The preaching of the gospel is merely the objective fact; it is not the experience. Hence, after receiving this preaching, we need the experience, which is the access to the Father in the one Spirit. This access is constituted of Christ’s cross and His blood (Heb. 10:19).
Both Jewish and Gentile believers have access to the Father through Christ—the very Christ who abolished the law of the commandments in ordinances, broke down the middle wall of partition, slew the enmity to reconcile the Gentiles to the Jews, and shed His blood for redeeming both to God.
As verse 18 points out, our access unto the Father is in the one Spirit. If we have the cross without the Spirit, we have the fact without the experience. Hence, the Spirit is crucial. Firstly, both the Jewish and Gentile believers were reconciled in one Body to God (v. 16). That was a positional matter. Then we both have access in one Spirit unto the Father. This is experiential.
This access in one Spirit is unto the Father. Positionally we were reconciled to God; experientially we have access unto the Father. To be reconciled to God is to be saved; to have access unto the Father is to enjoy God, who, as the source of life, has regenerated us to be His sons.
In the one Body we have been reconciled to God through the cross. This is a fact. Now we may have access unto the Father and contact Him directly. This is an experience. We have been reconciled to God positionally for salvation, and we have access unto the Father experientially for enjoyment. It is significant that these verses do not say that we are reconciled to the Father and have access to God. No, having been reconciled to God once for all, we now have access to the Father for a continual enjoyment.
In verse 18 the Trinity of the Godhead is implied. Through God the Son who is the Accomplisher, the means, and in God the Spirit who is the Executor, the application, we have access to God the Father who is the Originator, the source of our enjoyment.
In verses 15 and 16 the Apostle Paul mentions the one new man before the Body. What is the reason for this? In order to answer this question we need to consider 2:14-16 again. As we come to these verses, we should not come with our natural concepts, religious understanding, or doctrinal preoccupations, all of which make us dull and insensitive in understanding the Word. Because the aspect of the church as the Body is not as high as that of the new man, we may think that the Body should be mentioned first. But how could there be the Body if there were not first a man? Firstly we speak about a man and then about the body of the man. The creation of the new man was primary, and the producing of the Body was secondary. Therefore, Paul firstly said that Christ’s death on the cross abolished in His flesh the ordinances in order to create in Himself the one new man. By doing this, the Body was produced. As soon as the man was created, the Body came into being. In this regard the word “and” at the beginning of verse 16 is significant; it connects the thought of reconciliation in the one Body with that of the creation of the one new man. When Christ created the two, the Jews and the Gentiles, into one new man, He reconciled them in one Body to God. For this reason, Paul mentioned the new man before the Body.
Remember, Christ did not reconcile individuals. He reconciled two peoples, the Jews and the Gentiles, in one Body. If He had merely reconciled individual sinners, He would not have needed to reconcile them in the Body. But in order to reconcile two collective peoples, He had to do so in the Body.
The Jews and the Gentiles once were separated, but on the cross Christ broke down the wall of separation and created them into one entity, the one new man. But what about their relationship to God? In order for them to be reconciled to God, there was the need of a body as the instrument. When Christ created the two into one new man, He simultaneously reconciled them to God in one Body. When they were created into the new man, it was possible for them to be reconciled to God in one Body. Hence, the one Body was the means through which they were reconciled to God. Therefore, in verses 15 and 16 the one new man is mentioned before the Body.
After being reconciled to God, there was still the need for the Jews and the Gentiles to have access unto the Father for enjoyment. This access is not merely in the Body, but also in the Spirit. To be in the Body is a fact, but to be in the Spirit is an experience. Although we are in the Body, we may not be in the Spirit. Instead, we may be in our wandering thoughts. As you sit in a meeting, for example, you may travel around the world in your mind. This illustrates the fact that we need to be experientially in the Spirit.
When we are in the Spirit, we enjoy the Father. We may have God in fact by being in the Body, but if we would enjoy the Father in experience, we must be in the Spirit. Once we were far off from God, but we have been reconciled to Him positionally. Now there is no separation, no partition, between us and God. However, if we are not in the Spirit, we do not have the enjoyment of this fact. Hence, in order to enjoy experientially what we possess positionally, we need to be in the Spirit.