The Prisoner and the Mystery

Notice how I begin — not "prisoner of Rome," not "prisoner of Caesar," but "the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles" (Ephesians 3:1). I am writing this chained, and I want you to see the chain rightly. No soldier holds me. Christ holds me, and he holds me for you — for the sake of people who were once far off, strangers to the covenants, brought near by the blood of his cross, as I have already said to you. My imprisonment is not the interruption of my ministry. It is my ministry.

And what is it I was given to carry? A mystery — not a riddle to puzzle the clever, but a secret long hidden in God and now flung open: "that the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel" (Ephesians 3:6). Hear those three words. Not tolerated at the edges — fellowheirs. Not a lesser branch — of the same body. Not spectators of another people's promise — partakers of it. What kept the nations apart, God has torn down in one Man, and I was made a minister of that good news by grace and by the working of his power.

Then hear how I speak of myself: "less than the least of all saints" (Ephesians 3:8). I mean it — I hunted the church of God before he laid hold of me. Yet to that man, to me, was given the joy of preaching "the unsearchable riches of Christ." Mark that word, unsearchable — riches you cannot come to the bottom of, cannot exhaust, cannot outgrow. If you are weary of Christ, you have not yet begun to know him. The least of saints was set to proclaim a wealth the greatest of saints will spend eternity discovering.

And here is a wonder to lift your eyes: God means the church itself to be a display. "To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God" (Ephesians 3:10). When Jew and Gentile, when strangers of every kind, sit together as one family in Christ, the very angels learn something of the wisdom of God. Your reconciled life is a sermon preached in the heavenly places. Do not despise the ordinary fellowship you have been given; heaven is watching what grace has made.

So two things for today. First, come boldly. In him "we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him" (Ephesians 3:12). The door once shut is standing open — walk through it in prayer this very hour, not cringing, but as a child who belongs. Second, do not lose heart. I close by asking that you "faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory" (Ephesians 3:13). If my chains trouble you, let them instead comfort you — the gospel that reached you was worth suffering for, and it cannot be chained. Take heart, and come near.