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A very pertinent remark made by a reader is worth recording. It was to this effect.
"How can the making of twain one new man, refer to marriage, when the revealed object
of this union was to make `peace'? Whoever heard of an engaged couple being at such
`enmity' that it had to be `slain', whose marriage ended in `peace'? To obtrude the idea
of marriage into this passage with its middle wall separating `the both' with its enmity
contained in `ordinances', seems too ridiculous for serious attention", yet as some
believers have nevertheless entertained the idea, duty and love of truth demanded that
pertinent remark should be recorded.
No.51.
The Audience Chamber
(2: 11 - 19-).
Reconciliation, or Alienation reversed.
pp. 81 - 84
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 Eph. 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 Col. 1: 22 "in the body of His flesh through death"; all other references speak either
of `Church which is His Body' or the actual bodies of the believer. The fact that `the one
Body' in Eph. 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 O.T. The LXX uses katallage once, namely in Isa. 9: 5, and katallasso
once namely in Jer. 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 N.T. Katallasso occurs in
Rom. 5: 10; I Cor. 7: 11 and II Cor. 5: 18, 19, 20; katallage occurs in Rom. 5: 11;
11: 15 and II Cor. 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 Eph. 2: 16
and Col. 1: 20, 21.