Ephesians 2:11-22; Paul follows up his powerful teaching on the nature of God’s gifts of grace and faith through salvation in Christ from Ephesians 2:1-10, with another profound contrast. Gentile believers were once “far away” from the Lord because they were not His chosen people. Israel was the means by which the nations should have learned of Yahewh’s kindness, but they instead fostered mutual hostility with Gentile people. However the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross brought both groups “near” to God by faith and becoming one people.