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
One final word before we close our study of this remarkable passage.
We could hardly pass from it without saying something about the wonderful words in 8, 'Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I might preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ'. What a glorious word this is, and it is highlighted all the more by what we have seen in this passage already. All this that we have been saying, about the testimony the Church bears to the angelic beings, casts a tremendous sense of awe and wonder on the inestimable privilege given to any man who is called to preach these unsearchable riches of the gospel. To think that any man should have this high dignity put upon Him by the Lord of the Church, to preach in such a way, and such a message, that souls that are dead in trespasses and sins should be born into newness of life, and be transformed by His grace and renewed in His image! Well might Calvin say that when a man was preaching the Divine Word, he was performing the most exalted work on earth, co-operating in the redemptive work of God, bringing sinners to salvation, building the Church of Christ and, above all, glorifying God, the Lord, Whose ambassador he was!17