Ephesians 3.6c-Gentile Church Age Believers are Fellow Partakers of the Messianic Promise with Jewish Church Age Believers
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday April 18, 2024
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 3:6c-Gentile Church Age Believers are Fellow Partakers of the Messianic Promise with Jewish Church Age Believers
Lesson # 147
Ephesians 3:1 For this reason, I myself, Paul, the prisoner owned by and under the authority of the one and only Christ who is Jesus for the benefit of each and every one of you as a corporate unit, who are Gentiles—2 if and let us assume that it is true for the sake of argument that each and every one of you as a corporate unit have surely heard about the stewardship, which is unique to the grace, which originates from the one and only God, which was given to me for the benefit of all of you as a corporate unit without exception. (Of course, every one of you have in fact heard about it.) 3 Namely that, the mystery was made known for the benefit of myself as revelation as I wrote beforehand in a concise manner. 4 Concerning which, that is, by each one of you making it your habit of hearing read publicly, all of you will for your own benefit become able to comprehend my insight into this incomparable mystery, which is produced by your unique union and identification with Christ. 5 This mystery was by no means made known to members of the human race in previous generations as it has now been revealed through the personal agency of His holy apostles as well as prophets by means of the omnipotence of the Spirit. 6 Namely, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs as well as fellow members of the body likewise fellow partakers of the promise because of justification by faith in and union and identification with Christ Jesus by means of the proclamation of the gospel. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 3:6 is composed of the infinitival appositional clause einai ta ethnē synklēronoma kai syssōma kai symmetocha tēs epangelias (εἶναι τὰ ἔθνη συγκληρονόμα καὶ σύσσωμα καὶ συμμέτοχα τῆς ἐπαγγελίας), “Namely, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs as well as fellow members of the body likewise fellow partakers of the promise.” (Author’s translation)
It is modified by two prepositional phrases.
The first is en Christō Iēsou (ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ), “because of justification by faith in and union and identification with Christ Jesus.” (Author’s translation) and the second is dia tou euangeliou (σ διὰ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου), “by means of the proclamation of the gospel.” (Author’s translation)
The infinitive conjugation of the verb eimi (εἰμί) functions as an appositional infinitive, which means that it introduces a clause which defines the content of this mystery.
Namely, that Gentile and Jewish church age believers are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body of Christ, and fellow partakers of the Messianic promise with Jewish church age believers because of their faith in Christ Jesus at justification and union and identification with Him.
Now, in Ephesians 3:6, the adjective symmetochos (συμμέτοχος), “fellow partakers” is used also to describe these Gentile church age believers in relation to Jewish church age believers.
What these Gentile church age believers are partakers of with Jewish church age believers is identified by the expression tēs epangelias en Christō Iēsou (τῆς ἐπαγγελίας ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ), “the promise in Christ Jesus.” (NET)
Therefore, this adjective describes these Gentile church age believers as fellow partakers of the Messianic promise with Jewish church age believers because of justification by faith in Christ Jesus and union and identification with Him.
This word is making the assertion that these Gentile church age believers are Gentile church age believers as “fellow partakers” of the Messianic promise because of justification by faith in Christ Jesus and union and identification with Him.
Now, these three adjectives, namely, sygklēronomos (συγκληρονόμος), “fellow heirs,” syssōmos (σύσσωμος), “fellow members of the body” and symmetochos (συμμέτοχος), “fellow partakers” which appear in Ephesians 3:6 contain the figure of alliteration because of the repetition of consonants used in these words.
Here we have the repetition of sun prefix in these three words.
The purpose of this figure is emphasis.
Specifically, to emphasize that Gentile church age believers are not second class citizens in relation to Jewish church age believers but rather equal partners.
As was the case in case in 2:12, the noun epangelia (ἐπαγγελία), “the promise” here in Ephesians 3:6 refers to the Messianic promise of a Savior.
This is indicated by the articular construction of this word, which is anaphoric, which means that it is pointing back to the previous use of this word in Ephesians 2:12 indicating that it retains the same meaning and referent here in Ephesians 3:6.
Ephesians 2:11 Therefore, each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to make it your habit of remembering that formerly each of you who belong to the Gentile race with respect to the human body, specifically, those who receive the designation “uncircumcision” by the those who receive the designation “circumcision” with respect to the human body performed by human hands, 12 each one of you used to be characterized as without a relationship with Christ. Each one of you used to be alienated from the nation of Israel’s citizenship. Specifically, each of you used to be strangers to the most important promise, which is the product of the covenants. Each of you used to not possess a confident expectation of blessing. Consequently, each one of you used to be without a relationship with God in the sphere of the cosmic world system. (Lecturer’s translation)
In our study of Ephesians 2:12, we noted that the noun epangelia (ἐπαγγελία), “the most important promise” refers to God entering into a promise with the nation of Israel to provide them a Savior who will deliver them from eternal condemnation, condemnation from the Law, enslavement to sin and Satan, personal sins and spiritual and physical death.
This promise of a Savior appears in the Mosaic, Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic and New covenants.
The articular construction of this word is “par excellence” which is used to point out a substantive that is the extreme of a certain category.
Here it indicates that this promise is the most important of all the covenant promises God communicated to Israel and which promise is that of a Savior.
It is the most important promise for unregenerate Jew because they are under God’s wrath and they can never benefit from the other covenant promises without first appropriating by faith the promise of a Savior by exercising faith in Jesus, the Christ.
We also noted in our study of Ephesians 2:12 that the noun epangelia (ἐπαγγελία) functions as a genitive of product, which is expressing the idea that this promise of the Messiah to deliver Israel is “the product” of these five covenants, which God established with the nation of Israel.
In other words, this promise of a Savior is “the product” of the contents of these covenants.
In Ephesians 3:6, the articular construction of this word epangelia (ἐπαγγελία), “the promise” also indicates that this promise is the most important of all the covenant promises God communicated to Israel and which promise is that of a Savior.