The Price of Shalom[1]
Ephesians 2:16-18
The previous essay focused on Ephesians 2:14, 15, and Paul’s emphasis on peace (shalom). Paul continues that emphasis in 2:16-18 by focusing on reconciliation. Jesus’ death was a costly death in terms of the price of His blood. Sin was and is so destructive and divisive that it took costly effort to overcome. God’s holiness is so profound that it took the price of blood to span the gulf between sinful humanity and God’s holiness.
The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross paid the price for our individual reconciliation to God. But Jesus’ sacrifice also involved a social dimension, where the gulf between Jew and Gentile was bridged related to the promises of God. This reconciliation in the creation of “the one new man” of Ephesians 2:15 was the first step in addressing all other forms of sinful division found in humanity.
Paul used the word reconciliation to further describe Jesus’ accomplishment on the cross. The apostle used this word as a noun and verb in four letters: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, and Colossians. The Greek noun is katallage[2] and describes the conclusion of a war where a defeated nation sued for peace by asking for reconciliation with the conqueror. But the gospel message turns this on its head. God, the One who is the conqueror, through the price of His only begotten Son, has announced that the war is over, even while we are still fighting a losing war against Him! God did not wait for humanity to come to its senses and recognize its pitiful plight fighting against His holiness. Instead, because of, and through, His holy love, God initiated the peace treaty, and the death of His Son is the good news that the war is over, as far as God is concerned!
For a few moments, let’s examine the passages in three of the four letters mentioned previously.[3]
First, in Romans 5:10, 11 Paul wrote, “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” Twice reconciliation is used as a verb and once as a noun, including the final word in verse 11. The first phrase of verse 10 expresses what I wrote in the previous paragraph that while we were enemies of God, God, who is “rich in mercy” (Ephesians 2:4), took the initiative to declare the war over and thereby provide the way of saving peace. The second phrase of verse 10 points to the salvation of the Messiah’s indestructible life following His resurrection (Hebrews 7:16). Through the Spirit, that salvation provides abundant life now and eternal life in the future. These two uses are in the past tense, pointing to Jesus’ suffering on the cross. This is why verse 11 calls us to rejoice that the war against God, a war we can never win, is over. Our resistance does not gain us anything but condemnation and eternal damnation. The noun at the end of 5:11 points us to an established decree in the heavenly places where Christ is seated. He Himself is the reconciliation decree!
Romans 11:15 is important in the Ephesians 2 context because it relates to God’s purposes even through disobedient Israel. The failure of the children of Abraham to be the blessing to the entire world through their adherence to the Law of Moses has not stopped God’s plan to bring healing to the world. The entire context of Romans 11 is critically important, especially in our time, when antisemitism is rampant in our streets and on university campuses. God has used Israel’s disobedience to bring about reconciliation through Israel’s promised Messiah, God’s only begotten Son. Though Israel failed, God did not fail. Israel has not been cast away forever. Instead, the day will come when Israel recognizes her Messiah and Savior. Paul’s point in Romans 11:11-14 is that his ministry to the Gentiles is predicated on the Gentiles living in the fullness of God’s blessings, thereby making the Jews jealous of those blessings. This is why Paul admonished Gentiles to live by faith and live the moral life revealed in Scripture. The blessings God promised to Abraham are meant for the Gentiles to now become a witness to the Jews of the God we both serve![4]
As Gentile Christians, it is imperative that we stand with the Jews against every demonic, destructive effort against them. While it is legitimate to criticize the government actions of the modern state of Israel, it is an abomination to fail to act in the best interest of, and protection of, that homeland of and for the Jews. This is far more than modern political and military policy making. It is profoundly related to divine purposes for Jews and Gentiles.
Second, 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 speaks of reconciliation, “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.”
Four times in these verses, Paul builds faithful ministry around the reconciling act of Jesus on the cross for the world. We, the church composed of Jew and Gentile, have been given “the ministry of reconciliation.” As expressed above, the decree of reconciliation is Christ Himself, thus we declare Him through “the word of reconciliation.” We are His ambassadors, His representatives in the world. As other writers have expressed, we “re-present” Christ in the world by holy lives. Whether by word or deed, we are appealing to the resisting world that the war is over and God has declared peace through faith in Jesus.
Third, Paul used similar language to Ephesians in Colossians 1:20-22, “And by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight.” In language and intent like Ephesians 2, Paul’s letter to the Colossians emphasized the same themes of the price paid by the blood of Jesus on the cross.
Remember that Paul spent over two years in Ephesus teaching people from across western Asia Minor (modern Turkey). The distance from Ephesus to Colossae was about 120 miles. We know from Paul’s letter to Colossae that he personally knew people in that town. With this in mind and the similarity of language between Ephesians and Colossians, we can discern that the teaching of reconciliation was a major theme of Paul during the time he had his “Bible School” in Ephesus.
At the crucifixion, Jews and Gentiles were present. The Jewish authorities pressed the Roman government, the Gentiles, to carry out the death penalty upon Jesus. Both Jew and Gentile were, and are, guilty of the death of the Messiah. Yet, their guilt was one more element of humanity’s sin that the sinless Son of God bore that Good Friday. As 2 Corinthians 5:21 affirms, the Father made Jesus, “who knew no sin to be sin for us.” The sin of every human being, including those closest to Jesus, was taken by Him on the cross.
Thus, the reconciliation on the cross made possible the way for Jew and Gentile to become the new creation, the new humanity, found only “in Christ.” On the cross Jesus “put to death the enmity” that separated both Jew and Gentile from one another and from the Father’s will. For the Jew, they were separated by their pride and failure to keep the law. The Gentile was separated by his idolatry and as Romans 1:21 puts it, “they did not glorify God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”
The final clause of Ephesians 2:16 is vivid. As John Stott puts it, Jesus on the cross “killed, slew” the hostility between humanity and God and between Jew and Gentile. Stott quoted Armitage Robinson, “the slain was a slayer too.”[5] That is an amazing line. The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world in His very act of being slain on the cross becomes the Slayer of sin.
Paul then returned to Isaiah 57:19 which was alluded to in Ephesians 2:13. But now in 2:17 more of the Isaiah verse is referenced as Jesus is the preacher who preached the message of His Shalom to Gentiles (“afar off”) and Jews (“those who were near”). When did Jesus preach this message of transforming peace? He preached it through the Old Testament prophets who were His voice to their generation. He preached it in His earthly ministry in Galilee and Judea. He preached it by His obedient death on the cross and the penultimate words from the cross: “it is finished” (John 19:30). He preached it through the Holy Spirit in the apostolic preaching of the first century and throughout each century to our times.
Ephesians 2:18 brings the preaching and mission of Jesus full circle back to the eternal purposes of the Godhead before the foundation of the world: the world redeemed and the Father glorified, “for through Him (Jesus) we both (Jew and Gentile) have access (present tense) by one Spirit to the Father.” Jesus’ final words from the cross were to the Father, “Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit” (Luke 23:46). Notice that in Ephesians 2:18 Paul brings together the fullness of the Godhead: Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Father. Paul understood the revelation of the nature of Israel’s God as these Three in One. The access that Paul referenced in the middle of the first century remains the same access for us today as we “come boldly to the throne of grace” (Hebrews 4:16).
[1] The title comes from Markus Barth’s Comment V, pages 291-307 in Ephesians 1-3, The Anchor Bible, 1974.
[2] It is pronounced kat-al-lag-ay with the accent on the last syllable.
[3] The use in 1 Corinthians 7:11 pertains to reconciliation between a husband and wife. I will not discuss it in this essay.
[4] Based on Romans 9-11, I believe Paul’s mission to the Gentiles is based on his desire for the Gentiles to live in the blessings promised to Israel so that Israel will turn to the Messiah Jesus.
[5] John Stott, The Message of Ephesians, p. 74. Armitage (1858-1933) was a Church of England priest noted for his commentary on Ephesians (1904). He was Dean of Westminster (1902-1911 and was the first translator into English of Irenaeus’ The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching.
