Do you realize how many times Paul uses the word Grace? It just pops up constantly. Compared to the rest of Scripture where the word is hardly ever used. Well it's because Paul is writing about Grace in the Age of Grace as the means of the New Covenant relationship wherein God has promised to do all and be all within His sons. God's unmerited favor is but a weak term for Grace. Because Grace works through God's Love in the power of what many have called the darkness of Faith. Because Faith is a spiritual blessing have been given out on the whole human race and we're going to see that as we progress. How all of this has been building, and building until finally we're moving closer and closer to the end of this whole time between the enigma of the interim of the first and second coming that God has allotted to the planet earth.
Ephesians 1:9-10
“Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:”
Ephesians 1:9a
"Having made known unto us (Paul) the mystery of his will,..."
What's another word for "mystery"? Secret. Oh let's go back and look at it in Deuteronomy 29:29, we were talking to a gentlemen recently that said, "Bill after I saw that verse I just used it over and over, because it just says it all with regards to the revelations of the Apostle Paul when he claims that these things were kept secret and that they were revealed to him and him alone from the ascended Christ." Sometimes people will ask us, "Now are you taking things away from what Jesus said during his earthly ministry?" No! We don't take it away, but we know one thing, what He said from His ascended place in glory carries a lot more weight for us today than what He said to the Hebrews under the Law and the Prophets. And of course everything that Christ says from glory is through the Apostle Paul. Now here it is. Why? Because the Lord was under restraint or constraints of the Law and the Prophets. That is why He spoke in parables, analogizes, metaphors or in shadowy picture language. For even when He spoke openly His disciples did not hear or understand what He said because of the religious veil which covered them as it does the Hebrews and the rest of the unbelieving world still.
Deuteronomy 29:29
"The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: (what kind of things? Secret things. Now what's a secret? Something that nobody else knows anything about, its veiled to them) but those things which are revealed (that's from the word where we get revelation, inspiration and illumination) belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law."
Now of course here Moses was writing under the Law, but he's dealing with the same God. The same God that we deal with has told us the same thing. That He has kept things secret until He saw fit to reveal it. The finished work of the cross and the cup of which we're required to drink bring all these things into focus for us by the Holy Spirit's working within us. Our having to by way of personal revelation share in the LORD Christ's works of the cross are not our own but have been confirmed by many of the ancient mystics. Now back to Ephesians 1 again for a moment then we'll be going to Romans. Verse 9 again.
Ephesians 1:9
"Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:"
In other words, where does everything start and finish? In the mind or heart of God. Now let's go back to Romans a moment and look at one of our favorite verses.
Romans 16:25
"Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel (do you see how Paul uses the personal pronoun) and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since (Christ's earthly ministry? Since Peter's message? No, but rather since anything was ever created. God has kept all of this secret, since) the world began."
What we could call the time, space and nature in the interim of the enigma of man. This is the reason Jesus couldn't preach Paul's Gospel, that's why Peter couldn't preach it, because Paul's Gospel was still kept totally secret in the mind or heart of God until Paul received it. What is the revelation of the secret then? How that because of the price of redemption as we saw and because it has been accomplished, the work of the Cross is done. And because of the power of His resurrection, God can now give out on the human race this whole package of Grace and revealed Truths and the Grace which Jesus brought into play (John1:7, 14 and 17). That have come from the pen of the Apostle Paul. In it we have all of the Truths that the Church needs today. We don't have to go anywhere else to get the Truth that we need. Now that doesn't mean you throw away the rest of your Bible. No! for its there for what? Our learning through the Holy Spirit's revealing the things of Christ hidden in them for us.
All the Bible is going to work for is its common end. But if we would just see Christendom tonight spend 90% of its time in Paul's Epistles, and 10% of their time in the rest of the Bible we'd see things begin to happen. But it's the other way around, most people spend 90% of their time in the Four Gospels which are but the end of the Old Testament. And they look at Paul's Epistles like they're wasted paper and with contempt, that makes old Satan happy. The expression we get from one of our friends is, "They treat you like an unlovely step-child." Well we think that's the way most of Christendom treats Paul, like an unlovely step-child that they really don't want any thing to do with, but we know they've got to admit he's there. Now we see that all the time, but you see in Paul's writings is where we have to be, because it was to this man that these secrets that had been held in the mind or heart of God are finally revealed. Now just for a moment let's turn to Ephesians chapter 3 to show what we're talking about.
Ephesians 3:8
"Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, (this unmerited divine favor and spiritual blessings are given out from the very heart of God) that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;"
Now it's interesting if you want to really do some language work. This word unsearchable really means "you can't find the beginning of it." It just goes back so far that we can't trace it, and it began before Christ ever created anything. Now reading on, and remember what we're talking about. It was revealed only to the Apostle Paul.
Ephesians 3:9
"And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, (this secret held within the cup) which from the beginning of the world (age) hath been hid (the same word in Deuteronomy 29:29) in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:"
I know that we've covered the word "by" before but here goes again, it simply means through Christ. So what we have is the fact that this world as we know it was created because of or through Christ. Which means He is its origin.
That's the mystery, this whole package of revealed Truths that now come only from the pen of the Apostle Paul. Let's name a few of these truths, again. That were revealed only to this Apostle.
1. Our beautiful salvation Gospel as recorded in I Corinthians 15:1-4, and Romans 16:25.
2. Redemption by the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. Our redemption price has been paid.
3. He has justified us.
4. He has forgiven us.
5. He has given us the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
6. He has baptized by the Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ, and what are we always saying about that term? You won't find this term Body of Christ anywhere else in Scripture except in Paul's writings. And here he refers to this Body of Christ, this composition of saved people, black or white, rich or poor, east or west, it makes no difference. Every believer becomes a member of this Body of Christ. That's one of the revelations of the mystery. It had never been revealed 6. to anyone before. In fact when does this actually take place? When we rightly part take of the Lords Last Supper and the finished work of the cross through even His ascension to the Father of spirits right hand. It is then that we can say with Paul, it is no longer I that live but Christ Lives His resurrected Life in me!(Galatians 2:20 as this becomes a Living reality within us and we can bear witness of Christ in the flesh. For we'll know no man after the flesh again even Christ Jesus.)
7. Another one of the mysteries given Paul is the departure of the Church this sudden out-calling of the saints when we meet the Lord in the air is another one. We get such a kick out of people sending us articles and books about the Church going into or through the Tribulation. And we just can't read them when we see where they're headed. We just lay them down. They're all doing the same thing. They are ignoring the Apostle Paul. We know where they're coming from, Matthew 24 where Jesus is speaking to the Nation of Israel, and His second coming to the earth. Now listen, we aren't concerned about the Second Coming, we're concerned about the out-calling of the Body of Christ, the departure to meet the Lord in the air, and that is strictly a Pauline revelation. No body else even mentions such a thing. Though it is revealed within the confines of the early parts of the Old Testaments teachings.
Yes, all the rest of Scripture speaks of the Second visible Coming, and He is coming! But before that happens, we're out of here, because we won't fit into that Tribulation scenario. It's like trying to put a square peg in a round hole; the true Church won't fit because those who make it up have already chosen the path less traveled, the way of the Cross, if you will or are willing. For this is God's perfect Will and is to be received and acted upon without question. The Tribulation is God dealing with the Nation of Israel, again. Because the Tribulation comes out of all the prophet's statements of the Old Testament. The only time Paul even mentions it is in II Thessalonians chapter 2, where he makes it so plain that after we have departed then shall appear that man of sin, for its the Body of Christ (the invisible Body) which is the restraining force which holds him and the Tribulation back as with all the rest of it. Otherwise the Second visible Coming has nothing to do with Paul's teachings. We just get so frustrated, why do people keep sending us this stuff that the Church will go into or through the Tribulation when all they would have to do is read Paul's I Corinthians 15:52-58 and I Thessalonians 4:13-18. He's the only one that has had these secrets revealed concerning the Church, the Body of the Living in Christ. For Christ can NOT be put to death on the cross or anywhere else for that matter, again. The other prophecy has to do with the judgment of the household of God and its being shaken first, this has happened already in 66-70 AD as Daniel 9 reveals it. So remember the departure and the Second visible Coming are two different events - separate by at least seven years.
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