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See Entire Series For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles--if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; {to be specific,} that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. (Eph 3:1-7) In this modern "cut and paste" information age, with thousands of self-ordained theologians and scholars, online bibles, proof texts and answers for every question at the ready, it is easy to forget that every essential and life-imparting truth of the Christian way comes by spiritual revelation alone. Not by reasoned study or scholarship, nor intellectual or analytical pursuit, nor seminary preparation, nor anything originating in the natural mind or intellectual capacity of man. Heavenly truth comes from God above, and it comes from Him alone down to us by way of His holy prophets and messengers. His Living Word imparts life, and this imparted life represents a spiritual and heavenly reality. It is good to remember this as we troll the web or local Christian bookstore looking for answers to what are essentially spiritual questions. There is spiritual truth and there is carnal knowledge - the one feeds the spirit, the other the fleshly mind of man. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual {thoughts} with spiritual {words.} But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Cor 2:12-16) For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able {to do so,} and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. (Rom 8:5-9) In Ephesians 3 we are presented with the most glorious of truths - a divine mystery in fact - as revealed afresh to the Apostle Paul - that the "Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus". Yes, our Lord did affirm that salvation was "of" the Jews, but He never limited that salvation to any blood-born peoples. The wondrous news of the universal gospel hope in Christ lies mysteriously in this word "whosoever"... "That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3:15) and... "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." (Rev 22:17) Our Lord hinted as much when He said... And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, [and] one shepherd. (John 10:16) One fold and one shepherd. How glorious to ponder! These are those blessed ones referred to in Genesis 12:3, where it is told of Abram, that in him "all the families of the earth will be blessed." It is these "other sheep" from "all the families of the earth" that Paul is concerned with here, and this "Jew of Jews" has been entrusted with a previously undisclosed and divine mystery regarding God's universal purpose in Christ Jesus that stretches beyond blood and genealogy, and as far as His Spirit will reach. The deeper theme of course is still the "riches of His grace which He lavished on us" (Eph 1:7-8), but here Paul is drawing out with divine clarity how this grace is manifested and its universal reach. The Church, comprised of both believing Jews and Gentiles, is His body, "the fullness of Him who fills all in all." (Eph 1:23) Now I want all of you to consider this my brethren, not theologically or even metaphysically, for the sheer scope and depth of this truth renders that impossible. Rather I want you to meditate on this in the same spirit from which this mystery was originally conveyed to the Apostle Paul. As a Pharisee, a scholar and student of the law and ordinances and works-based religion, Saul of Tarsus knew plenty about the Lord's righteousness and justice. He knew Him as Lawgiver and Judge - and so He is. Yet when our Glorified Lord met him on that fateful day on the road to Damascus, there began Saul's education by revelation of an aspect of the Lord that he knew so little about - His unfathomable grace. This is what, from that day forward, consumed this Jew of Jews, and penetrated everything He wrote and did in the service of these first generation believers. He defended this grace - and the freedom it conveyed, vigorously against all and any attempt to water it down through law-keeping and ritualized, outward obedience. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly {places.} {This was} in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. (Eph 3:8-12) By the unfathomable riches of God's grace, all Gentiles who believe on Christ Jesus are joined into one heavenly body with believing Israel – the true Israel of God. Once joined to the Head, this New Man demonstrates something wondrous to even the angels. This is a profound mystery concealed before now in the eternal heart of our Eternal God. Satan mocks it certainly, and shrugs it off in his arrogance as impossible. To think that mere man, formed out of the lowly dust of the ground, and wallowing in the muck of his sinfulness, shall rise to such divine heights? It is laughable to the demons certainly; but God's faithful angels are watching intently to see how it all plays out. Clearly their money is on the Lord. They are waiting for that day when Jesus Christ, the Beloved, in all his corporate glory shall rise up and stand, and begin filling all created things that will be filled. Oh how small and earthbound are our thoughts dear saints. How we limit Him so; He who holds all the universe between His fingers, and whose purposes reach beyond anything we could possibly imagine in our puny and finite minds. This is us He is talking about here; if only we will glimpse such an awesome reality. He dwells in us such that we might be one with Him as a new creation. This is far greater than so many useless - church versus Israel arguments about dispensations and replacement theology, etc. Oh if this is all we see, then I am afraid we are short-sighted and blind indeed. The mystery is not merely that God's grace is deeper than the blood of a single race of people; but that he will fill the universe with a new spiritual man, and that this New Man will be comprised in spirit and character by all those who believe and derive their lives from Him. We are represented in His fullness and in the Father's filling of all things by His beloved Son. Go to Him now if this seems more than your fleshly mind and understanding can bear. In truth, you will never grasp this by reason alone. This is spiritual reality and it stretches far outside of our earthly minds and brick and mortar, church bulletin-based religion. In truth, this expansive mystery consumed this Jew of Jews from Tarsus, and set the course for the rest of His earthly life and ministry. Read it my friends for it is so. All through the epistles to the saints, he is frustrated to no end by those who would limit this calling to parochial religious enterprise, or even old covenant definitions. All throughout the Old Testament in fact, sprinkled here and there as little seeds of eternal splendor, are hints of this profound mystery - that all life is being subsumed into the One who is the Father's Blessed and Beautiful Son. And that this New Man will fill all creation unto all fullness, beginning with His Beloved Church. Oh let it be so dear Father. Amen. Dear Brethren, I don't pretend to have all the answers related to our God's ultimate purposes in both the Church and the earthly nation of Israel. Yet I do know that His promises are sure and certain, and that there must be in fact a destiny for natural Israel in the land for which He promised. Many prophecies indicate this, and who are we to limit Him in what He is doing by His loving grace and wisdom. What I do know is only what has been told by divine revelation regarding the present calling, that... ... the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "Uncircumcision" by the so-called "Circumcision," {which is} performed in the flesh by human hands--{remember} that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both {groups into} one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, {which is} the Law of commandments {contained} in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, {thus} establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. AND HE CAME AND PREACHED PEACE TO YOU WHO WERE FAR AWAY, AND PEACE TO THOSE WHO WERE NEAR; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner {stone,} in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. (Eph 2:11-22) Both groups - Jew and Gentile - reconciled in one body, and formed into one by one Spirit in Christ Jesus, such that one "New Man" might be created, and in whom the Eternal God might dwell and fill all things that will be filled in His Creation. Hallelujah! Is not the depth and magnitude of our God's grace truly immeasurable and beyond our capacity to fully comprehend? Who will limit Him by foolish and useless arguments about this versus that, or this group replaces that group? Has He not subsumed them both in His Son? Oh that we would truly grasp in the Spirit the full depth and breadth and height of what Paul is conveying here, my brethren. Here is our Lord's ultimate and glorious answer to Adam and the garden; to the fallen ones who left their first abode, and to the cursed power of sin and death that currently fills and corrupts all things on this earth. Here is the new life that swallows up all death. Here is the depth of His love by which He loved us in His Beloved! Here is where all the law and the prophets and psalms culminate! Here is where the hope of the incarnation, sacrifice and resurrection of our Lord leads! Here is why He is called the Alpha and the Omega, and the Beginning and the End! Oh little ones, fall on your face now before Him and offer praise to He who holds all things together in His Son, and whose Grace is beyond anything our puny little religious sentiments can convey. Repent if you must of limiting Him so, and all of our parochial and petty divisions in the Lord. There will be One and there will be no other! This is the true Mystery of Christ, and sadly it has been hidden by the very ones who should be living it and trumpeting it from every rooftop and roadside! Amen. I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory. For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; {and} that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him {be} the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. (Eph 3:8-21) Oh what an amazing context we have for being one together in the Lord, and for loving one another as He loved us. Can we be filled up to all fullness in the Lord and yet divided against Him and each other? Are we men and women of grace and love as He has demonstrated His grace and love toward us? And is this love an earthly, self-gratifying love as men recognize and pursue it? Heavens no, for we cannot reach within ourselves for such love and grace - it must spring forth from His abundant heart, and it must be according to His power that works within us. Do we actually believe that His Church can be all this, and that this New Man can stand up in this cursed world and authentically live the life of our Lord in all His Holiness and Grace? Can it be truly one as is the Father, Son and Spirit? I must confess that in my fallen heart I just can't see it; at least not in myself or my own capacity to bring it about. But oh dear ones, let us pray and it will be so. For if we go to the end of the Book, we see just such a Man rising up at the end of this age, and this man is portrayed as a radiant Bride with pure and holy garments - and this Bride has only one love that penetrates all she is. Sound incredible? And who are these people anyway; those so dispossessed and emptied of themselves and joined as one in the Lord? Well... it is none other than you and I dear brethren. And so it shall be if only we will grasp it by His grace. Everything begins and ends by His grace – this is the overarching theme of Ephesians, and it should captivate and enthrall us as much as it did Saul of Tarsus? Oh Father in Heaven, let this be so, for all of your little ones. In Jesus' Blessed name we pray. Amen. Please pray for us here at Living-Walk, that we would watch and see the Master at work, and understand what He would have us be and do. Your friend and servant in Christ Jesus,
Wayne |
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