ACC ~ Ephesians 2 v11 - 16

OVERVIEW:

Paul illustrates the extent of God’s mercy to Gentiles (CHRYSOSTOM), whose former state was a preparation for their future spiritual state (EPIPHANIUS), which they now possess as the true circumcision (JEROME). They were strangers to truth and the covenants (TERTULLIAN, MARIUS VICTORINUS) and hence to God (JEROME). They are now called to accept their destiny as the true Israel (ORIGEN) and give thanks for the love of Christ (AMBROSIASTER). Only he, our Creator, can overcome the flesh (MARIUS VICTORINUS), uniting Jews and Gentiles in a new humanity (CHRYSOSTOM) by breaking down their mutual animosity (AMBROSIASTER) and overcoming the barrier between sin and God. The law was good in its time, though now it has been transcended (CHRYSOSTOM). Though the law’s ceremonial rules are discarded (AMBROSIASTER), the moral commandments must be kept in the spirit (THEODORET). A new creation is coming into being (CHRYSOSTOM) that embraces Jews and Gentiles (THEODORET). Christ is the true mediator because he alone is able to reconcile all things (CHRYSOSTOM). The new person in Christ (TERTULLIAN) is a unity of soul and spirit (MARIUS VICTORINUS). The resurrection brings that person peace with God (THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA). The crucified one joins himself with us to join us to God (GREGORY OF NYSSA), vanquishing the old enmity by taking us into his body (CHRYSOSTOM).

2:11 | Gentiles in the Flesh

REMEMBERING THE CIRCUITOUS PATH OF SALVATION. CHRYSOSTOM: Many are the evidences of God’s love of humanity. God has saved us through himself, and through himself in such a special way, remembering what we were when he saved us and to what point he has now brought us. For each of these stages in itself is a great proof of his benevolence. Paul now reviews at each stage what he writes. He has already said that God has saved us when we were dead in sins and children of wrath. Now Paul shows to what extent God has raised us. HOMILY ON EPHESIANS 5.2.11-12.

ON THE FIGURE OF GENTILES IN THE FLESH. EPIPHANIUS: The phrase “Gentiles in the flesh” contrasts types of realities. The type in the flesh was awaiting the time of the spirit. The less perfect fulfillment of the circumcision is expressed in relation to its more perfect fulfillment. PANARION 42.12.3, THIRTY-SIXTH REFUTATION OF MARCION.

DISTINGUISHING FOUR POSSIBLE GENTILES AND JEWS REGARDING CIRCUMCISION. JEROME: By calling the Ephesians “Gentiles in the flesh,” he shows that in the spirit they are not Gentiles, just as conversely the Jews are Gentiles in spirit and Israelites in the flesh. Therefore the Jews and Gentiles are subject to a fourfold division: Some are circumcised in spirit and flesh, as were Moses and Aaron. … Some have been circumcised neither in spirit nor in flesh, as were Nebuchadnezzar and Pharaoh. … A third group are circumcised only in the flesh. … Lastly come those of whom he now speaks, … believers such as today we see in the whole host of believing Gentiles around the world. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.2.12.

2:12a | Separated from Christ

PREVIOUSLY DESTITUTE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. THEODORET: He wants to show that Christ is the provider of all goods for them. “For previously,” he says, “you were destitute of the knowledge of God and did not enjoy the goods promised beforehand to Israel.” EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 2.12.

2:12b | Alienated from Israel

TRUE ISRAEL. MARIUS VICTORINUS: The true way of Israel consists in living according to the Spirit, thinking according to the Spirit and being circumcised from unworthy desires. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.2.12.

2:12c | Without Hope and Without God in the World

HAVING MANY GODS BUT WITHOUT GOD. JEROME: When he says “having no hope, without God in the world,” he does not deny that the Ephesians had many gods before they believed in Christ. His point is that one who is without the true God has no god worthy of the name. And the next phrase, “without God in the world,” is significant: The Gentiles in a sense already had God indeed in the form of anticipation, because God knew beforehand that he would have them. In God’s foreknowledge they were never without God. But enmeshed in the world they were without God. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.2.12.

2:13 | Once Far Off, Now Brought Near

FROM WHAT WERE THEY ONCE FAR OFF? TERTULLIAN: They were once far off from the Christ of the Creator, from the way of the Israelites, from the covenants, from the hope of the promise, from God himself. Once far off, the Gentiles now come close in Christ to the things that were once far off. AGAINST MARCION 5.17.12-13.

NOW BROUGHT NEAR TO THE COMMONWEALTH OF TRUE ISRAEL. ORIGEN: Paul is responding to those who think that believers in Christ may enter into the commonwealth of Israel but that it is some entirely different one that has nothing in common with the history of Israel. … It is those who know the spiritual law and live in accordance with it who are made dwellers in the commonwealth of Israel, more so than those who are Israelites in the body only. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS.

WHETHER ONE CAN BE FAR FROM GOD WHO IS EVERYWHERE. JEROME: God in his entirety is everywhere. Who can be separated from him when all things are in him? … He is, however, said to be far away from the unrighteous, according to Proverbs [15:29]. … Just as far as the unrighteous are away from him, so close is he to the saints. Just when God seemed to be furthest from the Ephesians, he was coming close to them by the blood of Jesus. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.2.13-14.

BROUGHT NEAR BY THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. AMBROSIASTER: He reminds us that we were brought close to God by the blood of Christ in order to show how great is God’s affection toward us, since he allowed his own Son to die. We too, enduring in faith, should not yield to despair in any of the agonies inflicted on us for his sake, knowing that what he deserves from us exceeds all that our enemies can bring upon us. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 2.13.

2:14a | Christ Is Our Peace

THE PEACEMAKER DESTROYS THE WALL OF PARTITION. MARIUS VICTORINUS: Christ, he says, “is our peace.” Elsewhere Paul calls him mediator. He interposed himself of his own accord between divided realms. Souls born of God’s fountain of goodness were being detained in the world. There was a wall in their midst, a sort of fence, a partition made by the deceits of the flesh and worldly lusts. Christ by his own mystery, his cross, his passion and his way of life destroyed this wall. He overcame sin and taught that it could be overcome. He destroyed the lusts of the world and taught that they ought to be destroyed. He took away the wall in the midst. It was in his own flesh that he overcame the enmity. The work is not ours. We are not called to set ourselves free. Faith in Christ is our only salvation. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.2.14-15.

HOW HAVE BOTH BEEN MADE ONE? THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Christ, conferring immortality on us through his resurrection, has put an end to this division [between Jew and Gentile], for there can be no circumcision of an immortal nature. CATENA 2.13.

2:14b | Breaking Down the Wall of Hostility

THE WALL BETWEEN JEW AND GENTILE BROKEN DOWN. AMBROSIASTER: The passion of the Savior made peace between the circumcision and the uncircumcision. For the enmity, which was between them like a wall and divided the circumcision from the uncircumcision and the uncircumcision from the circumcision, was abolished by the Savior. His command is that the Jew should not so presume on his circumcision as to reproach the Gentile, nor should the Gentile trust in his uncircumcision, that is, his paganism, so as to abhor the Jew. Both, made new, should maintain in Christ their faith in the one God. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 2.14.1.

THE WALL BETWEEN GOD AND HUMANITY. CHRYSOSTOM: Some say that the wall between them is that of the Jews against the Greeks, because it does not allow them to mix. I do not think so. Rather I think that the wall between them is common within both. It is the hostility proceeding within the flesh. This was the midwall cutting them off, as the prophet says, “Do not your sins stand in the midst between you and me?” The midwall was the enmity that God had both toward Jews and toward Greeks. But when the law came this enmity was not dissolved; rather it increased. “For the law,” he says, “works wrath.” HOMILY ON EPHESIANS 5.2.13-15.

2:15a | Abolishing the Law of Commandments and Ordinances

LAW AS FENCE. CHRYSOSTOM: The law was a fence, but this was made for our security. This is why it was called a fence, so that it might fence us in. … Now he has “abolished the law of commandments” through his teaching. Oh, what love of humanity! He gave us a law that we might keep it, but when we failed to keep it and deserved punishment he dissolved the law. HOMILY ON EPHESIANS 5.2.13-15.

CEREMONIAL LAW NO LONGER BINDING. AMBROSIASTER: The law that he abolished was that which had been given to the Jews concerning circumcision and new moons and food and sacrifices and the sabbath. He ordered it to cease because it was a burden. In this way he made peace. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 2.15.

UNDER THE GOSPEL THE TEN COMMANDMENTS STILL REMAIN FREELY TO BE OBEYED. THEODORET: Christ dispelled the enmity between us and God. He gave his own flesh as a ransom for us. Once this was done, he put an end to the things that separated you and them. For this is what he means by “the law of ordinances.” He has not annulled the Decalogue. … For Christ the Lord himself held these up to the one who wanted to know the way to eternal life. But by doctrines he meant the gospel teaching, since the realizing of full maturity lies in the responsive choices of the will. … Yet these gospel teachings are not laid down as laws. They are a matter of free choice. What he does lay down as law is what he inscribed on nature when he created it in the beginning. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 2.14-15.

2:15b | Creating One New Being

CHRIST UNIQUELY FITTED TO CREATE A NEW HUMANITY. TERTULLIAN: He was born in a singular way from a virgin by the Spirit of God. He was born to reconcile both Gentile and Jew to God, both of whom had offended God. He reconciled them into one body through the cross. The enmity was in this way slain. This reconciliation took place in his flesh through his body as he suffered on the cross. AGAINST MARCION 5.17.15.

THE NEW SPIRITUAL PERSON. MARIUS VICTORINUS: Their souls have thus been reconciled to the eternal and the spiritual, to all things above. The Savior, through the Spirit, indeed the Holy Spirit, descended into souls. He thereby joined what had been separated, spiritual things and souls, so as to make the souls themselves spiritual. He has established them in himself, as he says, “in a new person.” What is this new person? The spiritual person, as distinguished from the old person, who was soul struggling against flesh. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.2.14-15.

CREATING ONE NEW PERSON IN PLACE OF GENTILE VERSUS JEW. CHRYSOSTOM: Don’t you see? The Greek does not have to become a Jew. Rather both enter into a new condition. His aim is not to bring Greek believers into being as different kinds of Jews but rather to create both anew. Rightly he uses the term create rather than change to point out the great effect of what God has done. Even though the creation is invisible, it is no less a creation of its Creator. HOMILY ON EPHESIANS 5.2.13-15.

A SINGLE PERSON WITH ONE HEAD. THEODORET: He has reconciled both, that is, those from Gentile and from Jewish backgrounds, in the one body that was offered on behalf of all, so that they may at last be made one body. And he has called all believers a single man because Christ our Lord is the one head, and those who have been favored with salvation fill the role of members. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 2.16.

IN HIMSELF. CHRYSOSTOM: He did not pass the task of reconciliation on to another. He made himself the means of combining one with the other. This produced one wonderful result. He himself was the first instance of this reconcilation, a result greater than all the previous creation. For that is what in himself means: Having assumed dominion over the Jew and then of the Greek, he himself became their mediator. He brought them together, doing away with all that estranged them. Now he has fashioned them anew through fire and water—no longer water and earth but water and fire. He became a Jew when he was circumcised. Then, being cursed, he became a Greek outside the law and one more excellent than either Greek or Jew. HOMILY ON EPHESIANS 5.2.15.

2:15c | Making Peace

PEACE BETWEEN GOD AND SINNERS. CHRYSOSTOM: “Making peace” may mean their peace with God or with one another. … The focus is primarily on peace with God, as is made clear by what follows. What does he say? He has fully reconciled both to God in one body through the cross. He did not say “to some degree reconciled” but “fully reconciled.” Even before this human nature was in principle reconcilable, as we see in the righteous and before the law. HOMILY ON EPHESIANS 5.2.16.

2:16a | Reconciled to God Through the Cross

THE ENMITY IS SLAIN IN HIMSELF. GREGORY OF NYSSA: Taking up the enmity that had come between us and God on account of sins, “slaying it in himself,” as the apostle says (and sin is enmity), and becoming what we are, he joined the human to God again through himself. AGAINST EUNOMIUS 3.10.12.

2:16b | Bringing Hostility to an End

HIS DEATH ENDED THE HOSTILITY. CHRYSOSTOM: No expression could be more authoritative or more emphatic. His death, he says, killed the enmity, wounded and destroyed it. He did not give the task to another. And he not only did the work but suffered for it. He did not say that he dissolved it; he did not say that he put an end to it, but he used the much more forceful expression: He killed! This shows that it need not ever rise again. How then does it rise again? From our great wickedness. So long as we remain in the body of Christ, so long as we are one with him it does not rise again but lies dead. HOMILY ON EPHESIANS 5.2.16.