Mystery ends, the dispensation which follows will complete another company who

will constitute `The bride', the union of which will form an integral part of

that blessed purpose when God shall be all in all.

The two companies represented by `the both' have been reconciled, the

reconciliation being expressed `in one Body'.  This passage finds its

correspondence in verse 18 thus:

A

Eph. 2:16.

The both reconciled to God in one Body.

A

Eph. 2:18.

The both access to the Father in one Spirit.

The two come together in Ephesians 4:4 `There is one Body, and one

Spirit'.  The only time when the actual physical body of the Saviour is

mentioned in the Prison Epistles is in Colossians 1:22 `in the body of His flesh

through death'; all other references speak either of the `Church which is His

Body', or the actual body of the believer.  The fact that `the one Body' in

Ephesians 2:16 is linked with `the cross' has made some lean to the idea that

here, in this passage, the actual body of the Saviour is intended.  But there is

no point in referring to the physical body of Christ as `one body' whereas, the

`one Body' is a very true title of the church of this dispensation.

The both were made `one', the outcome, `one' new man; the reconciliation

was expressed by `one' Body, and experienced in `one' Spirit.  It is `the both'

who were reconciled to God in this one Body; there, as the apostle triumphantly

affirms, `there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision,

Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all' (Col. 3:11).

The doctrine of reconciliation does not appear in the Old Testament.  The LXX

uses katallage once, namely in Isaiah 9:5, and katallasso once namely in

Jeremiah 31:39 (48:39 in the A.V.), but neither of these passages has anything

to do with reconciliation as it is found in

the New Testament.  Katallasso occurs in Romans 5:10; 1 Corinthians 7:11 and 2

Corinthians 5:18,19,20; katallage occurs in Romans 5:11; 11:15 and 2 Corinthians

5:18,19.  These two forms of the word do not occur in the Prison Epistles.

Instead the fuller form apokatallasso takes its place, occurring in Ephesians

2:16 and Colossians 1:20,21.

First we must acquaint ourselves with the root meaning of the term, then

with the import of the added prefix apo.  Katallasso, is one of the many words

derived from allos which has already come before us in the word apallotrioo `to

be alienated' (Eph. 2:12; 4:18 and Col. 1:21).  Alienation is the state which is

exchanged for reconciliation, the change being the removal of the enmity that

existed.  If, therefore, we can discover the nature of the enmity in any

particular case, we shall at the same time discover the nature both of the

alienation and the subsequent reconciliation.  We shall be prevented from

starting with a moral alienation and ending with a dispensational

reconciliation, we shall also be prevented from starting with a dispensational

alienation and ending with a moral reconciliation.  The enmity, echthra, which

caused the alienation of Ephesians 2:12, was, as we have seen, not the enmity of

sin as such, but the enmity arising out of the different dispensational

positions occupied by Jewish and Gentile believer.  The enmity, echthra, which

caused the alienation of Romans 8:7 was the nature of the carnal mind, and this