Bible Study Time 6-12-05
We have been studying Ephesians, Chapter 1, for several weeks where Paul gives us the details of the spiritual blessings which are ours in the Christ as members of the Church which is the Body of Christ. Paul says that one of the blessings we have is seen in the fact that God made known to us the mystery of His will in all wisdom and prudence. Paul is content to leave the subject of the mystery at that in chapter 1, but when he gets over into Chapter 3, he lays out the details of the revelation of the mystery.
When students of the Bible look at the revelation of the mystery which is given in Ephesians, the question invariably comes up as to whether or not this is the same mystery which Paul speaks of in the book of Romans and the book of I Corinthians. Accordingly, I decided to do a short review of Paul’s history and Paul’s mysteries.
In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he proclaimed with thanksgiving that he belonged to Jesus Christ and that God had called him to be an apostle. The word apostle literally means "one who is sent out as an official ambassador." Paul met Christ on the road to Damascus, and shortly thereafter God said, "Paul is a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel." It is noteworthy that the Gentiles were mentioned first in this list.
When Paul went to help Barnabas in Antioch of Syria, Paul witnessed the salvation of Gentile believers, and we read in Acts, Chapter 15, that he went before the elders in Jerusalem to declare that God was saving Gentiles who had never submitted to circumcision. As a result, the elders in Jerusalem determined that Paul should continue his ministry among the uncircumcised Gentiles, while the elders in Jerusalem continued their ministry among the circumcised Jews.
In the book of Romans, Paul used his office as the apostle to the Gentiles to speak with authority. He said in Romans 11:13:
Romans 11:13 (KJV)
13 For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify my office:
In Romans 15, Paul quoted 4 different Old Testament passages to justify his ministry to the Gentiles. This gave ample evidence that God had always planned to bring salvation to the Gentiles, and during the Acts period, we see the Apostle Paul preaching the gospel as the Apostle to the Gentiles.
In Romans 1, Paul said that he was separated to the gospel of God. But to which gospel was he separated? Paul answered that question in the last chapter of Romans, where Paul said in verse 25:
Romans 16:25 (NKJ)
25 Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ
When Paul said "my gospel", he was talking about the gospel which he was authorized to preach as the apostle to the Gentiles, that salvation was being offered to the Gentiles through simple faith apart from the works of the Law.
In Romans 16, Paul said that his gospel had been kept secret since the world began, but obviously, it was a secret only in the sense that it was hidden in the Old Testament scriptures. This is made clear by the fact that Paul had just quoted verse after verse from the Old Testament to justify his ministry and by the fact that Paul goes on to say that his gospel was now being made known to all nations by the prophetic scriptures.
Paul’s gospel at this point had to do first of all with the fact that the Messiah was going to come to the earth and be killed by His own people, but that through His blood, He would provide redemption for those who believe. Paul had the privilege of revealing this mystery which up to this point had been hidden in the scriptures. In I Corinthians 15, Paul said:
I Corinthains 15:3 (NKJ)
3 . . . I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
In all probability Paul used verses such as those in Isaiah 53 to prove the validity of his gospel. Isaiah spoke of Jesus and said:
Isaiah 53:4-5 (NKJ)
4 Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.
Certainly, the gospel that Christ died for our sins was according to the scriptures, but it was well hidden in the scriptures because the people in general did not understand these verses. But Paul was able to tell us why these facts were not fully explained in the Old Testament.
In I Corinthians, Chapter 2, he said:
I Corinthians 2:7-8 (NKJ)
7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory,
8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
The mystery of the Acts period related to the death of Christ and the redemption that is secured through His shed blood.
Another aspect of Paul’s gospel in the Acts period and therefore in the book of Romans was the gospel of the New Covenant Kingdom. As Paul went preaching the good news that Christ died for our sins, he was also preaching the good news of the New Covenant Kingdom which had been promised to Israel. According to that promise the Messiah would come and rule the earth through the nation of Israel.
Paul stated in II Corinthians 3 that he was a minister of that New Covenant, but the New Covenant was also hidden in the Old Testament scriptures. In fact, Jeremiah is the only Old Testament prophet who specifically referred to the New Covenant.
Because Paul was a minister of the New Covenant, he was ministering with the expectation that New Covenant Kingdom was eminent. In keeping with this hope, Paul said in Romans 1 that the gospel of Christ is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
All of the physical blessings of the New Covenant Kingdom would flow through the Jews to the Gentiles, but the Jews had to accept Christ as their Savior and as their Messiah before the kingdom could come. Throughout the Acts period, Paul went to the Jew first and also to the Greek, preaching the gospel of salvation through faith, and he did so in accordance with the promises of the New Covenant.
In the last chapter of the book of Acts, Paul was in a Roman prison when he called for the Jewish leaders. He solemnly testified of the kingdom of God from early in the morning until late at night, pointing out the Old Testament passages which spoke specifically about Jesus.
The Bible says that some of these Jews were persuaded by Paul’s arguments, but others refused to believe. At other points in the book of Acts, Paul had been faced with the same indecisiveness on the part of the Jews. On those occasions, he would simply agree to come back and talk to them another day. But not this time. This time he quoted Isaiah immediately, and said, "You have ears, but you can not hear. You have eyes, but you can not see. Therefore, we turn to the Gentiles."
At this point, Paul knew there would be no tomorrow for the Jews of his generation. God was drawing the line for Israel, saying in effect, "This is it!" Those Jews listening to Paul in Rome needed to get on their knees, repent and accept Christ, but they did not. As a result, God’s offer of the New Covenant Kingdom was temporarily set aside. Their chance to accept the promised kingdom had come and gone.
The Old Testament scriptures predicted that the Messiah would be killed, and they predicted that the Messiah would be raised from the dead, but they never even hinted at the fact that Israel would reject the resurrected Christ. With Israel rejecting the resurrected Christ, mankind was faced with a situation which was never anticipated by the prophets. Therefore, nobody knew what God was going to do next.
Paul wrote several letters from his Roman prison after the events of Acts 28. These letters include Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and the pastoral epistles, and these letters hold the key to what God did next.
In these letters, and only in these letters, Paul referred to the Church which is the Body of Christ. In Colossians 1, Paul said that he was a minister of the Church which is the Body of Christ, and He went on to say that his ministry to the Church was according to a mystery which had been hidden from ages and from generations.
Was this the same mystery which Paul mentioned in Romans 16? Let’s look at Ephesians 3 for more detail. Verse 1 says:
Ephesians 3:1-3,5
1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles__
2 if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you,
3 how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery
Notice that Paul is claiming these revelations as those which were given to him.
3 how that by revelation God made known to me the mystery
5 which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets:
According to Romans 16, the mystery in the book of Romans was being made manifest by the prophetic scriptures. Paul could not claim those revelations as his own. Those revelations were given to the prophets. However, the mystery in the prison epistles is a mystery which Paul said was being revealed by the Holy Spirit, to the apostles and prophets, through him. That is quite a difference. Let’s continue in Ephesians 3:
Ephesians 3:3, 6-9
3 how that by revelation God made known to me the mystery
6 that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel,
7 of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power.
8 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
9 and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ;
Here in Ephesians, Paul acknowledges that his ministry is still primarily among the Gentiles, but he no longer magnifies his office as the Apostle to the Gentiles. Paul said that in the Church which is the Body of Christ, the Gentiles are fellowheirs and of the same body as the Jewish believers.
In the Acts period, the Jews continued to observe the Law of Moses while the Gentiles did not. That distinction is no longer apparent in the program which is revealed here in Ephesians. Rather than magnifying his office as the Apostle to the Gentiles, Paul says that he has been called to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery concerning the Church which is the Body of Christ. According to this mystery, God has one message for all people.
Paul said that according to the mystery of Ephesians, Gentiles are partakers of God’s promise in Christ, but clearly that promise is not the promise of Israel’s New Covenant Kingdom. Paul never even mentions Israel’s New Covenant Kingdom in his prison epistles. However, the promise of redemption through the blood of Christ is still at the forefront of Paul’s message. We, as members of the Church which is the Body of Christ are very much partakers in God’s promise concerning the suffering savior Who was wounded for our transgressions, and by Whose stripes we are healed, but we do not hope for Israel’s New Covenant Kingdom.
The mystery of Ephesians is not that Christ died for our sins but that God had a plan for the aftermath of Israel’s rejection of the resurrected Christ. It appears that all three members of the Godhead took council together before the foundation of the world, as they planned for Israel’s rejection of the New Covenant and the calling out of the Church which is the Body of Christ. The Church which is the Body of Christ was the best kept secret of all time, and God called the Apostle Paul to reveal this mystery to the world in the prison epistles.
Well, I want to thank you for joining me for a time of Bible Study this morning. I have enjoyed being with you and will be looking forward to studying with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
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