The Open Secret of God's Plan for the World

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Today’s Reading: Ephesians 3:1-6 [day 06 of 20]

3:1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—

 
 

Ephesians is one of the so-called “Prison Letters.” We know that Paul is in prison as he writes, but we just don’t know during which of his many imprisonments this letter was written. What’s interesting is that Paul implies that his imprisonment is a direct result of his mission to the Gentiles.

 
 

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.

 
 

The “mystery” Paul has made known? It’s what he’s just written about in the first 2 chapters. Again, note how Paul sees his divine mission to be the apostle to the nations.

 
 

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 people 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.

 
 

  • Paul has previously been given an apocalypse—an unveiling—into the true state of things. (This is part of what his Road to Damascus experience entailed.) That apocalypse is his “insight into the mystery of Christ.”

  • This insight was not fully known to even the prophets of Israel (though they had an inkling), but now the leaders of the church understand that which was God’s secret plan all along:

  • Namely that the purpose of Abraham’s election (the fancy way of saying God’s choosing of Abraham) was to one day bring in the non-chosen people into one unified family.

  • In other words, the inclusion of the nations into the family of God was not an afterthought but rather what God was always working towards.

 
 

The Lord is playing the long game, a fact which I find really encouraging.

After all, if God was working through history to bring in the nations as his covenant people, then what else might God be doing now through the events of history?

What a fun question.