Our Common Meeting-Ground by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 14, 1910

Our Common Meeting-Ground

By C. M. S.

In nothing is the wisdom of God more strikingly manifest than in his wonderful provision for uniting again into one household the scattered members of his earthly family.

Race, inherited prejudice, superstition, diversity of language, characteristics of physiognomy, and love of country, all have conspired to bind large groups of men together, and to set them against other groups of men whom they misjudge and from whom they hold themselves aloof. But these are not the only things that have built up walls or partitions between peoples and nations. Customs and dress bear their share of the responsibility; but the strongest factors, perhaps, in that scattering influence have been false religions that have built up partitions of caste between the people of the same nation, and created customs repellent to the people of other lands. In all this the purpose of man's adversary is advanced, and the way made more difficult for union and reconciliation.

Not only have false religions set men at variance one with another, and nation with nation, but men have perverted ordinances given by Jehovah himself, so that they have become walls of partition between his people and other nations whom he designed they should enlighten. For instance, ordinances and ceremonies designed for a beneficent purpose were given to the children of Israel, whom God had set for the enlightenment of the world. He placed Israel at the crossroads of the nations, that the sound of his message of mercy and reconciliation might go to all the world.

But instead of evangelizing the nations, Israel of the flesh used its types and shadows, its customs and ceremonies, its altars, sacrifices, and sacerdotal system in setting up between itself and the rest of the world an impassable barrier, a wall of separation, a partition of exclusion. God meant Israel should be a light to the world; but she turned a bushel over her candlestick, and left the world in its darkness to perish. God never meant that one small nation should hoard his light and his blessings and refuse to share them with the other needy millions of this world. Babylon has been long regarded as a fit symbol for the organized realm of wickedness in this world; and yet God says, “We would have healed Babylon.” He means to heal the universe—to heal every soul who wills to be healed.

When, therefore, it was demonstrated that Israel, instead of feeding the world the bread of life, was using her position to hoard and hold the pearls of heavenly truth, God set aside his chosen nation, and brushed away the wall of separation that had been set up between the message of heaven and the ones to whom it was sent. He sent Jesus into the world, the offspring at once of heaven and earth—the Son of God, the Son of man, one hand clasping the Father's hand and the other that of humanity. Here was a common meeting-place for the Father of all and the straying children of the household.

It was the dawning of a new day out of a dark night when the angels announced the birth of the child Jesus, who was to “save his people from their sins.” That planted again in the bosom of lost humanity the tree of a sure and certain hope. Israel of the flesh was smothering the world's hope, of which she was the custodian; and the world beyond the borders of Israel had forgotten that it had ever been told to hope. They were “separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” Eph. 2:12.

Let us see what provision God has made that “strangers from the covenants of the promise” made to Israel might have the same hope that Israel had and so largely misused. Inspiration says again:—

“But now in Christ Jesus ye that once were far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both one, and brake down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; that he might create in himself of the two one new man, so making peace; and might reconcile them both in

one body unto God through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: and he came and preached peace to you that were far off, and peace to them that were nigh: for through him we both have our access in one Spirit unto the Father.” Verses 13-18.

Who are referred to in the word “both” used three times in this passage?—None other than Jew and Gentile,—and that takes in all the world. The Jew and the Gentile are made one in Christ. The Jew becomes a Christian, and the Gentile becomes a Christian. Thus Christ creates “in himself of the two one new man.” So he reconciles “them both in one body unto God through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby;” that is, by the cross. The old order of things which (in spite of the perversion of so large a part of it) was the representative of God's organized work in the world, had given place to a new order of things. The door into the kingdom of the eternal inheritance is Christ. Both Jew and Gentile must enter through him. They must meet in him; they must walk together in him; and they can not do this “except they be agreed.” Now it is neither Jew nor Gentile, but Christian; and yet through a seeming paradox, that Christian, whether of Jewish or Gentile stock, is the Israel of the inheritance—spiritual Israel.

To Abraham was the promise made, and to the seed of Abraham. Christ was of the seed of Abraham; and both as the lineal descendant of Abraham and also as the one who made the promise to Abraham, he invites into the household of faith all who will come in faith. There is no more a barrier set between peoples. He is the common meeting-ground of all the children of earth. And not only that, but he is also the common meeting-ground between the Father and the reconciled people of this world. “We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God.” 2 Cor. 5:20. Again: “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.” Verse 19.

It was in the performance of his work as the great Reconciler that “he came and preached peace to you that were far off [the Gentiles], and peace to them that were nigh [the Jews]: for through him we both have our access in one Spirit unto the Father.” In harmony with this was the declaration of Inspiration through Peter: “Neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved.” Acts 4:12.

In this second chapter of Ephesians, Inspiration has caused two points to stand out like mountain peaks: (1) that through Christ only does any son or daughter of Adam have access to the Father and share in the eternal inheritance; and (2) that in Christ the ordinances and ceremonies of the Jewish dispensation, which became a “middle wall of partition” between classes of men, have been swept away. That act was God's declaration to a divided and caste-ridden world that all men—Jew and Gentile, master and servant, free and bond—have equal access “in one Spirit unto the Father.” That is the purpose of this portion of the epistle, written plain and large throughout. Oneness in Christ and salvation only in Christ is the burden of the argument. In that blessed hope and glorious assurance let us rejoice. He is our common meeting-ground, our grand rallying-center, our hope, our confidence. C. M. S.