from a root meaning `to dig'.  The word is found in Job 11:7 where Zophar asks

the question `Canst thou by searching find out God?'  A similar word ragal is

used for `spying out' a land in Judges 18:2.  What a blessing it is that no

spies can return with an evil report concerning our inheritance, for our

blessings are `unsearchable riches'.  The mystery of Christ, which was made

known in other generations to the sons of men, was `searchable' and this

`searching' was among the qualities that so commended the Bereans (Acts 17:11),

and which exercised the hearts of the prophets themselves (1 Pet. 1:10) and was

either commanded (search), or commended (ye search), by the Saviour Himself

(John 5:39).

These riches therefore belong to another category; they are unsearchable

riches.  They come from the same treasury of truth, they belong to the same

great purpose of the ages as we shall see, but they have been kept in reserve

until the defection of Israel made the gap which these unsearchable riches were

foreordained to fill.  In other words they are `The Mystery'.  The phrase `that

I should preach' is balanced in the next verse by the words `And to make all men

see', `among the Gentiles' being echoed by `all men'; and the `unsearchable

riches' being put in correspondence with the Mystery which had been `hid in

The three most wonderful characteristics of the church of the Mystery as

set forth in verse 6, with its emphasis upon equality in inheritance, in

membership of the One Body, and of partaking in the promise, are referred to in

the words `In Spirit', `In Christ Jesus' and `by the gospel'.  Here we have the

sphere in which these blessings are enjoyed, and the instrument by which they

were introduced and presented.  This leads us to the fact, not always

appreciated as it should be, that the word `gospel' covers a wider range of

truth than is covered by the conception of our initial deliverance from sin or

the passing from death unto life.  To enumerate but a few.  We have `The gospel

of the Kingdom' (Matt. 4:23), but Peter's attitude to the Lord's own prophecy of

His approaching death, as made manifest in Matthew 16 shows that salvation as we

understand the term was not then in sight.  Those to whom the apostle addresses

his epistle to the Romans were saved people `called saints' and `beloved of

God'.  He spoke of the mutual faith both of you and me, yet to this same company

he said:

`So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are

at Rome also' (Rom. 1:15),

which suggests a fuller content than the initial gospel of forgiveness.  Again,

he told this church that when he did at length come to them, he hoped to come

`in the fulness ... of the gospel of Christ' (Rom. 15:29).

We have in Ephesians both `the gospel of your salvation' and the `gospel

of peace' which is associated with the whole armour of God.  Again, the title

`The glorious gospel of Christ' of 2 Corinthians 4:4 can read `The gospel of the

glory of Christ', a message that goes beyond the initial deliverance from sin.

And again, in 1 Timothy 1:11 we could translate the passage `The gospel of the

glory of the happy (makarios, not eulogetos) God'.  So, when Paul links the most

peculiar constitution of the church of the Mystery with the gospel which had

been entrusted to him, he intends the special `good news' or `glad tidings'

which the new revelation brought to the erstwhile far off Gentiles.  So is it

also with the word `preach' in Ephesians 2:17; the preaching of peace was