Ephesians 3:2-6

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 men 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.

After reintroducing himself to his audience in v1, Paul stops to remind them of his ministry as a steward of God’s grace. Peter grasps a similar understanding of grace when he says, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms” (1 Peter 4:10). One way that Paul administered God’s grace was through teaching, especially to the mixed congregations of Jew and Gentile, in order to reveal a mystery of God’s eternal plan.

Paul speaks of a “mystery” as something once concealed by God now revealed by God, and he’s elaborating on his brief mention of the mystery of God’s will (v3-4) from his introductory prayer (Ephesians 1:9-10). Nobody can figure out a mystery of God unless God reveals it. This isn’t a Sherlock Holmes mystery; God reveals it, so that it can be learned and understood and known. This particular mystery was not proclaimed by Moses or Isaiah or Jeremiah or Ezekiel or John the Baptist; Paul has that privilege by the grace of God. But this mystery is nothing more than the union in Christ of Jew and Gentile in the singular kingdom, family, and Temple of God. God has one people, and it’s not physical Israel. Certainly many physical Jews are in God’s kingdom, and according to Romans 11:11-24, many more will enter in; but the idea of two distinct groups of God’s people (Israel and the Church) is not an option in Paul’s understanding. This “mystery” is something that the dispensationalists of our day still don’t understand, though Paul explains it quite clearly here.

In v5, Paul explains that the mystery of Jew and Gentile union into the singular body of Christ was not made clear to the prophets, though they were able to anticipate such a revelation (Isaiah 19:25; Romans 4:16-24; Acts 26:22-23). The Old Testament acknowledges that the Jews would be a light to the Gentiles, but I can assure you that they did not expect that to come to pass the way it did, with the obliteration of Jewish ceremonial law. If anything, the Jews would have expected God to bring the Gentiles into Judaism through following those ceremonial laws; but He did the opposite. He cancelled those laws and made a Jew and Gentile union through Christ apart from the ceremonial law of Israel. Paul delights in that message, from v5 into v6, defining the mystery “that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.” The Gentiles, through Jesus Christ, by faith in Him, are joint heirs, joint members, and joint sharers of the promises of God to Abraham. The ceremonial law is no more. Israel, as they knew it, is no more, but now this trans-ethnic, trans-national people – the Church – will go on forever. And believing Jew and Gentile together will worship the one true God, because the One who has fulfilled the ceremonial law has not only reconciled them to God, but reconciled them to one another.