This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Considering the Church” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, July 3, 1994.

This morning we are reading from Ephesians 2. We are beginning at verse 1. Give your attention to the reading of God’s holy word. who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, a spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ by grace ye are saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Wherefore, remember that ye, being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. 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 commandments contained in ordinances. for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace, and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.

For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father, Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the buildings fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builted together for the inhabitation of God through the Spirit.

Look upon all those, O Lord, who hear your word today. Graciously grant strength in that life conferred already in Jesus Christ to those who have believed. But be pleased, O Father, this day. to gather many of your elect, that your church already gathered might rejoice, and rejoice with those who rejoice in heaven. So bless your word here, Lord, that we in hearing may obey. And Father, may it please you, through such light as shines from us, to bring light then to this dark world. We ask it for Jesus’ sake, for the sake of that one who is himself the very life of the world. Amen.

In the film Gettysburg, General Robert E. Lee is made to comment on the irony that the Fourth of July, marking the celebration of American independence, should lie so close to the July 3 battle in which the freedom of the southern states would be determined. But Lloyd certainly has a sense of humor,” General Lee said, at least in the film.

But what we witnessed in the horror of that July 3rd charge by Pickett and others was anything but humorous. If the Lord was laughing, it must have been to have in derision those men who had been made to be such utter fools. We have been taught, have we not, or at least this is how we have seen things, that the Lord’s laughter is reserved for the raging heathen nations and their stubborn rulers, those who refused to submit to him and his sovereign lordship. But on July 3, 1863, undoubtedly his derisive laugh was directed against those who likely and from the Union alike, had the Lord’s name comfortably placed upon their tongues. Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Episcopalians, Lutherans, slaughtering Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptist, Episcopalians, and Lutherans.

Now, if it hadn’t all been in the interest of such a worthy cause, it wouldn’t have been enough to make atheists of us all. But all the worthy causes, but right after them, those who belong to the household of faith, in order to make war upon one another.

The worthy cause presently drags after its Protestant and Catholic endowment in Ireland. The worthy cause drags after Orthodox Serb and Romanist Croats in Belgium. And what about the worthy cause in Rwanda? that small African nation that boasts a Christian population of 80 percent, and if we add the Seventh-day Adventists to that calculation, nearly 90 percent. But this nation now busying itself with a bloodbath that has claimed 500,000 lives, and displaced a million more.

Now, the Christian Church can look out upon the world torn by hostility, brutalized by conflict, It can look out upon a world that even attacks the Church. But when that happens, the Church feels vindicated, justified, and genuine in its confession and in its offer of peace. Peace, says the Church boldly, is impossible without the Prince of Peace. It is possible, says the Church, only through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But what now, comes the question. What now, since the Church herself is torn apart by hostility, and internally scandalized by conflict that pits professing Christian against professing Christian. In fact, pitting those against one another who are of the very same denomination or from the same ecclesiastical background. How is the Church then able to hold her head up when those from her membership are at each other’s throats to such an extent that they are literally slitting one another’s throats.

More specifically, and with regard to our passage this morning, especially the latter part of it, Ephesians 2, 11-22, How are we, the Church, able to claim for the Apostle Paul and for his gospel any credibility given what we have witnessed in the Church throughout her history and what we see presently taking place in many regions of the world through the Church?

How do statements such as what we find in verse 14 there, play themselves out. Jesus Christ, he himself, is our peace. How does such a statement as this make any sense? How does talk about the one new man mentioned in verse 15 and all of the images of harmony that that brings to mind? have any meaning for us? And what about the reconciliation that is spoken of in verse 16, a reconciliation for those who are now brought together in one body to God? Nevertheless, we are absolutely committed, are we not, to the truthfulness of the Word of God and to the integrity of the Apostle Paul?

This man is utterly serious. He is not dealing here with fabrications. He is not dabbling in fictions. He is thoroughly genuine in what he has to say to the Church. And isn’t it interesting that the statement that we find here is in the context of an epistle that is his most general statement? The specifics that we find in other of his epistles are not found here in the epistle to the Ephesians. There’s no personal greeting. You might think that’s strange since Paul spent three years in Ephesus. That means then that the generality and the universality of this epistle is deliberate on Paul’s part.

Yes, he is absolutely serious and thoroughly, completely genuine in what he has to say about the peace that is a reality in Christ, about the one new man, about the reconciliation that has taken place. But how in the world are we to understand this man? in light of the particulars that we have mentioned already this morning. And the way in which it seems that Christian saints, so wonderfully exemplary in other regards, simply stumble. and that tragically 53,000 died against them if you were a mother think of your boy And we weren’t out there slaying Caesar. We were cutting down fellow Presbyterians. Now, in order to get at the Apostles meeting a bit better, I hope it is obvious to all of us this morning that we cannot shift Paul’s meaning for peace off into the realm of personal tranquility and psychological serenity.

The Apostle here is talking about something that is essentially external and eminently social in its character. He is speaking about the removal of a dividing wall, a barrier between peoples. Here’s the Apostle’s sociology. He is speaking about the removal of a dividing wall, a barrier between peoples. That barrier being between Gentiles and Jews, verse 14.

He is talking about something here that takes form and shape in the Church, which stands centrally to his concern in this epistle as a whole. Something that takes then concrete form in the world, something you can see, something that is visible, a visible assembly, something that Paul calls God’s household in verse 19. Brought together out of the flesh and blood tribes of Israel and out of the flesh and blood tribes of the nation.

There is nothing here, then, of a privatized mysticism. There is nothing here of a vision for religion that is content merely with contemplation and meditation. There is nothing here of a vision of religion for which the existence of anyone else except the self and God However he may be personally conceived, it’s utterly unnecessary.

So we are clear, are we not, at least on this point, that what the apostle has in mind is something that has concrete form in the world. You can see it. It is visible. But neither is the Apostle a social philosopher in the classic sense of that word, as if his real objective were to present a vision for humanity that was always within man’s reach, if he would but grasp it. Isn’t that the try and true principle of social theory?

The Apostle Paul is not a social philosopher. He is not here presenting a vision for humanity that was always within man’s reach if he would but grasp it. a vision for society that actually leaves no excuse to Gentiles and Jews for ever being separated in the first place. In other words, Paul is not saying that if Gentiles and Jews understood their true and common humanity, there would have never been any division between them at all. It is not, therefore, a failure of their native ability that separates Jews from Gentiles. The Apostle understands that what separated Jews from Gentiles was a concrete act by God in history.

That conceived and born of grace. Israel had been separated from the nations by God’s election, and that inexplicable in and of itself, except we find the reason for it in God himself. Israel was separated from the nations by God’s election, sealed by circumcision and Old Testament sacrament and religious right, in which the Gentiles had no part. They were excluded. By divine act, the Gentiles were originally separated even from the expectation of Christ. By divine decree, they were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, they were made strangers to the covenants of promise, they had no hope, and were without God in the world.”

As it was by God’s own gracious action that the Jews was separated from the Gentiles originally, it is not by God’s own gracious action in Christ that the Gentiles and Jews are brought together. Particularly in view is Christ’s cross, Christ’s shed blood for sinners, Jewish sinners, Gentile sinners. This being God’s means not merely of reconciling peoples to himself, but also to one another. If there had been, by necessity, a dividing wall between Jew and Gentile, even in the Old Testament sanctuary in Jerusalem, that wall has been removed in the crucified flesh of Christ.

And a new situation now pertains. Something new has taken place. Something new has come. that has never existed before. Gentiles gathered with Jews to be the people of God. They together granted a common inheritance in glory.” Note finally that Paul is not, by these words, shuffling off what he speaks of here to a nebulous future, as if in his optimism he cannot help but think about these things as an already present reality. who, in looking at the incongruity between the world and what they read here in Ephesians 2, have concluded that the only way in which we can make sense of what the Apostle says is to reserve everything that is spoken of here for the future. Yes, there will be this reconciliation, there will be this reunion, there will be this commonality, this harmony, this peace. The Paul’s message here is not with regard to prospect, it is with regard to reality and that which has transpired already. The reconciliation of which he speaks, the peace of which he speaks, the tearing down of the metal wall of partition has been accomplished.

Not to say that there is not process in view or at work. by which Jews and Gentiles are being incorporated into God’s dwelling in the Spirit, in which there isn’t growth. Of course there is growth. Of course there is this incorporation. Of course there is this progress. And it is alluded to also in Ephesians 4, where Paul speaks about the Church growing up into full maturity, into Christ himself. By all means, then, there is growth and maturing, a maturation that is taking place.

But still, according to what the Apostle Paul is setting down, we are not waiting for the peace to arrive, for it is presently asserting itself. Now, your vision may become clouded. And your faith at this point may begin to falter. But I plead with you that you fear the Apostle Paul for all your worth. He is not waiting for the peace to arrive.

It is presently asserting itself. And it is precisely because it has arrived and it is asserting itself that this piece and everything that belongs to it becomes a discipline for us. This is what is made clear also by the fourth chapter of Ephesians.

Yes, as Ephesians 2 tells us, we are the new man in Christ, but that does not mean that we don’t have to put on the new man, as Ephesians 4.24 tells us. And to be continually dressing ourselves up in that new humanity which is ours in Christ. to be sure, as Ephesians 2 tells us, Christ is our peace. That is accomplished. Do you not understand? If we take that away, then grace falls. Salvation is lost. There’s nothing left.

Yes, Christ is our peace. Reconciliation has come, but we dare not ignore then what the Apostle says to us at the end of the fourth chapter of Ephesians, which is the working out of that reconciliation and the demonstration of that peace for us in our assemblies and in our lives. Let all bitterness,” writes the Apostle, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and slander, be put away from you, along with all balance, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” For you to respond to that statement Christ must be our peace, our reconciliation. There must be that harmony that is found in him from which you live, out of which you converse. otherwise you are thrown back completely into a works religion.

The Apostle sees it all in his time, he knows the conflicts that will arise. He’s no fool. And yet he speaks here by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And what a message. Peace has come. Reconciliation has been accomplished. Harmony is at work for the Church of Jesus Christ. For the Church is in the Savior. It cannot be otherwise. Otherwise, there is no gospel.

But this also means that we are not at liberty to ignore that which has been given by God in Christ to us. The truth and reality of this gift of grace are what indict us personally when we presume upon them and then go ahead, in the interests of some worthy cause, to flatter our brethren away. For can we, without detriment to our souls, ignore what is as set and as certain as the cross itself namely that this peace of which we speak exists for us. A peace, in fact, we must insist upon, even when all the pressures of state and church are hard enough to deny it. In fact, the church fought for the sake of her membership, and in order to honor her God’s will to resist trial and torture when she is told, and even that from her own pulpit, that she must take up arms in order to annihilate her own faith. Those godly men in 1861 should have said, no, we won’t go, we won’t do it.

And if you don’t, you are going to be subject to the discipline of this church. For you see, Christ has not left his church without measures and methods and resources for the resolution of and the dealing with conflicts. And that church is condemned when she fails to use those methods and measures at her disposal. For you see, it constitutes a denial of Christ’s headship.

Now this is not to say that there were not a great number of extraordinarily fine Christian men who gave themselves to that cause and even died for it. It’s merely to say, as wonderful as they were and as exemplary as they were, they were most definitely confused at this point.

May we learn from that Holocaust, and may we know what the Church must most certainly do. when such situations does not arise. And may God have mercy upon us all. Let us pray. Our God in heaven, We do ask you that we would live fully and blessedly in the wonderful realities that are laid out for us by the Apostle. May we see Lord the Kingdom and know its reality. And may the church of which we are a part be blessed with the peace of the realm. and that reconciliation and harmony that are found in Christ. And may we begin with those considerations to the end that we might be gracious and forbearing, persevering in peacemaking, and determined that we will not be a part of slaughtering our own friends and fellow citizens in the kingdom of heaven we pray this in Jesus name who is himself the head

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