A Missional Reading of Ephesians 2:19-22

In the book of Ephesians, the mystery of God[1] means that “the Gentiles are being incorporated into the people of God, along with the believers among the Jewish people, on the basis of the work of Jesus Christ.”[2] And, now, the mystery of God is made known through the church that is made up of Jews and Gentiles (Eph. 3:10).[3] The mystery of God in Christ is revealed through the unity of the Spirit-led church (Eph. 4:3).

This new community created by the triune God is a trinitarian community and a holy temple in the Lord (Eph. 2:19-22): 1) This new temple is made up of Jews and Gentiles who are equal members of God’s household; 2) Christ is the “cornerstone” of this new temple along with “the foundation of the apostles and prophets”; and 3) This new temple is where God’s Spirit dwells.

This new trinitarian community created as “one new man” (Eph. 2:15) by the triune God has a missional character as she lives out her missional essence, which is the unity of the church. In Eph. 2:19-22, the church is most explicitly described as the eschatological temple. Such concretized, reconciled community made up of two racial groups (Jews and Gentiles) in Ephesus is “the actual beginning fulfillment o the latter-day temple prophecies from the Old Testament.”[4] And this temple is not a building, but an eschatological, moving temple. Michael Goheen says that “The new temple of God’s presence established in the midst of the nations is not a building; it is a people who are given the new life of Christ’s resurrection as they are filled with the Holy Spirit.”[5] This eschatological temple is not a building, but a missional people living in the midst of all nations. This temple is a moving temple because it is made up of a missional people.

The church as an eschatological temple must reflect what the church is, which is the unity of the church. The unity of the church is not what the church does (missional act), but what the church is (missional essence). And the foundation of the unified essence of the church is the Tri-unity of the trinitarian Persons who are missionary by nature.[6]

This new temple of the Lord is no longer situated in one location in the world. Rather, such eschatological temples are many in many locations among all nations. Instead of people coming to the one and only temple in Zion in the Old Testament (centripetal), the temples of the Lord, that are multicultural communities, are moving out to all nations and manifest the presence of the Lord as the body of Christ (centrifugal). Michael Goheen rightly notes that “There is no longer one temple manifesting God’s presence among one nation in one location in the world. Now these temples are established throughout the world, in many multicultural communities that fulfill God’s original intention to manifest his presence through their peoples’ holy lives.”[7]

These multi-colored communities are located in all nations to be the salt and the light of the world. As the salt and the light, the missionary task of the church is to live out its missional essence: the unity of the church, which is a provisional reality on earth as it is in heaven. It is a foretaste of what is to come. The concrete historical reconciliation of the church is a provisional sign of the cosmic reconciliation, as described in Eph. 1:10—“As a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”

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[1] The mystery of God “generally refers to God’s decisive action in the sending of Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Savior and Lord, as the fulfillment of God’s plan of salvation.” Eckhard J. Schnabel, Paul the Missionary: Realities, Strategies and Methods (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2008), pp. 146-147.

[2] Ibid., p. 147.

[3] “Through the church signifies that the very existence of this new multiracial community in which Jews and Gentiles have been brought together in unity in the one body is the manifestation of God’s richly diverse wisdom.” Peter T. O’Brien, The Letter to the Ephesians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Leicester: Apollos; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), p. 246.

[4] G. K. Beale, The Temple and the Church’s Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God, New Studies in Biblical Theology (Leicester: Apollos; Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2004), p. 260.

[5] Michael W. Goheen, A Light to the Nations: The Missional Church and the Biblical Story (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011), p. 178.

[6] “The unity of the triunity lies in the eternal perichoresis of the trinitarian persons. Interpreted perichoretically, the trinitarian persons form their own unity by themselves in the circulation of the divine life.” Jürgen Moltmann, The Trinity and the Kingdom: The Doctrine of God, trans. Margaret Kohl (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993), p. 175.

[7] Goheen, A Light to the Nations, pp. 178-179.