We go on now to Paul’s elaboration on the ‘mystery’ made known to him by revelation from God. For thousands of years, God kept a ‘secret’ in His heart, hidden from the world, the angels and the prophets in the Old Testament until the time came for Him to reveal it through His Son to His holy apostles. The secret or ‘mystery’ was that there was to be a new creation or recreation, a new living temple, comprised of both Jews and Gentiles alike, a new society and humanity; the Gentiles are to be fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. The ’mystery of Christ’ is the complete union of Jews and Gentiles with each other through the union of both with Christ. God revealed this to Paul specifically and also to God’s apostles and prophets by the Spirit and through them to the believers. It is now the common possession of the universal Church.
Together with this revelation to Paul came the commission to Paul to preach this good news, particularly as the Apostle to the Gentiles. The Apostle Paul counted this commission as a privilege, especially as he recognized that he was a persecutor of the church and a blasphemer before his conversion, and he truly acknowledged his own unworthiness to fulfill such a role. His humility however did not prevent him from exercising his apostolic authority, in dependence on God’s grace.
We must realize the tremendous difficulties and obstacles Paul faced to preach the gospel to the Gentiles as well as to reveal this mystery of Christ to both Jews and Gentiles. Remember that the Jews utterly scorned interaction with the Gentiles.
For Paul, a devout Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, to go to the Gentiles with the gospel would be unthinkable if not for his conversion, his revelation and calling by God. The Jews, in seeing Paul call Gentiles to God, sought to kill him and to impede him in his quest at every point of his missionary journeys. Even the Jews in Jerusalem who believed in Christ found it hard to believe that God had intended to include the Gentiles in His salvation. Some of them even misunderstood Paul and doubted him. However, the Apostle Paul took his commission seriously. Against all odds, with God’s enabling, and a deep love and gratitude to God in his heart, he took the gospel to many shores. Ponder what he communicated to the elders of the church in Ephesus in Acts 20:
“I served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of the Jews. You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus… However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me – the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace” (Acts 20:19-21, 24).
Paul suffered a great deal to reach both Jews and Gentiles with the gospel. In 2 Corinthians 11: 24, he wrote, “Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.” He received thirty nine lashes five times from the Jews. It was a flogging of a criminal in the Old Testament context. One such flogging of thirty nine lashes would be excruciating and may even cause death in an individual but Paul endured this five times, at the hands of his own Jewish people. It happened over and over again when he preached at the synagogues and was told to refrain from preaching the gospel; Paul went back despite the flogging because he never stopped loving his Jewish kinsmen, and he yearned for them to see what God was doing with regard to creating a new humanity. He longed intensely for them to repent and have faith in the Lord Jesus. He told the Ephesians believers not to be discouraged by his sufferings for their sake, for the message of God’s mystery and eternal plan was constantly burning in his heart.
By creating a new society through the life of the church God manifests His manifold wisdom to the rulers in the heavenly realms. Even angels and the evil spirits did not know the secret counsel of God. When they behold God’s mystery unfolded in His salvation plan, they wonder at the wisdom and power of God. They realize that indeed He is sovereign and almighty, that none can discern His will, and none can prevent Him from fulfilling His eternal purpose.
The formation of a multi-racial humanity is a public demonstration of God’s power, grace and wisdom. No other human community resembles it in its diversity and harmony. The cosmic powers in the heavenly realm are spectators of this dramatic outworking of God’s salvation as they behold the manifold wisdom of God and His eternal purpose realised in the body of Christ Jesus.