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In this clause and the following verse the two senses, hitherto united, are now distinguished from each other. Here we have the former sense simply. In the new man "there is neither Jew nor Gentile," but "Christ is all and in all" Colossians 3:12). This phrase, "the new man" (on which see Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 2:10), is peculiar to these Epistles; corresponding, however, to the "new creature" of 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15; and the "newness of life" and "spirit" of Romans 6:4; Romans 7:6. Christ Himself is the "second man, the Lord from Heaven" (1 Corinthians 15:47). "As we have borne the image of the first man, of the earth, earthy," and so "in Adam die," we now "bear the image of the heavenly," and not only "shall be made alive," but already "have our life hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3). He is at once "the seed of the woman" and the "seed of Abraham"; in Him, therefore, Jew and Gentile meet in a common humanity. Just in proportion to spirituality or newness of life is the sense of unity, which makes all brethren. Hence the new creation "makes peace" — here probably peace between Jew and Gentile, rather than peace with God, which belongs to the next verse.

(A. Barry, D. D.)

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KJV: Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;

WEB: having abolished in the flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace;