The Gentiles Before Faith In Christ
2:11-12
Paul wanted the Gentiles to understand their privileges in Christ by reminding them of their state, or status, before coming to Christ.
Israel (the Jews), as God’s people, had a special relationship with God and special privileges. Paul wrote about these privileges in Romans. He said they received the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Mosaic law, the worship, and the promises.” (Romans 9:4)
The law separated Israel from all other nations who did not have it. The law was the distinguishing factor between Jews and Gentiles.
They knew this. Psalm 147 recounts the blessings given to Jerusalem and ends with saying God has not dealt this way with any other nation. (Ps. 147:20) Jewish men’s liturgical prayers included thanks to God for not making them Gentiles.
The sign of the special relationship God had with the Jews was circumcision. God commanded it to Abraham when he made a covenant with him and his offspring. (Genesis 17:9-14) By the time of Paul, Jews referred to themselves collectively as “the circumcision” and to Gentiles as the “uncircumcision”. So, Paul used these terms in verse 11.
The Gentiles did not have the special blessings of the Jews. They were not members of the chosen people. Paul said they were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. (12) A commonwealth is a group of people organized into a single government. Israel was organized according to the law of God and bound to him by covenant. The Gentiles were strangers to the covenant, meaning they were not part of it.
Uncircumcision was a sign of the Gentiles estrangement from God. Paul writes that they had no hope and were without God in the world.
Gentiles After Faith In Christ
2:13-18
The words “but now” show us that Paul will now contrast the Gentiles in Christ to his description of Gentiles before Christ. As long as they were separated from Christ (12), they were separated from God and his people. But, that changed when they became believers. First, they, who were far from God, have been brought near. (13) They were brought near by the blood of Christ, meaning his sacrificial death. Through his death, Christ reconciled us, both Jew and Gentile, to God. He is our peace. (14)
But he also reconciled us to each other. He broke down the dividing wall of hostility between Jews and Gentiles. (14)
Josephus tells us there was a wall in the temple precincts separating the outer courts from the inner courts. The wall had signs attached at intervals telling Gentiles they could not enter and would be killed if they attempted to enter. Paul was actually arrested by the Jews and charged with taking a Gentile Christian into the inner courts (Acts 21:27-36) Maybe Paul had this wall in mind when he wrote of the “dividing wall of hostility” in verse 14.
The wall of hostility was broken down by Christ in his death. (14) That is because he abolished the requirements of the law which only the Jews had. Christ did this by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances. Circumcision is no longer a requirement. Dietary rules are abolished. Special days and feasts were no longer observed.
He made us, both Jew and Gentile, one people. He has “made us both one”. (14) We are no longer two types of people, Jew and Gentile. He created “one new man in place of two”. (15) He created a new human being, a new humanity. He made us one body.
In effect, God created a new entity with the sacrifice of Christ. Jews and Gentiles became former Jews and Gentiles and new members of the Church. Some early Christian writers referred to Christians as a third race, no longer Jew or Gentile, but simply Christian.
Members of the House of God
2:19-22
So Gentiles in Christ are no longer strangers and aliens. They are fellow citizens. Citizens have rights and privileges that aliens do not. This was the case in the Roman Empire. We see this when Paul exerted his rights as a citizen when he was arrested in Jerusalem and bound without a trial. (Acts 22)
Paul also used the metaphor of a house to describe this situation. First, he said Gentiles are members of the household of God. (19) A household is a house and those who live in it as family, so the Gentiles are part of God’s family with equal rights and privileges as the original members.
Paul then modifies the metaphor to focus on the house as a building. This house is being built by God. (1 Corinthians 3:9) The foundation of the house is the” apostles and prophets”. (20) The apostles are the Twelve plus Paul. The term here may include those who, like Paul, received a special commission from the risen Lord. James might be an example. (1 Corinthians 15:7) The prophets were the New Testament prophets, who further taught and applied the word of God.
The corner stone of this house is Jesus. (20) A cornerstone was the principal stone, usually placed at the corner of the building. It was usually large and solid. It determined the directionality of the building.
Each believer, Jew and Gentile, is a stone which is joined with the other stones. It grows as more believers are added. It is a holy temple in the Lord. (21) The Jews may have been the first stones laid, but the Gentiles are also being built together with them to make this temple.
This house, or temple, which is the universal church, is the dwelling place for God by the Spirit. As the temple in Jerusalem was the place of God’s dwelling in the old covenant, the body of believers is the place of God’s dwelling in the new covenant.
There is no distinction among members of the household because of race, gender, or economic status. In Galatians 3:28, Paul said “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
That is God’s design for his new humanity. Therefore, creating divisions among God’s people is going against his design and will and is a sin. Rather, we are to work to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:3)
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