“The Mystery of Christ!”

“When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, 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.” (Ephesians 3:4-5 ESV)

The good news of God’s grace extends far beyond our salvation. Yes, it is only by God' reaching down to us” to give us grace and to forgive us of our sins that, if we believe and accept the death of Jesus Christ as complete and final payment for our sins, we can have everlasting life. There is no limit to God’s grace, period! It is God’s grace that enables us to continue in a lifetime of service to Him; it is God’s grace that keeps us close to Him, even when we try to run in the opposite direction. It is God’s grace that allows us the privilege to participate in doing “good works” for our risen Savior.

Now, in Chapter 3, Paul teaches on the “Mystery of Christ!” Note that Paul begins Chapter 3 with the phrase, “For this reason, I, Paul,…”. Here, you should ask yourself, “For what reason?” and return to Chapter 2 to find that Paul was laying a foundation of biblical truths about the good news (the Gospel) of God’s grace.

Based on the truth that Salvation and Sanctification (being set apart to be used by God) are possible only through God’s grace, Paul is now going to explain the Mystery of Christ. Paul, in verse 4, offers a valuable lesson for our walk with Christ. He states, “And by referring to this, when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ.” I’m not trying to cherry-pick portions of a verse to make a point. Still, it seems to me that it is clear by the context of verse 4, it was the writers intent for his audience to “read”, what he wrote so they themselves could understand the Mystery of Christ, Paul says, “to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus thought the gospel,”.

Everything Paul was talking about in Chapters 1 and 2. Remember that in every community where Paul preached Christ to the Gentiles on all three of his journeys, that the “Judaizers” would follow him from town to town, telling the new Christian Gentiles, that they had to first become Jews and follow the Mosaic Law before they could be partakers of the promise of God. We see that Paul is building a strong foundation for this doctrine, namely that salvation is available to everyone in the world, with no exceptions or exclusions.

To our 21st-century United States ears, this sounds like a no-brainer; we know that, but in the 1st Century, this prejudice against all non-Jews had to be overcome. This discrimination had to be addressed, and Paul spent much of the first three Chapters doing just that. However, one of the important points Paul was making is that both existing believers, who were Jews and Gentiles, who understood that they had been saved by Grace (2:8-10), also needed to “read” the Scriptures in order to “understand” the Mystery of Christ.

I know that some passages of Scripture especially in the Old Testament are a bit tedious to read much less re-read, but do not let that stop you from reading and re-reading the New Covenant letters that were written specifically for our instruction on how we can fulfill the truth of Eph. 2:10 “ For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Paul and the other Apostles wrote these New Covenant letters so that we could read and re-read them, thereby coming to a better understanding of the Mystery of Christ. So, while it is critical for salvation that everyone understand that Christ came into this world not to condemn the world but to save it, and that by believing, trusting and accepting that Christ paid the complete price for our sins, it is also critical that we as New Covenant believers continue to read and re-read God’s Word. There is so much in it that we need to know.

Remember that the first three Chapters of Ephesians primarily present doctrinal or fundamental teachings of our faith, while chapters 4-6 offer practical examples of how we can and should apply the truths presented in the first three chapters. Often, we read a passage, shake our heads in agreement, and move on to other things in our lives. However, we need not only to read it once, but also to re-read it again and again, so that we can gain a better understanding of the author’s intent. That is to know the Mystery of Christ. Happy reading, my friends.

"Living in Grace is not about what I can do, but about what Jesus has already done!"