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1. That He might create the two in Himself, one new man, making peace.
2. That He might reconcile the both in one body to God, through the cross,
having slain the enmity in it.
Reconciliation to God is of "both in one body". The teaching of Matt. 5: 24, "first be
reconciled to thy brother", is here observed. It is not the individual reconciliation of a
sinner as a result of the forgiveness of his sins, but the reconciling of "the both in one
body". They are reconciled the one to the other, the middle wall has been broken down,
they, in that capacity, can now be reconciled to God.
We are inclined to read the words "by the cross" with the concluding sentence, "by the
cross having slain the enmity in it", it referring to the body in its divided state of enmity.
The parallel in Col. 2: 14, 18 seems to confirm this. Be this as it may, reconciliation
with God, and peace between individual members is the blessed condition of the church
which is His body. Not even the millennial reign of the Prince of peace foreshadows the
goal of God like the mystery hidden during the ages. The Bible, taken as the record by a
truncated pyramid.
ACTS
GENESIS
REVELATION
The church of the one body with its glorious Head is by itself a complete things, and
can well be represented by a small pyramid:
This foreshadows the end, and when placed upon the line indicating the rupture of
Acts 28: "fills up the word of God" (Col. 1: 25), completes the design and shows that
the future vast new creation is but an enlargement of this smaller and superheavenly one,
which is now manifested in the church which is His body. Surely no words are more
fitting a conclusion than those of Col. 3: 15:--
"Let the peace of God rule (as an umpire) in your hearts, to the which also ye
are called in one body, AND BE YE THANKFUL."