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This middle wall was not, however, exclusively related to Peter. The assembled
apostles and elders at Jerusalem, in solemn council, and uniting with their decision the
Holy Ghost, perpetuated this middle wall between Jewish and Gentile believers:
"Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles
are turned to God; but that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols,
and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood. For Moses of old time
hath in every city them that preach him, being read in synagogues every sabbath day"
(Acts 15: 19-21).
It is evident that while the Gentiles were asked to observe these four "necessary
things" (verse 28), the Jewish church was still intent upon the whole ceremonial law.
This could have but one effect--division. The Jewish believer would, no doubt, consider
himself upon a higher plane of sanctity than the Gentile who was expected only to
observe the four basic things. This decision at Jerusalem is called "the decrees", exactly
the same word as is translated "ordinances" in Eph. 2: 15:
"They delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were ordained of the apostles and
elders which were at Jerusalem" (Acts 16: 4).
There is one further reference to this middle wall and the decrees or ordinances, and
that is found in Col. 2: Whether "the decrees" of Acts 15: and 16: are in view in
Ephesians 2: may be open to question; the passage in Col. 2:, however, is beyond
doubt. The passage uses the same words as are found in Eph. 2: 1 "and you being dead
to trespasses", and proceeds:
"and to the uncircumcision of your flesh, He hath made alive together with Him, having
freely forgiven us all trespasses, having blotted out the handwriting of ordinances which
was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, having nailed it to
the cross" (Col. 2: 13, 14).
What these contrary ordinances were is immediately made known:
"Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast, or new
moon, or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ"
(Col. 2: 16, 17).
For the Jewish believer the setting aside of these ordinances was symbolized in the
rending of the veil, and is set out in the epistle to the Hebrews. For the Gentile believer
the slaying of that enmity was symbolized by the destruction of the Temple itself some
forty years after, when the middle wall was demolished. The removal of this enmity is a
distinctive feature of the dispensation of the Mystery.
Let us give due heed to the very emphatic language used with reference to the setting
aside of these ordinances:
"Broken down"; "abolished"; "slain" (in Ephesians).
"Blotting out", "taking away"; "nailing to the cross" (in Colossians).
Here is no reform, but abolition followed by a new creation.