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believers. But he does not say here that this constituted the Mystery and Secret which he
had been given as a special stewardship to pass on to the Gentiles. In fact he does not
once speak of the churches of the Acts period as being linked with the Mystery.
Later on in the letter to the Ephesians he shows that the Gentiles were by nature
`without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the
covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world' (2: 12). But in this
new creation their great distance from Christ Jesus was cancelled. Now, instead of being
`far off', Christ was among them, independently of Israel or the covenants made with
Israel. A new vista was opened to them connected with `riches of glory' that belong to
heavenly places where Christ is now enthroned and positionally they are seen by God as
`seated together in Christ Jesus' in these heavenly places (Eph. 2: 6). No such calling
had ever been made known before, least of all to Gentiles so far off from God and utterly
hopeless in themselves! What riches of glory are here! This new calling is closely
connected to the wealth of the Godhead. `Riches' occurs eight times in Paul's prison
epistles and each reference is tremendous in its implications and needs revelation and
careful and prolonged meditation to savour its fullness and wonder. We give the
occurrences:
". . . . . the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace" (Eph. 1: 17).
"What the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints (of in the `holiest of all')"
(Eph. 1: 18).
"That . . . . . He might show exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us
in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2: 7).
"That I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ" (Eph. 3: 8).
"That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory" (Eph. 3: 16).
"My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus"
(Phil. 4: 19).
". . . . . what is the riches of the glory of this mystery" (Col. 1: 27).
"unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of
God, even Christ" (Col. 2: 2 R.V.).
These verses make known some of the almost incredible wonder of this new
dispensation or stewardship which is God's revelation `for us Gentiles'. Here indeed is
truth, that up to this point had been kept secret. Where previously can we find such
wealth, such spiritual treasure given in grace to far-off outsiders? All this was summed
up in Christ Jesus and He is now `among us' Gentiles in all His fullness. This indeed
warrants Paul's statement `the riches of the glory of this secret, Christ among you
(Gentiles) the hope of glory'.
We wish however to point out that the indwelling Christ is certainly true for members
of the church which is His Body for in the second prayer of Ephesians the Apostle prays:
". . . . . that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be
strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith . . . . ." (3: 16, 17),
but Paul does not include this as part of the secret Christ had commissioned him to make
known to the Gentiles. It is profitable to note that the important word `Gentile' in the
prison epistles also occurs 8 times, like the word `riches' (Eph. 2: 11; 3: 1, 6, 8; 4: 17;