While preparing for the message on Ephesians 2:11-22 I came across an important word in the original Greek. I hope that the brief analysis and some highlights of this word's occurrence in other passages enriches your faith and love for our God.
Paul is addressing the Gentiles in Ephesus and encourages them to remember their former conditions. In contrast to the description of that previous condition, being separated from God, aliens, at enmity . . . they are now reconciled. The Greek word, translated "reconciled," is incredibly rich. The word denotes a transformation of the state between God and us, since God does not change, it is therefore clear that our state is that which is changed. The Greek emphasizes an exchange that takes place. Believers, in Jesus, have their guilt and sin exchanged for justification and righteousness. It is those things that are imputed to us.
The Greek word is a compound word formed from apo - meaning from or source; kata - meaning down from; allaso - meaning change or exchange.
So literally the word describes a change or exchange that is initiated from a superior source. I hope you grasp the implications of God's riches grace afforded by Christ to change our relationship with Him. What is interesting as well is the context in which this word is employed by Paul in two other places. In Colossians 1:20-21 Paul uses "reconciled" twice (Ephesians 2:16 makes the only three times it is used in this form in the NT) and it occurs with an emphasis on the Cross in its context.
John Calvin writes, "This, also, is a magnificent commendation of Christ, that we cannot be joined to God otherwise than through him. In the first place, let us consider that our happiness consists in our cleaving to God, and that, on the other hand, there is nothing more
miserable than to be alienated from him. He declares, accordingly, that we are blessed through Christ alone, inasmuch as he is the bond of our connection with God, and, on the other hand, that, apart from him, we are most miserable, because we are shut out from God. Let us, however, bear in mind, that what he ascribes to Christ belongs peculiarly to him, that no portion of this praise may be transferred to any other."
Reconciliation between God and man can only occur because of what Jesus accomplished through his sacrifice on the Cross. It is only by the blood of Jesus shed on the Cross that peace and other distinctive marks of reconciliation can be ours.
I am incredibly encouraged today as I was remembering who I was formerly and what God has done in me as I have been changed by His workmanship. I hope that encourages you too. It is no wonder Paul pours forth "to the praise of His glorious grace." earlier in chapter one of Ephesians. As you consider the power of Jesus blood may you find peace, strength, friendship, adoption, and the greatest blessings of our God.
