Ephesians 2:18Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Because Christ reconciled us with God. He Himself said of this: "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you" (Jn 14:27). Elsewhere He says: "Take courage; I have overcome the world" (Jn 16:33).

Again He says: "If you ask anything in My name, I will do it" (Jn 14:14). Likewise: "For the Father Himself loves you" (Jn 16:27).

All these are signs of peace for both one people and the other. How is it clear that it is for both? It is said: "For through Him" (di' autou) "we both have access to the Father in one Spirit" (en heni Pneumati).

It is not that you have less and they have more. Rather, both have been counted worthy of one and the same grace. He destroyed the enmity by death and made us beloved to the Father through the Spirit.

See again the particles: en, "in," and dia, "through." Through Himself and through the Spirit He brought us to God.

By His death He destroyed wrath, and then made us beloved to the Father through the Spirit, bestowing upon us the same grace. For He did not give more to them as those near, and less to us as those far off. Rather, in the one Spirit He gave one grace to both and thus brought both to the Father. Or "in" is used instead of "through." Then the meaning would be this: through Him and the Spirit we have been brought to the Father.

Through Christ, Who suffered for us, all people have access to the Father. This includes both the Jews and us, who were Gentiles in the person of our ancestors. We have this access in the one Holy Spirit, Who sanctifies us and preserves the Church of Christ until the end of the age.

For through Him we have gained access. Formerly we were united with and divided from one another by our laws. But now access has appeared for us in one Spirit to the Father of all, that is, through the Spirit whom we received from baptism itself. Therefore, among those who have received Him there is no longer Jew or Gentile, for Christ is all in all.

Paul does not think that perfect and completed renewal can take place in this age. Just as now we see as through a dim glass, in an enigma, but then face to face (1 Cor 13:12), so the restoration of the new man can then be fully and perfectly completed. This will be when heavenly and earthly things are united, and when we draw near to the Father with one soul, one feeling, and one mind.

This is like what the Lord said: "No one comes to the Father except through Me" (Jn 14:6). The Apostle says that He brought us to the Father, and He brought us by counting us worthy of spiritual grace.

As I have already said, both Jews and Gentiles have access to the Father through Christ. But in what manner? In one Spirit.

For when we believe in the Spirit, who is one with Christ, He descends into us. Then we perceive God, know God, and worship God.

Thus we come to the Father in one Spirit through Christ. As the Jews cannot come to the Father except through Christ, so the Gentiles cannot come to Him in any other way.

They do not come by some external power, through an idol, a potency, or anything else, whatever they may call it.

The Gentiles were far from salvation through unbelief, while the Jews were near through knowledge of God. No other, neither man nor Angel, but the Son of God Himself came into the world.

By His teachings He abolished the enmity between these two peoples. By His death on the Cross He slew the enmity between God and men.

Both before His Passion and after His Resurrection, He preached the Gospel of peace to the Gentiles, who were far from Him, and to the Jews, who were near to Him.

The God-man preached it, so that through Him both peoples, that is, Jews and Greeks, have access to the Father "in one Spirit." This means that, having been made worthy of one and the same grace of the All-Holy Spirit, we are brought to God the Father.

"We have access." Access to God the Father, from whom men had been separated by their sins, is granted to all who have received the Holy Spirit from Christ.

Then he shows how they became near. "But now in Christ Jesus" the Gentiles "have been brought near by the Blood of Christ" (Eph 2:13). That is, in the Church of Christ they received equal rights with the Jews.

For Christ "made both one," uniting both peoples into one Church. By His death He abolished the ceremonial law, which had served as the middle wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles.

Thus in Himself Christ, as it were, created humanity anew (Eph 2:14-15), "reconciling both," the Jew and the Gentile, "to God through the Cross, having slain the enmity on it." This means the enmity with God, which alienated both peoples from Him because of their sinfulness.

The nearness of Christians to God is revealed in their dwelling with the saints, in sonship to God, and in this, that He Himself spiritually and mystically dwells in the hearts of believers. They become, as it were, a temple, whose cornerstone is Christ, and whose builder is the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit acted both in the prophets and in the Apostles, who labored in different ways for the building up of the Church as God’s edifice. Together with the foundation of the one majestic temple, which both new Christians and all Christians who glorify the Lord build from themselves, the Apostle also points here to each person’s separate building of himself into a temple of God.

Thus, having formed one body, the Church, from the two halves of mankind, Christ reconciled both to God on His Cross. He slew the enmity which, before Him, existed between God and sinful man.

After the Resurrection, by appearing to His disciples, and after His Ascension into heaven, by sending them out to preach, He announced this reconciliation to the whole world.

That the reconciliation of men with God and with one another was truly accomplished is evident from this. All, both Jews and Gentiles, approach God the Father through Christ as the first author of their salvation.

They are guided by one Holy Spirit, who relates to all in the same way, and therefore they are in complete mutual peace.

If the Lord had not come in the flesh, and if, having come, He had not ordered and proclaimed the Gospel, we would not have had access to the Father. He is the only door, and only the one who enters through Him is saved.

For this reason He says: "No one comes to the Father except through Me" (Jn 14:6).

This does not mean only that, having reconciled us generally with God by His death on the Cross and having given the Spirit of grace, He placed us in a filial relation to God. Because of this we can cry, "Abba, Father" (Rom 8:15; Jn 4:23), and pray, "Our Father, who art in heaven" (Mt 6:9).

It means especially that He takes each soul, as one man takes another by the hand, and brings it to the Father.