Ephesians 3:1-13 - Hidden Work of God Revealed

Ephesians 3:1-13

The Mystery Revealed

1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles— 2 if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, 3 how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, 4 by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), 5 which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: 6 that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel, 7 of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power.

Purpose of the Mystery

8 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; 10 to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, 11 according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him. 13 Therefore I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.

The gospel can be described simply as the hidden work of God finally revealed in the coming of Jesus the Christ to explain God’s plan from before time began.  Paul the apostle was given the task of being a spokesman of the Lord as the prophets of the Old Testament in order to write and speak the word of God which is our scripture we know today.  This authority to Paul was through revelation of the mystery of God’s work to him for all our sakes by His grace.  As we read what he wrote, we also come to understand the mystery of Christ which he described in Colossians 1:26-27 as Christ come to dwell in us as the hope of glory hidden from our comprehension down through time but now revealed to those He calls to Himself by His Spirit come to live in us.  This revelation has laid buried in the Old Testament scriptures the whole time right in front of us (Luke 24:26-27, 31) but not seen until our blind eyes are fully opened by Him and explained to us by the apostles as the prophets before them did but were not understood.  Now the eternal mystery is shown to us in Christ through the gospel of grace in the work of Jesus Christ, the hidden plan of God to call the nations to join those within Israel as the true chosen children of God who through faith believe and receive Him as God’s word to save us and make us His own!  We who are called in Christ through the promise to Abraham as the father of many by taking God at His word are now heirs of heaven and a body under Christ as the head of this church family by God’s goodness of unearned merit we call grace.  The effective working of God’s power was demonstrated in His Son and in the apostles who followed to explain all He taught them that we all may continue to teach these (Matthew 28:20) to others as part of the Gospel proclamation.  Paul did not consider himself a super saint but an undeserving one given a great responsibility to understand and describe these unveiled mysteries of God’s word and work to us as His spokesman and divine mouthpiece of God’s grace.  These unsearchable riches of the kingdom of heaven in Christ have been proclaimed to us as to those he spoke to in the first century, which things originated in the beginning of creation as created in and through Christ (John 1:3, Colossians 1:16-17) as the living Word of God.  This revealed wisdom of the Lord is given to the church to boldly proclaim as the gospel, the good news, of hope in the face of heavenly opposition of the adversary and his fallen angels who war in futility against Christ and we who have His testimony as Revelation 12:17 reveals to us.  The eternal purpose of God then is to bring His chosen ones to Himself through the work and word of Jesus Christ His Son and give we His children open access to the Father in the power of His Spirit (Hebrews 4:16) as the veil of separation from the holy of holies has been removed (Matthew 27:51, 2 Corinthians 3:15-16, Hebrews 10:19-20) from our spiritual sight to directly approach God without an intermediary priest for acceptable living.  Jesus Christ is the only priest we need to go to.  No man or woman can mediate (1 Timothy 2:5) between the Father and us but Jesus alone.  To say otherwise is to refute God’s word in disbelief and disobedience.  We must therefore hold fast to the truth in unwavering hope and confident conviction of all that has been revealed in the scriptures to us.  If we suffer for this then we join the apostle and countless other saints made holy in believing the gospel, being transformed, and then under attack of the adversary for this revelation of the mystery of God in the gospel.  This gives us strength and comfort to encourage us to endure and rejoice in the hidden work of God revealed in the work and words of Jesus Christ our sovereign Lord.