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No.62.
The Secret Chamber
(3: 1 - 13).
A ministry of, and by, grace (3: 2 and 7).
pp. 61 - 64
The three most wonderful characteristics of the church of the Mystery as set forth in
verse 3 with its emphasis upon equality in inheritance, in membership of the One Body,
and of partaking in the promise, are referred to both 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 Matt. 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 fullness . . . . .
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 II Cor. 4: 4 can read `The gospel of the glory of Christ', a message that
goes beyond the initial deliverance from sin. And again in I Tim. 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 Eph. 2: 17, the preaching of `peace' was a preaching to
believers, it was to `far off and nigh' dispensationally. In like manner Paul claimed the
distinctive honour of preaching `the unsearchable riches of Christ' (Eph. 3: 8). Of this
gospel, the Apostle says he became a `minister'.
There are three words that are translated `minister' in the N.T. diakonos, leitourgos
and huperetes, and some eight or nine words for the verb `to minister'. Huperetes, means
an `under rower', one who had a most dangerous and degrading position, often chained to
the oar and to the bench of a Greek galley. It came into more general use as descriptive
of a subordinate, either of a law court officer, of a rich man's servant, or an official of
the Sanhedrin or of the synagogue. The word is used of Paul in Acts 26: 16 and