This week as the Nation celebrated former President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday, these now-famous words came to my mind with fresh spiritual insight. “For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups [Jews and Gentiles] into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall” (Ephesians 2:14).
The barrier of the dividing wall is an allusion to the wall that separated the Court of the Gentiles from the Court of the Jews in the temple. But Paul goes on to apply a universal meaning to the “wall” analogy. By His death on the cross, Christ has broken down the wall that separated us from God. It is the “wall of shame” we all have tried, unsuccessfully, to climb on our own. It is the wall that holds us captive from the abundant life just on the other side—a wall of mis-beliefs and outright lies.
Later to the Corinthians, Paul refers again to the “wall” analogy when he challenges them to demolish this fortress made up of arguments and speculations that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and to take captive all these lying thoughts and make them obedient to Christ. (2 Cor. 10:4-5)
The “wall” analogy is as old as Adam and Eve. When Satan succeeded in bringing into question the absolute “truth” of God (Did God say?), the wall was up, and the rest was easy. The challenge of believing God is no less real than it was then. So then, let us “Tear down that wall!”
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