Today Paul explains God’s exhilarating plan to bring all of humanity back together.

I LOVE THIS PASSAGE!

God’s Plan, In My Own Words

God created the world for the purpose of sharing his life with us. In the biblical language, Eden is the place where God’s life and the life of the world meet together in perfection.

However, Humanity has rebelled against God—we have preferred to put ourselves in the center and have therefore said to the Creator, “No, thank you.” This rebellion has resulted in destruction, a destruction that would have been total had not God never stopped caring for Creation. (This broad sweep is recounted in Genesis 1-11, and then again over and over again through the rest of the Old Testament.)

The Lord then chooses one man—Abraham—and plans to save all of humanity through this one man’s family. The family becomes known as Israel, and God makes a covenant with Israel that involves instructing them how to live in such a way as to bring blessing wherever they go.

Israel, however, doesn’t heed God’s instructions, and rather than bringing forth blessing into the world often brings forth violence and hatred and curses. Israel lives in constant enmity with the nations.

But the Lord does not abandon Israel nor the Edenic ideal. Throughout the long Old Testament centuries, the Temple in Jerusalem is the place where Heaven and Earth meet—the Temple represents Eden. And then, in just the right time, God the Father sends his only Son as an Israelite who keeps the instructions perfectly and even dies in between Jews and Gentiles—between Caiaphas and Pilate, so to speak. Jesus’s death fulfills the divine plan and now blessing is released to the whole world and membership in God’s family is open to all who trust in Jesus.

This means that Jewish ethnic practices are not what define the people of God, but rather just the simple act of trusting in the gospel. From now on, God’s Spirit is pulling back into one people the divided peoples of the world, but God’s design is not a uniformity but a unity—we are different, but united.

And now, rather than a Temple built with human hands, it is God’s people—the unified Church—who are where heaven and earth meet. God’s Spirit is present among and through his unified people. Wherever God’s people are, they are meant to bring Edenic blessing with them until Jesus returns and perfects all things.

Today’s Reading: Ephesians 2:11-22 [day 05 of 20]

11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— 12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

• Before the life, death, and resurrection of Messiah Jesus, all the nations [“nations” is how the Jews referred to all the other peoples of the world] were separated from God and wandering in their rebellion.

• But because of what Jesus has done, the nations are now being brought into covenant relationship with God, adopted into his family.

14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

• Christ has brought the enmity between Israel and the nations into his own body. Why?

• Because on the cross he killed that hostility so that people no longer have to be divided.

• And now, what it takes to have access to the life of God—joy, peace, eternal life, etc.—is trust in Jesus.

19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

• Note the architectural language and imagery here.

• Because of Jesus, all people who trust in him are citizens of his kingdom, part of his family.

• And, building on what the apostles have started, we are all being built into a new (non-physical) Temple. Why?

• So that God’s Spirit can bring blessing through us into the world.

How can you be a channel for Edenic blessing today?

How can you pursue unity today?