That Which Was Separated

Ephesians 2:11-16


11Therefore 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—
12remember 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.
13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility
15by 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,
16and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.


Our lives can be so very much about what separates us. We seem to look for the differences and then point them out. There are those who make much of those differences and learn how to hate or distrust one another because of them. This trait is not new to our generation. It has always been true. Every conflict, every war ever fought has been over the differences that separates us.
During Paul's writing of the Ephesians life was the same as it is today. People were wildly focused on their differences and truly knew how to hate one another because of them. For God's people in the Old Testament, those feelings of hatred went deep and were focused on absolutely anyone who wasn't a Jew. God did not have to teach them that stance - it came along with Adam's original sin. And so, Paul addresses those issues for the readers in these verses. In Christ, those differences have disappeared. His work unifies all believers under one umbrella of faith. Somehow, we have managed to separate ourselves again into denominations and I doubt if that pleases God, but it speaks once again to our sinful flesh having a sway over how we think.
The ultimate separation was between us and God. Once sin was introduced into the world, God became our enemy. But through the work of Jesus, that enmity has been destroyed. His sacrificial death and the shedding of His blood paid the price that justice demanded for our sin. The separation between us and God is gone forever! Jesus' blood restores all things; our relationship with one another and our relationship with Him. Blessed be the name of the Lord!

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