In the previous devotional we looked at Paul\u2019s comments about why Jesus came in Ephesians 2:1-10. Let\u2019s pick up where we left off and consider Ephesians 2:11-22.<\/p>\n
Like he did in verses 1-10, Paul compares and contrasts our old life with the new life that is available to us in Jesus. Without Jesus:
* We were separated from Christ.
* We Gentiles were not included in the people of Israel, and as a result did not share in the promises that was given to that people group.
* Without Christ, we are without God and without hope.<\/p>\n
These sound like impossible, insurmountable, problems that cannot be overcome. To be honest, by ourselves, they cannot. Remember at the start of the letter that Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter 1 that even before he created the foundation of the world, that he established his plan to save us, to restore all things to himself. SO Paul gives us a number of reasons why Jesus came. Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:11-22 that;
* We have been brought near through the blood of Jesus. Jesus came to bring us to God.
* We were separated from God, but Jesus came to bring peace between us and God. Jesus, Paul says here, is our peace.
* Paul makes it clear that Jesus came to create peace between us and God.
* Jesus also came to break down the dividing wall between people.
* Paul says that Jesus came to reconcile us to God.
* Jesus came so that through him anyone could have access to the Father through the Spirit.
* Jesus came so that through him we could be saints and fellow citizens in God\u2019s own household.
* Jesus came so we could be the new temple, the place where God dwells.
* Jesus, Paul says, came to be the one who holds all things together.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.20.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.20.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.20.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_video src=”https:\/\/youtu.be\/8hkNN_SNaNs” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_video][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the previous devotional we looked at Paul\u2019s comments about why Jesus came in Ephesians 2:1-10. Let\u2019s pick up where we left off and consider Ephesians 2:11-22. Like he did in verses 1-10, Paul compares and contrasts our old life with the new life that is available to us in Jesus. Without Jesus:* We were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34,56,55,57],"tags":[38,59,63,58,60],"class_list":["post-1909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-devotional","category-easter","category-lent","category-why-jesus-came","tag-devotional","tag-easter","tag-ephesians-2","tag-lent","tag-why-jesus-came"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saschade.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saschade.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saschade.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saschade.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saschade.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1909"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/saschade.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1915,"href":"https:\/\/saschade.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1909\/revisions\/1915"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saschade.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saschade.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saschade.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saschade.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}