A Mystery Revealed.

For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles — assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. 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. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. – Ephesians 3:1-6 ESV

Something once hidden, but now revealed. That is what Paul means when he speaks of the mystery of Christ. In the Old Testament, the Jews knew of and longed for the coming Messiah, but they viewed Him as the Savior of Israel alone. He was to be their king and redeemer, much like King David had been, leading them to great victories over their enemies and back into prominence as a nation. Any relationship between their Messiah and the Gentile nations would have been in the form of military victories over them and nothing more. The thought of the Messiah coming as the Savior of all mankind never crossed their minds. The only way a Gentile could partake of the blessings of Israel was through conversion to their faith, including circumcision and the rigorous keeping of the law of Moses. In the book of Exodus, God gave the people of Israel instructions regarding the “strangers” or non-Jews who had left Egypt with them. “If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it; he shall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you” (Exodus 12:48-49 ESV). While Gentiles could and did convert to Judaism in the Old Testament, it was relatively rare. The requirements for conversion were rigorous and kept many Gentiles from becoming fully-functioning members of the household of Israel.

That’s where the mystery comes in. Paul was commissioned by Jesus Himself to reveal to the Gentiles that they now had access to God. They could worship Yahweh, the God of the Jews, but it would not require conversion or circumcision. Any requirement to keep the law of Moses had been eliminated. But what Paul was preaching was not conversion to Judaism, but entrance into the Kingdom of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He was sharing the good news of salvation made available to both Jews and Gentiles because of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. In his letter to the Romans, Paul described the gospel as “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith’” (Romans 1:16-17 ESV).

With the coming of Christ, access to God was made available to all men through one means: Faith. It is not that faith was a new concept or that prior to Christ men had to gain access to God through works or the keeping of the law. The writer of Hebrews makes this clear in chapter 11. There he describes the Old Testament saints who “by faith” believed in the promises of God and were declared righteous by God. “For by it [faith] the people of old received their commendation” (Hebrews 11:2 ESV). He revealed that “without faith it is impossible to please him [God[, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Ephesians 11:6 ESV). Faith has always been God’s means by which men draw near to Him. And He sent His Son in order to make the life of faith available to all – Jews and Gentiles alike. Paul writes, “This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6 ESV). From the day of Pentecost forward, the church became the home of God’s people, those who had placed their faith in His Son. The church of God became the holy temple of God containing people from every tribe, nation and tongue. As Paul expressed earlier in his letter, “you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,  built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19-22 ESV).

The church of Jesus Christ is the dwelling place of God. It contains those who worship God as a result of the access provided to them by the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross. It is their common faith in Christ and His death on their behalf that provides them with the righteousness they need to come into God’s presence. No one earns their way into God’s throne room. No one merits God’s favor or escapes His judgment due to their own efforts. As Paul state earlier: “Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us” (Ephesians 2:18 NLT). And as we will see just a few verses later: “Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God's presence” (Ephesians 3:12 NLT).

None of this infers that God is done with the Jews or that the church has somehow replaced the people of Israel as God’s chosen people. We live in the church age. This is part of God’s plan for this period of redemptive history. But the day is coming when God will fulfill all His promises to Israel. He has not forgotten them. He is faithful and will keep every promise He has made to them. But at the current time, we are experiencing the mystery of the church – Jew and Gentile living together as the body of Christ, sharing a common faith in our crucified and resurrection Savior. We are the beneficiaries of God’s amazing grace and mercy. He has made a way for us to be restored to a right relationship with Him, based solely on His grace as revealed in His Son and made possible by faith.

Job Number One.

2 Corinthians 5:11-21

So we are Christ's ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, "Come back to God!" – 2 Corinthians 5:20 NLT

Paul was a man on a mission. Ever since his call by Jesus Christ on the Damascus road, he had been like a man possessed. He had received a commission from the very lips of Jesus Himself and he took it quite seriously. "I am Jesus, the on you are persecuting. Now get to your feet! For I have appeared to you to appoint you as my servant and witness. You are to tell the world what you have seen and what I will show you in the future. And I will rescue you from both your own people and the Gentiles. Yes, I am sending you to the Gentiles to open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God's people, who re set apart by faith in me" (Acts 26:15-18 NLT).

One of the problems Paul faced on a recurring basis was that the people to whom he was called to minister did not always received him or his message well. There were those who doubted his call and so, as a result, they refused to listen to what he had to say. Evidently, Paul was not the flamboyant or charismatic type. He wasn't impressive in his speech or appearance. But he was sincere in heart and motivated by his love for Christ. He firmly believed the message he had been given by Christ, because he had been personally and radically changed by it himself. So when he wrote that Christ had "died for everyone so that those who receive this new life will no longer live for themselves" (2 Corinthians 5:15 NLT), he meant it and believed it. Paul wasn't just preaching and teaching, he was sharing the life-saving message of new life through Jesus Christ. Paul was on a mission to reconcile the world to God, to restore a lost and dying generation to a right relationship with their Creator. And there was only one way for that to happen: Through belief in Jesus Christ as their Savior and sin substitute. Paul was calling people back to God, and there was only one path that could lead them there: Jesus Christ.

When you think about it, there is no more worthy cause in life than to lead people back to God by pointing them to Christ. What other endeavor could compare in value or worth? There is no doubt that we must help meet the humanitarian needs of those around us. To feed the hungry, minister to the sick, bring release to the captives and care for widows and orphans are non-negotiable expressions of love for those whom God has made. We are instructed by God to do these things out of love for Him and in order to show our love for others. But if we do all these things, but fail to reconcile those to whom we minister to God, what good had we really done? To relieve someone's physical or emotional suffering, but fail to introduce them to Christ, the answer to their spiritual suffering, would be cruel and, ultimately, unhelpful. Paul understood well the idea "that God has given us this task of reconciling people to him" (2 Corinthians 5:18b NLT). He knew that people needed to be fed, clothed, cared for and loved on. That's why he was constantly reminding those to whom he wrote about the collection of funds for the saints who were suffering in Judea because of their faith. But Paul's real mission was to help free people from the oppression of sin and the penalty of death by pointing them to Christ, the only hope for their condition. When all was said and done, Paul's mission in life was to help everyone he met be made right with God through Jesus Christ. No amount of human effort can restore or repair the sin-damaged relationship between God and man. Only God can reconcile what sin has destroyed. Only Christ can lead lost men and women back to God. And we have the job of sharing this message of reconciliation and restoration to everyone we meet. To those who are starving from lack of food as well as to those who are satiated and stuffed on the things of this world. Like Paul, we have been commissioned to share the message of reconciliation to the haves and the have-nots, the famished and the full, the helpless and the self-sufficient, the powerless and the powerful. For ALL have sinned and fallen short of God's righteous standard. ALL are condemned and face eternal separation from God as a result of their sin. But they can be made right with God through Jesus Christ – if only we will do our job and tell them the Good News.

Father, I sometimes lose sight of my real responsibility on this earth. I tend to forget that I have been saved, not to live for myself, but to love others. I have one job and one job only: To share the Good News of Jesus Christ with anyone and everyone I meet. I have the message of the hope of the world and I need to share it. I am Your ambassador and I have a responsibility to help others understand how they can be made right with You. Give me a passion to do my job well. Help me take my job seriously and to do it eagerly. Amen.