Ephesians 3:1-13--The Mystery of the Gospel Revealed

The Mystery of the Gospel Revealed

3 For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles-- 2 assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, 3 how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. 4 When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. 6 This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

7 Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power. 8 To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, 10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. 13 So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.

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Again, remember that this was a letter without chapter and verse separations.  So what is Paul referring to when he says, "for this reason"?  We would have to look back to chapters 1 and 2 for that context--context is very important when reading any passage of Scripture and you may find yourself going initially to read only one or two verses, but you may in this case end up having to read a couple of chapters or even having to look at past events from other books of the Bible to see the context of what is going on.  Bible study is not "fast food" dining and it's definitely not from the restaurant that advertises, "Have It Your Way, Right Away."

The big ideas so far is that as co-heirs with Christ, we have received will receive the full benefits and blessings of being sons and daughters of God, that Christ's finished work leads us to praise the Father, Son and Spirit, that are salvation is by grace through faith and not of our own "good" works, and that Christ has made us one through His reconciliation and the forgiveness of sins--Jews, Gentiles, and God.  All of us who were previous separated and divided from one another have all been brought near.

Paul then makes sure that they understand this true gospel for which he is in prison.  In this passage, he calls the gospel a "mystery" that has been made known to him by revelation, because no one can see the truth of the gospel unless God reveals it to us.  The fullness of the gospel was not made known to previous generations--they got glimpses of it through the substitutionary atonement of blood sacrifices and they knew enough to know that the blood of bulls and goats was insufficient and that they needed God to make them clean and make them new, and we even see the promise of the New Covenant where God would give them a new heart and write the law on their hearts so that they would no longer need to be taught good and evil, but it is in these last days that God gave His Son, Jesus, to teach us and to die in our place to show the full mystery of the gospel to us.  He also gave us the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth, to convict us of sin, and to bring about repentance and to sanctify us and equip us for every good work that had been prepared for us, causing us to bear good fruit and reflect God's glory to the world around us.

There is one gospel from the beginning that all the prophets and apostles have pointed to, and it is the same gospel for both Jew and Gentile.  It makes us part of the same body of Christ, the Church, as we are partakers in both the blessings that come with being sons of God in Christ, and we become partakers in the sufferings of Christ, for if they did not respect the Son of God (the second person of the Trinity) and treated Him cruelly, why should we expect any better?  Jesus promises as much that we will endure much suffering because of His name if we are truly His disciples and that no one should make the decision to be a disciple of Christ lightly.  Specifically, we see here that Paul is pointing to the fact that he has been thrown in prison because of the gospel, but he will continue to keep on preaching it faithfully, even if it means writing epistles (letters) from prison.

Paul then says another mysterious thing about the gospel--there was nothing beautiful about us that made us worthy of God choosing us.  Paul can't fathom why he, the chief of sinners, was chosen by God for such a position and role other than it is clear that it is the power of God and the gospel that led to this transformation and that everyone who knew him previously would know that he had been changed by something and Someone much greater than himself.  Paul realized that God has not just prepared him to speak to the Gentiles but to kings, and rulers and authorities as he seems to know his end (the Holy Spirit has told him)--that he would be arrested and stand trial before many kings and rulers and authorities and that he would use this as an opportunity to share the gospel with all of them--even Caesar, the head of the Roman Empire.  And not just that the gospel would be made known the the earthly powers and authorities, but that even the angels who were not made in the image of God and did not have souls to be redeemed would see the way that God loves man and would marvel with awe and wonder at the gospel, and that this had been God's perfect plan from the beginning.

Paul ends by reminding them that his temporary suffering is for not only the glory of God, but the glory of the Church at large, as this suffering he is going through proves that the message is true.