Eph. 2:15a

15a By abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace.

Does this mean that the Law is gone, done away with, non-existent, out-of-date, now no longer in effect? Does this mean that the followers of Jesus can disregard the Law as practiced by Jewish people for ages? Jesus declared that he did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it. That task of taking the principles behind the Law and putting them into cultural behavior is to be done by every generation in every culture. The Spirit of the Law never changes. How could it change since the Law is implicit in God’s character?

The Gospel is not devoid of the Law. Lawlessness is not what the Spirit of God is speaking of here. The believers have the law written on their hearts as a result of the New Birth. They submit to that law with their whole hearts. We are not saved in order to live without Law.

A rephrase of our lead verse might be, “God, in Christ, abolished the notion that the religious practices of the Jews as then practiced should be required of all believers.” Behind such a statement is the hope that if we all practice the same cultural religious practices, routines and so forth then unity will be assured within the body. Spiritual unity - Gospel unity - is not based on uniformity of religious practices but on faith in Jesus Christ.

Many Christian groups have tried to maintain spiritual unity by requiring cultural unity. That attempt is doomed to fail because even obedience to a uniform law can have self-effort as the center, rather than Christ, so self reigns, even though it appears as though everyone submits to a common set of cultural practices. That “self” will ultimately destroy unity!

The only way for true spiritual unity is for sin or the sinful nature to be dealt with. The importance of cultural practices should not be the means toward unity. In order to bring the Kingdom of God on the earth, a kingdom built on love, the love of God, the power of self-assertion, of sin, must be dealt with. So, the Spirit says, “Listen, everyone, Jesus, in his flesh abolished the idea that keeping the law and commands are the central feature. Jesus’ blood was spilled to bring everyone to salvation, no matter what the religious background, thus abolishing the idea that we earn salvation by being and doing good.” By going the ultimate extent of become a sacrifice, Jesus demonstrated that God saves by his grace alone. If there would have been any other way, Jesus would not have died.

So it is. Praise God.

Jesus abolished that which separates us, that is, self-centeredness. As we humbly submit to the Spirit of God we find that we want to do good. It is the natural expression of our new life in Christ Jesus. We want to live and do good as he did.