Clarifing Ephesians 2:13-15

READER COMMENT:

Could you please clarify Ephesians 2:13-15 for me?  Some Bible versions sound as if Jesus Christ destroyed, removed, demolished the Law with all its ordinances.

OUR RESPONSE:

Thanks for the question!  That seems to be one of the "biggies" used by those who don't want to accept that Torah is for everybody!  Let’s take a look at the context of this passage!
Ephesians 2:15-16: 15 by destroying in his own body the enmity occasioned by the Torah, with its commands set forth in the form of ordinances. He did this in order to create in union with himself from the two groups a single new humanity and thus make shalom, 16 and in order to reconcile to God both in a single body by being executed on a stake as a criminal and thus killing in himself that enmity. (CJB)

That passage, when read in context, reveals that when Yeshua was here in physical form, he made useless the antagonism between the two groups caused by the opinions of men concerning the Law of Commandments, and through him "one new man" was made from the two. Yeshua came to put away that enmity and bring into existence "one new man" that agreed through Him on the Commandments of YHVH.

We learn in Romans 11 that Gentiles are "grafted in to the Olive Tree (Israel) and thus they do come into "the commonwealth of Israel" per Ephesians 2:11-16...which means they must be Torah observant (according to Numbers 15:13-16, where YHWH reiterates four times in a row that the "foreigner" who accepts Him MUST do exactly as His "natural children" do) . However, per Zecheriah 8:23 they take hold of the tzit-tzit of a Jew and join to Judah because Y'shua is from Judah.

So, while Gentiles may not be "Jews" per se, they count as Judah - unless it is revealed to them that they were descended originally from another tribe and went away - in which case, they return to that tribe and will go through their respective gates when they enter eternity (see Revelation 21:12-13).

Once a Gentile accepts YHWH and His Son Y'shua (the "arm of YHWH" - Isaiah 53:1) who was our REDEEMER, they become proselytes - "righteous Gentiles" (more to the point: "Hebrews" - which in the Hebrew language means, "to cross over" like Abram the pagan Chaldean did when he accepted YHWH as his God and went into the Land he was told to migrate into) - when they begin to learn and obey Torah and become circumcised (Genesis 17: 7-14, Exodus 12:48-51, 1 Corinthians 7:18-19), thus ultimately becoming indistinguishable from the native born Jew. As we are told in Romans 12:5, we are ONE in Messiah!