Living Inside The Cross
Vertical & Horizontal Reconciliation
Hello there! Welcome to Fiery Word
If you haven’t already done so, please subscribe to this newsletter. It is free and goes directly to your inbox when you subscribe.
Kindly take a second to subscribe and share with somebody today.
“Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:11-13)
Have you ever thought about what it means to be separated from Christ? In this word, Paul writes to the Gentile believers and invites them to remember their former condition. He says, “At that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.” These words do not simply describe ancient history, they describe the condition of every human heart before grace intervenes. Before we ever lift our eyes to seek reconciliation with one another, the cross reaches across the chasm and reconciles us to God. The vertical beam of reconciliation is the foundation on which the horizontal beam of community stands. Without the vertical, the horizontal collapses, with the vertical restored, the horizontal becomes possible. Let us explore this relationship closely.
The Vertical Work: Reconciliation With God
The cross stretches in two directions. Before it calls us to reconcile with one another it first pulls us into reconciliation with God. The apostle Paul begins with the vertical. He invites us to remember who we were without Christ. Not to shame us, but to anchor us in gratitude for what grace has accomplished. When the early Gentile believers heard these words they understood the weight of distance. They understood what it meant to live outside the story of God. We read the same passage today and it exposes the same truth. Before Christ found us we were not only lost but disconnected from every source of spiritual identity and promise.
To be “separate from Christ” is not merely to be morally lost, but spiritually displaced. Jesus said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing,” revealing that separation is not about physical distance but the absence of life flowing from the Vine to the branches. It is existence without a center and identity without a source. Paul reminds us that before Christ, we lived as people disconnected from the One we were designed to mirror. We were not neutral, we were alienated, living according to our own wisdom and striving for meaning that continually slipped through our fingers.
Paul then says we were “excluded from citizenship in Israel.” Citizenship is more than paperwork, It is belonging. It carries rights, inheritance, covering, and identity. To be excluded is to stand outside the household of faith with no legal claim to its promises. Before Christ brought us near, we lived spiritually homeless. Yet when Christ saved us, He rewrote our status and we are no longer outsiders. Scripture teaches that our citizenship is now in heaven. We do not live as visitors in God’s kingdom but as sons and daughters in His household.
Paul continues with “Foreigners to the covenants of the promise.” A foreigner may observe a family from afar but cannot partake in the inheritance. Before Christ, the promises God made to Abraham lived around us but not within reach. We were outside the storyline of redemption, cut off from the covenant blessings that flowed through Israel. But Christ grafted us into that ancient root. What began with Abraham has now been extended to all who belong to Christ. We stand inside a covenant secured by better promises, anchored not in performance but in the blood of the Son.
Paul is not finished. Without Christ, he says, we lived “without hope.” Hope is not optimism, it is the certainty of a future anchored in God. Those without Christ grieve and strive differently because nothing holds them beyond the present moment. This is why ambition becomes salvation for the unbelieving heart. We try to build futures with our own hands, forgetting that human strength cannot secure eternal outcomes. Christ restores hope by restoring our place in God’s story. Hope becomes inheritance and identity, it becomes the quiet assurance that God will finish what He started.
Finally, Paul declares that we were “without God in the world.” This is the deepest loss of all. To be without God is not to live in a place where God is absent. It is to live unaware of Him, unaligned with Him, and untouched by His presence. Humanity does not exist in a spiritual vacuum. When we do not worship God, we worship something else. Success becomes god, self becomes god, culture becomes god. Yet none of these can sustain the soul. Scripture reminds us that in God we live and move and have our being. Without Him we may accumulate achievements, but we remain empty at the core.
The Horizontal Work: Reconciliation With One Another
Then Paul shifts the entire narrative with four words. “But now in Christ.” These words lift us from memory into miracle. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Nearness is not simply emotional closeness. It is restored authority, restored identity, restored belonging. The blood becomes the bridge, the cross becomes the turning point. Orphans become heirs and strangers become family. Everything changes between God and us, and everything must change between us and each other. The cross reconciles us to God vertically, and then it sends us to reconcile horizontally with one another. We look up to God and then look sideways to each other. Christ Himself is our peace, scripture says He broke down the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile and created one new humanity. This unity was not a fragile agreement or a cultural compromise. It was a new creation. When Christ tore down the wall, He tore down every identity marker that once separated. There is no Jew or Gentile, but all are one in Christ.
Reconciliation does not end in peace but in family. Paul says we are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of His household. The early believers understood this reality deeply. In Acts, the people of God devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to breaking bread, and to prayers. These were not rituals, they were the rhythms of a community that understood that the same blood that brought them near to God brought them near to one another. They shared their lives, their resources, their burdens, and their faith. They refused to live as isolated believers and lived as a living temple, joined together and rising to become a dwelling place for God.
The apostles built their communities on a foundation of truth, communion, and prayer because unity cannot survive on personality or preference. Unity thrives on devotion, it thrives on shared pursuit, shared sacrifice, and shared surrender. This is why Jesus prayed, “Father, make them one, just as We are one,” because unity is not a human achievement. It is a divine work that flows from hearts reconciled to God and surrendered to His Spirit. When reconciliation shapes a people, peace becomes their culture. Scripture instructs us to live at peace with all people as far as it depends on us. It calls us to bear with one another, forgive as the Lord forgave us, clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, and let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. This is the witness of the reconciled community. It is neither perfection nor uniformity, it is surrender to the One who brought us near.
The cross is not only the place where Jesus died, it is the place where a new humanity began. When we receive the vertical reconciliation God offers, we become capable of the horizontal reconciliation He commands. To live inside the cross is to live near to God and near to one another. It is to live redeemed and then to live joined, it is to receive grace and then become a living expression of that grace in community. As I look at my own journey, I remember a season when my cross was only half formed. I welcomed God with my whole heart but resisted His people. I accepted Christ yet avoided the gathering of the brethren where His presence rests in such a unique way. In a gentle whisper, the Spirit spoke to me and said, “An unshared faith is an untested faith.”
For many of us, God is calling again. He is inviting us to exercise our faith not in isolation but in community. May we have the courage to answer Him. May we step into the fellowship that sharpens us, strengthens us, and completes the shape of the cross in our lives. May we become a generation that embodies both beams and a people reconciled to God and reconciled to one another. A community shaped by covenant, anchored in hope, clothed with peace, and built on Christ. May strangers become family and outcasts become heirs. This is the call of horizontal and vertical, this is the witness of the new humanity.
Prayer for Vertical and Horizontal and Reconciliation
Father,
I thank You for bringing me near when I was far away. I remember who I was without Christ, and I thank You for the blood that reconciled me to You. Draw me close again. Heal every place of distance in me and restore every place of disconnection.
You are my peace Jesus. As You reconciled me to God, reconcile me to others. Tear down every wall in my heart, break my habits of isolation and teach me to love, forgive, and live as part of Your family.
Holy Spirit, shape me into someone who reflects Christ. Make my fellowship genuine, my unity sincere, and my heart surrendered. Let my life become a witness of both the vertical and horizontal beams of the cross.
Make me a person near to God and near to others.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.