speaks to everything mankind has been waiting for through the generations. God's plan to send the Redeemer to accomplish once and for all time all that was needed to reconcile his chosen people to himself and to each other. We know this is a major point for the Apostle Paul because he says it in many of his letters throughout the New Testament. A couple of examples, Romans 6, 14, For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under the law, but under grace. Galatians 4, 4, and 5 When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. Colossians 2, 13, and 14 You were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. Romans 7, verse 4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to one another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. Church, celebrate this good news with me this morning. The old covenant law said, do this and live. The new covenant now says, it has been done for you by Christ so that you can eternally live. Look at the next part of what Paul says this means for us in verse 15, Ephesians 2, 15 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. The temporary means of God's old covenant with ethnic Israel has come to an end, and his new covenant, his eternal covenant of redemption is fulfilled in Christ, and therefore, there's no separation among God's elect. So when Paul says, Christ creates in himself one new man in place of two, he's speaking of the longstanding separation that has been between the Jews, and all the non-Jews, referred to as Gentiles.