This is the mystery Paul referred to earlier, captured in three verses (14-16), that was hitherto unknown anywhere before. Certainly, it was known that God would bless all the nations through Abraham, not just the Jews. It was also known that the blessings would somehow come through the Jewish people, God’s chosen ones, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. What was not known until this time, certainly not as clearly as Paul writes it, was that God would not require the Gentiles to become Jewish in order to receive the blessings. And furthermore that God would treat the Gentiles and the Jews identically, in terms of the blessings. The Gentiles would not be second class citizens in the kingdom.

In Christ, Jews and Gentiles, are no longer two groups, but one. Paul writes elsewhere, that, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28). Our peace with God does not depend on any distinctions, whether gender, economic or ethnic. All that matters is grace on God’s part and faith on our part (see Eph 2:8-9).

We have seen hints of this truth in the historical unfolding and propagation of the gospel, particularly in Acts 10-11 the story of the conversion of Cornelius, the Roman centurion, and the question whether the Gentiles could receive the faith and the gift of the Holy Spirit. The fledgling church wrestled with this and finally accepted Gentiles into the fold. And, of course, the Jerusalem counsel of Acts 15 struggled with and finally accepted that Gentiles were not required to be circumcised. It was at that time Paul wrote his treatise to the Galatian churches where he made this point clear—that circumcision was not required for salvation because faith preceded and grace superseded the Law. Paul is the one, however, who lays out this full truth, explained clearly!

That which divided Jews and Greeks, namely the Law, has been broken down. August 13, 1961 marks the beginning of the construction of the Berlin Wall that divided West Berlin from East Berlin and the surrounding East Germany countryside. It came to represent what was known as the Iron Curtain, the ideological divide between the east and the west during the Cold War. But, November 9, 1989, destruction of the wall commenced and free flow of movement began again. The Iron Curtain, as it were, came down. So also in Christ, the dividing wall between Jews and Gentiles came down.