TEAR DOWN THAT WALL!

Ephesians 2:11-22

Paul teaches the purpose of Christ coming into the world in this passage:  to tear down the dividing wall between God and man and the wall between man and man.  “The veil of the curtain was torn in two” at the death of Jesus on the cross, making the Holy of Holies accessible to penitent believers, thus making reconciliation possible between God and man, and man and man. 

This should be a source of wonder and joy to me.  It is, but since I can hardly wrap my mind around the concept  of God zooming through the heavens, stopping in Mary’s womb for a time, then being born in the same way I was born, how can I possibly appreciate fully what has been made available to me by way of the cross?  But I can keep trying to understand! 

There’s another wall that was torn down when Jesus died and rose again.  The wall of death, that fearsome, un-climbable wall that stops all of us in our mad dash through life, sometimes when we least expect it.  

The death and resurrection of Christ leveled that wall more surely than the launch of a nuclear weapon.  The wall is not only leveled, it’s annihilated for those of us who have accepted Christ’s sacrifice for sin.  For us, “it is not death to die”, as the song says.

1.      God teaches me through Paul’s message:

·        Once I was separated from God, a foreigner to His covenants, excluded from citizenship in heaven, without hope and without God.  (11-12)

·        My ticket to citizenship in heaven is the shed blood and broken body of Christ on the cross, which has brought me near to Him when I was far away. (13)

·        In Christ I have peace; peace with God and peace with others, because Christ’s death & resurrection destroyed the barriers:   the veil was torn down separating me from the Holy of Holies and the barrier of self-interest and pride dividing me from other people was destroyed.  (14)

·        Christ’s death “set aside in His flesh” the wrath of God, which I deserve because of my disobedience.  He didn’t abolish the law –relationship of sin and death, He fulfilled it on my behalf!  (15)

·        His purpose in this?  It’s two-fold:  1) to make me one with Him; and 2) to make unity between man and man.  This makes peace, both on earth and in heaven.  (15)

·        Christ brought reconciliation between me and God and between me and others through the Cross, where He put to death my hostility towards both.  (17)

·        Christ’s death brought reconciliation between Jews and Gentiles by way of the Cross.  (12-18)

·        Christ’s death created equal access for all people to the Holy of Holies, the presence of God.  (17-18)

·        Because Christ died, I am no longer a foreigner to God, no longer a stranger, a lost visitor to Him; I am a fellow citizen with all of His church and a member of God’s own household.  (19)

·        His household’s foundation is the foundation of the apostles and prophets, of which Christ is the cornerstone, the stone upon which the entire building rests.  (20)

·        In Christ the whole structure of His Body, the Church, is joined together and is rising steadily through the ages to become the Holy Temple where one day His presence will reside unfettered by sin. (21)

·        In Christ, I too am a small part of the Body, His Church.  He is building me, shaping me, sanding me down in places, and fitting me so that the niche He has for me will be filled by me perfectly.  Then, I will properly fit the service He has for me and He will dwell in me unrestrained.

2.    Father, as I meditate upon what You accomplished on the Cross for me, I am overwhelmed!  I could spend the rest of my days and into eternity trying to understand just this one small portion of Truth.  I pray as I meditate upon this passage that You will make this Truth clearer and clearer to me.  May I understand my position in Your House and never doubt it.  May I live like a treasured child, a holy servant, a royal citizen in Your Country, never again to settle for a life of wandering, never again to be satisfied by the meager offerings of this world.

3.     As I meditate upon what You have accomplished on the Cross for me, let me remember those who You place in my path each day.  You accomplished all of this on the Cross for them!  I’m saved, I’m being sanctified, I’m being fitted for work in Your Kingdom, but what about them?  If they’re not being fitted for work in Your Kingdom, for whose kingdom are they being prepared?  Father, please go before me today and prepare a heart for You to touch through me and when that door opens, may I not be too cowardly and self-interested to step through it.