follows seem to keep this threefold division in mind. We meet these features once more

in Eph. 2: 18:

In chapter 3:, the Apostle speaks particularly of the dispensation given to him, of the

Mystery, and the peculiar character of the unity there created.

The mystery or secret of the present dispensation is, of course, twofold; it deals with

Christ and it deals with the church. Now Christ is the theme of all Scripture, the Hope of

all callings, the Foundation of all structures. Consequently, while fuller and higher

revelations were necessary to declare His exalted position at the right hand of God, such

were in their nature an advance upon what had gone before. The revelation that pertains

to the church, however, was entirely new. Nothing in any shape or form was known of it

in Scripture. Its constitution, sphere of blessing and time of choice are all absolutely

unique. Nowhere else throughout the whole range of revelation was it ever revealed that

Gentiles should be "seated together" in the heavenly places; never elsewhere that of Jew

and Gentile should a new man be created, associated with a fellowship of absolute

This fellowship occupies a central position in the witness of Eph. 3: 1-13.  It is

shrined in the structure of the Mystery. It is bounded by the terms "in Spirit" and "in

Christ", and has a threefold equality, a fellowship without precedent, expressed, so far as

the English will permit, by the words "joint-heirs", a "joint body" and "joint partakers".

The words "in Spirit" of verse 5 do not refer to the revelation made to apostles and

prophets, but, as at the end of Eph. 2:, indicate the only sphere in which such an equality

is possible. In the flesh, Israel can brook no peer; in Spirit only can such an equality be

Three times does the Apostle use the word sun, "together with". As translations we

can use the terms "fellow heirs" and "fellow-partakers", but hardly "fellow-body". The

best plan we can adopt is to translate the sun by the word "joint", remembering that it

indicates perfect equality. In I Cor. 12: 13 we have "one body, whether we be Jews or

Gentiles"; this could not be written of the church of the Mystery, for here there is neither

Jew nor Greek--both have been blotted out, and of the twain a new man has been

We must remember, when reading Eph. 3: 6, not to pause at the end of the verse, but

to read straight on into verse 7. It is not the gospel simply, but "the gospel whereof I

(Paul) was made a minister". A reference to Gal. 2: 7 will show that the members of the

"body" of Ephesians could not have been equal partakers of the promise in Christ

according to the gospel there set forth. The gospel in which these members equally share

is that gospel of the grace of God which is in view in Acts 20: 24, a gospel exactly

fitting the dispensation of the grace of God, even as the gospel of the Mystery exactly fits

the dispensation of the Mystery.