Ephesians 2:16

reconcile both unto God The Gr. verb here rendered "reconcile" occurs elsewhere (in exactly the same form) only Colossians 1:20-21; but a form nearly identical occurs e. g.Romans 5:10; 1 Corinthians 7:11; 2 Corinthians 5:18-20. The idea of the verb is on the whole that of the propitiation of an alienated superior, to whom offending inferiors are, with his consent, led back as accepted suppliants. God (2 Corinthians 5:19) "reconciled the world unto Himself" by providing, in His Son, the Divine pacification of the Divine displeasure against the world. Christ "reconciles us to God" by being and effecting that pacification. Hence Reconciliation, in practice, nearly approaches to both the ideas, Atonement and Justification. The Lord, here, "by the cross," reconciles the Church to God; effects its acceptance; secures the "non-imputation of trespasses" (2 Corinthians 5:19).

" Both" :here in the masculine plural; both great groups, Jewish and Gentile believers.

in one body A phrase in contrast (see last note) to "both;" the two groups become the One Body, the One Man, of Ephesians 2:15.

by the cross The only mention of it in this Epistle. Observe here, as consistently in the N. T., the isolation of the Lord's Death from His Life-work, where ideas of atonement are in view; a fact most suggestive of the doctrine that that Death was a true and proper propitiatory Sacrifice, an altar-work, and not only a supreme act of self-sacrificing sympathy with man's need and God's holiness. For on the latter view there is no clear line of demarcation between the Death and the self-sacrificing Life. Cp. the parallel, Colossians 1:20 ("the blood of the Cross"), and see above on Ephesians 1:7.

having slain the enmity thereby I.e. by the Cross, the Atoning Death. "The enmity:" that spoken of Ephesians 2:15; immediately, that between Jew and Gentile; ultimately (for this underlies the conditions of the existence of that other) that between man and God (Romans 8:7). "Slain:" a word chosen, instead of e. g."cancelled," "abolished," because the work was done through death. What was really, in final effect, executedat Calvary was the obstacle to peace; whether peace in the sense of the harmony of redeemed souls, or peace in the sense of reconciliation to God, the basis of the other. Cp. Colossians 2:14.