He Himself Is Our Peace

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. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

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. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 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. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 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.

Ephesians 2:11-22

The plight of living without a country was on Paul’s mind as he wrote his letter to the Ephesians. He non-Jewish readers knew what it was like to live as aliens and outsiders. Only since finding life and hope in Christ had they discovered what it meant to belong to the kingdom of heaven. In Jesus, they learned what it means to be known and cared for by the Father He came to reveal.

Paul realized, however, that as the past fades from view, a short memory can cause us to forget that, while hope is the new norm, despair was the old reality.

May God help us to live in security – to know each day the belonging that we have as members of His family is by faith in Jesus Christ and to understand the rights and benefits of having our home in him.

Hope means the most to those who have lived without it.

Our Daily Bread – March 10, 2017