For at least the past decade this country has been divided and polarized over nearly every topic under the sun. Unfortunately, rather than finding ways to unify, the divide has only deepened. Core values upon which the nation was founded, and which had provided some sense of unity in the past, are now being questioned and in many cases cast aside. We find ourselves watching our nation tearing itself apart from the inside-out. The nightly news broadcast brings us images of violence and unrest, murder, assault, arson, robbery, and vandalism.
In this chaos, there have been precious few calls for unity and reconciliation. Ideologies have sought to divide us by political party, race, and sex, advocating for never-ending conflict with no real hope of reconciliation. At this point in time, there seems to be little cause for hope in our nation.
But let this not be the case in the Church.
For we are heirs to a gift that no ideology, political theory, or social justice construct can ever compare. We are heirs to the true source of reconciliation, unity, and redemption. We possess the hope that we bear in Jesus Christ. It is this gift that Paul describes in his epistle to the Ephesians. And it is in Christ that the Church unites around, places its hope in, and walks together with one another.
Paul first came to Ephesus after having been driven out of the city of Corinth. Paul arrived in Ephesus and began doing what he normally did. He visited the synagogues and marketplaces, proclaiming Christ to any who would listen. As a result of Paul’s efforts, a mixed Church consisting of Jews and Gentiles arose in Ephesus. After preaching there for many months, Paul was again driven out of the city. However, the Church that he founded there in Ephesus endured.
Paul’s letter to the Jewish and Gentile congregation provides his answer to exactly what unifies the Church. This is most evident in the beginning of the second chapter of Ephesians where Paul starts by laying out the common problem to all mankind.
“And YOU were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them WE TOO all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging in the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”
According to Paul, we began our lives as spiritually dead, hopelessly under the power of sin and Satan. When we look at the goings on in our society today, I think there is no doubt that we are in bondage to sin. We observe the callous destruction of persons and property over sins of malice and coveting, and it is evident what happens when as Paul says, people indulge in the desires of the flesh and the mind. We look at these things and conclude those who engage in such actions justly deserve God’s wrath and judgment.
It would be too easy to excuse ourselves from this condemnation; however, Paul doesn’t leave that option open. He says YOU were dead in your trespasses and sins, and WE TOO lived in like manner. I look at the anger and hostility I feel toward my neighbor stemming from such uncertain days, and there is no way that I can deny that Paul had me in mind as well when he penned this short summary of man’s sinful anthropology.
Though we all carry the common bond of being sinners, it is this sin that separates us one from another. We are divided by anger, hatred, lust, greed, and coveting.
And yet, in the next several verses, Paul will provide God’s answer to man’s slavery to sin and Satan.
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
In God’s great mercy, he provided us with the means of redemption, his Son.
Note the repetition that Paul makes of the role of Christ in every step of this redemption. We were made alive together, WITH CHRIST. He raised us up WITH HIM. He seated us in the presence of God in CHRIST JESUS. In the ages to come he will show us the surpassing riches of his grace in CHRIST JESUS.
Paul goes on.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
Paul emphasizes that Christ is the central figure in our salvation. Salvation is not based on who you are, what race, sex, or ethnicity you hail from. It is not based on your works, because you are dead in sin and justly condemned under God’s law. Every verb in that section is God’s action on your behalf. We are not the subject of any of those actions.
Salvation is based wholly and totally on Christ’s death on the cross for you. It is through faith alone, gifted to you, that you benefit from the atoning sacrifice of Christ. No one may boast on their own account because you have done nothing to merit your salvation.
This is true for every man, woman, and child. Paul hammers this home to his listeners, both Jews and Gentile alike.
“Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who were called ‘Uncircumcision’ by the so-called ‘Circumcision,’ which is performed in the flesh by human hands – remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the World.”
Yet, in Christ, God is taking many peoples and making them one.
“But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in his flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that He Himself might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. And 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 in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.”
In Christ we are reconciled to God. It is through Christ’s blood that you were bought and redeemed from the power of sin and the devil. Where formerly, in our sin, we were at war with God, Christ himself has become our peace.
And yet, this passage doesn’t stop with our reconciliation to God. By Christ’s blood we were reconciled to one another as well. We went from being separate peoples to being one people. We went from being strangers to being one household of God. We went from being aliens to being fellow citizens and saints. All of this begins, continues, and ends with the cross of Christ.
And yet, when I look at the Church, I see a Church divided. How can this have happened?
It happened because we have forgotten that we are sinners. I personally am hopelessly in debt to sin. Nothing I can do of my own volition can save me from my sin. There is no five-point sermon to being a better me that can change that reality about myself. There is no self-help book or political ideology by which I can do enough good works to earn my salvation.
The only way that salvation comes to me is through the cross. I cannot free myself from the power of sin, death, and the devil. I can only be redeemed, bought by the precious blood of my Lord, Jesus Christ.
I cannot stand before God on my own, but must be carried to the throne of God on Christ’s whipped and shredded back, held by his nail-pierced hands, and moved along by his hole-ridden feet. I cannot then stand before my neighbor and boast of my own holiness or merit or virtue. The only holiness I possess is a gift, given to me by Christ. My neighbor and I together only have standing before God through the cross.
It is the cross, and the cross alone that gives us true unity. It is Christ’ blood alone that reconciles me to my brother. It is in Christ alone that we have true community. In Christ alone do we have peace with one another.
Let us as the Church walk in the unity of the cross. Where we have sinned, let us approach the foot of the cross and repent. Where we have been offended, let us forgive, knowing that we too have sinned against God and one another. Let us present a wholly different picture of redemption, reconciliation, and unity to the world that is still in bondage to sin.
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