Day 2: The Wall That Could Not Stand

Reading: Ephesians 2:11-18

One in Christ

11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

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Devotional:
Hostility between people runs deep. It builds walls that entire generations inherit without question. Yet Paul declares that Christ, through his own body on the cross, destroyed the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile, between insider and outsider. No human negotiation accomplished this. No council, treaty, or compromise brought it down. Christ alone did it. This means that any wall of hostility you carry toward another person, any category by which you dismiss someone as too far gone or too different, has already been addressed at the cross. The question is whether you will live in the freedom that demolition purchased.