Ephesians 2:15

… by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one man in the place of two, so making peace.

We are used to saying that Christ took our sins on his body on the cross, here Paul is saying something far more radical. Christ took the law with all of its commandments and regulations, and put it to death on the cross.

Jesus dealt with our guilt by destroying the power of the law to condemn us. If there is no law, there can be no transgression and no condemnation.

Every year politicians add more and more laws to our law books. There are so many now, some of them contradictory, so that it is impossible for any person to know all the laws that might apply to them, much less to know if they have broken the laws.

Just in driving a vehicle, the laws have become so many and so varied that most people break the law every day.

Paul says that in respect to the Jewish law, the law of God, Christ abolished the law in his flesh.

What freedom this brings to us, knowing that we are no longer bound by laws of sacrifice and diet. When we break those laws we are no longer under judgement because the laws are no longer in existence. Christ abolished them.

The early church had to wrestle with the question of whether the Gentiles who became Christians first had to become Jews. Did the uncircumcised have to belong to” the circumcision” to be acceptable to God? No,the Law had been abolished in Christ.

The result of the abolition of the law was the abolition of the distinction between Jews and Gentiles. If a Jew was the person who obeyed (or tried to obey) God’s law, then where there is no law there is no distinction between the two, other than perhaps cultural differences.

When it comes to salvation, when it comes to God, both Jews and Gentiles are in the same boat. They are “one new man.”

If the law has been abolished by Christ, Jewish people cannot be saved by the Law. Like Gentiles, they can only be saved by grace through faith in Christ. And many have been.

The” one new man” that Paul talks about here is the Christian Jews together with the Gentiles who follow Christ. Whether Jew or non-Jew, it is faith in Jesus that saves us, and it is faith in Jesus that unites us.

By abolishing the law in his flesh, Jesus is made peace between the two factions. There can no longer be any debate, conflict or hostility between the two as we are all brothers and sisters in Christ.

Where there is family, there is peace

Key points in this verse

• Christ abolished the law in his flesh

• Where there is no law there is no guilt

• Jews and Gentiles alike are saved by faith in Christ, not by the law

• Jews and Gentiles who are saved are part of one family, brothers and sisters in Christ

• Where there is family there is piece