Daily Devotional | God’s Peace Treaty

The U.S. Department of State has a publication titled “Treaties in Force.” It lists treaties the United States has on record and in force. In Ephesians 2, the apostle Paul describes God’s peace treaty with sinners that unites Jews and Gentiles by reconciling both with God. In verses 11–12 Paul reminds the Ephesian Christians, whose background was Gentile, that they were once outsiders to the promises God made to Abraham and his descendants. As Gentiles, they were “separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.”

All of this changed with the coming of Christ. Jesus is our peace treaty. He tore down the barrier that separated all humanity from God and also divided Jews from Gentiles. By offering His own body as a sacrifice for sin, Jesus set aside the condemning record of the Law by eliminating its power to accuse (v. 15). Jesus accomplished this through the cross by acting as our substitute. He obeyed all the commands and ordinances of the Law perfectly and offered His body as the required sacrifice. By His obedience, death, and resurrection, Jesus destroyed all grounds for hostility between Jews and Gentiles (v. 16). Jesus made peace with God by paying for our sins. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by removing the barrier of the Law that separated them.

As the apostle explains in Galatians 3:28–29, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Nobody has an advantage over anyone else in obtaining a relationship with God. The entry point is not a matter of birth, heritage, or status. It is only by faith.