God Un-Separates the Separation
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:13)
The final railroad spike was pounded into the track at Promontory Point, Utah, on May 10, 1869. The spike was gold to symbolize the completion of the transcontinental railroad—a railroad that stretched from one end of our nation to the other end. While the last spike was pounded in, someone in the crowd shouted, “It is finished.”
What does that remind you of? After the final spike was pounded into Jesus’s hands and feet, he shouted, “It is finished.” It announced that God’s plan of salvation was now complete. It was finished. This was the ONLY WAY Jesus could remove sin from OUR LIVES.
Matthew tells us what happened after Jesus cried out this message.
Suddenly, the temple curtain was torn in two from top to bottom. (Mt. 27:51)
The curtain symbolized the separation that sin created between God and man. Sin separated the Jews and Gentiles from God. No one could go past the curtain to go to the Ark of the Covenant except for the high priest—one day a year, and only with blood. That blood pointed to Jesus’s blood.
When his blood was spilled, when he finished God’s plan of rescue, and when the curtain was torn from top to bottom, God was showing the nation that the separation was gone. When a Jew is brought to faith in Christ, he is joined to one nation. When a Gentile is brought to faith in Christ, he is joined to the same one nation.
In Christ is the key. The East Coast is joined to the West Coast, and they become one nation: the Holy Christian Church.
Prayer: Dear Father, before Jewish converts were brought to faith in Christ, they would have shunned Gentiles, and unconverted Gentiles would have mocked Jews. We marvel at and profess how marvelous your workmanship is, so much so that in that church at Ephesus, Jewish and Gentile converts were one family. Help us today to have no prejudice but rather to share Christ’s “It is finished” with all. Amen.