Verses 14-17 of Ephesians 2 is the theologically packed centerpiece which explains how the readers’ coming near was made possible through Christ’s death. Christ is the subject who: made peace, destroyed the dividing wall, abolished the enmity, created one new man, and reconciled both to God. Paul’s emphasis in the verses of our text is the restoration of the ‘horizontal’ component of peace between men and men. He describes how Christ created a new unity which transcends the old Torah-inspired spatial separation between Israel and the nations.
The text identifies the real barrier as being the Mosaic law itself. The three nouns, law, commandments, and ordinances convey a sense of the oppression and burden of the law. It is not the law, as a revelation of the character and will of God – that law which David and Paul and all godly men love – which is made powerless; nor does this suggest that God’s moral law ceases to exist or has no more relevance for the Christian; but it is the written code, threatening death instead of imparting life, which Christ has nullified and rendered powerless. Because of Christ, there is now therefore no condemnation – as the basis for condemnation is removed. The Mosaic law which is the written code linked to the Sinai covenant is no longer the direct and immediate guide to the new covenant believer. The immediate guide of the people of God today is no longer a written commandment, but the Holy Spirit who has written the law of Christ on our hearts. Wherever law and man-made codes and ordinances set the standard today, you be sure there will be an associated fracturing and division.
