R.C. Sproul

to some degree, is now openly proclaimed and is of vital importance for the understanding of the makeup of the church.

We know that one of the most significant controversies of the early Christian church of the first century was the question of what part do Gentiles play in this new covenant community.

And Paul is now declaring to the Ephesian church of this great mystery that has now been revealed of the full inclusion of Gentiles in the church.

And so Paul says, for this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles.

He says that he was a prisoner of Christ Jesus.

He could have said, here, I'm a prisoner of Caesar in Rome.

But Paul had a higher imprisonment in view, that his ultimate captor was Christ, to whom Paul declared that he was a bondservant and prisoner.

said, Indeed, if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which he has given to me for you."

Again, Paul is referring to the singular ministry that by the grace of God he was given to be not merely an apostle, but

but to be the apostle to the Gentiles.

That was his priority and his primary mission and why he was the first great missionary of Christendom in the first century, taking the gospel to the Gentiles.

And he said, how that by revelation he made known to me the mystery as I have briefly written already, by which when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ.

which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, but has now been revealed by the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ through the gospel, of which I became a minister to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of his grace."

Again, Paul is adding this concluding footnote to his exposition of the wonderful things that God has brought to pass in behalf of the Gentiles, including them now in the building of the church, whose foundation is the prophets and the apostles.

And Paul is saying now that this mystery that he is setting forth to them is not something he discovered by his own theological research into Judaism or rabbinic Judaism, but that Paul is declaring that he has learned this mystery by revelation.

And he mentions that in the past, this revelation was also given to other apostles and to the prophets.

Now, the thing that the prophets of the Old Testament and the apostles of the New Testament had in common is that both of these activities, apostleship and the prophetic office, made those who had these offices agents of revelation.

That is, they were specially endowed by God to be vehicles or instruments through which God would reveal His truth to those whom He ordained for that purpose.

Paul is also making it clear in this paragraph that this whole business of his ministry and his reception of this revelation comes from the grace of God.

He couldn't be an apostle except by the grace of God.