his promiseless and hopeless state, and `the both' must be made one, `the

two' must be created one new man, in which all distinction of every kind

ceases to exist, `so making peace'.

The peace here is not the peace which the saved sinner experiences when

justified by faith, nor that peace of God which passeth all understanding; it

is a `peace' that replaces a previously existing `enmity'.  The enmity of

Ephesians 2:15 which had been abolished, and which was symbolized by the

middle wall of partition, was not a middle wall between the believer and his

God, the veil in the temple symbolized that, but a middle wall that separated

believers who were Gentiles from believers who were Jews, the enmity being

the fruit, not of sin, but of `the law of commandments contained in

First let us be sure that we appreciate the figure of the middle wall.

Josephus says:

`When you go through the cloisters, into the second temple, there was a

Partition made of stone all round, whose height was three cubits; its

construction was very elegant.  Upon it stood pillars, at equal

distances from one another ... some in Greek and some in Roman letters,

that no foreigner should go within that sanctuary' (Josephus, Wars, v.

The apostle likens the middle wall, to the law of commandments

contained in `ordinances'.  Here again we must exercise care.  It has been

common among Christians to refer to Baptism and the Lord's Supper as

`ordinances', the note in the Oxford Dictionary reads, `applied especially to

the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, 1830'.  It is extremely unlikely that

when the translation of the A.V. used the word `ordinance' that such an

application of the term would have entered their mind.  The Greek word

translated `ordinance' is dogma, a word having nothing in common with the

`ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper' but meaning `that which appears

good or right to one' (Lloyd's Encyc. Dict.).  Dogma must not be confused

with doctrine.  Crabb discriminates between dogma and doctrine thus:

`The doctrine rests upon the authority of the individual by whom it is

framed; the dogma on the authority of the body by whom it is

Dr. Bullinger in his Lexicon says:

Dogma, that which seems true to one, an opinion, especially of

philosophic dogmas; a public resolution, decree (occ.  Luke 2:1; Acts

16:4; 17:7).

We find this word employed for `the decrees' of Caesar, and for `the

decrees' delivered to the church, and this reference takes us to Acts 15,

where we shall find a decree resting on the authority of a body by whom it

was maintained.  To quote Crabb again `that which appears good and right to

one', was actually used in Acts 15.

The council that met at Jerusalem was convened to decide what measures

could be taken to solve the problems that arose out of the coming into the

church of Gentiles whose whole up -bringing, feeding and habits, rendered

them obnoxious to their Jewish fellows, and to quote this time from the

ordinance itself given in Acts 15, `it seemed good unto us, being assembled