1 For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles—2 assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, 3 how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. 4 When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. 6 This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
7 Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power. 8 To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, 10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realised in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. 13 So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory."
Ephesians 3:1-13
The second emphasis in this passage relates to what we called 'a sense of eternity'. What is meant by this is unfolded in Paul's words in 10, about the manifold wisdom of God being made known to the principalities and powers in heavenly places by the Church of God. We begin to see in these verses something of the scope and grandeur of the Apostle's thought in his conception of the gospel. What one is conscious of is a great and glorious unfolding of the divine purposes, far exceeding anything we could have possibly conceived, and reaching into the ages to come and into the unseen and eternal world. What Paul means is that the Church of Christ, composed of both Jews and Gentiles, is like a mirror, in which the angels and archangels, the cherubim and seraphim, behold the incomparable wisdom of God, displayed in a manner unknown to them before. They see a work which is new to them and, as Calvin says, 'the reason whereof was hid in God'. This is what the Apostle Peter refers to when, in speaking of God's wonderful redemption, he says 'which things the angels desire to look into'. This is really a very thrilling and exciting idea, for it represents the heavenly beings in a state of ignorance concerning what Paul calls the manifold wisdom of God ('manifold' means 'many coloured', 'many splendored'). And if we ask in what sense the heavenly beings can be said not to know the divine wisdom, we would have to answer that they would know the 'simple' wisdom of God in terms of knowing that God created the world as the theatre of His glory, and created man in His own image as the crown of His creation. But when man sinned and fell from fellowship with God into guilt and shame, the natural thing for them to think would be that this great God of theirs would destroy the offending thing that had spoiled His creation, and put man out of the way forever. But God in His love was not willing that any should perish and He therefore proceeded to deal with the complicated problem of man's recovery and redemption. Tomorrow's Note will continue this discussion.