Essentially Jesus Christ's death has resulted in peace between Gentile believers and Jewish believers and peace between Gentile believers and God.
2:14 To understand this verse we must discover what dividing wall Paul had in mind. Perhaps it was the wall in Herod's Temple courtyard that separated the Court of the Gentiles from the Court of the Jews.61This seems improbable since that wall still stood and divided Jews and Gentiles when Paul wrote this epistle. Perhaps he had in mind the veil between the holy and most holy places in that temple. However, that veil--it was not a wall--did not separate Jews from Gentiles but people from God. It seems most probable that Paul had in mind a spiritual rather than a physical barrier that had separated Jews and Gentiles since Abraham's time. This is in harmony with Paul's emphasis on spiritual realities that marks Ephesians.
"This new institution does not dissolve ethnic distinctions, but displays reconciliation, with every believer equally qualified to share in the benefits of salvation and peace that emerge from the uniting of Jews and Gentiles into a new living community."62
This verse is a strong testimony to the fact that with the death of Jesus Christ God began dealing with humankind on a different basis than He had in the past. He now stopped working with and though the Jews and Judaism primarily (though temporarily, cf. Rom. 11). Instead He began dealing with Jews and Gentiles on the same basis, namely their faith in His Son. In others words, He began a new dispensation or administration in His dealings with humanity.
"When verse 14 says Christ is our peace, it means that Jesus is the source of restored relationships, not only between an individual and God but also between individuals. Now people form a new community, the household of God, which itself is compared to a holy temple, a sacred work of God (2:18-22)."63
2:15 The body of Jesus sacrificed on the cross terminated the enmity between Jews and Gentiles. It did so in the sense that when Jesus Christ died He fulfilled all the demands of the Mosaic Law. When He did that, God ended the Mosaic Law as His rule of life for the Jews. The word "abolished"(Gr. kataresas) means "rendered inoperative."The Mosaic Law ceased to be God's standard for regulating the life of His people (Rom. 10:4; et al.). The Mosaic Law had been the cause of the enmity between Jews and Gentiles. Its dietary distinctions and laws requiring separation in particular created hostility between Jews and Gentiles. The NASB translation implies that the law was the barrier. Really it was the cause of the barrier between Jews and Gentiles. Jesus Christ destroyed the barrier and the hostility that resulted from it by terminating the Mosaic Law.
Jesus Christ had two purposes in ending Jewish Gentile hostility. First, He wanted to "create"one new man, the church (v. 6), out of the two former groups, Jews and Gentiles (v. 11). In the church God does not deal with Gentiles as He did with the Jews, nor does He deal with the Jews as He did Gentiles. Jews do not become Gentiles nor do Gentiles become Jews. Rather God has created a whole new (Gr. kainon, fresh) entity, the church. In it believing Jews become Christians, and believing Gentiles become Christians. God deals with both believing Jews and believing Gentiles now equally as Christians.64
2:16 Jesus Christ's second purpose for ending Jewish Gentile hostility was to bring Jewish and Gentile believers to Himself in one body, the church. The Old Testament never spoke of Jewish and Gentile believers as being in one body. Ironically the Cross in one sense terminated Jesus, but Jesus terminated the enmity between Jews and Gentiles with the Cross. Not only have Jews and Gentiles experienced reconciliation with one another (v. 14), but they have also experienced reconciliation with God by the Cross (v. 16).
2:17 Not only is Jesus Christ our peace (v. 14), but He also preached peace. He preached the message of peace, the gospel, through His apostles following His ascension (cf. Acts 1:1-2, 8) to both Gentiles and Jews (vv. 12-13).
2:18 As a result of the Cross both Jewish and Gentile believers have access to God. Formerly access to God was through Judaism, but now it is by the Holy Spirit. As a result of Christ's death, all believers now have direct access to the Father (cf. 3:12; Rom. 5:2). The Holy Spirit gives Jewish and Gentile Christians equal access to God. Note that all three members of the Godhead appear again here.
Controversy over whether Gentile believers had to come to God through Judaism or whether they could come directly to God as Gentiles raged in the early church (Acts 15:1-5; Gal. 1-2). Paul gave the solution to this problem again here (cf. Acts 15:6-21; Gal. 3-4). God has made Jewish and Gentile believers one in the church (v. 14). He created a new entity, the church, out of two others, namely Jews and Gentiles (v. 15). Both kinds of believers experience reconciliation with each other in that body (v. 16), and both have access to God by one Spirit (v. 18).65
