Ephesians 3.10a-The Multifaceted Wisdom Produced by the Manifestation of the Father's Will Was Revealed to Satan's Kingdom
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday May 30, 2024
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 3:10a-The Multifaceted Wisdom Produced by the Manifestation of the Father’s Will Was Revealed to Satan’s Kingdom
Lesson # 159
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.
The noun sophia (σοφία) is speaking specifically of God’s wisdom as manifested through the baptism of the Spirit which united Jewish and Gentile church age believers with His Son, Jesus Christ and identified them with His Son’s crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at His right hand.
The noun sophia (σοφία) is modified by the noun theos (θεός), which refers to the Father which is indicated by the articular construction of the noun, which in the New Testament commonly signifies the Father unless otherwise indicated by the context.
As was the case in Ephesians 3:9, this word theos (θεός) here in Ephesians 3:10 contains the figure of metonymy which means that God the Father is put for the manifestation of His will.
This is supported by the fact that the church as composed of both Jewish and Gentile believers manifests the will of the Father in eternity past according to Ephesians 3:9.
This interpretation is supported 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 3:9 indicating that it retains the same meaning and referent here in Ephesians 3:10.
The noun theos (θεός) functions as a genitive of production, which means that it produces the noun to which it stands related, which is sophia (σοφία), which indicates that this wisdom is “produced by” the manifestation of the will of God.
The noun sophia (σοφία) is modified by the adjective polypoikilos (πολυποίκιλος), which appears only here in the Greek New Testament and describes God the Father’s wisdom as being multifaceted or having many facets or aspects.
In context, it is used in relation to the content of the incomparable mystery, which is produced by the church age believer’s union and identification with Christ (Eph. 3:4).
The content of this incomparable mystery asserts that the members of the Gentile Christian community are fellow heirs as well as fellow members of the body of Christ likewise fellow partakers of the Messianic promise with the members of the Jewish Christian community because of justification by faith in and union and identification with Christ Jesus (Eph. 3:6).
Thus, when Paul employs the adjective polypoikilos (πολυποίκιλος), “multifaceted,” he is using it to describe this mystery doctrine for the church age as manifesting the wisdom of God the Father and according to Ephesians 3:10, it manifests the will of the Father.
Thus, Paul describes this mystery as “multifaceted” because it is another manifestation of the complexity of the Father’s plan for the human race and another change in the manner in which He deals with the human race.
Specifically, this mystery is “multifaceted” because it is a manifestation of one of many progressions in which the Father deals with the human race and His plan for it.
When God created Adam and Eve, He made them the rulers of the earth (cf. Gen. 1:26-27) and He placed them in a garden and gave them one prohibition, namely they were never to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Satan entered the picture and deceived Eve and she disobeyed the Lord God by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Adam was not deceived and ate as well from the tree, knowing full well, he was not to eat the fruit from this tree and from this moment, Satan became the temporary god of the earth (2 Cor. 4:4) and the human race was under his authority (1 John 5:19).
Also, from this moment on, God dealt with these two and the descendants, the human race according to His grace policy towards the human race and then lastly, from this point on, the Father began to carry out His plan to restore the human race over the works of His hands.
When the human race became corrupted during the antediluvian period, God determined to judge unrepentant, unregenerate members of the human race with a world-wide flood, however, He turned to Noah to continue his plan to restore the human race as rulers over the earth.
After the flood, the unregenerate members of the human race under the leadership of Nimrod rebelled against God by building the tower of Babel and the Lord promptly dealt with this rebellion by confusing their language so that they could not communicate with each other through language.
This resulted in the human race doing what the Lord wanted them to do in the first place, namely, to populate the earth.
Then, He began to manifest His plan to restore humanity as rulers over the earth and remove Satan and the members of his kingdom by calling Abraham who was followed by his son, Isaac and grandson, Jacob whose twelve sons became the progenitors of the nation of Israel.
The Father used Joseph the son of Jacob to rescue his family from a world-wide famine since the Messiah and future ruler of the earth would descend from this family.
Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers and ended up in Egypt and became the prime minister over Egypt but he was used by God to deliver his family from this famine.
For over four hundred years, the family of Jacob lived in Egypt according to prophecy the Lord gave Abraham in Genesis 15.
However, they were eventually enslaved by the Egyptians.
God then turned to Moses to lead the nation out of the bondage of slavery to Pharaoh and Egypt.
Joshua followed Moses and led the nation as it dispossessed the unrepentant, unregenerate inhabitants of the land of Canaan.
Next, God raised up Samuel to prepare the nation for the kings that would reign over her and Saul was the first of these kings.
However, God removed him because of his unrepentant, sinful behavior and replaced him with a man after his own heart, David and the latter received the promise that a descendant of his would reign forever over the nation as king.
Solomon followed and like Saul went into apostasy which led to the divided period of the kingdom of Israel and the northern and southern kingdoms were disciplined by God for their unrepentant, sinful behavior.
The northern kingdom never returned to the land of Canaan but only the southern kingdom returned to the land under the leadership of Haggai, Zechariah and Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah and Jehozadak, the high priest and these rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem but Nehemiah returned to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
Next, the Father sent His Son into the world to become a human being to destroy the works of the devil, redeem and reconcile all of sinful humanity to Himself and propitiate His holiness through His Son’s crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at His right hand.
These events in the life of Christ was the first step in restoring the human race as rulers over the earth and thus dispossessing Satan and the members of His kingdom.
The next step began on the day of Pentecost in June of 33 A.D. when seated at the Father’s right hand, His Son, Jesus Christ sent the Spirit in fulfillment of not only Old Testament promises but also His own personal promise to do so (Ezek. 36:37; John 7:37-39; Acts 1:8).
The sending of the Spirit resulted in the baptism of the Spirit, which first took place among the disciples of Jesus who were of course, Jewish (Acts 2), which was the beginning of the church age, which was not known to Old Testament saints.
Then, remarkably in the view of these regenerate Jewish believers of Jesus, Gentiles who trusted in Jesus of Nazareth as Savior also experienced the baptism of the Spirit (Acts 10).
The baptism of the Spirit placed these Jewish and Gentile church age believers in union with last Adam, Jesus Christ and identified them with Jesus Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.
It also resulted in Gentile and Jewish church age believers being fellow heirs with each other, fellow members of the body of Christ, and fellow partakers of the Messianic promise.
The church age ends with the rapture which is the resurrection of the church (John 14:1-3; 1 Cor. 15:50-58; 1 Thess. 4:13-18; Phil. 3:20-21; 1 John 3:1-3), which triggers the appearance of Antichrist according to 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 who begins the seventieth week of Daniel by making a treaty with the nation of Israel.
The seventieth week concludes with the Second Advent of Jesus Christ who returns to earth with elect angels, Old Testament saints in resurrection bodies, tribulational martyrs in resurrection bodies and His bride, the church.
The purpose of which return is to not only destroy the Antichrist, the false prophet and the tribulation armies but also to imprison Satan and his fellow evil spirits for a thousand years, and which thousand years will mark the millennial reign of Jesus Christ.
Finally, the Father’s plan to restore mankind as the rulers over the works of His hands will be completed.
Thus, we can understand why Paul in Ephesians 3:10 describes the Father’s wisdom in making Gentile and Jewish church age believers as fellow heirs with each other, fellow members of the body of Christ, and fellow partakers of the Messianic promise as “multifaceted.”
It is such because it is a manifestation of the Father’s plan to restore the human race as rulers of planet earth, which has many facets and has progressed throughout human history in a variety of ways.