God’s Marvelous Plan for the Gentiles THE MYSTERY

EPHESIANS 3:1-6

1For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles 2Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, 3that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. 4In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5which 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. 6This 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. Tyndale. NIV Life Application Study Bible

3: 1   Paul was under house arrest in Rome for preaching about Christ. The religious leaders in Jerusalem, who felt threatened by Christ’s teachings and didn’t believe he was the Messiah, pressured the Romans to arrest Paul and bring him to trial for treason and for causing rebellion among the Jews. Paul had appealed for his case to be heard by the emperor, and he was awaiting trial (see Acts 28: 16-31). Even though he was under arrest, Paul maintained his firm belief that God was in control of all history, including all that happened to him. Do circumstances make you wonder if God has lost control of this world? Like Paul, remember that no matter what happens, God directs the world’s affairs, and he carefully watches over you.

3: 2-3  “ The administration of God’s grace” means the special stewardship, trust, or commitment that Paul had been given. He had been assigned the special work of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. God had shown this great plan to Paul in a revelation (see Acts 26: 15-18) and had given Paul the grace and authority to fulfill it (Ephesians 3: 9).

3: 5-6   God had not revealed his plan to previous generations. He was not simply withholding something from his people, but he intended to reveal it to everyone when the timing was perfect. God planned to have Jews and Gentiles form one body, the church. The Old Testament revealed that the Gentiles would receive salvation (Isaiah 49: 6), but it did not reveal that all Gentile and Jewish believers would share equally in the community of believers, the body of Christ. Yet this equality was accomplished when Jesus destroyed the “dividing wall of hostility” and created “one new humanity” (Ephesians 2: 14-15).Tyndale. NIV Life Application Study Bible.

ON THE WAY HOME WALK WITH JESUS and know that we all (if we are believers in CHRIST) have the same heirship as the Jewish (who are GODS CHOSEN PEOPLE) and rights to communicate with GOD through our belief in JESUS CHRIST and the HOLY SPIRIT as our communicator to GOD!!!!

onthewayhomeministries.org by RICHARD DEAN BROOKS