Our Corporate Identity

Paul elaborates: "He did this so that He might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross and put the hostility to death by it" (v. 16). Paul speaks of the double reconciliation that has taken place, stating that the hostility has been put to death. As Stott says, "God turned away his own wrath, and we, seeing his great love, turned away ours also" (Ephesians, 102). Jesus' death has ended the hostility.

61Consequently, Christians are to be a people who forgive one another because of the forgiveness of Christ (Eph 4:32). Jesus taught us to pray, "Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors" (Matt 6:12). The best antidote to disunity and hostility between believers is a fresh comprehension of the cross of Christ.

The cross of Christ is how our peace was achieved, but now it is to be announced. Commentators debate if this refers to Jesus' earthly ministry of preaching, the crucifixion itself (as a symbol of proclaiming peace), His postresurrection proclamation of peace (John 20:19-21), or the ongoing proclamation through the apostles and now through the church. I am not sure it has to be limited to any one of these. Jesus certainly proclaimed the gospel of peace before the cross, on the cross, and after the resurrection. And now the followers of Jesus must be ready to preach the gospel of peace (Eph 6:15). We are to tell the world how people can have peace with God. Paul could have also adopted this phrase "preached peace" from Isaiah: "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the herald, who proclaims peace, who brings news of good things" (Isa 52:7; cf. 57:19; Rom 10:15).

The application is simple enough. Christ proclaims peace through His followers today. By the Holy Spirit, Christ proclaims His peace through ordinary believers like us. The world wants "peace," and only when we preach Christ can people find out how to have it.

Paul adds that this good news was preached to those "far away" and those "who were near"—that is, to Gentiles and Jews (cf. Isa 57:19). The whole world needs this gospel. Let us be faithful in sharing it.

Those who respond to Jesus' work and message now have access to God. Notice the Trinitarian language: Paul says it is "through Him [Christ] we both have access by one Spirit to the Father."

This is what prayer is about. Prayer is conversation with the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit. The ongoing benefit of Christ's reconciliation is that we today have access to God. We can now come to God with boldness (Eph 3:12) because of what Christ has done. Marvel at the privilege of prayer and the stunning grace of the Savior.

However, Paul is not just emphasizing this personal privilege. He is emphasizing that Jew and Gentile together approach God through 62Christ by the Spirit. We live out our new position in Christ and in our new community by the Spirit of God.

Before we move to the final point, consider the personal testimony of a faithful saint, Charles Simeon. He had no mother to nurture him. His father was an unbeliever. His boarding school was a godless and corrupt place. And he knew of no Christian at Cambridge for almost three years after his conversion! His acceptance of Christ was a miracle of grace. He was 19 years old, sitting in his dormitory room as Passion Week began at the end of March 1779. He wrote,

Yes, we have sweet access to God through the Savior and peace that flows in abundance because of the Substitute! If you are not a believer, then transfer your guilt to Another! Look to Christ and believe.

Identification: Who We Have Now Become

Ephesians 2:19-22

Paul summarizes Christ's reconciling work by reminding the Gentiles of who they now are. He says that they, joined together with Jewish believers, now belong to a new community.

In Ephesians 2:5-6 I noted the three "with" (syn) words that show how we have been synced with Christ. In 2:19-22 there are three more 63"with" or "together" words: sympolitai ("fellow citizens"), synarmologeo ("put together"), and synoikodomeo ("built together") (Snodgrass, Ephesians, 136). These words emphasize that we have been synced not only to Christ but also to other Christians. This is our identity. To illustrate this identity, Paul uses three word pictures: citizens, family, and stones in a temple.

First, Paul says that they are no longer refugees; now they have a citizenship. This citizenship is kingdom citizenship. The Gentile believers are not second-class citizens in someone else's territory. They are full members of the kingdom. While in reality God rules over everything, here the kingdom of God refers to where God has special rule over His people, that is, where His privileges are enjoyed and the responsibilities are carried out. We are waiting for the King to return and set up the full realization of this kingdom.

Paul is writing during a time in which Roman citizenship was prized. Roman citizens had wonderful privileges. Citizenship in a great country is a blessing, but there is nothing like being a citizen of the kingdom of God (cf. Phil 3:20).

Foreigners in another city or country feel vulnerable. They have to keep their papers with them at all times. But Paul says we do not have to feel this way. We belong. We are part of the kingdom that has no end, the only kingdom that has no end.

Paul's metaphor of God's new community changes to something more personal: a family. One might imagine Jew and Gentile together in one kingdom, but to think of them as one family is stunning. Elsewhere Paul says we are "God's household" (1 Tim 3:15).

How are we one family? We have the same Father. Paul just made that point in 2:18. We have access to "the Father." We are adopted children, as Paul asserted in 1:5. The church is made up of adopted brothers and sisters. We have responsibilities in the family. We are one family, each fulfilling his role, bringing glory to our Father (Eph 5:1). In 1 Timothy 5:1-2 Paul says we should treat one another like family.

We have five adopted children in our family. If you visit our home on a Saturday at the right time, you will find all of them doing chores—sweeping, mowing, dusting, collecting garbage, and vacuuming. My wife 64even has a chore chart for each kid! Everyone is serving, loving, and sharing responsibilities.

The church is not a building we go to or an event we attend. The church is family, living life together on mission. Be careful not to treat the church as a hotel—visiting a place occasionally, giving a tip if you are served well. Rather, see the church as part of your Christian identity, and understand that we all have a role in God's household.

Paul's third metaphor would have been vivid for his audience. For nearly one thousand years, the temple had been a focal point of Israel—from Solomon to Zerubbabel to Herod. Now there was a new temple, made up of people. In verse 20 Paul says the foundation of the temple is God's Word. The apostles and prophets were teachers, and here Paul emphasizes their teaching. (Paul is probably referring to NT prophets, but even with the range from the OT prophets to the apostles and NT prophets, there was continuity in their teaching.)

This emphasis should not surprise us. The church stands or falls based on its faithfulness to God's Word. Luke says the early church "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching" (Acts 2:42). That is foundational.

Next we see the cornerstone mentioned. There is only one cornerstone: Jesus. He makes the whole building possible. The whole community is built on Him. He gives security to the building, and He gives it alignment (cf. Isa 28:16; Rom 9:32; 10:11; 1 Pet 2:4-8). While the apostles' teaching is being emphasized, Jesus' person and work are also emphasized. Jesus is also how the church grows and is held together. There is no unity or growth if Christ is not the cornerstone.

Paul likens the people to stones. He says that in the Lord "you also are being built together for God's dwelling." Peter says something like this as well, calling us "living stones" (1 Pet 2:5). We are carefully shaped building blocks fitted to build this temple. Each new member is added to it. In 1 Corinthians 6:19 Paul refers to individuals being a temple of the Spirit, but here (and in other places like 1 Cor 3:16-17; 2 Cor 6:16) the people make up the temple.

By saying, "You also," Paul is referring to the Gentiles being added to this building. Previously the Gentiles were not allowed to enter the temple, but now they are a part of it! Even though the Israelites knew God did not dwell in temples made by hands, they recognized that God 65promised to dwell in the temple's inner sanctuary. Now His special presence is not limited to a place or a building or an ethnicity. God's presence is spread worldwide, wherever people believe in Christ.

Notice it is "in the Lord" that we are a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Through Christ, by the Spirit of God, God dwells in us personally and as a community. Ultimately, this reality will be fully realized and enjoyed in the new heavens and new earth when God makes His dwelling place with man.

A great temple stood in Ephesus (the temple of Artemis). In Jerusalem they had a great temple. But Paul says, through Christ, by the Spirit, there is a better temple; it is made up of people from every tribe and tongue. We are joined together and built together. Each one is related to the other in a special way, and we are all growing together in Christ.

Practically, that means every person counts. We need one another's time, talent, treasure, love, resources, encouragement, and rebuke. We are to live the Christian life together as a multiethnic temple, centered in Christ, rooted in the teaching of Scripture.

Application

Let me make a few applications from this important passage. This passage confronts the typical Western mind-set in two major ways, including the way people in the Western church think.

An obvious implication from these three pictures is that Christ wants to create a people, not merely isolated individuals who believe in Him. This passage confronts Western individualism. To be separate from the church is to say, "I want to be a stone apart from a building" or "a son or daughter separated from my family" or "a refugee away from my country." Many people treat the church as something that is unnecessary, unimportant, or even a hindrance to doing great things for God. I used to believe this. I did not want to pastor. I felt I was superior to others, not needing the church. I felt I could do more apart from the church. I hopped around visiting different churches, but did not have community. That is not God's design for the Christian.

Some think the church is fine for others, but they do not feel the need to take membership seriously. The New Testament positions it as our fundamental identity. Belonging to a local church should be more 66important than where you go to school, where you work, or to what club you belong. Sometimes people ask whether college students should join a church. I think students should consider the church they may belong to before they go off to school. If we are apart from community, we are not following the New Testament pattern, and we are not helping ourselves. It is not good to be apart from the oversight of shepherds or apart from the accountability and support of brothers and sisters.

The New Testament assumes every Christian is part of a local church. It knows nothing of lone-ranger Christianity or the position that claims, "I'm a member of the universal church; I don't need to join a local, visible church." We show we are part of the universal church by identifying with a tangible people locally. Is this not what we do in our union with Christ? We live out spiritual union with Christ visibly. In the same way, we should live out our union with other believers visibly. Identify yourself with a people. Avoid being a "ninja Christian," just slipping into a worship service and leaving without a trace. Be a family member instead.

Church discipline assumes local church members are identifiable (Matt 18:15-17). When Paul directs the Corinthians to expel the immoral brother, he assumes there are people who are in and people who are out (1 Cor 5:9-13). In 2 Corinthians 2:6 the "majority" of members voted to remove a man from its membership. The New Testament also mentions lists, which illustrates that people were identifiable (e.g., 1 Tim 5:9). The book of Acts counts people (e.g., Acts 2:41). People knew who was part of the church. The writer of Hebrews says overseers will give an account for their people (Heb 13:17). If there are no identifiable members, then there is no one for whom to give an account. Electing leaders (Acts 6; 13), submitting to them, regulating membership, keeping lists, and voting only make sense if there is an identifiable group of members. The metaphors for the church—stones in a temple, members of a family, citizens of a kingdom, members of a body—all assume individuals are part of an actual church.

There is certainly flexibility as to how one works out the membership process in a local church, but the New Testament emphasis on the importance of belonging to a local church is abundantly clear. We cannot read this passage honestly without seeing the importance of the church.

This is how God intends for us to live out our faith and love one another: in community. It is an incredible gift of God's grace to have a family of faith. It is a gift of grace to gather corporately and stir up67 one another to faith and good works (Heb 10:24-25). It is a gift of grace to love one another as Christ has loved us (John 13:34-35). It is a gift of grace to carry one another's burdens (Gal 6:2). It is a gift of grace to encourage one another and to be encouraged by one another (1 Thess 5:11). It is a gift of grace to be taught and admonished by one another (Col 3:16). It is a gift of grace to be allowed the privilege to give financially to further the gospel (2 Cor 8-9). It is a gift of grace to come to the table for communion (1 Cor 11:26).

All of these privileges have come to us via the cross-work of Jesus Christ. He has brought us near and made us one.

This passage confronts not only Western individualism, but it also confronts the racist impulse in many believers. Manmade distinctions of a "black church" or a "white church" are not acceptable to gospel-centered people. Let us be part of a red church—a group of people, from every tribe and tongue, that has been redeemed by the torn-apart Christ, who spilled His red blood that we may be reconciled to God and to one another!

The main way we can work to cultivate diversity is by proclaiming the gospel. When a person understands the gospel, and that the entire human race is fallen and in need of grace, unity comes naturally.

With that said, I do think it is good for us to think about how we might display our love for the gospel by intentionally cultivating diversity. Could anything be more powerful before a lost world than to see people from all ethnicities united in Christ? Ponder the corporate implications of the cross. See what has happened corporately because of the cross. Race is a cross issue. Piper states,

Truly value people of other ethnicities. An attitude that says, "They are not my kind," destroys the body of Christ and reveals a deep sin 68problem. Welcome new people, regardless of their skin color, every week, in corporate worship and in small groups. Intentionally invest in Christians of other ethnicities. Demonstrate that other groups matter to you. Do not just make this a theory. Practice it. Invite them over for dinner in your home. Invite people of diverse backgrounds to corporate worship. Passionately seek justice and display mercy for other ethnic groups. Love the poor. Seek justice for those sold into slavery. Care for orphans of every skin tone. Gladly work together with those of other nationalities for the advancement of the gospel. Pray for wisdom and diversity in your local church, and be glad when you see new elements in worship. This is hard work, but it is worth it. These intentional acts glorify the crucified Savior, who died to bring us to God and to one another.

Reflect and Discuss