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Earlier in this letter, Paul had been teaching the Ephesians about the new unity between the Messianic Jewish remnant and the Gentile Christian remnant. Here, the Lord’s divinely inspired Representative goes into more detail. For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Messiah Yeshua for the sake of you Gentiles – surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Messiah, which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the Gospel, the Good News, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Messiah Yeshua.

For this reason (the reason being that with the coming of the Son of God, Jews and Gentiles come together and form a unified new humanity, a humanity that has been reconciled to God, and reconciled to each other, full of peace and love and unity with the ancient division between Jew and Gentile gone, a humanity that will live forever).

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Messiah Yeshua. I love Paul’s attitude expressed by this thought – that even though Paul had been arrested and was a prisoner of the Romans, greater realities were at work. The one who really confined Paul wasn’t Caesar, but Messiah Yeshua. Paul understood that he belonged to Messiah. He was a servant of Messiah; and he was a prisoner of Messiah. If Messiah wanted him confined in a Roman prison, that was OK with Paul. Messiah was Lord, and Messiah had the right to order Paul’s life – even if it meant time in a Roman prison. It inspires me that even while the Rabbi from Tarsus was in jail he was doing something for the Lord. He was praying, witnessing, writing letters to teach and encourage and correct. That tells us that there is almost always something that we can do to serve the Lord, no matter where we are, no matter what our circumstances are.

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Messiah Yeshua for the sake of you Gentiles. Paul wanted Messianic Community in Ephesus, especially the Gentiles, to understand that his relationship to them was special, and because it was special, they should accept what he is teaching them. His relationship to them was special because he was the apostle to the Gentiles, the Lord’s Representative to the non-Jewish nations. That gave him special authority to speak into their lives. And his relationship to them was special because he was suffering for them. He was in prison for carrying out his God-ordained ministry as the apostle to the Gentiles. Suffering for someone else creates a special bond. If someone suffers for you, or dies for you, it intensifies the nature of the relationship. So, because the Rabbi from Tarsus was specially tasked to help the Gentiles, and was suffering on behalf of those peoples, he was asking them to accept and act on the important truths he was trying to communicate to them.

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Messiah Yeshua for the sake of you Gentiles – surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. His apostleship to the Gentiles and his insight into the relationship between Jew and Gentile was already known to them.

What was his insight into the Gentiles? It is something he calls a mystery. Paul does not use the word “mystery” like it is commonly used today. It’s not something mysterious or hard to figure out. Paul uses “mystery” to refer to a spiritual truth that had only recently been revealed. What was the spiritual truth that had only recently been revealed? In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Messiah, which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the Good News, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Messiah Yeshua. The Spirit of God had been making known to Paul, and to other apostles and New Covenant prophets, something that was not known to people in previous generations – that through the proclamation and the reception of the Good News, Gentile Christians become fellow heirs with the Messianic Jewish Remnant, and are fellow members with the Messianic Jewish saints in one great community of salvation. The Gentile Christian Remnantthe wonderful promise given to those who are joined to the Messiah.

God had hinted at these things to earlier generations – that the Seed of the Woman would come and crush the head of the snake. Eden’s catastrophe would be fixed. The Messiah would come among the Chosen People. He would be a descendant of David. He would rule on David’s throne over Israel and the nations. He would bring peace to the world; that He would bring peace to nature. These things were revealed to the prophets. But, recently God had been revealing to Messianic Jewish apostles and New Covenant prophets more spiritual truths that had not previous been clearly understood. But something radically new had recently happened. The long-expected Messiah had finally come! But He wouldn’t rule over Israel and the nations immediately and in Person. Instead, after He lived a perfect life, and was betrayed, arrested, tried, tortured and crucified, He rose from the dead. He was resurrected! He overcame death! But, instead of ruling from the throne of David over Israel and the nations, King Messiah ascended to Heaven, to the right hand of God the Father. Through the proclamation and reception of the Good News, the Father and the Son began pouring out their Spirit into a faithful remnant of Israel and Gentiles chosen from among the nations. They were being joined together in a new, united humanity, a new fellowship united to God the Father, Messiah the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Jews and Gentiles are equal members of this new community with equal status.

Gentile Christians are equal sharers, full partners in the wonderful promise given to those Messianic Jews who are joined to the Messiah – the promise that because of the coming of the Seed of the Woman, who is Immanuel, God With Us, the Messiah, and because of who Messiah is, and what He has done, is doing and will do –  reconciliation to God, perfect atonement, redemption from the satanic slave market of sin and death, salvation from Satan, sin, the sin nature and death, eternal blessing – belong equally to the Gentile Christians as they do to the Messianic Jewish remnant.

The Messianic Gentile Remnant are fellow heirs, joint-recipients of the amazing things God promised to give the redeemed remnant of the Chosen People, things like God being our God and we being His people; that we will live forever with the eternal God; that we will be righteous; that we will receive everlasting praise and honor and glory; that we will live forever in unending happiness in the New Heavens and New Earth and the New Jerusalem with the God who loves us! That we will live forever with the holy ones of all the ages, with the sons and daughters of God; with our loved ones who have faithfully served the Lord; with the good angels and the cherubeem and serafeem and the living beings and the other creatures that will be there; that we will enjoy all the wonders of that real and blessed kingdom; drinking the water from the river of life which runs through the center of that beautiful city; eating from the Tree of Life that produces a different fruit each month and gives healing and life; that we will have meaningful things to do, like help God rule the new universe. The Faithful Remnant from the nations are fellow heirs along with the Messianic Jewish saints of this great inheritance.

This special Jewish apostle to the Gentiles understood these recently revealed spiritual realities better than almost anyone. He had unique insight into this mystery and its importance. He wanted Messiah’s Community in Ephesus to understand what he understood, and come together in unity and work together in unity Paul worked hard for them and suffered for them. The Ephesians needed to learn these truths from him and implement them in their part of the new, united humanity – as do we.

This mystery, that Messianic Jews and Messianic Gentiles come together into a new, united humanity, is the result of the Jewish people accepting the Good News, and Gentiles accepting the Good News. The Gospel, therefore, is essential to the working out of this mystery. I became a servant of this Gospel, this Good News, by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of His power. Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Messiah, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. His intent was that now, through the Church (Messiah’s New Covenant Community made up of Messianic Jews and Gentile Christians called out of a dying world), the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to His eternal purpose that He accomplished in Messiah Yeshua our Lord.

Paul knew the Good News, was committed to proclaiming the Good news – to the Jewish people first, and also to the Gentiles. Paul was passionate about the Good News, was focused on the proclamation of the Good News. He saw himself as a servant, a slave devoted to serving the Good News. I became a servant of this Gospel, this Good News. I love this, because I see myself in the same way – not just as a servant of Lord, but as a servant of the Good News. I care about the proclamation of the Good News, live to tell others the Good News, try to keep myself pure so that I don’t dishonor the Good News, try to think of creative and clear and effective ways to bring the Good News to my Jewish people and also my Gentile people. Serving the Good News is a big part of my identity and the way I live my life – as it was, even more so, for Paul.

Paul was specially graced, gifted and empowered to proclaim the Good News – particularly to the Gentiles. God worked powerfully through Paul’s proclamation of the Good News, and many Gentiles were saved and became part of Messianic Communities. In fact, Paul’s efforts and his teachings helped change the course of Western Civilization and human history. Not only was Paul powerfully gifted to proclaim the Good News, he was graced with the ability to understand and teach the greatness of the Messiah. Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Messiah, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.

I love Paul’s attitude – that even though he was one of the greatest human beings who ever lived – courageous, zealous; vastly intelligent; great scholar and theologian; dual-cultural, able to function in Jewish and Greek-Roman cultures; evangelist; congregation planter; prophet, apostle – he was humble. Despite his great insight, authority and amazingly fruitful ministry, he understood himself to be less than the least of all the Lord’s people – probably because he came late to the Faith and persecuted the early Messianic Jews who came before him.

Paul felt privileged to be entrusted with his spiritual responsibilities. Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Messiah. Paul declared that Yeshua is the Messiah. But this Jewish rabbi was also able to articulate the boundless riches that flow from the Messiah – the eternal inheritance that awaits us made possible by the Messiah and also the boundless spiritual riches that are flowing from Messiah now – the graces upon graces, so that when one unmerited favor is gone, another undeserved blessing is there to take its place; the abundance of forgiveness and mercy; the depths of divine love.

This grace, this ability was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Messiah and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things – in other words, Paul was blessed with the ability to make plain what the Creator had been doing in secret all along – how Jew and Gentile come together as equal members of the new united humanity. Part of Paul’s task was to bring out into the open and make plain what God, who created everything, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Next, the rabbi gives us revelation about more of the great things that God is doing among us. It’s not just to unify broken humanity, but also to teach the angels about the multifaceted wisdom of the Creator. God’s intent was that now, through the Church (which is Messiah’s New Covenant Community made up of Messianic Jews and Gentile Christians who are called out of a lost and dying world), the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. What is happening to Messianic Jews and Gentile Christians reveals to these real and powerful intelligent beings different aspects of the wisdom of God.

I can almost hear some of these ancient spirits talking to each other. “We thought we knew the Creator before, but now, because of these Messianic Jews and Gentiles, we understand how much greater and wiser the Creator is! God is taking creatures made of dust of the Earth – so weak, so frail, and then ruined by sin and rebellion – the Creator is taking these ignorant, sinful mortals and rescuing them and forgiving them and redeeming them and unifying them and making them like us – the sons of God – like us, but even greater that us! What an amazing plan God is working out in time and in eternity – the Creator suffering for the fallen creature and bringing peace to the creature and then highly exalting the creature. Using the physical world and the spiritual world, using man’s sin and rebellion, and using His love and mercy and grace, God is creating a community of sons and daughters who will live with Him forever. What an astounding plan! We knew the Creator was wise before this, but now we understand how much greater, how much wiser He really is. And now we respect Him and want to serve Him and worship Him even more!”

God’s intent was that now, through Messiah’s New Covenant Community the wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. And Messiah is essential to this great plan. This is according to His eternal purpose that He accomplished in Messiah Yeshua our Lord.

Without His part in our creation; without His Incarnation; without His perfect life; without His grace, love and mercy; without His pain and suffering and crucifixion and atoning death; without His resurrection and ascension and the giving of His Spirit; without His ongoing life and high-priestly ministry, this great and eternal purpose would not be possible.

In Him and through faith in Him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. Joined to Messiah and loyal to Messiah, we have a real, new living relationship with our Creator, a relationship that the rebellious in the world can’t have. Like a young prince can enter the presence of a great king without being afraid, so we can approach the High King of Heaven with freedom and confidence. He won’t be angry with us, or reject us or send us away.

Paul began this part of this letter reminding them that he was in prison, suffering for them. He ends this part of this letter giving them a godly perspective on suffering. I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory. It’s normal for human beings to avoid suffering. But, suffering was part of God’s redemptive plan for Messiah. His suffering was necessary to redeem us. In a similar way, some of God’s servants, like Paul, may be called upon to suffer to help God’s people. That kind of suffering isn’t shameful, but an honor. We willingly suffer for what is important to us. Paul understood that and asked the Ephesians not to be discouraged because of his sufferings for them, because they were necessary and because they brought them honor. Paul’s sufferings showed the world that Messiah’s Community was valuable, important and worth suffering for.

My friends, it doesn’t get any better than this: the mystery of the Messiah; Gentile Christians are heirs with Messianic Jews, and members of one body, and sharers in the fantastic promise available because of Messiah Yeshua. This reveals the wisdom of God to the angels. Joined to Messiah by becoming loyal to Messiah, we can approach God with freedom and confidence!