Ephesians 2:16

Ephesians 2:16. And might reconcile them both. Parallel with the clause, ‘that He might create,' etc. The compound verb here used occurs elsewhere only in Colossians 1:20-21. It may either be a strengthened form, or mean ‘reconcile again.' The former is preferable, since the context speaks of ‘one new man,' ‘one body,' not of a restoration. On the N. T. idea of reconciliation, see Romans 5:10-11. ‘Them both,' i.e., Jews and Gentiles who are united together; the reconciliation, however, being between God and ‘them both,' as the context shows.

In one body to God through the cross. The reference is not to Christ's human body, but to his mystical body (comp. chap. Ephesians 1:23), the church. Jews and Gentiles being, as they are, in this one body, are reconciled to God through the death of Christ ‘Through the cross' points to the expiatory sacrifice of Christ as the ground of the reconciliation, in accordance with the teaching of the entire Bible. By means of this there can be removed from us the Divine wrath against sin (Ephesians 2:3), to which there is an allusion in all the figures employed in this section. We must hold fast to the revealed truth, so precious to our consciences, that whatever God's perfections required as the basis of peace with Him was accomplished by the atoning death of Christ

Having slain the enmity on it, i.e., on the cross, ‘having slain' carrying out the figure suggested by the reference to the crucifixion. ‘The enmity' has been explained (1.) of enmity toward God, (2.) of enmity between Jew and Gentile, (3.) of both. The last is preferable, for the complex idea runs through the whole passage. In Ephesians 2:15 ‘enmity' must include the attitude of Jew and Gentile, and so here; yet to refer the term to this alone is contrary to the entire sweep of thought from Ephesians 2:16 to the close of the chapter. The enmity is ‘that between man and God, which Christ did slay on the cross, and which being brought to an end, the separation between Jew and Gentile which was the result of it, was done away'(Alford).