Eternity Daily Bible Study No. 235

Life In Christ –  13

THE  BIG SECRET

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Ephesians 3:1-6 (Modern King James Version)
(1)  For this cause, I, Paul, am the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you nations,
(2)  if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given to me toward you,
(3)  that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I wrote before in few words,
(4)  by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)
(5)  which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it is now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit,
(6)  that the nations should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partaker of His promise in Christ through the gospel.

Ephesians 3:1-6 (Analytical-Literal Translation)
(1)  For this reason, _I_, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of the Gentiles-
(2)  if indeed you* heard of the stewardship of the grace of God, the one having been given to me for you*,
(3)  that by revelation He disclosed to me the secret, just as I wrote before briefly,
(4)  with reference to which you* are able, when reading [it], to understand my insight in the secret of Christ,
(5)  which in different generations was not disclosed to the sons [and daughters] of people, as it was now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit,
(6)  [that] the Gentiles [are] to be joint-heirs and joint-members of the same body and joint-partakers of His promise in Christ by means of the Gospel,

Is everyone equal before God? 

The salvation of the Gentiles, and their equal spiritual footing with the Jews, was a marvel and a mystery to Paul (though it now seems rather commonplace to us). In Paul’s day the thought that all races were equally acceptable to God in Christ was a shock, a revelation, an unheard of thing, a hidden revelation, which popped up out of the gospel like a Jack-In-The-Box. 

The Jews felt much closer to God, they felt they had the right traditions, a superior culture a history of monotheism, they were moral, they wrote the Scriptures, they had the prophets and patriarchs - and Jesus and the Twelve and Paul were all Jews. Surely they had a right to feel superior to the Gentile converts, from pagan backgrounds, with often-messy lives?

But spiritual superiority does not come from race or gender or tradition or bible knowledge or being related to the church leaders. Even if you were a physical brother or cousin or nephew of Jesus you do not have automatic standing before God. And yes, this also applies to Mary.

Jesus made this quite clear: 
Matthew 12:46-50
(46)  While Jesus was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him.
(47)  Someone told him, "Look! Your mother and your brothers are standing outside asking to speak to you."
(48)  He asked the man who told him, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?"
(49)  Then pointing with his hand at his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers!
(50)  For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."

In fact the human factors are no longer of any account spiritually because we have “died” to them in Christ:
2 Corinthians 5:14-16
(14)  For the love of Christ constrains us, judging this, that if one died for all, then all died;
(15)  and He died for all, that the living ones may live no more to themselves, but to Him who died for them and having been raised.
(16)  So as we now know no one according to flesh, but even if we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we no longer know Him so.

So “we now know no one according to flesh”. The outer man, the flesh, the racial characteristics, the degrees, the pomp, the material possessions, and the social persona are of no account in spiritual terms.  According to Paul, even Christ’s human persona is no longer important! That may be part of the reason that we have so little record of it, no birthday, no physical description, mere fragments – because it is who He is in Heaven that maters to us now.  The Jesus with “the beard and sandals” is gone, ascended and glorified. Now we know Him as the Lamb Who Was Slain, the Great High Priest and as the Soon Returning King.

Thus no-one can claim superior status before God because of the race they belong to, the family they were born into or because of their possessions, power, persona or position. Thus Jews and Gentiles are equal before God.

In many respects this inclusion of the Gentiles was a surprising move by God. The early church took forty years to come to fully terms with it – up until 70 AD and the destruction of the Temple. And many of the disputes in Acts and the epistles center around the problem of “how Jewish should Christianity be?”. 

(Ephesians 3:5,6)  which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it is now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the nations should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partaker of His promise in Christ through the gospel.

The inclusion of the Gentiles was “not made known” prior to Pentecost. It was hidden, hinted at, but never explicit. Gentiles were seen as unclean and it took a vision repeated three times to get the apostle Peter to agree to even visit one. (Acts chapters 10 & 11). Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, as far as the Jerusalem Church was concerned, not a universal Savior.  

This transition, this realization that Jesus was the Savior of Gentiles, as well as Jews required a special work of the Holy Spirit  “as it is now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the nations should be fellow heirs, and of the same body”.  The inclusion of the Gentiles was a revelation, an unfolding of a mystery, the revealing of a divine secret. God had to open the eyes of the Church to the salvation of the Gentiles – and it was Paul’s’ special job to do this, along with some early efforts by Peter.

(Ephesians 3:1-4)  For this cause, I, Paul, am the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you nations,  if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given to me toward you,  that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I wrote before in few words, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ).

Part of Paul’s role as an apostle was to show that Gentiles could be saved, and to show that when they were saved they were equal before God and “of the same body, and partaker of His promise in Christ through the gospel.” This was a revelation with profound implications for the culture and practice of the early Christians.  

In missionary work there is the “problem” of the national converts and the missionaries. Are the missionaries closer to God? Is the local culture acceptable? Are the local Christians vastly superior? Should all the missionaries just go home? Is it Westerner bad – Asian good? Or is it Asian bad – Westerner good? Such distinctions are all false distinctions.  Asians and Westerners are equal before God and all of us are “fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partaker of His promise in Christ through the gospel.”  We each have our calling and our role.  Westerners need Asians and Asians need Westerners because we are all part of the interdependent body of Christ and we cannot be separated from each other or categorized by race.

So we recognize no-one “according to the flesh” but only “in Christ” and according to the Spirit.

Blessings,

John Edmiston <johned@aibi.ph>

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