One in the Spirit

 Read Ephesians 2

God chose a people for himself.  These people were to show others the God that they knew.  God took a special interest in them.  He blessed them with gifts.  They received:

Distinction as his people

Deliverance from slavery

His law and directives

A sign in the flesh

A land promised to them

That the salvation of the world would come through them—through the seed of Abraham.

We must understand that God did not disown the rest of his creation when he chose a people.  He just set a different time for all to come to know him.

That time arrived with the advent of the Christ. Jesus came to redeem the lost sheep or Israel.  Some of those lost sheep were genetically Hebrews.  Others were not, but all would be called to be one family in God through Christ.

Once there were God’s Chosen People and the rest of the world—generally considered pagan and ungodly.  Now that division—that dichotomy—is gone. 

Christ himself has made these two groups into one family. In so doing, he has set aside the law as it had been.  What was master before became our guide, our mentor, and our friend, but reconciliation with God and with each other came in Christ alone.

In Christ, Jew and Gentile become one tabernacle in which the Spirit of God dwells.  The law separated.  Christ and the Spirit unite.  We are one in the Spirit.

We should study the Torah and the Proverbs and the Psalms and the prophecy of the Old Testament but we are governed by the Spirit of God himself.

We are to repent of lawlessness but that does not mean the law governs us.  We belong to Christ and we stay in step with his Spirit.  God directs our steps through his own spirit.

Listen to Paul’s words once more.

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

All who have received this gift of grace by faith have access to the Father through the Spirit.  It is one Spirit.  There is not one spirit for Jews and another one for Gentiles.  We are one in the Spirit.

What is it that we sing most Sundays?  We sing the same thing twice in a row, so it must be important.

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord

Just who is this we?  It is everyone who has received the gift of grace by faith regardless of lineage, race, geography, age, or good looks.  We are one in the Spirit.

Amen.