Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.
Parallel translations
- WEB and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility thereby.
- KJV And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
- BSB and reconciling both of them to God in one body through the cross, by which He extinguished their hostility.
- NKJV and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.
- NASB and that He might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the hostility.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Through the cross Christ reconciled both Jew and Gentile to God in one body, killing the hostility. It shows reconciliation with God and one another flowing from the cross.
Overview
The cross accomplishes a double reconciliation: it joins Jew and Gentile 'in one body' and reconciles them 'to God.' Christ 'killed the hostility' — both the enmity between peoples and the enmity against God. Peace with God and peace among God's people are inseparably won at Calvary.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Col 1:20–22and through him to reconcile all things to himself, by him, whether things on the earth, or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross.
- Rom 5:10For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life.
- 2 Cor 5:18–21But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation;
- Col 2:14wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us; and he has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross;
- 1 Pet 4:1–2Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind; for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin;
- Gal 2:20I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.
- Rom 8:3For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh;
- Rom 6:6knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.
- Rom 8:7because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be.
- Eph 2:15having abolished in his flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace;
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Christ at the center
Every spiritual blessing is 'in Christ,' the head over all things for the church, in whom Jew and Gentile are made one new man by his blood.
How Ephesians 2:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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