Ephesians 3:1-13

The Mystery Revealed

Paul is writing to assure the Gentiles of their new and secure place among the Jews in God's new covenant of grace, which has been made with Christ and into whom they together have been united.  Paul has just reminded the Gentiles that in ages past they were excluded from the commonwealth of God's elect and the Messianic promises given to Israel.  They were strangers and aliens living in this world without hope.  However, now in Christ Jesus the two have become one and united into Christ's body so that now that the Law has been removed they have peace with one another and with God.  Having abolished the Law in his flesh, Christ now declares that the Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners, but now they are fellow citizens and members of God's household who are being fitted together into the Spirit dwelling of God's eternal presence.  This is your new, assured status in Jesus Christ.

Now in 3:1, Paul kneels to pray for these Gentiles that they may comprehend, more and more, this glorious work of God on their behalf.  He begins "for this reason I Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles . . ." and then suddenly in mid-sentence switches gears for a moment to briefly explain more fully how the Gentiles came to be incorporated into the promises of the Messianic blessings of the coming age.  Paul's prayer for them will be picked up again in v. 14 and continued through v. 21 where he will pray that the Gentiles will be able to comprehend the glorious love that Christ has for them by including the Gentiles into the family of God.  But for now, Paul wants to identity more with the Gentiles and explain how it came about that a former Jewish persecutor of the church is now praying that Gentiles will understand more fully God's grace on their behalf.

The fact that Gentiles have become fellow-heirs with the Jews in the Messianic blessings that were originally promised to Abraham has become so common to us that it no longer affects us as it should.  In the early church, the church was primarily made up of former Jews who had been converted to faith in Christ.  But today, through the rich blessings of God, the church is now overwhelmingly Gentile because God has fulfilled his promise to include all the nations in the covenant of promise.  This glorious news, in Paul's day, truly made the Gentiles rejoice in the Lord (cf. Acts 13:44-52). 

This parenthesis between v. 1 and Paul's actual prayer in vv. 14-21 begins and ends on the note of suffering on behalf of the gospel of Christ.  In v. 1 Paul mentions his being a prisoner because of the Gentiles and in v. 13 he again mentions his trials on their behalf.  Paul is in prison because of his work among the Gentiles.  Someone hated the fact that Paul was proclaiming the Messianic promises to the nations so much that they imprisoned him to try and shut him up.  But even from prison, Paul proclaims the abundance of God's grace and power that no Roman cell is able to stop!  In doing this, Paul intends to strengthen the bond of union between him and his Gentile readers.  As Paul begins to pray for them, he reminds them of his physical bondage on their behalf to remind them of his love for them and their fellowship together in common suffering at the hands of the Jews.  Therefore, there is a common suffering that Paul shares with his Gentile audience and as he prays for them he wants them to understand their common bond together in Christ so that they do not lose heart in the power of the gospel of Christ (v. 13).  In other words, the Jews can shut Paul up in prison, but the church should not lose heart because the gospel will go forward and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

But why should the church not lose heart in the midst of suffering? 

Paul gives us three reasons why we should not lose heart:

1.  You Gentiles have become fellows-partakers of the promise (v. 6)

2.  This Revelation of your inclusion has been revealed to you (v. 9)

3.  Now you have boldness and confident access to the Father (v. 12).

In one long sentence running from v. 2-7, Paul explains how the Gentiles have become fellow-partakers of the promise of the Messiah.  In v. 2 Paul tells us that he was given a "stewardship of God's grace" on behalf of the Gentiles.  A "steward" is someone who is hired as a manager or administrator of someone's estate or property.  Paul is referring back to his Damascus road experience when Jesus Christ came to him and called him to be his witness to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15-16; 26:12-18; Gal. 1:11-12, 15-16).  This is the revelation that he mentions in v. 3.     

Notice Paul's emphasis upon God's grace by which he has become a "steward" or "administer" or simply a "minister" of that grace.  Paul places the emphasis upon "grace" because he will go on to say in v. 8 that he is the "very least of all saints."  This idea of being "the very least" strikes at the heart of the Roman Catholic view of a priestly order that is more spiritual than the body of the saints.  As an apostle of Christ, Paul numbers himself as the "very least" of all the saints of Christ.  In 1 Cor. 4:1, Paul describes himself as a "servant" of Christ and a "steward" of the mysteries of God (cf. v. 7).  The mysteries of God refer to the gospel (v. 6) or as he calls them "the unfathomable riches of Christ" (v. 8) which are revealed to us through the preaching of the Word and the administration of the sacraments as aids or helps to our faith.  As this ministry of the Word and sacraments are passed down from generation to generation, such humility and servant-hood should always be a mark of the ministers of the Gospel.

To be a "steward" or "minister" of the God's grace does not mean that "grace" is some kind of substance that is administered to sinners, much like a doctor administers medicine to the sick.  Rather, the minister of God's grace "administers" grace in the sense that he proclaims God's favor toward sinners through the preaching of the Word and the administration of the sacraments so that through faith the sinner may receive and rest upon the work of Christ as his sole, sufficient ground for being in a right relationship with God.  A minister of the gospel preaches "grace" through the verbal Word and the visual Word (ie. sacraments) to proclaim a relationship with God that is solely based upon his grace alone.  The minister is not administering some kind of substance called grace, rather he is introducing sinners to the God who loves them and gave his own Son to them.

It is this revelation that the Gentiles have been included into this right relationship to God, that they once were excluded from, that Paul has become a steward.  In v. 3, Paul reminds them that he has written about this "mystery" to them before, 1:9-10; 2:11-22.  This "mystery" he is referring to has been hidden in other generations, but now - though the Spirit - has been revealed (v. 5).  In Rom. 16:25, Paul wrote that "the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret for long ages" and in Col. 1:26 of "the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations."  Paul wants them to understand Paul's own insight or knowledge into this mystery.  What is the mystery?  It's not simply that the Gentiles would be included into the Messianic promise.  This was revealed from the very beginning, going all the way back to Abraham that through his seed all the nations of the world would be blessed (Gen. 12:1-3).  The mystery that had been hidden, but now revealed is the manner in which the Gentiles will inherit the promise, namely through the union of elect Jews and Gentiles into a new body, the body of Christ through the destruction of the Law (2:13-16).  By removing the "dividing wall" of the Law of Moses at the cross, Jesus Christ has brought the two together into his own body (v. 6).  Now the removal of the Mosaic Law and the union of Jews and Gentiles together in the body of Christ has become common place for us today, but this shocked both the Jews and the Gentiles in Paul's day.  It was because of this preaching that Paul was imprisoned by the Jews.  It is this mystery that Paul is to "preach" (v. 8) and to "bring to light" (v. 9) to the Gentiles. 

The purpose of bringing this "mystery" to the light is so that the "manifold wisdom" of God might be made known - through the church - to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.  Notice the cosmic affects of the preaching of the gospel.  What is the purpose of this preaching?  Well, certainly it is to bring the Gentiles to faith in Christ and inclusion into all the promises of Christ, which flow from him to us in the Spirit.  But Paul suddenly turns his focus upon the invisible principalities of the heavenly places, which he referred to in 1:21.  Remember that Paul said in 1:9-10 that the mystery of God's will being revealed is God's bringing of all things, whether in the heavens or on the earth, into the consummation of Jesus Christ.  Paul has been explaining how God is bringing the things on earth together in Christ (namely the Jews and Gentiles) but now he reminds us that God is also bringing all things in the heavenly places under Christ.  Through the preaching of the gospel, the very power of salvation, God displays his glorious and manifold wisdom in the spiritual, invisible realm.  This would include both the elect angels, who Peter says are "things into which angels long to look" (1 Pet. 1:12) and reprobate angels to whom God is displaying his grace to show them his marvelous wisdom and his grace shown toward his elect.

This glorious display of God's wisdom before the watching world, including both the invisible and visible realm of creation was not God's response to man's fallen condition, but rather grounded in his eternal purpose before the world was ever spoken into existence (cf. 1:4, 11).  This eternal plan has been the central event of God's execution of that plan in Christ Jesus.  It is through his work alone that we now have bold and confident access to the Father through faith in Christ. 

But how do we have assurance that these glorious gifts are ours?  How can we know that the barrier has been removed and we have complete and unhindered access into our Father's presence?  Calvin pointed out that since these gifts are invisible and spiritual, God has condescended to our weakness by giving us tangible, concrete pictures of what takes place in the realm of the Spirit in Christ.  The total picture is given to us in the church, the mother of all believers (v. 10).  It is through the ministry of the Word and sacraments that we are able, in our weakness, to see and hear that the invisible promises and blessings are indeed ours.  We are saved only through faith alone in Christ alone.  It is only because of the work of Jesus Christ that we are saved.  But God condescends to our weakness to give us visible means by which we can be confident that those Spiritual blessings in the heavenly places are indeed ours.  Through the preaching of the Word, God speaks to us and assures us of our "fellow-partaking" of the promises in Christ Jesus through the gospel (vv. 6-8).  It is also through the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper that we visibly see and feel and taste the promise of the gospel.  Calvin refers to the sacraments as aids or helps (external means) by which God comes to us to assure us that what he has promised us in the gospel actually is applied to us. 

As we see the water running down the body of the infant we are assured that this child belongs to Christ and he has applied the promises of the new covenant to the child (the promises of his or her union with Christ, regeneration from their deadness in Adam to their being made alive in Christ, their full remission or forgiveness of sins and their being given up to God to walk in newness of life).  We can't see these spiritual benefits because they are by nature invisible.  But we have the water and the promise of the word given to the child as a sign and seal pointing beyond themselves to the actual spiritual blessing.  There is a sacramental union between the sign and the spiritual thing being signified in the sign so that we can be assured that what we see outwardly that God is promising us is taking place inwardly.  Baptism is therefore our initiation or incorporation into the body of Christ. 

But this is also true of the Lord's Supper where we eat the bread and wine from the Lord's table.  Here Jesus is promising and offering to us his true body and blood that we might be nourished and strengthened to live our new life into which we have been baptized.  We have died to Adam and been resurrected into union with Christ so that the Spirit is now working in us to conform us into the image of Christ.  In order to follow Christ and to live for him we must be weekly strengthened by feeding upon his body and drinking his blood.  (It would even be better if he had such strengthening daily!)  We must continually incorporate him into ourselves.  But how do we know this is true?  God condescends to our weakness (in which we only know and are assured of the visible) and gives us visible means of bread and wine along with the promise of the gospel so that as we take and eat the bread and wine we are assured that Christ is feeding us with his body and blood.  These tangible means constantly point beyond themselves to proclaim Christ and all his glorious beauty to us! 

This is why Paul reminds us of the ministry of the church that through this ministry of Word and sacraments we are receiving the power of the gospel of God's grace as fellow-heirs and members of Christ's body and fellow-partakers of the promise of Christ Jesus.  God wants you to be assured of the hope that is "IN" you so that you do not lose heart in times of trouble and suffering.  And the visible and external means that he has given you to produce this boldness and confidence before him is through the ministry of the church.  This is why it is absolutely essential that we are members of the visible church (why the church is central to our lives -- points us to Christ), because it is through the church alone that God has promised to bring you into union with Christ and to establish and build you up into full maturity into the image of Christ (4:11-16).  God has blessed you with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus and he weekly makes that assuredly known to you through the ministry of the church.

Amen!

-SDG-