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No.4.
pp. 101 - 103
In the passage we have been dealing with, Eph. 2: 11-17, those who were at enmity,
but have now been made one, have been stressed. They are three times referred to as
"the both" and once as "the twain".
The thought here is entirely opposed to the idea that the Gentile who was once an
alien is now admitted into the fellowship of the covenants; it is entirely opposed to
anything similar to the graft in the olive tree. The both are made one--"for to create in
Himself of the twain one new man". This blots out both the Jew and the Gentile, as such.
There are some who would repudiate evolution, and stand by the doctrine of creation
as given in Genesis, yet they are found denying a new creation and admitting evolution
into the second chapter of Ephesians. Wherever we read of a new creation in Scripture,
we find, as essentially connected with it, the passing away of former things.
"If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold
new things have come into being" (II Cor. 5: 17).
"I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were
passed away: and there was no more sea . . . . . the former things are passed away"
(Rev. 21: 1, 4).
"Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be
remembered, nor come into mind" (Isa. 65: 17).
Eph. 2: 11-19 is dispensational, and while the great foundation doctrines of Romans
are as true as ever, the dispensational position of Romans and Corinthians is "passed
away". New things, dispensationally, have come into being. Nothing that belongs
peculiarly to the earlier dispensation must be allowed to intrude into the new. This new
man is reconciled to God through the cross; and the both have access to the Father. The
reconciliation is "to God", the access to "the Father". The one views the whole company;
the other views the individual and is experimental.
We now draw to the conclusion of this section with the third time period--"No
longer". Once we were strangers; we are strangers no longer. Once we were foreigners;
we are foreigners no longer. Not that we have been merely placed on a level with Israel.
We have been blessed in a realm of which Israel never dreamed.
Into this new creation we resolutely refuse to admit anything that has not the divine
sanction. Here is a new creation and a new man. Here is the beginning of the one Body.
Here is the unity of the Spirit, and the bond of peace.
When we were considering the opening verses of Ephesians, we found that the subject
was threefold. We have the will of the Father, the work of the Son, and the witness of the
Spirit. We drew attention to the way in which the three sections of the prayer that