Ephesians 2:11-12 NIV
Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
Genesis 17:9-11, 14 NIV
Then God said to Abraham…“This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you… Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
Ephesians 2:12 NIV
…excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
Ephesians 2:12 NIV
remember that at that time you were separate from Christ…
>> How Jesus Brought Us Peace:
1) He brought the “far off”
.
Ephesians 2:13 NIV
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
2) He tore down the wall of
.
Ephesians 2:14-15 NIV
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations.
Acts 21:27-30 NIV
…Some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple [in Jerusalem]. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, shouting, “Fellow Israelites, help us! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and our law and this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this holy place.” (They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with Paul and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple.)
The whole city was aroused, and the people came running from all directions. Seizing Paul, they dragged him from the temple, and immediately the gates were shut.
3) He made
from two.
Ephesians 2:15 NIV
His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace…
4) He
us to God.
Ephesians 2:16-17 NIV
…and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.
John 17:20-23 NIV
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
5) He opened
to God.
Ephesians 2:18 NIV
For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Greek : prosagōgē = “access, introduction”
6) He made us
of the Kingdom, and members of his
.
Ephesians 2:19 NIV
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household…
7) He built us into a
where God dwells.
Ephesians 2:20-22 NIV
…built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
My Next Step With Jesus: