Ephesians 2:15 Commentary: One New Man, Peace Made

The temple in Jerusalem had a physical barrier, the “middle wall of partition”, separating the Court of the Gentiles from the inner courts. A stone inscription warned any Gentile who passed beyond it that death would follow. That wall was a concrete symbol of the division this verse addresses. Jews and Gentiles in the first century harbored deep, reciprocal hostility. Clarke notes that Jews “detested the Gentiles, and could hardly allow them the denomination of men”; Gentiles held Jewish separatism in contempt. The ceremonial law was designed to keep Israel distinct, marking them as God’s chosen people through specific practices.

Paul’s phrase “law of commandments contained in ordinances” (τὸν νόμον τῶν ἐντολῶν ἐν δόγμασιν) uses dogmasin, a word that in secular Greek referred to official decrees. Thayer’s lexicon notes it carries “a suggestion of severity and of threatened judgment.” The law functioned as a fence, a fence that protected but also excluded. Calvin likens the ceremonial distinctions to national emblems that mark one group off from another: “just as the white and the red cross distinguish the French of the present day from the inhabitants of Burgundy.”

Into this divided world Christ comes. His flesh, his incarnate life and sacrificial death, becomes the place where the fence is dismantled. Vincent’s Word Studies emphasizes the aorist participle katargēsas (“having abolished”), which means to render inoperative, to deprive of force. The death of Christ does not merely soften the law’s demands; it strips the entire separating system of its power. What was meant to guard holiness becomes a source of enmity, and Christ takes it away. The verb ktisē (“create”) signals that what replaces the divided groups is not a compromise or merger but a brand-new reality: a humanity never seen before, built on Christ’s reconciling work. Peace (εἰρήνην) is both the method and the outcome.

The consulted sources report no significant textual variants in Ephesians 2:15. The verse is well-attested across the major Greek manuscripts (P46, Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Alexandrinus). An occasional scribal attempt to smooth the word order (e.g., moving en dogmasin to clarify the phrase) is noted in a few later manuscripts, but these do not alter meaning. The reading adopted by modern critical editions is secure.

From the early church, Ephesians 2:15 was read as a demonstration that Christ’s coming fulfilled and superseded the Mosaic ordinances, creating a new covenant people. Irenaeus and Chrysostom saw here the union of Jew and Gentile in the one body of Christ. During the Reformation, Calvin and other Reformed interpreters emphasized the abrogation of the ceremonial law alone, guarding the continued authority of the moral law. Wesleyan commentators such as Adam Clarke drew out the peace-offering imagery and the reciprocal hatred healed by the cross. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the verse has been central to ecumenical dialogues and to reflections on ethnic reconciliation, challenging churches that remain divided by walls the cross has demolished.

Three-point outline

1. The wall that divided. The law of commandments created a fence of ordinances around Israel, producing enmity between Jew and Gentile (Eph 2:14, 15a).
2. The cross that demolished it. Christ, in his flesh, through the sacrifice of his body, annulled that law, stripping it of its power to separate (Eph 2:15b; Col 2:14).
3. The new man that emerged. In himself Christ creates one new humanity from the two, making peace, vertical peace with God and horizontal peace between formerly divided peoples (Eph 2:15c, 16; 2 Cor 5:17).

Five-point outline

1. Identifying the enemy: The enmity between Jew and Gentile, symbolized by the temple’s middle wall of partition.
2. Identifying the barrier: The law of commandments contained in ordinances, particularly the ceremonial system that marked Israel as distinct.
3. Identifying the remedy: Christ abolishes this barrier in his flesh, using aorist participle (καταργήσας) to indicate a decisive, once-for-all action.
4. Identifying the result: He creates (κτίσῃ) the two into one new man, using the same root as Genesis creation, a fresh start for humanity.
5. Identifying the state: Peace is made, both with God and between formerly hostile groups. This peace is then preached to those far and near (Eph 2:17).

Illustration hooks

• A divorce that became a reconciliation. Two people once deeply divided by betrayal, later restored through costly forgiveness. The removed wall makes a new unity possible.
• An old city wall torn down. The Berlin Wall was a concrete structure that separated families and ideologies for decades. When it fell, the division ended, and a new shared existence began. Paul sees the law’s removal as a spiritual Berlin Wall demolished at the cross.
• A sports team unifying rivals. Players from different schools, backgrounds, even countries come together under one jersey. The team identity overrides their former differences. Christ creates a single body out of former enemies.

Questions your congregation is asking

• Does this mean the Old Testament law is now irrelevant for Christians? If not, what remains binding?
• How does Christ’s work reconcile not just Jew and Gentile but other deep divisions today, race, class, denomination?
• What does it mean to be part of “one new man”? Does that erase all cultural identity?

Ephesians 2:15 sits at the heart of Paul’s argument that the cross does more than save individuals, it creates a new community. Jewish and Gentile believers, once divided by the very law that God gave, are now formed into one new humanity in Christ. This passage challenges groups that remain segregated by old walls, whether ethnic, economic, or theological. As you discuss, hold before your group the vision of a church where former enemies become one body.

Discussion questions

1. Read Ephesians 2:11, 15. In what ways were Gentiles “far off” and Jews “near”? What specific barriers existed between them?
2. Paul says Christ abolished “the law of commandments contained in ordinances.” From the context, what kind of law is he describing? How do cross-references like Colossians 2:14 help clarify?
3. The verb used for “abolished” (καταργήσας) means to render inoperative, to nullify. Why is the aorist (past-tense) aspect significant for understanding what Christ accomplished?
4. Christ creates “in himself” one new man. What does “in himself” add to the meaning? How is this different from a mere treaty or truce between groups?
5. In verse 17, Christ “came and preached peace.” How is this preaching related to the peace he made on the cross? Who are the “far off” and the “near” in your own community?
6. Does this passage mean that ethnic or cultural distinctions no longer matter in the church? How do other scriptures (for example, Revelation 7:9) handle this question?
7. What old “wall of partition” still divides your church or small group from other believers? What would it look like to let Christ abolish that wall through his cross?