Ephesians 2
1 And you were dead in your offenses and sins, 2 in which you previously walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all previously lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the rest.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the boundless riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
11 Therefore remember that previously you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision” which is performed in the flesh by human hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the people of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who previously were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, 15 by abolishing sin His flesh the hostility, which is the Law composed of commandments expressed in ordinances, so that in Himself He might tmake the two one new person, in this way establishing peace; 16 and that He might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the hostility. 17 And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; 18 for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2, NASB Bible)
The Prince of the Power of the Air
Prior to their salvation, the Gentile disciples were spiritually dead and destined for an even more final death:
You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. (Ephesians 2:1-2)
This sums up the human condition. To be “dead in trespasses and sins” means to be separated from God — a lost human being turned inward, living an egocentric existence, driven by appetites and desires, “following the course of this world.” Here Paul speaks directly to the Gentile believers: “you were dead…” The imagery is not just guilt but spiritual death, alienation from God, and bondage to “the course of this world” and “the prince of the power of the air.” Paul’s comments are personal and descriptive, implying, “you lived this way until God intervened.”
Similarly, Paul says in Romans 3:23: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (ESV). Paul stresses that everyone — Jew and Gentile — has sinned. The focus is on humanity’s shared guilt and failure to reflect God’s glory. It’s part of Paul’s courtroom-style argument that all are accountable before God. Ephesians 2:1-2 and Romans 3:23 represent the universal fallen condition of humanity apart from God’s grace.
The nations are under Satan’s sway, as John reminds us: “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19). They are led by the evil inclination and deceived by the tempter — the same spirit at work in the “sons of Belial.” This, Paul says, is how the Gentile world lives apart from God: enslaved to dark powers and walking in rebellion.
Belial comes from the Hebrew word Beliyya‘al (בְּלִיַּעַל), which literally means “worthlessness” or “wickedness without restraint.” It was not originally a personal name but a description — someone corrupt, lawless, or “good-for-nothing.” The Hebrew Bible often speaks of “sons of Belial,” meaning people marked by wickedness. For example: “Worthless men [sons of Belial] have gone out from among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city” (Deut. 13:13). Likewise, 1 Samuel 2:12 calls Eli’s corrupt sons “sons of Belial.” In the Hebrew Bible, then, Belial points to extreme wickedness, rebellion, and corruption.
Over time, this descriptive term developed into a proper name. In Jewish writings like the Dead Sea Scrolls (1QM, the War Scroll), Belial is portrayed as the leader of the forces of darkness arrayed against God’s people. By Paul’s day, the word had become a title for the chief of evil powers. In 2 Corinthians 6:15, he asks: “What harmony has Christ with Belial?” — here, Belial is no longer just “worthlessness,” but a personal power, essentially another name for Satan himself.
Paul admits that the same can be said of any and every unenlightened human being, including the Jewish people who follow the course of this world, "a wicked and adulterous generation" "among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind" (Ephesians 2:3).
Despite his elevated discourse on Jewish identity in the first chapter, Paul now cautions anyone who has predicated their eternal destiny solely on that identity. If someone believes that being Jewish grants them some sort of automatic exemption from judgment or imbues them with some higher spiritual nature, a higher grade of neshamah (spirit), or a more refined spiritual essence than other human beings, Paul disagrees. He throws his countrymen into the same box as the nations: "We were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind."
God’s Trophies
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved-and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-7)
By an act of mercy and condescension, God resurrects the spiritually dead with the Messiah. A dead person cannot resurrect himself. That's how Paul characterizes the sinner. The sinner cannot stop himself from sinning, cannot lift himself up, cannot enlighten himself or liberate himself. God is the one who raises the dead, and he has raised the community of Yeshua's disciples, both Jews and Gentiles, from that spiritual state of slumber likened to death, resurrecting them with the Messiah, and raising them with the Messiah's ascension to seat them with the Messiah at the right hand of the Father, bringing them also into that unfathomable mystical union, raised high, lifted up, and exalted.
Why? To be his trophies. This is the same reason he liberated Israel from Egypt-to make his name known "so that in the coming ages [i.e., the kingdom and the World to Come|, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in the Messiah Yeshua.”
By Grace You Have Been Saved
God chose to accomplish this through sharing the favor (grace) that the Messiah Yeshua obtained by merit of his righteousness and suffering. He shares that favor with his disciples and ultimately with the entire nation of Israel and with members of the nations who cleave to him. The story of the golden calf in Exodus 32 illustrates the process of sharing in another's favor. After Israel sinned with the golden calf, breaking the covenant, God turned away from them, wanted to destroy them, and offered to start over with Moses alone. Moses, however, realized that he himself remained in God's good graces, that he had found favor in God's eyes. So to save the nation, he leveraged that favor. Moses identified himself with the nation so that he could share the favor he obtained from God with the people, despite the sin they committed. He said to God, "This people has sinned. But you said I have found favor in your eyes. IfI have found favor in your eyes, have mercy on us your people, and go with us, and take us as your people."
"By favor you have been saved." This does not imply that Paul's readers had found favor in God's eyes; they hadn't. They were dead in their trespasses. However, Yeshua did find favor in God's eyes, and he shares that favor with his disciples by identifying with them:
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
This is one of the most often quoted verses in the Bible today (at least within evangelicalism), but it's also one of the least understood.
That's because there are four key words in this verse, and all four of them are commonly misinterpreted.
"Grace." People assume that "grace" means "an unmerited gift." Grace actually means "merited favor." Grace is not our merited favor, but the merited favor of Jesus, applied to sinners. He earned what we could not, and His faithfulness is credited to us.
"Faith." People assume that "faith" means "believing."
It actually means "pledging allegiance, loyalty, and faithfulness.""Saved." People assume that "saved" means "going to heaven when you die." It actually means "to be rescued," and in this context, to be rescued from the wrath assigned to the nations by being granted a share with Israel.
"Works." People assume that "works" means "good deeds and righteousness." It actually means
"undergoing conversion (circumcision) to become Jewish."
If we were to interpret these two verses according to these common misunderstandings, I would paraphrase them to say, "For by an unmerited gift you have been saved from hell through belief in a dogma ... not a result of godly behavior or obedience, so that no one may boast."
In contrast, here's how it should be understood: "For by the favor Yeshua found in God's eyes, you have been saved from the wrath to come on judgement day, on account of your allegiance to Yeshua. And this favor is not something that you obtained, it is the gift of God, not something you can obtain by becoming Jewish so that no one can boast that they deserve it on the basis of having become Jewish."
Created for Good Works
This interpretation explains what follows:
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)
The "workmanship" in Ephesians 2:10 refers not to the idea that God fashions every human being but rather back to the "work of conversion." Disciples are saved not by their works but by God's. God has wrought a "circumcision of the heart"" as Paul explains elsewhere. So we should understand Ephesians 2:10 to mean that "God circumcised our hearts, granting us a new nature in Messiah Yeshua so that we should do good works of godliness and righteousness, which God spells out in the Torah, that we should walk in them."
The Far and Near
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called "the uncircumcision" by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands-remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:11-13)
Paul refers to the Gentile disciples as "Gentiles in the flesh"" meaning that physically speaking, as pertains to this world, they are members of the nations. They are called "the uncircumcision" —that is, "non-Jews" —by what is called "the circumcision"" a category that includes people who were born to Jewish parents and people who have undergone conversion ("made in the flesh by hands") to become part of the Jewish nation. But Paul would have these disciples from the nations remember that prior to their calling as disciples, they were separate from the Messiah, excluded from citizenship in the nation of Israel.
They were strangers to the covenants God made with the Patriarchs and strangers to the new covenant God makes with the house of Judah and the house of Israel. They were without hope for life after death, and they were without the revelation of God in this world. All of that belongs to the Jewish people, not to the nations. As Peter said to the Jewish people in the Temple on the day of Pentecost, "the promise is for you and for your children" (Acts 2:39).
Prior to their calling, the disciples from the nations were excluded from:
Messiah
The commonwealth of Israel
The covenants
Hope for resurrection
The revelation of God in this world
Such was their pitiable condition before their calling to take up the yoke of discipleship and follow after Yeshua before they cast their allegiance with him. But now, "in the Messiah Yeshua, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah." The Gentile disciples have been brought near to the Messiah, to identity with Israel, to the covenants, to hope for the resurrection, and to the revelation of God in this world. They have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah (i.e., by the merit of his suffering).
As Peter said to the Jewish people in the Temple on the day of Pentecost, "the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself" (Acts 2:39).
''Peace, peace, to the far and to the near, says the LORD" (Isaiah 57:19).
The Dividing Wall
Did Christ tear down the dividing wall between Jews and Gentiles by abolishing the Torah? There's more than one way to misunderstand the "one new man."
Exodus 35 and 36 record that the community of Israel came together in a remarkable show of solidarity to contribute toward the construction of the Tabernacle. All the people participated in the effort to make a dwelling place for God. They contributed fabrics, precious stones, gold, silver, ram skins, acacia wood, oil, spices, and everything necessary for the effort. Moreover, God's Spirit inspired the people of the community with the wisdom, insight, and knowledge for all types of craftsmanship. They contributed their talents, working together to build a holy Sanctuary as a dwelling place for God's presence in the midst of Israel.
In the second chapter of Ephesians, Paul seizes upon this story as a metaphor to illustrate the community of Yeshua's disciples joining together in one effort to build a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
What's more, Exodus describes the construction of the Tabernacle's courtyards: the outer court, the inner court (called the "holy place"), and the place behind the curtain, which is called the holy of holies. In the second chapter of Ephesians, Paul employs the layout of the Temple's courtyards to illustrate the idea of Gentile disciples, who previously were far from God, being brought near through the Messiah.
In Paul's day, the largest of all the Temple's courts was the great Court of the Gentiles. Men and women from all nations, some of them tourists and visitors to Jerusalem and others God-fearers who revered the God of Israel, routinely ascended the Temple Mount and assembled in the Court of the Gentiles. There they could worship the God of Israel and pay their respects to the Jewish God, even if they themselves were polytheists. However, they could not proceed from the Court of the Gentiles into the Temple proper. A dividing wall stood between the Gentile worshiper and the inner courts of the Temple. Jews were allowed to go in as far as the altar of burnt offering. Gentiles could not enter the holy courts.
Josephus wrote about the dividing wall of partition:
There was a partition made of stone all around, whose height was three cubits; its construction was very elegant; upon it stood pillars, at equal distances from one another, declaring the law of purity, some in Greek, and some in Roman letters, that "no foreigner should go within that sanctuary." Jewish War 5.5.2)
In another place, he says it was "a stone wall for a partition, with an inscription, which forbade any foreigner to go in under pain of death" (Antiquities 15.11.5). Archaeologists excavating around the ruins of the Temple have discovered pieces of these signs with these inscriptions.
In Acts 21, Paul was bringing sacrifices for purification and the completion of a vow. To do so, he had to enter the Temple up to the very Court of Israel. As he passed from the Court of the Gentiles and into the Court of Israel, several pilgrims from Asia Minor recognized him. They had earlier seen Paul around Jerusalem with Trophimus the Ephesian—a Gentile from Ephesus.
The Jews from Asia Minor knew Paul. They knew that his message was flooding the synagogues all over Asia Minor with Gentiles because those were their own synagogues. They knew something of his theology regarding Gentiles, if not the details of it. They at least knew enough to be certain that they did not like him. Naturally, they assumed that Paul was there in Jerusalem, bringing his beloved Gentiles past the dividing wall and into the Court of Israel, just as he had brought so many Gentiles into their synagogues. They tried to accost him:
"Men of Israel, help! This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law and this place. Moreover, he even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place." For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. Then all the city was stirred up, and the people ran together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and at once the gates were shut. (Acts 21:28-30)
None of the statements they made about Paul were true. Paul did not bring Trophimus the Ephesian into the Temple. He did not teach against the Jewish people, against the Torah, or against the Temple, and he did not bring Greeks into the Temple or defile the holy place. He taught that Gentile disciples do not, and should not, become Jewish. He taught that Gentile disciples are not "under the law" as Jewish people. He taught that the Temple would, in the future, be a house of prayer for all nations- the geographic and religious center of the world for both Jews and Gentiles.
Paul did not bring Gentiles past the Temple's dividing wall, but he did transgress the metaphoric wall separating Israel from non-Israel. He had obscured the sharp lines of who was in and who was out by bringing non-Jews into the Jewish religion to worship the Jewish God through allegiance to the Jewish Messiah. He had transgressed a social and religious boundary. His disregard for the metaphoric wall between Jew and Gentile led to his arrest, imprisonment, and eventual trial in Rome.
Temple Warning Inscription that reads: No stranger is to enter within the balustrade round the temple and enclosure. Whoever is caught will be himself responsible for his ensuing death.
Breaking Down the Wall
While imprisoned in Rome, Paul wrote the epistle to the Ephesians. In the epistle, he was deliberately clear about his readers' identity as Gentiles. He makes it evident that they were excluded from Israel. He said, "You were separate from Messiah, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise." They were foreigners to the covenants of Israel. They had no claim to the covenants of the forefathers.
After casting their lot in with the Messiah, however, they had undergone a change in status. While they were formerly aliens and strangers to the nation of Israel, somehow, through some mystery, their identity had changed: "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ" (Ephesians 2:13).
This new status and identity did not depend on becoming Jewish. "Not by works lest any man boast," Paul said, and by "works"" he meant the conventional conversion ritual, complete with the works of circumcision, immersion, and sacrifice-the "works" of the Pauline Epistles.
The spiritual transformation Paul spoke of was "not by works" but "by grace.. through faith." It came by the grace of God bestowed simply and purely through allegiance to Yeshua. He explains the mechanics of the process in Ephesians 2:14: "For he [Yeshua] himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility."
The image of a dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile alludes directly to the wall of separation between the Court of the Gentiles and the Court of Israel. The wall of separation, which forbade Gentiles on pain of death from entering the Court of Israel and the Temple of God, was a potent metaphor for the theological exclusion of Gentiles from the kingdom and the hope of the World to Come. According to Paul, the wall of separation-the barrier between the people of the nations and the people of God -is destroyed by Messiah.
Abolishing the Torah
As we read through Ephesians 2, we hit a speed bump at 2:14-15, which seems to affirm the replacement theology view that Christ canceled the Law. Here's how it reads in the English Standard Version:
For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace. (Ephesians 2:14-15)
Compare the paraphrase in the New International Version:
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. (Ephesians 2:14-15)
The translators of the ESV and the NIV, like most translators of English versions of the Bible, have rendered the Greek to say that Messiah's death not only brought peace between Jewish and Gentile disciples but also abolished the Torah. According to this interpretation, the death of the Messiah erased the distinction between Jews and Gentiles along with the whole Torah of Moses. By this reading, Jew and Gentile are thus made alike because, with the law abolished, Jews no longer have any obligations to remain Jewish or practice Judaism. Obviously, this is a problem in that it conflicts with the rest of the Bible-including, importantly, the Master's explicit prohibition on supposing that he intended to abolish the Torah.
To resolve this conflict we must understand the passage differently. Do not read it as stating that Messiah abolishes the Torah; rather, he abolishes the enmity engendered by Torah. For clarity, it should read, "For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall, by abolishing in his flesh the enmity." Specification of the source of this enmity follows immediately: "The Torah with its commandments and regulations." It is the Torah's commandments and regulations that have caused the enmity between Jew and Gentile, but it is the enmity, not the Torah, that has been abolished.
The King James Version, which is a more literal rendering of the Greek, does a better job of translating the verse:
For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of command - ments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace. (Ephesians 2:14-15)
Paul’s Delicate Balance in Ephesians 2
In Ephesians 2, Paul walks a careful line when addressing the relationship between Jew and Gentile within the covenant community of Messiah. On the one hand, Paul insists that Gentiles are now full participants in God’s covenant people through Messiah, without being required to adopt every boundary-marker ordinance such as circumcision, dietary laws, or purity regulations. On the other hand, Paul never suggests that Israel’s Torah covenant has been canceled or rendered irrelevant for Jews. Rather, his argument is that Messiah fulfills the Torah’s purpose of reconciliation and reorients the covenant community so that Gentiles belong without those dividing ordinances. Paul’s teaching upholds the Torah’s holiness while also affirming the new reality of unity between Jew and Gentile in Messiah.
1. The Torah Still Stands for Israel
Paul makes clear that faith in Messiah does not overthrow the Torah. In Romans 3:31, he asks, “Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.” Likewise, in Romans 7:12, he affirms that “the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.” The Book of Acts also records that thousands of Jewish believers were “zealous for the law” (Acts 21:20), and Paul himself continued to live as a Jew by taking vows, circumcising Timothy, and keeping the feasts. For Jews, the Torah remained their covenantal framework. Messiah did not erase this identity but rather confirmed it within God’s ongoing plan.
2. The Torah as Barrier Is What’s Removed
Paul is precise in his language: what has been abolished is not the Torah itself but the “law of commandments expressed in ordinances” that functioned as barriers between Jew and Gentile. The hostility created by these dividing ordinances has been killed, not God’s Torah. Messiah re-centers covenant identity on faithfulness to Him rather than on external boundary-markers. This means Gentiles are no longer excluded from God’s people because of their uncircumcision, diet, or ritual status. At the same time, this shift does not dissolve Israel’s ongoing covenant obligations under the Torah. Instead, it removes exclusion while maintaining the Torah’s role in Israel’s covenant life.
The Torah as a Source of Enmity Between Jew and Gentile
Paul’s statement in Ephesians 2:14–16 that Messiah “has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility” raises an important question: in what sense did the Torah, which is holy and good (Rom. 7:12), create enmity between Jews and Gentiles? The answer lies not in Torah’s intrinsic character, but in the way its commandments and regulations functioned as boundary markers that separated Israel from the nations. These boundaries, though divinely ordained to preserve Israel’s holiness, produced exclusion, suspicion, and even hostility between the covenant people and Gentiles.
1. The Torah as Divider
Circumcision as a Wall.
Circumcision was the God-given sign of covenant membership. Genesis 17:14 declares that any uncircumcised male “shall be cut off from his people,” while Exodus 12:48 prohibits foreigners from partaking in the Passover meal unless every male in their household was circumcised. This created a sharp boundary of belonging: to be inside the covenant, circumcision was required. For Gentiles, this meant exclusion unless they submitted to this covenantal marker.
Food Laws as a Wall.
Leviticus 11 prescribes Israel’s dietary system, distinguishing between clean and unclean animals. These distinctions did more than regulate diet—they made table fellowship with Gentiles nearly impossible. By the first century, Jews avoiding meals with Gentiles had become deeply ingrained, as evidenced in Acts 10:28 and Galatians 2:12. Because meals are central to human fellowship, this boundary became a practical source of enmity.
Purity Laws as a Wall.
Israel’s holiness was further safeguarded through purity regulations. Leviticus 20:22–26 emphasizes Israel’s separation from the nations through laws of holiness. These distinctions, while intended to preserve Israel’s identity as God’s people, often resulted in Gentiles being regarded as “unclean” by default. Thus, a spiritual and social barrier was firmly established.
2. Explicit Statements of Enmity
The Torah itself sometimes codified exclusion. Deuteronomy 23:3–6, for instance, barred Moabites and Ammonites from entering the assembly of the Lord “forever.” Later, in Ezra 9–10 and Nehemiah 13, strict separation from foreigners was demanded, even to the extent of dissolving intermarriages. By the time of the Second Temple, these texts and practices had produced a culture of suspicion and hostility toward Gentiles. What began as covenantal safeguards became grounds for division.
3. Second Temple Jewish Writings
By Paul’s day, Torah had become a powerful ethnic and covenantal marker. The Dead Sea Scrolls, such as the Community Rule (1QS), depict Gentiles—and even Jews who did not live strictly by the Torah—as “sons of darkness.” Similarly, Jubilees 22:16 explicitly commands: “Separate yourself from the Gentiles, and do not eat with them, and do not perform deeds like theirs…” These writings reveal how Torah-based distinctions were not only preserved but also amplified into a mindset of separation and hostility.
4. Paul’s Own Writings
Paul himself recognizes how Torah, in practice, became a source of contention. In Romans 9:31–32, he explains that Israel, pursuing the law as the basis of righteousness, stumbled over it. In Romans 10:3–4, he laments that many sought to establish their own righteousness, resulting in pride and exclusion. Galatians 2:12 describes the pressure exerted by the “circumcision party,” demanding Gentile compliance with boundary markers and thereby fracturing fellowship. Paul knew firsthand that Torah-based distinctions, though holy in themselves, had become sources of hostility between Jew and Gentile.
The Torah was given as a gift to Israel, to set them apart as a holy nation unto God. Yet its boundary-marking commandments—circumcision, food laws, purity codes, and access restrictions—created sharp divisions between Jew and Gentile. These distinctions, reinforced by later interpretations and practices, often hardened into enmity. Paul’s radical claim is that Messiah did not abolish the Torah itself, but rather the enmity produced by these dividing ordinances. In His flesh, He reconciled both Jew and Gentile to God, making peace and forming one new humanity.
Law of commandments contained in ordinances
It's not completely clear what Paul means by the odd phrase "law of commandments contained in ordinances," but some believe the statement refers to a halachic argument over Jew-Gentile interaction within the assembly of Messiah-an argument we see coming up frequently in Acts and the Epistles. It has to do with the boundaries of table fellowship and purity concerns. To understand Paul’s meaning, we must look closely at the language he uses, the function of these ordinances within Israel, and the larger theological context of his argument.
1. The Language
Paul refers first to the “law of commandments” (nomon tōn entolōn), which broadly describes God’s commandments revealed in Torah. He then narrows the focus by saying these commandments were expressed “in ordinances” (en dogmasin). The term dogma was used in the Greco-Roman world for decrees or rulings (e.g., Caesar’s decrees in Luke 2:1), and in Jewish settings it could describe formal regulations or prescribed applications of God’s law. Thus, Paul is not dismissing the Torah in general but identifying commandments in the form of codified regulations that functioned in practice to divide Jew from Gentile.
2. The Function of These Ordinances
These “ordinances” served as boundary markers, distinguishing Israel from Gentiles and, in practice, excluding outsiders from full participation in covenant life.
Circumcision was the covenantal sign given to Abraham (Genesis 17:14) and a requirement for Passover participation (Exodus 12:48). This created a sharp boundary of belonging.
Food laws (Leviticus 11; Deuteronomy 14) regulated diet in ways that made table fellowship with Gentiles nearly impossible. By the first century, Jews avoiding meals with Gentiles was a deeply ingrained practice (Acts 10:28; Galatians 2:12).
Purity and holiness laws (Leviticus 20:22–26) maintained Israel’s distinction, often leading Gentiles to be considered “unclean” by default.
Temple access laws (Numbers 1:51; Deuteronomy 23) physically restricted Gentiles, excluding them from Israel’s sacred space.
These were not bad in themselves—they were divinely given for Israel’s holiness. Yet in their boundary-marking function, they created hostility, a dividing wall between Jew and Gentile.
3. Paul’s Argument in Ephesians
Paul’s claim, then, is not that the Torah itself was abolished, but that the hostile function of these commandments expressed in ordinances has been nullified in Messiah’s flesh. The death of Messiah tore down the dividing wall, creating “one new man” and reconciling both Jew and Gentile to God (Ephesians 2:15–16). The Torah as covenant remains holy and good, but its role as a barrier of exclusion has been decisively overcome.
The Torah indeed engenders a sort of "enmity" between Israel and the idolatrous Gentile world. Every command and ordinance marks out the parameters of who Israel is and who Israel is not. Israel belongs to God as his chosen people, his treasured possession, while the nations belong to "the prince of the power of the air" (Ephesians 2:2). The Torah creates a dividing wall that keeps the two types of people separated. The Torah determined who was in and who was out. The commandments of the Torah are directed to the children of Israel, not to the children of Adam—and not even to the children of Noah, except for the broadest strokes of ethical monotheism. In that regard, the Torah itself created the wall of separation that kept Jews and Gentiles separate.
But what if the Gentiles were to abandon idolatry and cast their allegiance with the King of Israel? In that case, the enmity between the two and the need for separation is abolished. From this perspec-tive, Ephesians 2:14-15 does not contradict the Master's words in Matthew 5:17 ("Do not think I have come to abolish the Law [i.e., the Torah]"). Instead, it indicates that the Gentile disciples of Yeshua have been brought past the metaphoric dividing wall that once kept Jewish people and non-Jewish people on opposite sides of the fence. It says, "For he himself is our peace."
The Temple of the Future
In first-century Judaism, the dividing wall of hostility was more than just a metaphor. It was a literal wall in the Temple's outer courts that kept Gentiles at a distance. Will there be a wall of division in the Temple during the Messianic Era? Likely not.
The Prophet Isaiah declares that the stranger who keeps the Sabbath and holds fast to God's covenant will be received in the innermost courts of the Temple. His sacrifices will be received on the altar, and the Temple will be a house of prayer for all nations.
Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say,
“The LORD will surely separate me from his people”;
and let not the eunuch say,
“Behold, I am a dry tree.”For thus says the LORD:
“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose the things that please me
and hold fast my covenant,
I will give in my house and within my walls
a monument and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that shall not be cut off.“And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD,
to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD,
and to be his servants,
everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it,
and holds fast my covenant—these I will bring to my holy mountain,
and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
for all peoples.” (Isaiah 56: 3-7)
Here, Isaiah envisions a radical inclusion: foreigners (Gentiles) and even eunuchs — both groups excluded by the ordinances of Torah (cf. Deut. 23:1–3) — are promised full acceptance if they keep God’s covenant and Sabbath. Their sacrifices will be accepted on the altar, and they will be brought into the innermost spaces of God’s presence, His “house of prayer for all nations.”
This text was so central that Jesus Himself quotes it in Mark 11:17 (and parallels) when cleansing the Temple: “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
Paul probably had this very passage in mind as he wrote of Messiah abolishing the dividing wall. The dividing wall, which would forbid the Gentile from entering the Temple to offer sacrifice, seems to be completely absent in Isaiah's Messianic-age prophecy.
One New Man
Messiah creates in himself one new man from the two. The Greek of Ephesians 2:15 can literally be rendered to say, "to make in himself out of two, one new man, so making peace."
Under the influence of replacement theology, the English Standard Version subtly rewords it to say, "That he might create in himself one new man in place of the two." Replacement theology does not get much more explicit than that. According to that translation, a Jewish Christian is no longer Jewish, and a Gentile Christian is no longer Gentile; their "new man" identity has replaced those former identities. In other words, once a Jew becomes a disciple of Yeshua, he or she is no longer Jewish.
The phrase in Ephesians 2:15 is:
hina tous duo ktisē en hautō eis hena kainon anthrōpon poiōn eirēnēn.
A literal rendering would be:
“in order that He might create the two into one new man in Himself, making peace.”
The Greek grammar suggests bringing two existing entities together into one new unity, not the erasure of the original identities. The sense is union, not replacement.
Replacement theology is not at all Paul's intention. His intention is that, while retaining their distinct identities, the Jewish people and the people from the nations are brought together, like complementary parts of a puzzle, to create a third entity.
Daniel Lancaster, Director of Education at First Fruits of Zion and teacher at Beth Immanuel Sabbath Fellowship, has written extensively within the Messianic Jewish movement. His work emphasizes reading the New Testament in its Jewish context and affirms continuity between Israel’s covenant identity and faith in Messiah. A friend of Daniel Lancaster, Rabbi Michael Schiffman, has been known to complain, "Why is the 'one new man' always uncircumcised?" His point is that this passage has been misinterpreted to negate Jewish identity by homogenizing it with Gentile identity. That's a huge error. Messiah did not come to abolish Jewish identity or abolish Gentile identity. Instead, he brings them together into a new thing called the kingdom of heaven, "so making peace [that he] might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility" (Ephesians 2:15-16).
Paul's theology looks toward the future resurrection. We die with Messiah on the cross and rise to new life with him, and in the resurrection, these distinctions of Jew and Gentile really will be abolished. They are utterly irrelevant to the resurrected, just as they are irrelevant to the spirit. Of course, in practical terms, we aren't actually dead and resurrected yet. Distinction still remains, but that's just for a short while, a brief transitionary period, until the resurrection. In the meantime, we have already attained this new identity-the new creature—in spiritual communion between the two.
The Far and the Near
"He came and preached peace to you who were far off fi.e., the Gentiles] and peace to those who were near [i.e., the Jews]" (Ephesians 2:17). We see here an allusion to Isaiah 57:19: "Peace, peace, to the far and to the near," as Simon Peter said to the Jewish people in the Temple on the day of Shavu'ot: "The promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself" (Acts 2:39).
This unity does not come through the elimination of distinction. It comes through the fact that we both draw near to God through the same portal-namely, the Messiah: "For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father" (Ephesians 2:18). Salvation in Messiah opens that portal for both Jewish people and Gentiles from the nations.
The Saints and Household of God
In conclusion, Paul can say to the Gentiles in Ephesus, "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God" (Ephesians 2:19).
This does not mean that they have become Jewish or that Jewish identity has been neutralized. The phrase "fellow citizens" refers to our citizenship in the kingdom of heaven under the King of Israel, King Messiah. The Gentile disciples in Ephesus are made fellow citizens with the Jewish people in the kingdom, not fellow citizens in the Jewish nation ("Israel according to the flesh"), since both retain their respective national identities.
Paul says that the Gentiles in Ephesus have become fellow citizens with the saints and the household of God, which I take to mean the community of Yeshua in the nation of Israel-that is, the Jewish believers who represent Israel to the Gentiles. Paul speaks here on behalf of "the saints and the household of God." He describes this household of God as "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord" (Ephesians 2:20-21). He is describing Israel. Israel is built upon the foundation of the Torah and the Prophets and is now further established upon the foundation of the apostles, who testify to the resurrection of the Messiah. The Messiah himself is the chief cornerstone, a reference to Psalm 118:22: "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone."
Let's make sure we see the picture; the metaphors are changing quickly. At this point in the epistle, Paul depicts the nation of Israel as the saints and household of God, "a structure, being joined together, [which] grows into a holy temple in the Lord." In so doing, he alludes to the Exodus narrative in which the whole community of Israel contributes toward the construction of the Tabernacle as they create a holy Temple and dwelling place for the Spirit of God. The metaphor invokes the image of Moses assembling the various parts of the Tabernacle to create the dwelling place of God. Far from replacing Israel, the picture is of the Jewish people as the saints and the household of God, built upon the prophets, the apostles, and the Messiah himself, as a holy temple.
You Also
Where do the Gentile disciples in Ephesus fit into this picture? Are they to be left behind the dividing wall again? No. The chapter concludes with another direct address to the Gentile readers: "In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:22). Not only has the metaphoric dividing wall that once separated us been broken down, but both peoples are being built together into this spiritual temple. The structure is not yet complete, but when it is, we will see an end analogous to that of the Torah's account of the construction of the Tabernacle: "So Moses finished the work. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle" (Exodus 40:33-34).