The “mystery” of God’s grace revealed
For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—
When Paul says, “For this reason,” he is referring to the central thought developed in chapter 2, namely, the unity in Christ that brings Jews and Gentiles together into one church. He is intending to ask God to enlighten the Ephesians, to bring them to understand ever more fully just how great Christ’s love for them actually is. Paul’s prayer will end with the request that God enable the Ephesians “to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ” (verse 18).
In this verse (3:1), which forms the introduction to his prayer, Paul refers to himself as “the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles.” Recall that this letter to the Ephesians was written while Paul was detained in Rome, awaiting trial for his Christian activity. He speaks of himself as imprisoned “for the sake of you Gentiles.” That expression requires a bit more explanation, so before he begins his prayer, he digresses to show just how his ministry to Gentiles fits in with God’s eternal plan.
2 Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, 3 that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. 4 In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. 6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.
The NIV translation of verse 2 adequately reproduces what the original says but makes it easy to miss the emphasis Paul intended. The key point lies in the last two words, “for you.” We might paraphrase the verse, “Surely you have heard that it was for your benefit, not mine, that God called me to administer his grace.” To be sure, Paul’s faithful preaching of God’s grace to Gentiles got him into trouble with his fellow Jews and put him on trial in the Roman legal system. In the final analysis, though, the office of administering God’s grace to Gentiles wasn’t something Paul chose for himself. It “was given to me,” he declares. And so was the message.
Paul would never have figured out his message by himself. Rather, it was a “mystery made known to [him] by revelation.” The term “mystery” is used some 20 times in the New Testament—most often by Paul and usually in the sense illustrated here. Paul is not speaking of something that is mysterious in the sense of being vague, murky, or hard to understand but, rather, something that needs to be explained. After it has been explained, it’s perfectly clear, but one would never have tumbled onto it without some outside help. Paul indicates that he received such help from God by revelation.
What was the mystery that was explained to Paul? In verse 6 Paul says, “This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.”
The key to the mystery revealed to Paul lies in the expression “together,” used three times. Actually, in the original Greek the “together” idea is found in the noun. One could reflect that by using English compound words with co-. Paul was given to understand that through faith in Christ, Gentiles are co-heirs with believing Jews, co-members of one and the same body, that is, the church, and co-sharers with Israel in the salvation that Christ’s merit has won. This equality between Jews and Gentiles is parallel to what Paul previously talked about when he stated that Christ’s saving purpose in reconciling the world was “to create in himself one new man out of the two” (2:15).
Paul seems to allude to his treatment of this subject earlier in the letter when he says, “As I have already written briefly.” Urging them to go back to that section, Paul explains, “In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets.”
A word of caution is in order so that we don’t misunderstand Paul’s words and jump to the conclusion that Gentiles couldn’t be saved or that God wasn’t interested in them during Old Testament times. Recall that God through the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel said, “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live” (33:11). These words applied to Gentiles as well as Jews.
That being the case, however, Paul can still say that the mystery of Christ “was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets.” Without using the term New Testament, in effect Paul is saying: “We are in a new era now that the Old Testament prophecies have been fulfilled and the Messiah has come. In this new order, the gospel is being proclaimed not only to Jews but to Gentiles as well. This is illustrated by the call God graciously gave me.”