Title: The New Humanity/Ephesians 2:11-22
There are many who consider themselves strangers. You think you've been neglected. The Bible also speaks of Gentiles. Ephesians 2:11 says, 'You were then Gentiles in the flesh'. But looking at verse 13, He says, 'Not now.' Then and now, past and present are very different things.
I. Then and now (verses 11-13)
We were then, that is, in the past, outside Christ and outside Israel. The people of Israel were chosen people, but we were not chosen people. He was also a stranger to the covenant of promise. In other words, they were people who had absolutely nothing to do with salvation. We were people without hope in the world, and above all, we were people without God in the world. But now it has become the object of God's love. They are the ones who have received that great love. He raised me, who was dead with Christ, and brought me close to God through the blood of Christ. Also, I became a citizen with the saints who were neither strangers nor strangers. That's what it means to be part of God's family.
II. Jesus Christ broke down the wall to make us new (verses 14-18).
There is a courtyard in front of the gates of the temple in Jerusalem, where the priest can go in the front, the Jewish man behind it, and the Jewish woman behind it. If you go down 5 steps from the courtyard, there is a stone monument that no one can access, and if you go down 14 steps, there is a stranger's courtyard. On a large pillar there was written the words, 'If you cross this wall as a foreigner, you will be killed.' Gentiles could not come to the temple. But Jesus Christ broke down the barriers of his body and made all of them one. He has allowed us to meet God. Because of this, we, who were enemies with God, became friends. It is a caring relationship, not just a friend, a relationship of unity, oneness, and restoration.
Ⅲ. New man [new personality] (verses 19-22)
Let me conclude.