Ephesians is the most exuberant of Paul's letters. In it, he not only expresses the nature of individual salvation (Eph. 2:8-10), but he also describes the common experience of Jews and Gentiles in being saved out of sin (notice the interplay of the second and third person pronouns in 2:1-3) and united into one body.
That Gentiles would be united into one body (see 3:4, where Paul uses the body metaphor along with other descriptors) with Jews is considered by the Apostle to be remarkable, and he does not hold back his sense of exhilaration that God has given him a role in this. He says that God has privileged him by making known this "mystery" not previously revealed to prior generations, but now has been given to "the least of all the saints" by "the gift of God's grace" that in fact demonstrates "the manifold wisdom of God." Already in chapter 2 he has mixed multiple metaphors in describing what God is doing with Jews and Gentiles: union in a common body, sharing in a common inheritance, fellow citizens of one kingdom, members of a common family, and indwelt by the same Spirit. Along with these, Paul also says that Jew and Gentile have been united into a singular temple.
In fact, Paul uses temple imagery both with regard to what God has delivered the Gentiles from and what he has delivered them to. Thus, beginning with 2:11 Paul described the vast chasm that separated Gentiles not only from Jews but also from any eternal hope. Gentiles had been separated from Israel and the covenants of promise; they were "without hope and without God in the world." Thus, they were alienated from both God and from God's people. However, Paul writes, Christ had brought those who had been far off "near by the blood of Christ" so that now they were near both to Christ and to one another. In giving visible expression to this sudden change of spiritual position, Paul then writes that Christ "has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility...." (all quotations are from the ESV).
The "dividing wall" that Paul mentioned had explicit reference to a wall at that time still standing in Jerusalem. Herod's renovation of the temple included an outer court of the gentiles that non-Jews could enter, but signage on the "dividing wall" (to use Paul's phrase) warned Gentiles that to cross into the interior temple area would result in the death of the transgressor. Thus, in the temple of the time, a literal wall gave literal expression to the division between Jew and Gentile, and Paul declared that Christ by his death had broken down that wall so that in the church Jew and Gentile would be joined together.
In fact, Jew and Gentile were now joined together in a new temple of Christ, which is described beginning with 2:20. Christ himself is the cornerstone of the temple, which is built "on the foundation of the apostles and prophets." Paul stretches the building metaphor a bit, as he does not want to give the impression the temple is static, so he says that it "grows into a holy temple of the Lord .... a dwelling place for God by the Spirit."
The notion of a continually growing temple may seem strange until we remember that it is consistent with both the beginning and the end of the Bible. With regard to man's original temple home , God commissioned Adam to "fill the earth." In Revelation 21, the New Jerusalem is of massive size and, as with the temple Paul talks about here, is described as explicitly including both Jew and Gentile, the saints under the Old Covenant and under the New. As we will see in a future post, Revelation 21 expresses about the end times temple what Paul says in Ephesians 2 has begun. The temple is being enlarged because Christ has succeeded and his gospel is spreading through all of the earth.
God had given Adam the commission to fill the earth by expanding the Edenic temple. Adam failed. However, the second Adam, Christ Jesus, succeeded where Adam failed, and his temple is expanding to all languages and tribes and people and nations, making of them "a kingdom and priests to our God" (Rev. 5:9-10).
It is no wonder that Paul was exuberant. Indeed, all of God's people may bow to worship before our great Savior.
No comments:
Post a Comment