Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, make us one with You and with all Your saints. Amen.
Text: Ephesians 2:13-22
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been made near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of division between us, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
Devotion
Without Christ the Law is a wall of division between Jews and Gentiles, and sin is a wall of division between God and both of them. But in Christ both are reconciled to God and united with each other. God’s holy, eternal, unchanging Law no longer stands as a demand and threat between God and Israel, for Christ has fulfilled both its demand and its punishment. “In His flesh,” in His atoning work in His human nature and humiliation, “He abolished… the law of commandments contained in ordinances.” “The handwriting of requirements that was against us… He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross” (Col 2:14). And since He has atoned for the sin of the whole world, Jews and Gentiles have free access to God.
Paul teaches everywhere that Jesus Christ Himself, as our Savior, is in the Word of the Gospel. “He is our peace, He who abolished the enmity.” He Himself is our peace. And again: “He came and preached peace to you who were afar off, and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.” Read it correctly and see that Christ with His blood shed on the cross is here in His Means of Grace, so that all who accept the Gospel accept Him and are reconciled to God, but all who close their heart to the Gospel reject Christ Himself and come under God’s wrath. As there is no salvation in any other, so there is no communion in Him other than by faith in His Word.
By the Word He has in fact created a new people of God from both Jews and Gentiles. And we with our fathers were outside Israel’s commonwealth and covenant of promise, without hope and without God. But the Word came, and the Spirit in the Word explained the cross to us, and now we too have come near by the blood of Christ. We have our genuine certificate of Israelite citizenship in God’s Word. Christ alone is the basis of our salvation, and in Him we are inseparably united with the Church of Pentecost, and the Church of all ages. Of His infinite mercy God has made us alive, raised us and set us in heaven in Christ Jesus. This is no dream, for we have the real Gospel, the real Savior, the real life of love, and we stand day and night before God’s throne.
Closing Prayer
We praise You, O God, for Your wisdom and grace. Help us to believe the Word and to glorify You. Amen.
Hymn
O Christ, our true and only Light,
Enlighten those who sit in night,
Let those afar now hear Thy voice,
And in Thy fold with us rejoice.
Fill with the radiance of Thy grace
The souls now lost in error’s maze,
And all whom in their secret minds
Some dark delusion haunts and blinds.
Shine on the darkened and the cold;
Recall the wand’rers to Thy fold.
Unite all those who walk apart;
Confirm the weak and doubting heart.
So they with us may evermore
Such grace with wond’ring thanks adore
And endless praise to Thee be giv’n
By all Thy Church in earth and heav’n.
Heermann: L 193:1.2.5.6 ELH 198:1.2.5.6 tr. C. Winkworth;
tune: O Jesu Christ, wahres Licht