Ephesians 3:6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, member together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.
Many people walk through life, or run through it, seeking a secret something that will make them happy, successful, or content. Walk through any bookstore or online best seller list and you will see numerous books touting steps to a better life, or books that will take you to another place, imaginary or real, to help you escape your reality. We have Netflix, Amazon & Disney+ to help us go somewhere else for a few hours.
My question is this. What is so terrible about this life that makes us want to escape it? Why do we seek an answer for a question that has already received the definitive answer? Why do we not stay with the stated answer?
The readers of Paul’s letter to the Christians in Ephesus, a city in modern day Turkey, sought an answer to a mystery. They had been connected to the LORD in a new way, in Jesus. It was not through what they believed was the way, being a good Jewish person. It didn’t come through adopting Jewish customs and practices. In came in the Messiah Jesus.
Paul had received a direct encounter with the Messiah Jesus. Being a devout Jewish scholar, much of what he learned seemed counterintuitive. He had believed that keeping the Law was the focus of pleasing God. He came to learn that believing that God, in the Messiah Jesus, had done all that was needed for acceptance before Him. That was a radical shift.
Paul came to see that this was God’s plan all along, but that it was hidden from the Jewish mind. They had so focused on their own salvation that they had missed God’s purposes. They had missed the mission to reach the world with God’s goodness and grace. They had become ingrown toenails on God’s foot.
The LORD opened Paul’s eyes to see that God always worked by grace and not by works. But Paul learned something more. In Christ Jesus everything was available to everyone. It is this way to God in the person of Jesus that was mysterious to Jewish people.
In the opening poem of 1:3-14 Paul outlines all the things that are available for those who are “in Christ Jesus.” It is only those “in him” who receive the benefits of all that God accomplished on our behalf. If we are “in him” we are saved, elected, predestined, chosen, unified, and sealed with the Holy Spirit. And the reason He does this “in Christ” is so that He gets all the praise. We get to see His glory at work.
Every spiritual blessing “in Christ.” If we stay “in him” we have the blessings.
Have you noticed the professionals who make statements contrary to the values of their organizations and then loose the jobs? They had hoped, I guess, that they would be able to continue receiving the benefits of their organizations even though they were working a cross-purposes with their organizations. They chose to exit the system, but they wanted the benefits to continue. They wanted the paycheck.
There are many today who claim Jesus as Lord, but their lives scream everything except “I am in Christ Jesus.” No observer would see a correlation between their lives and Christ. They would see some subtle variation on a theme, the theme of everyone else in the world.
But Christ has called us to be different, holy in an unholy world, just in an unjust world, connected in a world of disconnection, eternal in a world of temporary, grounded in a world that is ripped apart by upheaval, peace where conflict abounds. Now that is different!
Is that what we are?
The Arnold Journey 