How do you understand Eph 2

[T.A.G.]

14For(AI) he himself is our peace,(AJ) who has made us both one and has broken down(AK) in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in(AL) ordinances, that he might create in himself one(AM) new man in place of the two, so making peace,

 

[Iconoclast]

Jesus magnified the law;

21The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable

He kept and fulfilled the law which we could not do....it was against us.

10And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

11In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:

12Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.

13And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;

14Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;

Jew or gentile who believe by God's grace are found in Union with Christ by Spirit baptism and part of the Israel of God.
We who believe have God's peace.

1Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

2By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

 

[CharlieJ]

A large part of the shift to the New Covenant is the abolition of the Mosaic Law qua Law for the believer. The Torah, with its minutiae of civil and cultural regulation, was not suited to the universal inclusion of the Gentiles and the spread of Christianity as a trans-national religion. There could be no interweaving of Jew and Gentile as long as those cultural barriers remained.

From our New Covenant vantage point, we look back at the Old Covenant and see moral, civil, and ceremonial laws. For them, though, it was just "the Law," a unified corpus that constituted their covenant obligations. It was the Law in that sense that was abolished, but not "law" in the broader sense.

ESV 1 Corinthians 9:21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.

 

[T.A.G.]

bump

 

[Peairtach]

Christ has not only made peace between (a) God and believers and (b) believers and God, but also between (c) Jewish believers and Gentile believers.

Under the Old Covenant if you were a Gentile you could become a "God-fearer", i.e. a believer in the God of Israel, without becoming a Jew through circumcision and other peculiar expressions of Jewish identity e.g. diet. But if you didn't become a Jew you didn't have the higher religious privileges of Jews, symbolised and embodied by the fact that there was a wall in the Temple, that gained nearer access to the Holy Place and Most Holy Place, which only Jews could access. Gentile believers had to stay in the Court of the Gentiles on pain of death.

E.g. Cornelius the centurion was a "God-fearer".

So there was a division in fellowship and access to God, between people who may have been genuine believers among the Jewish people on the one hand and the Gentile professing "God-fearers" on the other, under the imperfect Old Covenant system.

In the New Covenant such distinctions are done away with in Christ. Ethnic Jews who believe in Christ and Gentiles who believe in Christ have the same access to God, and much greater and free-er access than anyone had before Christ's death and resurrection.

Those who accept Jesus as the King of Israel are in the true spiritual Israel, the invisible Church, whether they are "physically" Jews or Gentiles. All nations, including ethnic Jews, are in the process of being incorporated into spiritual Israel, and the borders of the Land of Israel have expanded from "the River to the Sea" to "the River to the Ends of the Earth" (e.g. Psalm 72)

E.g. Scots and Americans don't have to become Jews to have the same priviledges as Jews who believe in Jesus, nor to have full fellowship with their Jewish brothers and sisters in Christ.

The Devil and his angelic and human minions are not happy about this historical process of Christ, the greater than David or Solomon, incorporating all his (i.e. the Devil's) nations into His worldwide Spiritual Israel. That's what Church History, the Book of Revelation and the amil/postmil debate is about. The Devil is "incandescent" about what has been going on regarding the spread of the Gospel since the First Century.

 

[Scott1]

Everything posted here is helpful in understanding this.

Remember to look also at the context around the verses- all of Ephesians 2, at least. There is a lot in there.

To summarize it, in context, letting Scripture interpret Scripture, the Apostle is saying that

the division between Jews and Gentiles was being broken down, in Christ, which was God's plan from the very beginning- to redeem a people from every tribe, nation, kindred and tongue.

The ceremonial law, given Israel as a "church under age" was fulfilled in Christ, and the civil law given that uniquely constituted nation of that time, was ending as the covenant community was expanding to include Jew and Gentile, in accordance with God's plan to redeem a people through Christ, from the very beginning.

Westminster Confession of Faith

Chapter XIX
Of the Law of God

I. God gave to Adam a law, as a covenant of works, by which He bound him and all his posterity, to personal, entire, exact, and perpetual obedience, promised life upon the fulfilling, and threatened death upon the breach of it, and endued him with power and ability to keep it.[1]

II. This law, after his fall, continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness; and, as such, was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai, in ten commandments, and written in two tables:[2] the first four commandments containing our duty towards God; and the other six, our duty to man.[3]

III. Besides this law, commonly called moral, God was pleased to give to the people of Israel, as a church under age, ceremonial laws, containing several typical ordinances, partly of worship, prefiguring Christ, His graces, actions, sufferings, and benefits;[4] and partly, holding forth divers instructions of moral duties.[5] All which ceremonial laws are now abrogated, under the New Testament.[6]

IV. To them also, as a body politic, He gave sundry judicial laws, which expired together with the State of that people; not obliging under any now, further than the general equity thereof may require.[7]

V. The moral law does forever bind all, as well justified persons as others, to the obedience thereof;[8] and that, not only in regard of the matter contained in it, but also in respect of the authority of God the Creator, who gave it.[9] Neither does Christ, in the Gospel, any way dissolve, but much strengthen this obligation.[10]

....

Notice how the verse you mention is a proof text for the statement and/or proposition of this summary of doctrine given here in the Westminster Confession.

Scripture proofs

[6] COL 2:14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. 16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: 17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. DAN 9:27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. EPH 2:15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; 16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.