Ephesians 1:9-10

Day 6

“In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.” Ephesians 1:9-10

Ephesians 1 displays the panoply of the attributes of God.  Already in the chapter we have encountered the holiness, blamelessness, love, grace, forgiveness, and kindness of God.  It is the will of God to make known His incredible plan of salvation and through that plan to display all of His amazing attributes.  God is a God of revelation.  In the beginning, God spoke the creation into being.  “Let there be light.”  Why does God speak the creation into being?  Why not just have Moses write, “God created light?”  Why not record, “God thought about light and there was light.”  Instead, God spoke the creation into existence because He is a God of revelation.  God spoke the creation into being and now the creation speaks back, declaring the amazing attributes of the God of creation.  In this text, Paul emphasized the revelatory work of God in salvation.  Just as the spoken creation reveals the attributes of God, so too the plan of salvation reveals the attributes of God.  This is the wisdom and insight from God, the revelation of the mystery of His will.

In the New Testament, the meaning of “mystery” is a bit different than how we commonly use the word.  We speak of a mystery as something where the facts or events are hidden, situations where we seek additional information to give clarity.  In the New Testament, the word “mystery” means that which was previously hidden but has now been revealed.  In Ephesians, Paul divulges a few mysteries, things God has now revealed that in the past were hidden. Ephesians 3:4-5 “When you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit.”  This verse provides a good definition of this word.  A mystery is that “which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed.” 

The specific mystery Paul described in Ephesians 3 is that “the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” (Ephesians 3:6) In Ephesians 5, Paul linked the relationship between husband and wife as a model for the relationship between Christ and the church.  The two becoming one is a beautiful yet complex idea, but now provides clarity for the relationship of Christ to the church.  “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.” (Ephesians 5:31-32)

In these verses, the mystery comes from the hidden plan of God now revealed in the saving work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  In eternity past, before the creation of the world, God planned creation and salvation.  The purpose of His plan was to put on display His amazing attributes.  The culmination of the plan is the making much of His Son, Jesus Christ.  God’s plan in creation and salvation brings about the “summing up of all things in Christ.”  Now that Christ has come, this plan has brought about God’s desired end.  God planned for all to be about Jesus Christ.  The incredible plan of salvation, predicted in the Old Testament, has now been fully disclosed.  The mystery of the plan of salvation was once hidden or cloaked.  Now the plan of God in salvation has been fully revealed.  God saved us through faith in the death and resurrection of His Son.  God’s ultimate will in this administrative plan of salvation is now revealed, “the summing up of all things in Christ.”

Suggested Prayer:  The whole universe, our lives, our salvation, our destiny in heaven comes from You, Oh God.  All of Your work in salvation works toward Your desired goal of making much of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Make my life also about the glory of Jesus Christ.  Take my life and glorify Your Son in what I think, say, and do.  Orient my very purpose to Your purpose of the summing up of all things in the person of Christ.  Amen.

Ephesians