Having A Cause!
1. Our Enlightenment (3:1–9)
a. Paul as a Prisoner for the Truth (3:1)
“For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles.”
The stewardship of the revelations Paul received had been costly to him. These revelations are not to be taken lightly. Paul staked his life and liberty on them; he would die for these truths. He was a prisoner because he had dared to proclaim them. He was in chains because of the opposition of the Jews, but he considered himself a prisoner of Jesus Christ, not a prisoner of the Jews or Nero.
The Jews were infuriated when Paul taught that believing Gentiles were full members of God’s family and the fellowship of saints. The Jews’ national pride was stung. Even in the church many Jewish believers thought that Gentiles should become Jews in order to be Christians, or at least they should be regarded as second-class citizens in the kingdom. Paul’s emancipating gospel annoyed many Jews, even within the church. They disliked his wholehearted acceptance of Gentiles into the church, free from all Jewish laws, traditions, and customs. They resented his vocal and tireless championship of the Gentile believers’ cause. They felt threatened by his zealous, far-reaching efforts to bring more and more Gentiles into the church. The vast majority of unbelieving Jews regarded Paul with horror and considered him a dangerous heretic. Paul, however, did not criticize the Jews for opposing him. He knew where they were coming from; he had been there himself.
b. Paul as a Pioneer of the Truth (3:2–4)
(1) The Truth Entrusted to Him (3:2)
“If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward.”
The Greek word translated “dispensation” here comes from a word meaning “stewardship.” God had entrusted Paul with great truths. Paul was their custodian, their steward. He was under obligation to communicate them to others. He discharged this trust nobly through his preaching and writing.
Today we are living in an age—a dispensation—of grace, during which God deals with people on the basis of His grace. God’s grace is reigning supremely. This age stands in contrast to the age of law that preceded it and the age of judgment that will follow it.
When we speak of an age of grace, we do not mean that God did not demonstrate His grace in other ages. Obviously He offered grace to men who were under the law; the entire ceremonial law illustrated God’s grace. It is equally obvious that God will offer grace to men in the judgment age because millions will be saved during that period (Revelation 7). It is also evident that during our age of grace, God’s law—that is, His moral law—still has a vital role (Romans 13:9) and at times God acts in judgment (Acts 5:1–11).
(2) The Truth Enlightening to Him (3:3–4)
(a) How It Was Communicated To Him (3:3a)
“By revelation he made known unto me the mystery.”
In Galatians 1:16–17 Paul told us that he did not receive his gospel from men; immediately after his conversion he “conferred not with flesh and blood,” but sought out the vast silences of Sinai. There, alone with the Hebrew Scriptures and the Spirit of God, he thought through the Old Testament in the light of Calvary. He had to discard much of what he had been taught while studying to be a rabbi. He had been obsessed with the vain traditions of men, but the risen Lord now filled Paul’s vision and colored all his concepts. The Holy Spirit came upon him and revealed new truths. He went into Arabia with Genesis, Isaiah, and the Psalms in his luggage, and he came back with Romans, Ephesians, and Thessalonians in his heart.
Paul did not have the enormous advantage of being Jesus’ constant daily companion. He did not sit at His feet like Peter and John. The great truths of the New Testament that Paul so gloriously preached were given to him through God’s direct revelation.
(b) How It Was Communicated By Him (3:3b–4)
“As I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ.”
Perhaps Paul was referring to a previous letter in which he had briefly mentioned the mystery (for instance, Romans 11:25; 16:25–26; 1 Corinthians 2:7; 15:51–52). Perhaps he was referring to earlier remarks in this same letter to the Ephesians (Ephesians 1:9–10). In any case, he communicated the great mystery, the great secret, in writing. It was far too important to be passed on simply by word of mouth. Because Paul communicated in writing, all of us can study the mystery and benefit from his reflections on the revelations given to him.
The revolutionary truths Paul wrote about were not his own spontaneous ideas. They were the product of divine inspiration and personal insight. The word translated “knowledge” in Ephesians 3:4 is sunesis, which refers to natural insight and reflective thought. Paul was one of the greatest intellectuals of all time, but mental ability alone did not conceive the mystery. God revealed it to him. On the other hand, divine illumination alone did not account for Paul’s grasp of this new truth; he made the effort to think it through and write it down.
c. Paul as a Partner in the Truth (3:5–6)
(1) How the Truth Was Concealed (3:5a)
“Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men.”
It was no secret, of course, that God intended to bless the Gentiles, just as He had blessed the Jews. His intentions were revealed in many Old Testament prophecies, including His first great promise to Abraham (Genesis 12:3). Paul quoted some of these prophecies in Romans 15:9–12, drawing on all three sections of the Hebrew Scriptures to emphasize his point. The promises to the Gentiles were often ignored by the Jews in their insular pride of religion and race.
It was no accident, surely, that the promised land was a bridge connecting Europe, Asia, and Africa, and that the great arterial highways of international commerce, communication, and conflict passed through it. God had always intended that His chosen people would become a spiritual blessing to all mankind—a truth that had too easily been forgotten.
Even in the deportations and dispersal, God intended for His chosen people to have a redemptive impact on other nations. The book of Acts makes it abundantly clear that Jewish communities around the world formed a natural springboard for global evangelism.
(2) How the Truth Was Revealed (3:5b–6)
(a) Its Custodians (3:5b)
“It is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.”
In embryonic form, the great truths of the Epistles were first revealed to the disciples by the Lord. For instance Jesus announced the truth about the universal church and the local church to the disciples (Matthew 16:16–19; 18:1–35). Jesus was also the first to teach the distinctive Pauline concept of being “in Christ” (John 15:1–8). The Lord promised that the Holy Spirit would superintend the writing of the Gospels (John 14:26), the Epistles (John 16:13), and the book of Revelation (John 16:13). But the Holy Spirit waited until after Pentecost to enlighten the apostles with the full measure of New Testament truth.
The apostles and the prophets—the custodians of this truth—had the foundational gifts necessary to produce and propagate the New Testament writings. Chief among these custodians was Paul. His giant intellect wholly yielded to the Holy Spirit became the human vehicle to discern and explain God’s great mysterious truths.
(b) Its Contents (3:6)
“That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.”
The new equality of the Gentiles was a bitter pill for most Jews to swallow. For centuries they had prided themselves on being God’s chosen people. They had nurtured a growing contempt for Gentiles and wallowed in religious and racial snobbery. They had considered themselves to be God’s favorites. Now all this superiority was shattered. It turned out that all along God had loved the Gentiles just as much as He had loved the Jews (witness the events in the book of Jonah, for instance). Now God was proving this truth in an astonishing way by bringing Jews and Gentiles together in a new body that ignored the special privileges the Jews had enjoyed for some thousand years. Gentiles were not going to be added to the existing corporate body of the Jewish people, the nation of Israel. There would be an entirely new body to which Jews and Gentiles would be added on equal terms.
Jews and Gentiles would share equally in the same legacy. They would be “fellowheirs.” There would be no double portion for the Jews. Jews and Gentiles alike would receive the same blessing.
They would share equally in the same life too. There would be one body, its head being Christ and its members believers. Jews and Gentiles were all one in Him—all washed by His blood, all partakers of the same Spirit of life, and all equally dependent on Him and on one another.
Jews and Gentiles would also share equally in the same light. In Christ, there were no longer any special promises to Jews, no revelations made to them alone. The full blaze of New Testament truth was the property of the church, not Israel.
It made no difference that Saul of Tarsus had been a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a trained rabbinical scholar, a tribal member of the nation of Israel, and a practicing and zealous Pharisee. In the church he was an equal partner with the Philippian jailor and the runaway slave Onesimus.
d. Paul as a Propagator of the Truth (3:7–9)
(1) The Working of It (3:7)
“Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.”
Paul realized that the revelations of truth he received were gifts of God’s marvelous grace. That he had been chosen to be the steward of such far-reaching revelations never ceased to astonish Paul. His insights were certainly not generated by the strength of his own intellect. They were just one more evidence of God’s mighty power working within him.
God’s grace and power are at work today in members of the body of Christ. When a brother gifted as an evangelist speaks, the Holy Spirit works, people are convicted, souls are saved, and trails of blessing follow him everywhere.
A brother who is an able expositor can open up the wonders of the Word. Because he has received a gift of grace, God’s people are blessed and enriched by his ministry through pulpit or pen. God’s grace and power are at work in his life.
Another brother is a successful administrator. He knows how to organize and motivate people. Under his ministry the church grows. His abilities are a gift. God’s grace and power are working within him.
A sister is a true “mother in Israel.” Her home is a haven for her family and a lighthouse for her neighborhood. Her children rise up and call her blessed. All the little ones in the area know her and love her. She mothers them, listens to them, talks to them, laughs and cries with them, and leads them to Christ. Other women in the community consider her a true friend. Tradesmen sense God’s presence when they deal with her. Her husband is blessed. Her church feels the impact of her prayers. God’s grace and power are at work in her life too.
God’s grace and power—His gift to us all—should be at work in all our lives.
(2) The Wonder of It (3:8a)
“Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given.”
With these words, Paul guarded against the natural tendency to take pride in the extraordinary gifts God had given him, particularly the apostolic gift that enabled him to be the custodian of divine revelation and New Testament truth. He was, he said, less than the least of all saints, and was awed that God had chosen him to receive this gift.
We detect here a growing development of heartfelt, genuine humility in Paul. In 1 Corinthians 15:9 he wrote that he was “the least of the apostles, … not meet to be called an apostle” because he had persecuted the church. In 1 Timothy 1:15 he called himself the chief of sinners. He never forgot the wonder of being chosen to be a custodian of divine truth.
At times Paul was driven to defend his apostleship because attacks on him were really attacks on what he taught. He reluctantly but resolutely declared, “I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles … though I be rude [the Greek word rendered rude can be freely translated layman] in speech.… in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing” (2 Corinthians 11:5–6; 12:11). But he even defended his apostleship with as much self-depreciation as the occasion permitted.
(3) The Wealth of It (3:8b–9)
(a) Its Hidden Resources (3:8b)
“That I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.”
The Greek word translated “unsearchable” here means “untrackable” and suggests a labyrinth or maze. The wealth we have in Christ is hidden treasure. We cannot track it down, but the story of it has been told. Paul had a glimpse of it and vouched for the fact that the Lord Jesus was rich (2 Corinthians 8:9).
A story about another kind of hidden treasure was told by Alexandre Dumas in The Count of Monte Cristo. It was a standing joke among prisoners in the dungeons of the Chateau D’If that the learned abbe Faria was insane because he claimed to have knowledge of a fabulous hidden treasure. The abbe befriended Edmond Dantes, a fellow prisoner. Faria educated him and adopted him as his son. Dantes carefully avoided the subject of the treasure, not wanting to awaken traces of his friend’s former madness. But there was no imbalance of mind in the abbe. As he was dying, the abbe put the secret of the treasure into Dantes’ hand.
In time Dantes escaped from the terrible prison and found the treasure in an underground grotto. It lay in an oaken coffer, bound with steel and closed with a lock and padlock. Hardly believing his good fortune, Dantes pried open the treasure chest, scarcely daring to breath lest the secret be a cruel hoax. But it was true! There before him lay the wealth of an empire: heaps of golden coins; stacked bars of gold; and an accumulation of diamonds, pearls, and rubies worth the ransom of a dozen kings. The treasure transformed the poor, victimized Dantes into the avenging Count of Monte Cristo.
We, the children of Adam’s ruined race, also have been victimized. We have been born into a sin-cursed world; we are heirs to a fallen nature; we have been born in sin and shaped in iniquity. Our every prospect is blighted by the law of sin and death. But we have in our hands the secret of a hidden treasure, a treasure hidden in Christ. All spiritual wealth is vested in Him, and all that limitless wealth is ours. It transformed us when we became Christians from spiritual paupers into wealthy sons of God—joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. Now we can avenge ourselves on the prince of this world, on the lord of darkness, on evil spirits that rule the high places. We can use our new-found resources to live godly lives in Christ Jesus and introduce others to all that God has for those who believe in Him.
One thing is sure: We can never find that wealth apart from Christ. It is untrackable. Science, psychology, politics, social reform, education, or culture cannot lead us to that treasure. The spiritual treasure we need is found in Christ and in Him alone.
(b) Its Heavenly Resources (3:9)
“To make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.”
No wonder we cannot find this treasure on our own. It is in Heaven! It is hidden in Christ in God. God entrusted the news of this treasure to Paul to share with all men. He shared the news in his preaching and teaching, but he could only reach a small percentage of people. So under the Spirit’s leading, he wrote down the good news that spiritual things hidden from the world’s beginning are now universally available to mankind.
Perhaps his imprisonment in Rome made Paul realize the uncertainties of life, the absolute certainty of his eventual death, and the urgency of putting the good news into writing. Doubtless Paul realized that he was now writing under the Holy Spirit’s direct inspiration, but he could scarcely have envisioned the results of penning a letter to a congregation of Gentile Christians. His letter would be treasured and duplicated countless times. Everyone would want a copy. The letter would find its way into the divine library. For centuries the letter would be read, memorized, quoted, discussed, and expounded. It would be translated and published and it would bear fruit in lands around the globe. And no wonder! The letter revealed a glorious secret about God’s Son and the Gentile world.
Paul revealed a secret that God had kept to Himself. He had kept it hidden when He visited fallen man in Eden, when He talked with His friend Abraham, and when He gave the law to Moses. He told David, a man after His own heart, many things, but He did not tell him this secret. He spoke to Isaiah and Jeremiah, to Ezekiel and Daniel, but still He kept His secret. He did not tell the twelve minor prophets, and then He kept this burning secret for four more silent centuries.
Finally God sent His Son, who was involved in the secret. Jesus dropped hints of it here and there, but He did not give it away. The day of Pentecost came and the church was born. Peter preached, souls were saved, and the secret was out, but still men did not grasp it. So God saved Saul, shared the secret with him, and said, “You tell the world.”
What a secret it was! God was going to create a church. He would baptize Jews and Gentiles into it, making no difference between them. That church would be the mystical body of Christ. He would raise it higher than angels. He would seat it with Himself in the heavenlies. It would share fully and forever all that Christ has. That church would be His crowning masterpiece. Creation itself, the showpiece of God’s eternal power and godhead, would pale before the everlasting splendors of the church.
What a shout of joy there must have been when the secret was first unveiled in Heaven. Imagine Christ Himself, in a battle-scarred human body, sitting down at God’s right hand, turning to His Father and saying, “Now, Father, let’s send the Holy Spirit to bring home My Bride.”