What is Christianity Wiki

Jump to: navigation, search

Mysteries of the Bible

The Mystery of Grace
The Jew and Gentile Being Equal in the Church

Eph. 3:1-12

Introduction: It must have been difficult for the Jews in the beginning of the New Testament times to grasp the truth that God had begun a new dispensation called the church. In their minds was God's promise to Israel throughout all of the Old Testament of an earthly Kingdom ruled by their Messiah. But the Nation of Israel rejected Jesus Christ who was their Messiah and crucified Him. For most Jews the coming of Jesus Christ meant nothing, they were still looking for a messiah.

Several factors made it difficult for the early Jewish believers to understand that in church, Jews and Gentiles were "fellowheirs" of salvation and equal in God's eyes and in the church. In the church the distinction between Jew and Gentile was removed. Paul while in Jerusalem rebuked Peter for shunning the Gentiles by getting up from eating with Gentiles when a group of Jews came in. (See Gal. 2:11-14) This show that even Peter did not fully understand or had no totally accepted the Gentiles as equal in the church.

All of the first Christians were Jews. These Jews believed Jesus Christ was the Messiah promised in the Old Testament and they were looking for Him to set up His kingdom. Remember they did not have the whole of the New Testament Scriptures to teach them. The church is not mentioned at all in the Old Testament so they were ignorant God's plan for the makeup and mission of the church. In Ephesians 3, Paul is setting this truth in Scripture and making this principle clear to everyone.

This truth was first demonstrated by God in Acts 10, when Cornelius the Roman Centurion was saved. Peter then returned to Jerusalem and told the church that Cornelius had been saved and also that the Holy Spirit had come upon him and his household in the same way as He had come upon them. (Acts 2) In Acts 11:18, is says, "When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life." There now was no question that God had saved and indwelled the Gentiles the same way as the Jews.
Next, Paul was called by God to be the Apostle to the Gentiles. (Rom. 11:13, 1 Tim. 2:7, 2 Tim. 1:11) In Acts 14, when Paul returned from his first missionary journey, he reported to the church. "And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles." (Acts 14:27) This unmistakably established that salvation was offered to all, Jew and Gentile alike.

Conflict between the Jew and Gentile began to emerge as the church at Antioch grew, and many Gentiles were saved. The Gentiles had no background in the Old Testament Levitical laws and their practice of eating meat sacrificed to idols and which contained blood greatly offended the Jews. The Jerusalem council of Acts 15, addressed the matter set apostles set special guidelines for the Gentile believers which would not offend the Jews and bring unity.
In Paul's epistles God directed him to made the truth clear that God saw no difference between Jew and Gentle. To the Galatians he wrote, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." (Gal. 3:28) To the Colossians Paul explained, "Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all." (Col. 3:11)

It was a least twenty five years after Christ began the church that Paul wrote these epistles. So for a many years after Pentecost, when the church began, there were those who still misunderstood. The Jews because of their Old Testament background failed to understand God's new program, the church. They had difficulty accepting that they had no special place as Jews in the church as they had in the Old Testament's promise of a Kingdom. They had from childhood learned to respect and keep the Law. Now Paul was explaining that the Law had been set aside for a higher the higher principle of Grace. As the New Testament was written during the first century God progressively revealed that the Kingdom was being temporarily set aside and God had brought about a new dispensation, that being the "Church Age."
It should be understood that the Gospel was first preached to the Jews. In the book of Acts, when Paul began his missionary travels he would first go into the synagogues and preach to the Jews. God was still offering the Kingdom to the Nation of Israel. This must have added to their confusion and misunderstanding of the matter. Paul preached to the Jews that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, but the most of them rejected the message and thus in time Paul stopped going first to the synagogues because of their rejection of the Gospel. God's offer to Israel of the Kingdom was valid and had they believed and received Jesus as their Messiah, God would have at that time established the promised Kingdom.

As the Gentile converts began to grow in numbers they took the leadership and within a century the makeup of the church was predominately Gentile. Thus, in the early church there was a transitional period of time when God was still offering the Kingdom to the Jews and establishing the church. It is my believe that God's offer of the Kingdom was finally withdrawn in AD 70, when Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed. Please note that this was only a temporary withdrawal of the offer of the Kingdom and that at the end of the Tribulation God will establish the Kingdom as He promised.
There were three principles about the church and Israel that must be understood.

1. The church is not found in the Old Testament and is an entirely new program.
2. The promises to Israel were earthly in nature, mainly an earthly kingdom, whereas the promises the church are heavenly, and entirely distinct from Israel.
3. The church and Israel are two totally different programs. The church has a place in the overall Kingdom of God, but it is distinct from it. The Kingdom promised to Israel will last for one thousand years, however the church, as the bride of Christ, will rule with Him forever.
In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said, "I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." Thus it is Jesus the Jewish Messiah who had established the church. The church was always an important part of God's plan, even though in the Old Testament He did not reveal it.

Paul explains the "dispensation of Grace" that was revealed to the Gentiles by his preaching and epistles. (Eph. 3:1-2) He says that by revelation, God made clear to him the "mystery" of the relationship of the Jew and Gentile in the church. He explains in verse 5, that in the Old Testament this truth was not revealed, but is now revealed by the apostles, and prophets (preachers) by the Holy Spirit. (V5)
What was the mystery that was now revealed? "That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel." (Eph. 3:6) Paul tells them, that to him was given the task by God, "that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." (V8) In verse 9-10, he proclaims that this truth now should be known to everyone.

Clarifying this truth did several things in the early church. It showed all men that we all stand on level and equal ground before Christ. We are all sinners, saved only by Grace, through faith in Christ Jesus. It told the Jew he had no special place in the church different from any other believer. It was further evidence that the Law was for the Jew in the Old Testament dispensation and that it had been set aside as had the Kingdom. This revealed to even a greater degree the marvellous grace of God, and that the church was to live by grace and grace alone. This truth too was a great encouragement to the Gentile, who now understood that God accepted him equally with all men. To all the message is that we are joint-heirs with Christ Jesus. It proclaims the great of love of God for all men.