All People, Everywhere

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—

2 Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, 3 that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. 4 In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. 6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

7 I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. 8 Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, 9 and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. 10 His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11 according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. 13 I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory. (Ephesians 3:1-13, NIV)


REFLECTIONS:
I really enjoy a good spy movie, as well as crime fiction books that involve some mystery—some journey of discovery for the protagonist. Paul, in this letter to the believers in Ephesus, speaks about a mystery that has been revealed to him by God for the purpose of sharing it with Gentiles as well as Jews. God's grace offered through the sacrifice of Jesus is for everyone. Perhaps this doesn't sound like such a mystery to us today, but imagine how controversial and groundbreaking Paul's message of salvation by grace through faith for all people would have been in his time.

At this time people associated the gods with a particular place. People had regionalistic pride in their gods, perhaps like people today have in our modern sports franchises. The idea of a God who is near and who offers relationship with all people would have been quite a head-scratcher. If someone were to write a mystery story about God's relationship with people, the detective protagonist would find clues throughout the Hebrew Scriptures and would be working on an insatiable hunch that this God had a plan to save the world. The big reveal, of course, is Jesus—who turns the expectations that many Jewish people had about the Messiah upside down while simultaneously fulfilling messianic prophecy in their history. What a wonderful paradox and great mystery story! 

The Apostle John writes about Jesus this way: “The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it” (John 1:5). Let us consider afresh today the great and wonderful mystery of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. And in the places where understanding does not come, where the mystery of life is too difficult or painful to fathom, let us look to the light of Christ and trust that God will guide us in the way we should go.


PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, thank you for the mystery of the gospel. Thank you for the life, death, and resurrection of your Son, the One who came to rescue us all. Thank you for graciously granting salvation to all who look to your Son in faith. Help me today to share the good news about Jesus, in words and actions.


WHO AM I?
I am Tres Sansom, and I am soooo glad that we are no longer surrounded by cookies, cakes, pies, pastries and other assorted sweets that constantly call out to me. Every holiday season, without fail, I pack on a few pounds because of my inability to say “No!” to my sweet tooth. Now that we are past the holidays, it's time to get back to eating rabbit food so I can regain my sculptured physique. :)