Ephesians 3.10-The Result of Paul's Ministry in Communicating the Mystery of the Father's Will Regarding the Church
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday May 28, 2024
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 3:10-The Result of Paul’s Ministry in Communicating the Mystery of the Father’s Will Concerning the Church
Lesson # 158
Ephesians 3:10 Consequently, the multifaceted wisdom produced by the manifestation of will of God (the Father) was made known to the sovereign rulers and governmental authorities in the heavenlies through the members of the church. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 3:10 is composed of a hina (ἵνα) result clause, which presents the result of or the consequence of the Father giving Paul his ministry to proclaim to the Gentile Christian community His unfathomable wealth and specifically to enlighten them as to what constitutes this unique mystery dispensation.
Namely, this clause asserts that it resulted in the Father’s multifaceted wisdom being made known to Satan and the members of his kingdom through the members of the church who are composed of Jewish and Gentile church age believers.
Together, they compose the new humanity which will dispossess Satan and his fellow evil spirits at the Second Advent of Jesus Christ, which results in the destruction of the tribulation armies, the demise of Antichrist and the false prophet and the imprisonment of Satan and his fellow evil spirits for a thousand years.
Then, the Lord Jesus Christ and His bride, the church will rule over the earth for a thousand years during the Lord’s millennial reign.
The conjunction hina (ἵνα) and the subjunctive mood of the verb gnōrizō (γνωρίζω) are forming a result clause, which indicates the accomplishment of the action of the verb didōmi (δίδωμι).
The verb didōmi (δίδωμι) is being modified by the verbs euangelizō (εὐαγγελίζω), which we noted appear in Ephesians 3:8 and phōtizō (φωτίζω), which appears in Ephesians 3:9.
Therefore, this hina (ἵνα) clause in Ephesians 3:10 indicates “the result of” or “the consequence of” the Father bestowing upon Paul his ministry to proclaim to the Gentile Christian community His unfathomable wealth and specifically, to enlighten them as to what constitutes this unique mystery dispensation.
Namely, it “resulted in” the Father’s multifaceted wisdom being made known to Satan and the members of his kingdom through the members of the church, who constitute the new humanity which will dispossess and Satan and the members of his kingdom as rulers over planet earth.
This interpretation is supported by the fact that the purpose of the Father giving Paul his ministry was for the benefit of the Gentile Christian community and not Satan and the members of his kingdom.
In fact, Paul asserts that it would be “through the church” that the multifaceted wisdom of God would be made known to Satan and the members of his kingdom.
In other words, Paul’s ministry was to benefit the Gentile Christian community, which in turn would reveal to Satan’s kingdom the multifaceted wisdom of God as they experienced unity with the Jewish Christian community through the practice of the command to love one another.
This unity was established at the moment of justification through the baptism of the Spirit and would be perfected at the rapture when the members of the body of Christ receive their resurrection bodies.
This unity would ultimately manifest to Satan’s kingdom that both communities constitute one new humanity, which would displace them eventually as rulers of planet earth.
In fact, as we noted in detail, in Ephesians 1:3-23, Paul speaks of the church ruling with Jesus Christ during His millennial reign.
Notice that Paul in Ephesians 1:7-8 asserts that the members of the body of Christ are experiencing the forgiveness of their sins according to the Father’s infinite grace, which he provided for them because of the exercise of His wisdom resulting in the manifestation of His insight.
Notice that as in Ephesians 1:8, the wisdom of God is mentioned in Ephesians 3:10 in relation to the church.
In Ephesians 1:9-10, Paul then asserts that the Father did this by revealing the mystery of His will for the benefit of the church and this was for the dispensation which brings to completion the various periods of history, namely the millennial reign of Christ!
Notice, in Paul’s intercessory prayer in Ephesians 1:15-23, he asserts that the Father’s omnipotence raised His Son from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenlies above each and every sovereign ruler, authority, power exercised, dominion as well as each and every designated rank, by no means only during this age but in fact also during the one certain to come.
These sovereign rulers and authorities are a refence to Satan and the members of His government.
Then, the apostle Paul asserts that the Father also caused each and every animate and inanimate object to be placed in subjection under His Son’s feet.
Correspondingly, He gave His Son as a gift as head over each and every animate and inanimate object “for the benefit of the church, which are uniquely members of His Son’s body!”
Therefore, in Ephesians 3:10, the hina (ἵνα) clause must indicate “the result of” or “the consequence of” rather than “the intention of” of the Father bestowing upon Paul the unmerited blessing of serving the gospel because this stewardship was intended to benefit the Gentile Christian community rather than Satan’s kingdom.
This clause is actually presenting the actual outcome or result of Paul receiving this ministry and thus, it is asserting that the multifaceted wisdom of God was made known to Satan and the members of his kingdom through the members of the church.
The latter as we have noted is composed of Jewish and Gentile church age believers who constitute the new humanity, which will dispossess Satan and the members of his kingdom as rulers over the earth at the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.
The church age believer’s union and identification with Jesus Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the Father’s right hand is extremely important because it is related to the Father’s purpose in restoring the human race to rulership over the earth.
By seating His Son, Jesus Christ and His bride the church at His right hand and placing every animate and inanimate object under their authority, the Father restored humanity to its original position, namely rulership over the earth.
This restoration of humanity to rulership over the earth is prophesied about in Daniel 7:14.
Also, the title deed to the earth that is mentioned in Revelation 5 is related to the rulership of the earth.
In this chapter, this title deed to the earth was sealed with seven seals, which no one moral rational creature in creation was able to open except Jesus Christ.
Genesis 1:26-30, Psalm 8 and Hebrews 2:7-8 teach that mankind was designed to rule over the works of God’s creation.
Adam was created and designed in the image and likeness of God in order that he might exercise sovereign authority over all creation.
However, the rulership of the creation was lost by Adam and the Woman in the Garden of Eden when they disobeyed the Lord’s prohibition to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3).
Satan usurped the rulership of the first Adam over the earth when he deceived the woman into disobeying the Lord’s prohibition to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and getting Adam to do so as well.
However, the Last Adam, the God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ has regained that rulership over the earth with His obedience to the Father’s will in going to the cross in order to suffer the wrath of God as a substitute for all of sinful humanity (Rom. 5:12-21; Hebrews 2:6-9).
That Satan is the temporary authority over the earth is indicated in that 2 Corinthians 4:4 says that he is the “god of this world.”
The Lord Jesus Christ’s death on the cross gained the rulership of the earth back for mankind according to Philippians 2:5-11 and Hebrews 2:9.
In Hebrews 2:6-8a, we have the record of God’s purpose for mankind decreed whereas in Hebrews 2:8, we have this purpose delayed due to the Fall and in Hebrews 2:9, 14 and 17 we have this purpose accomplished through Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 2:8 teaches that all things are not in subjection to the members of human race.
However, verse 9 does assert that Jesus was crowned with glory and honor as a result of His substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths on the cross.
Now, the church is the bride of Christ according to Ephesians 5:32.
So therefore, a comparison of Ephesians 5:32 with Ephesians 2:6, and Colossians 3:1-4 implies that the Lord Jesus Christ and His bride, the church will restore humanity to its rightful place as rulers of the earth.
In other words, the mystery of the Father’s will is tied to the millennial reign of Christ because it reveals that the church will be the bride of His Son and together the two will restore humanity to rulership over the earth.
The church’s union and identification with Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the Father’s right hand is the means by which the Father is providing a bride for His Son and restoring the human race to rulership over the earth.
Therefore, Paul is communicating to the recipients of the Ephesian epistle, who we noted were Gentile Christians living in the various cities and towns throughout the Roman province of Asia, that they and Jewish Christians like himself have victory over Satan and his armies.
The first reason for this is that they are in union with Jesus Christ and identified with Him in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the Father’s right hand through the baptism of the Spirit at justification.
The second reason is that Jesus Christ and His bride, the church will dispossess Satan and his armies at His Second Advent, which will establish the millennial reign of Christ.
During which time, the church will reign with Him.
