One in Christ
August 10, 2025
Ephesians 2:11-22
We are no longer strangers and aliens, but fellow citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God.
This passage from Ephesians can sound like a foreign language to modern ears, filled with terms such as circumcision, covenants, commandments, and cornerstones. The writer is not showing off vocabulary but using familiar concepts to his first-century Jewish and Gentile audience to reveal something new.
Ephesians proclaims a radical shift: through the blood of Jesus, the wall between Jew and Gentile has been destroyed. Circumcision is no longer the sign of God’s covenant—Christ’s sacrifice is. It is no longer the keeping of commandments or animal sacrifices that restore relationship with God, but the work of Jesus on the cross. Those once excluded are now brought near, strangers are made family, and the message of peace is for both the insiders and the outsiders. This has profound implications: we are called to welcome, not exclude; to unite, not divide. Our hope and standing before God are not based on our birth, goodness, or rituals, but entirely on Christ. This good news should shake our assumptions, compel us to care for the lost, and lead us to live with a purpose of bringing people together before God in Jesus Christ.
