Ephesians: Part 2 - Ch. 3

More of The Gospel

As Paul moves on in his letter to the Ephesians, we come to chapter 3, where he discusses some pretty important ideas. Throughout these 21 verses, Paul breaks down the mystery of Christ being revealed to all believers and prays for spiritual power so that the Holy Spirit may complete His work in us. Talking for about just 21 verses for one whole blog post may seem like a stretch at first; however, when we see the topics that Paul is addressing, you will quickly see why diving into these ideas is a priority to understand what Paul is explaining to us about Christ. Just as the Britannica brilliantly says, “The letter declares that the Christian mystery (gospel) of salvation, first revealed to the Apostles, is the source of true wisdom and that salvation through Christ is offered to Jews and Gentiles alike.” This mystery and wisdom about salvation is what Paul dives into in this chapter, and it is vital that we take note of what Paul is saying here. Remember that Paul opened up this letter by discussing how all believers have all spiritual blessings available to them through Christ, and that we have been saved by grace through faith in Christ. So while you may think this is overkill to discuss even more aspects of the gospel, Paul clearly thinks that there is no limit to how much we should strive to learn about the gospel. And I completely agree with him. With this in mind, let’s prepare our hearts to go on this gospel journey with Paul and learn as much about Christ as we can. 

The Mystery

To start, when reading chapter 3, your attention is immediately captured by the title of this chapter in your Bible. In mine, the title is ‘The Mystery of Christ Revealed’. This is an intriguing title, to say the least. What is this mystery? Why didn’t we know of it before? What has allowed it to be revealed now as opposed to earlier? All of these questions Paul is about to answer. Paul starts discussing how a mystery in Christ was revealed to him in the beginning of th is chapter and then says this in Ephesians 3:4-7 “By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to  mankind, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.” This mystery is something that we covered before. In fact, we covered this in the book of Romans when we looked at chapter 11. That mystery, of course, is that the Gentiles are fellow members of the body and partakers of the promise in Christ. Now, why is this a mystery, you ask? To answer this question, let me ask you a different question. Have you read the Old Testament? Because if you have, you know exactly why this is a mystery up until this point. In the OT, God makes it clear that Israel is His chosen people group and that this nation is the nation He will use to spread His glory around the world. 

However, this also leads many to believe that when the savior comes to redeem God’s people, He is only coming for the nation of Israel. This is where the mystery is answered. Did God come to save just one people group or all people groups? Paul tells us emphatically in this chapter that our Lord came to rescue us all. The nation of Israel may have been God’s select people to spread His glory and honor around the world, but that doesn’t mean that salvation is solely limited to them. Just as we saw in Romans 11, Gentiles are grafted into God’s salvation plan, which means all can be saved, not just Israelites. The reason for this plan is seen right in Ephesians 3:8-10 where Paul says, “To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to enlighten all people as to what the plan of the mysteryis which for ages has been hidden in God, who created allthings; so that the multifaceted wisdom of God might now be madeknown through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.” This wisdom was kept hidden until the Chruch was established so that it might be shared through the body of believers. This is a fascinating strategy used by God Himself. Our Lord kept this wisdom hidden until the Church was up and running so that the authority of the Church to teach the scriptures would also be established. When it came to sending Christ to purchase our salvation, our Lord had everything in mind when it came to the timing, planning, and execution of the gospel, so that it could reach the world, just as it was destined to. 

The Fullness of God

As Paul closes this chapter, he does so with a beautiful prayer that I encourage you to go and read. The last two verses of this chapter are very popular, however, we are going to cover the verse written just before these two. Paul states in Ephesians 3:16-19 “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner self, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to all the fullness of God.” Paul prays that all believers would be strengthened with power through His Spirit so that we may be filled to the fullness of God. This is my prayer for you today as we close this post. May we understand that the gospel of Christ is for all people and that God’s Spirit now leads those who have repented and believed in this gospel. And if we have God’s Spirit in us, may the Lord fill us with the fullness of Himself so that we may grow to be more and more like Christ and less and less like ourselves. 

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Sources

[1] Blue Letter Bible. (n.d.). Blue Letter Bible. https://www.blueletterbible.org/

[2] The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (1998, July 20). Letter of Paul to the Ephesians | Summary, authorship, & facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Letter-of-Paul-to-the-Ephesians