A Mysterious Union

Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ.

That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.

Ephesians 3:4&6

The ‘mystery of Christ’ as Paul refers to it, exist in the broader sense, as we discussed yesterday, but also in the narrower sense.  The broader mystery of Christ relates to His Person.  The narrower mystery of Christ relates to His work.  The Apostle Paul received his understanding of the mystery of Christ by ‘revelation.’  In Ephesians, Paul has laid the groundwork for the discussion he is having regarding the mystery of Christ by expounding the acts of God in redemption.  This brings him to the point where he says, that the mystery of Christ is ‘that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel.’  This is the discussion of the mystery of Christ in that narrow sense to which we were referring earlier.  It is beyond our natural ability to fathom how God, in Christ, can bring together into one body ‘a great multitude which no one could number of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues.’  In order for us to understand this mystery, the Holy Spirit must reveal it to us.  As He does reveal unto us the mystery of Christ, we come to understand how all of the redeemed of all the ages can come together in Christ as one Glorious Body.

Our Wise and Wonderful God,
we rejoice at Your miraculous work,
to make us all one in Christ.
We praise You that in eternity,
we shall come to a greater understanding
of all that it means for us to be the Body of Christ.