Seeing the Greatness of His Plan

Ephesians Study

Chapter 3

Ephesians 3:14-15 -- Seeing the Greatness of His Plan

Amplified Bible:

14 For this reason [seeing the greatness of this plan by which you are built together in Christ], I bow my knees before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

15 For Whom every family in heaven and on earth is named [that Father from Whom all fatherhood takes its title and derives its name].

Seeing the greatness of this plan, Paul understands HOW we have been built together in Christ.  He says that he bows his knees before the Father of our Lord.  In the Old Testament, we are given an visual aid of the plan of salvation, the roles of the Godhead, and a pathway that takes us back to God although we have been captured by the enemy (Satan).  According to ancient Hebrew pictographs, that capturing is called sin.  

We generally focus on the lamb.  It was sacrificed morning and evening by the priest and showed the initiative of heaven towards us daily.  There was the sacrificing of the lambs that individuals did for personal sins.  There was another sacrifice that we may not equate to what Paul is writing.  It was the sacrifice of the red heifer which signified Christ crucified outside the camp for all mankind. 

The bulls were offered within the camp and not usually burned entirely.  The use of a (female) red heifer was not directly connected with the worship of the sanctuary.  The offering of the red heifer was done outside the camp.  It was not only for the Israelite, but for the “stranger or gentile” in the group (Num. 19:10).  The offering was not a regular offering…only done occasionally.  It was universal in its scope.   It was a corporate offering.  It typified Christ being made sin and a curse for us (Heb. 13:12-13).

The use of a heifer was to show that Christ would come through a woman.  The symbolism of this sacrifice is so deep, and I encourage you to do some study around it.  It really has nothing to do with Israel today.  The red heifer has already been offered once and for all according to scripture. 

Once offered, it was burned and the ashes were used for purification ceremonies.  The ashes were sufficient for all the people. When a person or a family needed purification, a fresh heifer was not required to be sacrificed. One was sufficient for all, including the sojourning stranger. So the sacrifice of Christ is sufficient for everyone. There is enough virtue in His sacrifice for the sins of the world. (1 John 2:2). The ashes were stored for all future needs. The sacrifice of Christ is stored up us as an inexhaustible fountain of merit to which we have daily access for the purging of our consciences (Heb. 9:13, 14; Zech. 13:1).

An interesting point, as far as I have been able to research, is that the offering of the red heifer was going on when Christ was crucified.  It was on the Mount of Olive (outside the camp).  Being above the temple, the priest could look into the temple when they made the offering.  They saw, as did the Roman centurion, the curtain split from top to bottom.  No wonder the centurion said, “…this was a righteous man…the Son of God.”  This was in the sight of Jesus as He was on the cross.  The last fulfillment of the red heifer in the life of Jesus the Christ was His Crucifixion. The red heifer was a purification from defilement, those that had been contaminated by a dead corpse. We have passed over from death to life, Christ is our Passover. We are one with Him, Christ is our Atonement. 

The ashes were then put into fresh water.  When needed for purification rites, a brush was made of cedar and hyssop tied with the red thread.  In the crucifixion, we have a visual of this event.  ”Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped him, and put on him a SCARLET robe” Matt 27:27-28.   After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon HYSSOP, and put it to his mouth. After Jesus had taken the vinegar, he said, "It is finished!" Then he bowed his head and died (John 19:28-30).  The cedar (some sources say juniper) is wood and could well have been the cross.

If that is a stretch for our minds, remember that the passover included a hyssop branch dipped in the blood of the lamb and applied to the wooden doorpost.  There is a reason for the use of hyssop…it is antibacterial and antiviral.    Notice that David says in Psalm 51:7: “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” Chemically, hyssop can cleanse our memory of sin as can Frankincense (Num. 5:15).  Again, this is an illusion to the purification process of the red heifer.   

"For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctified to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" Hebrews 9:13-14

Paul, being schooled in Judaism and a Pharisee, understood the meaning of these types and symbols even if at the time he did not apply them to Christ.  When he met Christ on the Damascus road, he understood that these all referred to Christ.  He understood that the scripture had been fulfilled, that the Messiah had come and been crucified for Jew and Gentile (those outside the gate).  Again, I cannot look at the crucifixion as I did before taking this journey with Paul, and I give thanks that we are seeing “the greatness of His plan.”  God had us all in mind from the beginning…Jew and Gentile…being blessed with the oneness of the Godhead and restored to the original intent of God.

God is in our life to transform our life.  The value of love of everyone and everything will manifest in our lives as it did in Paul’s.  We will take every thought captive into Christ and stop taking the things of life and people personally.  This is a discipline that we invite the Lord to do for us.  Someone once said that the best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better.  Inviting Christ into our thoughts and giving Him permission to take those thoughts captive is the practice of the better.  It is the Divine working in humanity that brings about the miracle of transformation.  It is the working of His plan that was established from the foundation of the world and which found its fulfillment in Christ at the cross.  With Paul, I bow the knee in worship of this magnificent God.

His Eternal and Timeless Purpose

Ephesians Study

Chapter 3

Ephesians 3:11-3:13 

Amplified Bible:

11 This is in accordance with the terms of the eternal and timeless purpose which He has realized and carried into effect in [the person of] Christ Jesus our Lord,

12 In Whom, because of our faith in Him, we dare to have the boldness (courage and confidence) of free access (an unreserved approach to God with freedom and without fear).

13 So I ask you not to lose heart [not to faint or become despondent through fear] at what I am suffering in your behalf. [Rather glory in it] for it is an honor to you.

The drama of the ages has an eternal and timeless purpose, realized and carried into effect in the person of Christ Jesus.  God’s plan and purpose has been since the foundation of the world.  Think on the communion.   He sat with a group of people who would leave him, betray him, and hide for fear of the Jews.  He broke bread and drink with these people.  He died for these people.  It was not about us and our perfection or sinlessness.  It was about His.  This so touches my heart.  I spent years striving for perfection.  I already had it in Him.  

What we lost in the Garden of Eden was our identity.  God breathed into dirt to make a child of God.  After the resurrection, Christ breathed the same spirit into man and reclaimed us as God’s children.  How beautiful.  

Because of Him we can be confident that we can approach God without fear.  We have the opposite here also of man hiding from God because of the fall.  We do not have to hide now…we can come boldly into His presence.  Again, our original intent has been restored.  

Paul says do not lose heart at what he was suffering for their behalf…glory in it…it is an honor to you.  Paul’s suffering, as great as it was, was nothing compared to Christ’s.  It was a visual aid for the people.  The disciples lost heart and hid for fear of the Jews at the crucifixion.  Paul tells them not to lose heart at his suffering for their behalf.  Most often, we lose heart at our own suffering.  Our suffering is not on behalf of another.  Paul says that it is an honor.  

Our vision needs to be enhanced and anointed.  We need a paradigm shift from self-centeredness to being other-centered. Sometimes we suffer from guilt because of what happened to Jesus.  This does Him no glory.  We are told to glory in the cross.  We are not to lose heart.  We are not to feel our unworthiness.  It is not an issue to Him.  When Jesus was resurrected one of His first acts was to tell Mary to tell “His brethren” that He would see them later in the day.  He called this group that was gathered for fear of the Jews His brethren.  Our circumstances do not define the love of God; the crucifixion defines the love of God.  Do not reduce the  Bible to a bunch of principles when it is about relationship with Him.  

Sin had been dealt with head on at the cross.  Now, He sees all others as a reflection of Him.  We have His fullness.  We have His mind.  We have His heart.  He breathes on us His Spirit..restored as in our original creation.  He gives us back His original intent…to be in His image (Romans 8). It is about Him…not us.   

We are told not to lose heart [not to faint or become despondent through fear]…another way of saying depressed and disappointed by our own behavior.  Look away from self and realize that Christ considers it an honor to give Himself for the Father and the children.  There is so much more than a legal issue going on…this is the love of heaven.  

Traditions, creeds, theology, and the Western mind turns this into a legal transaction.  When you rescue your kids, you have to silence the Accuser.  God is not the bad guy.  He is not the one who accuses us.  He is not the one who condemns.  Paul shows us this in his example.  Those who imprisoned Paul are a model of Satan.  John 16:33 tells us that in this world we will have trouble, but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.  Paul is a wonderful example of overcoming prison from the inside out.  He had an internal victory that manifested itself to his world.  May our prisons do the same for us.  

The Drama of the Ages

Ephesians Study
Chapter 3

Ephesians 3:10  — The Drama of the Ages

Amplified Bible:

Ephesians 3:10  [The purpose is] that through the church the [complicated, many-sided wisdom of God in all its infinite variety and innumerable aspects might now be made known to the angelic rulers and authorities (principalities and powers) in the heavenly sphere.

The goal: The many-sided wisdom of God might be made known to principalities and powers in the heavenly sphere.  And, we thought the cross was just about us.  Not so.

What Paul is saying is very interesting.  We shall have to pull some other scriptures into it to make sense of it all.  In Job 1:6 we are told: “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.”  

There are many ideas on who the sons of God were.  Jesus is called the Son of God.  Other beings on earth are called sons of God.  Any creature created by God could be called a son of God.  There are thoughts that sons of God were fallen angles.   Some say that they are the created sons that rule other created worlds that have not fallen.  

This scripture is rather mater of fact…like a council meeting of some sort.  The next comment is that Satan (Accuser) came ALSO among them.  It sounds like a difference was made between them and him.  Satan is asked from where did he come.  He says that he came from walking around the earth…he is taking credit for being in charge of earth  Then the story goes on to tell about Satan accusing Job.  Sometimes we overlook the fact that he also accuses God.  Are you getting the picture of what happened in the Garden of Eden…it is a repeating story throughout history.

Verse 10 speaks of principalities and powers that are in the heavenly sphere.  The full extent of the cross has a significance to these principalities and powers.  Why?  Lucifer/Satan was not immediately destroyed because then the other beings (heavenly and earthly) would have served out of fear and his accusations towards God would have seemed to be true.  God wants to be served from a love motivation, not fear/force.  Do we hear fear/force/guilt from the pulpit?  It is not from God.  He has all power but He does not force anything or anyone.  The Bible is full of examples of where God lets things play out in the dynamics and choices and consequences.  

Cain and Abel are good example of the significance of the cross.  Their instructions were to bring an offering/lamb sacrifice which Abel did.  Abel’s sacrifice was accepted.  Cain brought the fruit of his own hands…his labor.  This offering was not accepted by God.  There is no labor of our own that is acceptable.  The animals were created by God.  He alone put the blood in the animals…the life is in the blood according to the scripture.  Cain’s offering had no life-giving properties.  It could not represent the Lamb of God.  It was man-centered.  It was works-centered.  It was rebellion…the sin of witchcraft.  1 Samuel 15:23 King James Version (KJV) “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.”

Often, we think of witchcraft as some kind of “woo woo.”  That is not what this verse in 1 Samuel says.  It is iniquity and idolatry because the Word of God has been rejected.  It is a matter of not being aligned with God and His truth.  It is a matter of Lordship…God or Satan.  Out of the heart, behaviors are either for God or against Him.  Cain had rejected the instruction of God; he entered into rebellion (witchcraft) doing the works of his own hands.

This speaks so much to us.  Again, it is a matter of Lordship.  That is why it was OK for the disciples to cast lots to determine a replacement disciple for Judas.  The act was not in rebellion against God’s word.   Proverbs 18:18 says, “The cast lot puts an end to strife And decides between the mighty ones (New American Standard Bible).”

It may seem that I have gotten a long way from Paul’s message here in Ephesians 3, but these principalities and powers spoken of are watching the planet earth drama unfold…like they did Job’s story.  Satan said that Job was only righteous for what it got him.  He accused God of holding a protecting hand over him.  He challenged God to prove Job and, thus, Himself.  What a dilemma.  Sounds like the Garden of Eden again.  Sounds like the woman caught in adultery again.  It is a repeating story…a method that Satan uses over and over, hence, the name Accuser.  

An example of this drama unfolding is what happened to the Son of God when He was tempted and later crucified.  The devil is always trying to put doubt in His mind: “If you be the Son of God…”  Who else would He have been?  In the question is implied more than His power; it is asking that Christ prove Himself.  Why?  Because there was so much at stake in the redemption of man, and Satan used doubt about identity just as he did in the Garden of Eden.  Jesus said in John 12:32 that if He was lifted up, He would draw all men to Him.  The last thing that Satan wanted was for Jesus to stay on the cross!  

John 16:8-11 says that the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment (see verse 11, it is the ruler of this world that has been judged).  The cross and resurrection sealed something for Satan who claims to be the ruler of this world.  In Ezekiel 28, there is a description of the covering cherub (Lucifer) who wanted to be God.  In Ezekiel 28:14, it says that he walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones.  Commentaries have many different things to say about this, but the below listed commentary says this:  in … midst of … stones of fire — In ambitious imagination he stood in the place of God, “under whose feet was, as it were, a pavement of sapphire,” while His glory was like “devouring fire” (Exodus 24:10, Exodus 24:17).  Jamieson, Robert, D.D.; Fausset, A. R.; Brown, David. "Commentary on Ezekiel 28:14". "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible". "http://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jfb/view.cgi?bk=eze&ch=28". 1871-8.

In Exodus 24:10 it says: “And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of the sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.”  According to Exodus, the children of Israel saw God and a pavement of sapphire under His feet.  The pavement has something to do with  where God walks.

In John 19:13, it is said that Pilate brought Jesus to a place called “the pavement” for His trial.  There really are not coincidences in the scriptures.  In Ezekiel 28, there is a drama unfolding regarding Satan (King of Tyre).  He claimed to be God.  What was an accusation against Jesus: He claimed to be God.  Isaiah 14:12 on gives a description of Lucifer’s fall and it was about being above God…like the Most High.  

Satan went through a type of court trial.  Jesus endured the same.  At the crucifixion, the multitudes inspired by evil said, if He is the Son of God, let Him come down and save Himself.  Some scholars suggest that what Satan did during the wilderness temptation and the crucifixion was to “suggest” to Christ that He was that fallen covering cherub talked about in Ezekiel and Isaiah.  What a burden to bear when to prove yourself would have jeopardized the redemption plan.  

In Genesis 3:15, we have the promise of Jesus' bruised heel and Satan’s fatal wound to the head.  Christ was crucified on Golgotha (the place of the skull).  A cross was driven into that skull and Christ’s blood ran down that cross and on to the ground.  Genesis 3:15 was fulfilled very literally at the cross.  Jesus said those heartbreaking words, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”  I want to suggest that the Son felt so alone in all of this drama that He questioned Himself.  That is what broke the heart of the Son…to feel the separation from the Father.  Never-the-less, He stayed on His cross.

This has been a long “from the chapel” but I have felt constrained like Paul to present this drama.  He understood when he visited the third heaven what had happened.  Unless we put scripture upon scripture, we will miss the magnitude of the drama of the “ages” as he puts it.  There is something more at stake than our salvation.  That was only part of the picture.  God’s character must be vindicated (like Job) in order that He can be proclaimed not only just but the justifier. Romans 3:26: “To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”

This study has been in the works for several years.  I cannot take full credit as many of the ideas are from others.  I have not been able to see the cross in the same light since this study.  When Jesus stayed on the cross, irregardless of His personal outcome, it was faith…not in Himself but in the Father.  We really do not prove our identity by coming down from our crosses.  It is staying on them that every vestige if self is demolished.  My  God, my God, why hast though forsaken me?  Sometimes, we do not see past the cross.  The Lord knows how that feels, too.

Ephesians 3:7 - 3:9 -- A Living Miracle

Ephesians Study
Chapter 3

Ephesians 3:7 - 3:9 — A Living Miracle

Amplified Bible:

Ephesians 3:7  Of this [Gospel] I was made a minister according to the gift of God's free grace (undeserved favor) which was bestowed on me by the exercise (the working in all its effectiveness) of His power.

Ephesians 3:8  To me, though I am the very least of all the saints (God's consecrated people), this grace (favor, privilege) was granted and graciously entrusted: to proclaim to the Gentiles the unending (boundless, fathomless, incalculable, and exhaustless) riches of Christ [wealth which no human being could have searched out],

Ephesiasn 3:9 Also to enlighten all men and make plain to them what is the plan [regarding the Gentiles and providing for the salvation of all men] of the mystery kept hidden through the ages and concealed until now in [the mind of] God Who created all things by Christ Jesus.

Paul does not take credit for anything that he does.  He was MADE a minister.  It was an undeserved grace that was bestowed on him by God.  He counts himself as the least of all saints.  He has been entrusted with this ministry from God.  The plan of salvation and the gospel was hidden from all men.  He was gifted to enlighten all men and make plain what had been hidden through the ages.  This mystery was in the mind of God who created by Christ.  Here is an important concept: It is God's idea.  You cannot be invested in outcome because you begin to judge this and that...you and everyone you would bless becomes a loser.  

Paul’s path has been completely turned around in the Damascus road experience and the time of instruction from the third heaven.  Paul has lost himself.  He understands and accepts that he is an instrument in the hands of God.  I see Paul’s life as a living miracle.  He has been given so much, and he knows that.  Living this miracle, he gives to others who at this point have less…knowledge, grace, forgiveness, etc.  It all comes from the hand of God through Paul.  Through the miracle of his life, his love is expressed and the love of God is made manifest.

Paul is not just giving them a new theology.  He is attacking their fear.  Fear of being less than.  Fear of not being as good as.  Fear of being measured as inadequate.  Theology does not redeem.  Fear reduction is a miracle that opens a door way for redemption. It comes from love…from the earthly Paul and from the heavenly Father.

It seems to me that God has a time table.  God has had a plan from the very beginning of creation.  It was hidden through the ages.  It was concealed until Paul’s ministry.  Paul, who was so quick to build a wall between Jew and Christians, is now all about tearing down the walls between Jew and Gentiles.  His  life is a living miracle that he pours out for others.  He exemplifies loving others as you do self.  He recognizes that without the gospel the people are left to their own devices much the same as was his lot when on the road to Damascus. 

The Damascus Road experience is that of all of us.  At many places in our lives we have been given a vision of Jesus that gives us an understanding that we have been persecuting Jesus.  We do not want to believe this.  We justify it.  We dress it up.  We blame.  It is time that we accept the ministry that is given to us as it was to Paul.  Tearing down walls.  Do we recognize that we are the least of saints?  Do we understand that our lives lived for others are miracles, also. We keep waiting for God to do a miracle when all the time he has called us to live a miracle of love and service.  There really is not anything else that fulfills our calling in God.  

Our Damascus Road experience may not be the same as Paul’s.  Probably will not be.  It is none the less as dramatic when embraced as a calling to give a gift to someone else…a gift of God’s love and acceptance.  It means that we have to love and accept, also.  The Damascus Road experience not only calls you to a new path; it calls you from an old one.  

Ephesians 3:3 - 3:6 -- Mystery Revealed

Ephesians Study

Chapter 3

Ephesians 3:3 - 3:6 — Mystery Revealed

Amplified Bible:

Ephesians 3:3 [And] that the mystery (secret) was made known to me and I was allowed to comprehend it by direct revelation, as I already briefly wrote you.

Ephesians 3:4  When you read this you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ.

Ephesians 3:5  [This mystery] was never disclosed to human beings in past generations as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles (consecrated messengers) and prophets by the [Holy] Spirit.

Ephesians 3:6  [It is this:] that the Gentiles are now to be fellow heirs [with the Jews], members of the same body and joint partakers [sharing] in the same divine promise in Christ through [their acceptance of] the glad tidings (the Gospel).

Paul states that what he is sharing is a mystery (secret) that has been made known to him through direct revelation.  This gave him an insight into this understanding that had not previously been revealed to man.  The mystery (secret) is that Gentiles and Jews are to be one…of the same body, partaking of the same promise in Christ as they accept the glad tidings of the gospel.  Do you see yourself as one with Gentile, Jew, Christian and others?  This call to oneness challenges our comfort level.  Have you ever looked at a group of people at a restaurant and felt that oneness?  We are journey companions.  Our trip may not look the same, but that is a matter of perception.  As soon as we think our trip is "better than" all those around us we have created walls.  It is very freeing to feel that you have nothing to prove to anyone!  Trusting God with their journey keeps us from judging and building walls.

Paul's teaching models Christ's life.  Christ was always breaking down walls that separated.  He sat and ate with those who were considered unworthy.  He taught all no matter what level of training they  already had...Nicodemus versus those on a hillside.  He broke down the walls that kept the demon possessed away from life, others, and God.  We have Christ's life Paul's message of tearing down the walls.  The Lord never justified the walls.  He was always finding a way to demolish them.  Even His examples of Sabbath keeping were breaking down the traditions of men and those walls that made it a burden.

Written way before Paul’s time, the following is beautiful and speaks of this time.   I’m sure it can be applied to any time that Israel was in captivity, but it really speaks to me in this regard.  One of the definitions of Jerusalem is city of peace.  There can be no peace unless there is oneness.  Peace suggests that a transformation has taken place…"the pain that we do not transform, we transmit" (Rohr).  That pain is usually transmitted in some form of walls.  Walls do something to the heart that cuts it off from the source of spiritual life.  Walls to others are indicative to the walls we have for ourself.  

Psalm 102:18 - 22

This shall be written for the generation to come:        

and the people which shall be created shall praise the LORD.

For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary;

from heaven did the LORD behold the earth;

to hear the groaning of the prisoner;    

to loose those that are appointed to death;

to declare the name of the LORD in Zion,    

and his praise in Jerusalem

when the people are gathered together,

and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD.

Paul is saying that his insight into this oneness mystery can now be understood…one body and joint partakers of the divine promise in Christ and the acceptance of the gospel.  This makes me think of communion again; the body and the blood.  What I keep returning to are these words: Do this in remembrance of Me.  How can we be one with anyone else if we are not one with Him?  Rightly discerning the body and blood of Christ is more than something that we do.  It engages the body, mind, and spirit.  It includes the emotions and spiritual beliefs.  

Do in remembrance of Him.  Did He say that because He knew that it was all too easy to turn this into just a ritual.  A non-feeling, non-sensing something that is done rather than taking us to a place of knowing Him.  It is intimate.  What do these precious elements of communion tell us about Him?  What do they speak to our hearts?  This is our daily bread.  It makes oneness possible.  Oneness starts with Christ’s flesh and blood.  For days, I have been thinking about His instructions to us: Do this is remembrance of Me.  I know that it is bigger than we have understood.  I feel that this mystery is still unfolding as we seek to understand oneness and being partakers of divine promises.  

I think the following scripture helps us further understand what Paul is saying.

“Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who has called us to glory and virtue, through which He has given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, so that BY THESE YOU MIGHT BE PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” 2Peter 1:2-4. Praise God!

Ephesians 3:1-3:2—Paul’s Identity Defined by God

Ephesians Study

Chapter 3

Ephesians 3:1-3:2—Paul’s Identity Defined by God

Amplified Bible:

Ephesians 3:1—For this reason [because I preached that you are thus built up together], I, Paul, [am] the prisoner of Jesus the Christ for the sake and on behalf of you Gentiles–

Ehesians 3:2—Assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace (His unmerited favor) that was entrusted to me [to dispense to you] for your benefit,

Has it been mentioned that Paul was in prison?  He does not let that define him.  He does not say that he was a prisoner of Rome or anyone else save Jesus Christ.  Prison was probably a hard thing…maybe even embarrassing.  In all of this, he saw his calling as holy…from the Lord.  He saw a bigger picture. Let us understand that whatever happens to Paul he credits it to God.  Is that not truth?  If you are Christ’s, whatever happens is through His will.  This is a hard concept to grasp.  We do not want prison, hardness, sickness, and embarrassment.  We will find something to blame or something that excuses it.  

Paul says that he preached the Gentile oneness with the Jew.  He was a prisoner on behalf of the Gentiles.  He preached OUR oneness with the Jew.  In Romans 1:1 he calls himself a slave of Christ.  It says much about how he sees his role.  Imagine, Paul had a face to face encounter with Christ.  At some point, he was in the third heaven.  He was taught by Heaven.  He did not know Christ when Christ was on earth.  He truly had the correct picture and teachings.  I used to ask myself when reading Paul, “What is he trying to say?”  It seemed to me that he used a lot of words and repeated ideas over and over.  Now, I somewhat get it.  If you had experienced what he did, might you have a story to tell and repeat those glorious ideas?  I think so.  There is something to be said for repetition, too, in the teaching process.  He was taught by Heaven.  He was inspired and his words are inspired.

When I think of Paul’s influence on the Gentiles and Jews, I see that it was wrapped up in his prison experience.  His influence could not have been greater in any other way or his experience would have been different.  That puts a different slant on what we consider an inconvenience.  The prison experience said one thing to the Gentile.  It probably spoke volumes to the Jews.  They started their experience with him not trusting him.  Here he is in prison because of his beliefs and ministry.  They could not argue that.  They could not dismiss him, either.  His influence was huge.  

In verse 2, Paul speaks of grace in a slightly different way than the “unmerited favor” definition that we know so well.  He is using grace to mean the gift of ministry.  He was given a task as the minister to the Gentiles.  He was given grace to preach to them.    Often, we think of the task as the privilege of doing, but Paul shows us that no matter how the task plays out (prison), it is the management of that power, the allowing of the expression of Heaven that is important.  All God’s children are the managers of the Heavenly power within.  You could use the word stewards, also.  Grace connects, enlists, and empowers.  Even in prison.  It is God’s power being lived out.

Paul’s grace must have exemplified much to the Gentiles.  What would you think if your pastor was in prison because he preached salvation to you?  When Divinity embraces our humanity, you have an incarnation…spirit and flesh becoming one.  Oneness means no separation.  Paul preached that.  He lived that.  This Divine communion is the ultimate of I must decrease and He must increase.  This is rightly discerning the body and blood of Christ.  This is living it.  This communion that Paul had with Heaven was constant and consistent.  It was a communion that replaces man’s spirit with that of Heaven.  In all that Paul did and endured, it can be said that he lived a life of “not my will, but thine be done.”  

As we continue with the Ephesians study, we will find that Paul stays with the topics of the majesty of God, the mystery of the plan, and the magnificence of the life of Christ and what He has done for us.  There is none of the hellfire and brimstone theology that has entrenched itself in the Western mind and world for hundreds of years.  There is a moving them (us) from where we were…to not knowing the truth about God and ourselves to hearing the unfolding of this mystery of oneness.  It is all so beautiful.  In the context of this truth about the Godhead and the plan, then, what seems to be harsh words later on can be seen from a different perspective.  Paul does not want us to be defined by that which is anything by Godly.  

Sometimes, I do a private communion service with God and myself.  This morning was one of those times.  We are told to rightly discern the body and blood of the Messiah.  During these times of communion my prayer is always to help me glorify God.  We live in a world of flesh, and we want to walk by His Spirit.  Is this not what the incarnation meant to the Lord?  Before He gave us an example of the communion table, He was living a constant communion.  That is how He was able to be flesh and walk in Spirit.  Paul’s flesh was imprisoned.  His Spirit was not.  This is an important lesson for you and me.  In the flesh, we may be in prison in some way.  In Spirit we are not…we are One with Him.  This Spirit makes living in the flesh a victory…no matter how it looks to those who see our prison.  Paul gives me such courage as he lives and serves even though he is in  prison.  His real identity shines through.  This, is that to which he continues to call us.