“This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” Ephesians 3:6
Grace is the ultimate surprise party because it is an invitation to a celebration we never should have been invited to.
It is celebrating a gift we don’t deserve and should not have access to. Grace qualifies the unqualified and makes the unworthy worthy to stand before God as one who is perfectly and completely loved through nothing they have done.
Paul is passionate and bold in his proclamation of the grace of God through Jesus Christ because he radically received the grace of God on the Damascus road (Acts 9). He knows deeply that he did not deserve the gift he received in the gospel because Paul was a zealous church persecutor before his life was saved. When the first martyr named Stephen was killed for preaching the gospel, the men who stoned Stephen “laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul” (Acts 7:58).
Paul was a radical, religious terrorist of the early church. But God radically transformed his life through the grace of the gospel. He is plainly aware that he does not belong as a follower of Jesus based on his former life. But grace changed everything and qualified the unqualified. Christ gave him a new life and a new story to be used for the glory of the one who saved him and set him free. Paul never forgot it because he tells us in 1 Timothy 1:15-16, “But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example of those who were to believe in him for eternal life.”
Paul was a living example of the grace of God qualifying the unqualified. If the grace of God can save his life through Jesus Christ, then so can yours. No matter who you are or what you have done to disqualify yourself, you can be saved if you trust in Jesus and receive His grace through faith.
If Paul’s story doesn’t convince you, let Ephesians 3:6 have a turn. The Gentiles are the people who did not belong to the lineage of Israel, which means they were not part of God’s chosen people. The Jews viewed them as unclean and unworthy because they had not attempted to live according to God’s law. They were totally unqualified to be called children of God and did not deserve a seat at the table with the Jews. And yet, Paul declared the mystery of the Gospel in Ephesians 3:6, saying, “This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”
A Jew himself, this is an amazing statement for Paul to make. It is an important statement for Gentiles, anyone who does not come from a Jewish heritage. The Scripture says God’s love has been made available to all who trust Christ. No matter how far you feel from God, the Gospel is your invitation to the party. This was such a foreign idea that Paul calls it a mystery. It is a mystery that can only be revealed through the good news of the Gospel.
And we’re all invited to the party!
Taken from a sermon by George Wright, Senior Pastor, Shades Mountain Baptist Church, Birmingham, AL
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT GOD’S GRACE
“GRACE IN A CANCEL CULTURE” by Jonathan Munson, Executive Director, RFTH
