EPHESIANS: ETERNALLY ENCLOSED IN GOD’S PLAN

Part VIII: God’s Dispensational Revelation Of The Church

(Ephesians 3:1-13)

I. Introduction

A. Paul wrote Ephesians to encourage believers of God’s work to edify the Church regardless what happened to Paul in his imprisonment (Ryrie St. Bible, KJV, 1978, p. 1672: “Intro. to the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians”).

B. Ephesians 3:1-13 thus explains God’s dispensational view of the Church for which Paul was persecuted, but a view that reveals God’s revelation of the institution of the Church especially to the glory of Gentile believers:

II. God’s Dispensational Revelation Of The Church, Ephesians 3:1-13.

A. The dispensational view of theology that we teach in our Church clearly distinguishes between Israel and the Church where “(a)ll nondispensationalists blur to some extent the distinction between Israel and the Church.” (Charles Caldwell Ryrie, Dispensationalism Today, 1970, p. 137).

B. Ephesians 3:5 has been a key interpretive battleground in dispensational versus nondispensationalist beliefs:

1. In this verse, Paul wrote that the “mystery” that was not made known in past ages but which God made known to him for the Church (Eph. 3:1-4), that “mystery” being the Church (Eph. 3:10), “in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets,” v. 5.

2. The debate entails how to interpret the “comparative adverb ‘as’ (hos)” (Bib. Know. Com., N. T., p. 629):

a. Nondispensationalists view “as” in a “restrictive” sense, that it is a comparison of degree to mean “God has not revealed this mystery in the past to the extent He has now.” ( Ibid.) This interpretation blurs the distinction between the Church and ancient Israel, making the Church at least partially known in the O. T.

b. Dispensationalists view “as” in a “descriptive” sense, “a comparison in kind,” meaning “no revelation of this mystery was given in the (O. T.) but” that it “was revealed for the first time in the (N. T.),” Ibid.

C. The Dispensationalist interpretation of “as” in a “descriptive” sense is the correct position as follows (Ibid.):

1. Though the restrictive sense of “as” is more commonly used, the descriptive sense does appear in the New Testament like it does in Acts 2:15 (the disciples were not drunk “as” the Jews thought), Ibid.

2. “The context” of Ephesians 3:1-13 “supports” the descriptive use of “as” in Ephesians 3:5 because “Paul wrote that this mystery” of the Church “was hidden in the past (Eph. 3:9),” Ibid.

3. “Colossians 1:26, parallel to Ephesians 3:5, does not use the comparative adverb ‘as,’ but clearly states that the mystery was ‘kept hidden for ages . . . but is now’ (nun de) made manifest to the saints,” Ibid.

4. “The position of the . . . adverb ‘now’ (nun) agrees with Colossians 1:26 in making the contrast between the two Ages. In the past the mystery was not known but ‘now’ it is. This is substantiated by the same temporal adverb (nun) in Ephesians 3:10: ‘The manifold wisdom of God’ (which is the mystery) is ‘now’ to be made known to the heavenly hosts . . . Since the heavenly hosts learned of the mystery through the church (which did not exist before Pentecost) certainly people in the Old Testament did not know,” Ibid.

5. The “mystery spoken of here” in Ephesians 3:5 “is not that Gentiles would be blessed (for that was predicted in the O. T.), but that Jews and Gentiles would be equal heirs in the one body of Christ (Eph. 3:6),” op. cit., Ryrie Study Bible, ftn., Eph. 3:3. [The KJV word “fellowheirs” (Eph. 3:6) translates the Greek N. T. substantive sugkleronomos, a “fellow-heir, inheriting together with” (Arndt & Gingrich, A Grk.-Eng. Lex. of the N. T., 1967, p. 781) and the KJV words “of the same body” (Eph. 3:6) translate the Greek N. T. word sussomos, “belonging to the same body” (Ibid., p. 802).] “This was unknown in O. T. prophecy but was revealed in the N. T. apostles and prophets (v. 5),” Ibid., Ryrie.

D. Accordingly, in Ephesians 3:7-12, Paul extensively rejoiced in his ministry of revealing this new body, the Church, where Jews and Gentiles in Christ were of one body and of equal heirs with one another, and that his sufferings for revealing this great truth were easily worth the price for the glory of God in Gentile believers.

E. Paul thus asked that his readers not faint at his tribulations for them, for it was for their glory, Ephesians 3:13!

Lesson: Paul gladly suffered tribulation as a prisoner of Rome on behalf of the revelation God gave him to deliver to believers, the revelation that the Church, unknown to man and angels in the Old Testament, was now revealed to us, a body where Jewish and Gentile believers were fellowheirs and of one body to the glory of God’s grace!

Application: (1) May we hold to the dispensational view of theology as is taught in Ephesians 3:1-13. (2) May we rejoice in God’s new revelation about the Church as a spiritual body of unified Jewish and Gentile believers who are equal heirs of God’s blessings in Christ!