Blood of Christ Saves Jew and Gentile Alike

Ephesians 2:11-18; Of olden times the Jews had the law, the covenants, the promises, and the hope of a coming Messiah, through whose atoning grace salvation would be possible. Also of olden times the Gentiles had none of this knowledge; they were without a true understanding of God and knew nothing of salvation. And such had been the state of these Ephesians.

Ephesians 2:11-18; But now Messiah-Christ has come. The law possessed by the Jews, which pointed every whit to that coming is fulfilled, and hence no longer acts to point men toward salvation. Accordingly, all men now have the same standing before God, and salvation is available to Jew and Gentile alike, through the shedding of the blood of Christ.

Ephesians 2:11-18; Christ has thus made peace between the Jew and Gentile; the two nations have become one in Christ; both are reconciled to God on the same basis, that of Christ's atonement; and both have access to the Father by the same Spirit, the Holy Ghost which is poured out upon the faithful without reference to nationality or kinship. As Nephi expressed it, the Lord God inviteth "all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile." (2 Nephi 26:33.) Law of Moses] Acts 15:1-35.

Ephesians 2:11; 11. Uncircumcision . . . Circumcision] Symbolical names for Gentiles and Jews.

Ephesians 2:12; 12. Covenants of promise] See Romans 9:1-33.

Ephesians 2:12; Without God in the world] Those who did not belong to the true Church, who had not been baptized and received the gift of the Holy Ghost, who had not been born again, who had not received the knowledge of God by revelation. After making his famous pronouncement that "wickedness never was happiness," Alma said: "All men that are in a state of nature, or I would say, in a carnal state, are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity; they are without God in the world, and they have gone contrary to the nature of God; therefore, they are in a state contrary to the nature of happiness." (Alma 41:11.)

Ephesians 2:13; 13. The blood of Christ] See Hebrews 10:1-18.

Ephesians 2:14; 14. Middle wall of partition] "Perhaps an allusion to the warning barrier which marked off the Court of the Gentiles from the higher level of the Court of the Women in the Temple. It was death for a Gentile to pass the barrier." (Dummelow, p. 962.) Thus, even as that wall, now rejected of God, no longer separated Jews and Gentiles, so no gospel blessings available to the Jews are withheld from the Gentiles.

Ephesians 2:16; 16. Reconcile both unto God] See 2 Corinthians 5:12-21.