The secret of God revealed to Paul
In our last study, we read about how Paul was calling his readers to take down the wall between Jew and Gentile. He had a gospel for all – everyone could be saved – Jew or Gentile – everyone could experience God’s grace and live in Christ.
Paul continues on this theme:
For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—
2 Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, 3 that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. 4 In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. 6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.
7 I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. Ephesians 3:1-7
There was a secret. A secret that been kept from previous generations. A secret that had been revealed to Paul. A secret that today seems obvious to us – there is one gospel for all. God was no longer just the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – now he was the God of the whole world.
That must be have been a pretty tough realignment for the Jews who became followers of Christ and found that there were now Gentiles – those previously seen as unclean and uncircumcised – worshipping together with them.
This can happen to us too. Have you ever been somewhere and seen that someone you know is there and wondered “What are you doing here?” Suddenly the place we had them pigeonholed no longer works. They are part of our family in Christ. Time to get over yourself and welcome them in. And that is exactly what Paul is saying – this is part of God’s mystery, now get on with it.
