Ephesians 3:1-6

September 18, 2022

Fellow Heirs: The Greatest Scandal of the New Testament

Part 1

God does not hide Himself. He desires to be known.

For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of your Gentiles assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly, when you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men and other generations, as it has been now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets, by the Spirit. 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 of this gospel, I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone. What is the plan of the mystery, hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the Church, the manifold wisdom of God, might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that He has realized in Christ Jesus, our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. So I asked you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being. so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength, to comprehend with all the saints, what is the breadth, and the length, and the height, and the depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who was able to do far more abundantly than we all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be the glory in the Church, and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. So now, as we begin in chapter three, the point of Ephesians, is starting to become clear to us. The purpose―the point of Ephesians is the Church. We talked about this last week, as Paul has this introduction, that is the introduction to end all introductions. As he spends chapter one and chapter two―at least half of chapter two―there just given us some of the richest theology of the New Testament of the person of Christ, of the work of Christ, of the choosing of God's people before the foundation of the world, the adoption of God's people, the redemption of God's people, the work of the Spirit to seal God's people for their Blessed Hope, and their inheritance. All of those things were some of the most magnificent truths of the person of Christ and the work of Christ, and the work of God the Father prior to the creation, and the work of the Spirit in creation. Yet, all of that was really just introducing the main topic of the letter, which is the Church, the nature of the Church, the character of the Church. As we said last week, if we want to know about the Church, if we want to know what the Church is, Ephesians is the place to go. Because the entire letter is focused to the character of the Church, the nature of the Church, and most especially to the unity of the Church. And the letter is going to speak to us some lofty truths about the Church. And it's going to show us a picture of what I like to call the most beautiful thing on planet Earth, which is the Church of the living God. So as we turn to chapter three now, and we begin―all of chapter three is really going to be about the same thing that Paul has already talked to us about. He is, in a sense, going to be backing up and saying what he said all over again. And the reason for this, among other reasons, the reason I think the main thing that's going on here is that Paul is so compelled by the importance of what he's saying, and the difficulty of what he's saying, that he feels the need not only to stop and pray that we would understand these things, but he also feels the need to stop and back up and say them all over again. So that's what we're coming against in chapter three. So I think it'd be helpful to begin just by looking at some nuts and bolts and we'll take some pieces apart, and I believe that this will help us to manage the passage a little more effectively. So as Paul begins here at the beginning of chapter three, he says, “For this reason.” So that that statement right there tells us that that's tying together very closely what he's about to say to what he just said, kind of like when he says, Therefore, for this reason, I just gave you a reason. And because of that reason, I'm now going to say this. So what he just said, I'm going to tie that together, really, we could, we could tie it together with everything he just said previously, but that would be too much to do right now. We'll just tie this together with the most recent thing that he said, which was this great statement about the oneness of the Church, the oneness of the Gentile―the believing Gentile―and the believing Jewish Church, just from verse, oh, I don't know―19. “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ, Jesus Himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord in him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” So we talked last week about this, the magnitude of what those verses mean to us. But that's what's on Paul's mind when he says, For this reason, now, I'm gonna say this. So he says, For this reason, and the next thing he says, is I, Paul. So that's sort of a code that Paul uses, he'll say that and maybe about half a dozen of his letters. He has that formula. I, Paul―and when he says, I, Paul, that sort of a signal for us that he's about to say, the most probably the most profound thing of the letter. Each time he uses that little phrasing there―I plus his name―he's about to say something. It's like by saying that he wants us to kind of lean forward on our seat and pay special close attention, because what he's now coming to is going to be the crux of the letter. So I, Paul, and there's the subject right there. A sentence, right, has a subject. So the subject here is I, Paul, and where do you think the verb for the sentence occurs? If you look down, not in verse two, not in verse three, not in verse four, not in verse five. Not in verse six…verse 14, is where the verb for that subject occurs. So you kind of get, once again, the idea of just the intricacy of Paul's thoughts. So the subject is I, Paul, the verb comes in verse 14, when he says, “bow my knees,” you see how he says, “For this reason,” again, he said that so that we could know―okay, I'm picking back up on that subject that I laid before you have 14 verses ago. So that helps us to connect with the verb there is bow my knees, I, Paul bow my knees. So what he's about to do is pray for the Ephesian believers, once again, just as He prayed for them in verse one. However, before he prays for them, he has 13 verses of parenthetical statements. So if you want to just take a pen, and just draw a little parenthesis around verses one through 13, that's really what Paul's doing. He says, I, Paul, and he's about to say, pray for you, and here's what I pray. But before I say that, let me say these other 13 verses before we get there, so verses one through 13, are essentially going to be―I'm not gonna say a recap―but they're going to be a restatement of what he said back at the second half of chapter two. So he's going to approach it from a little bit of a different angle, he's going to take a different perspective. And what he says and these verses is going to be really driving home and restating the, all the things that we talked about last week, about the glorious, beautiful oneness of this new humanity and Christ from the to one man. And that's not a man, that's mankind, that's a New Humanity. And so before he goes to the prayer, before he gets to the prayer, he says, “I'm going to pray for you believers. But before I do that, let me just make sure that you understood what I just said.” So from that, I want to just draw a, I think, a helpful point, but a quick point. And that point is this before Paul prays for them, he wants to make sure that they understand what he just said to him. So in other words, the things that he said to them, Paul recognizes these spiritual truths cannot do anything for you until you comprehend them on a human level. So, we know that the scriptures are spiritual writings and we require the work of the Spirit to understand the things that He has given to us. First Corinthians two, right? We recognize that and affirm that, however, we should be careful to understand that that doesn't mean that the Spirit does his work with his Word, without our comprehension of that Word. The Scriptures are not a bunch of magic words and phrases, that we just repeat and say without understanding, and the Spirit somehow just takes those and uses those in our heart in some unknown kind of way, right? There, it's not magic words, remember the Bugs Bunny cartoon? One of my favorite ones: Magic Words and Phrases. Remember that one? Where Bugs is like in this old castle? Transylvanian Castle, right, and there's the Dracula. And then there's the two headed bird thing, the Witch thing, right? And he can't sleep, so he pulls that book off the shelf magic words and phrases. And he's flipping through. And it's all just nonsense words, nonsense words that don't mean anything. But when you say that word, something happens. And he's walking around, you know, “hocus pocus” and changing things, right? Magic Words and Phrases―the words themselves have no meaning. But the speaking of the words, changes things. Sometimes we can think of our Scriptures that way. That somehow these spiritual truths in the pages of Scripture can bypass our human comprehension and do a spiritual work in our heart without first landing in our brain. And that's not how the Scriptures work. First, we must understand, on a human level, what the words and phrases mean. That's what we do on Sunday morning, we endeavor to understand what the words are saying to us, so that the Spirit can then take those words and implant them into our hearts and do a spiritual work with earthly words. See how that works? So think about for example, we remember on the road to Emmaus, Luke chapter 24. So remember, here, the reason Jesus is walking with the disciples, and as he's walking, you remember, they don't recognize him at first, and they're talking, they're all sad about how they thought that Jesus was the one but turns out, well, we guess he really wasn't the one after all. So take a look at Luke chapter 24, in your notes, verses 25. So he said to them, “Foolish one slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.” And look at what he's going to do now. He's going to explain what the prophets have spoken, ”Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” So you see him explaining here, “And then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures to things concerning Himself.” And then two verses later, “Their eyes were opened.” Now the opening of the eyes was in conjunction with the breaking of the bread. But still, you see the progression there, there was the explaining, there was the understanding, and then there was the spiritual work that took place. So that's what we must be careful to do. And this is what Paul was careful to do. He says, I'm going to pray for you, I'm going to pray that on a spiritual level, you are able to comprehend these things, that you're given the spiritual strength to understand these things and apply them into your heart. But first, I've got to make sure you understood what I said. So I'm going to say it again, in a different sort of way, which is oftentimes what the Scriptures are doing for us, right? They are teaching us again, and again, what they have taught us previously, because we need to hear these things, we need to hear them from different perspectives from different angles. That's why we have four gospels and not one gospel so that from four different perspectives, we can come to an understanding of Christ. So that that comprehension, then gives tools to the Spirit to do that work in our hearts. This is what Paul is going to do. He says, I'm gonna explain this to you. Again, I'm going to pray for you. But let me interrupt myself, before I pray, I'm going to explain this to you again. So he says, “For this reason, I, Paul.” And then he's going to again, 13 verses later, eventually get to the prayer after he does some more explaining. So one more quick point for us to point to and then we're going to move on to what I think are some of the more central points of the of the text. And that's this: just to kind of take a look at the pattern of what Paul's doing. Once again, he is teaching and praying, teaching and pray. He teaches and prays. Now, this is the pattern that we've seen throughout the letter. So let me just pause a little bit here. And I want to do what I did last week. Last week, we looked at chapter two. And I pointed out some of the compelling parallels in chapter two, the first half of chapter two deals with how it is that God moves the individual sinner from a state of sinfulness to a state of grace. The second half of chapter two deals with how God moves the Church from a state of sinfulness to a state of grace. So we talked about the parallels that are seen there. But I want to do that in a bigger scale right now, because again, not just to spend some time up here, but just to make sure that we got this, because I think it's a really help us to begin putting the nuts and bolts together a Paul's letter at this point. So there's some parallels for us to see here. Let's parallel chapter one and chapter three, because chapter one and chapter three are really parallel chapters to one another. Chapter one begins with these profound revelations about the person of Christ, about the work of Christ, how God has chosen his Church, how he has adopted his Church redeemed his Church, and it's these profound revelations about God and His work for the Church. Followed by a prayer that Paul's readers would understand that. Chapter three follows the same pattern. It begins with these revelations that we're going to get into this morning and continue for the next couple of weeks, these revelations about God, these teachings about God, and it's followed up by a prayer that the listeners, the readers would understand that. So you see the same pattern teaching prayer, teaching prayer, in the middle of that is this section―chapter two―that tells us this is how God takes a lost sinner or Corporate lost sinners―which is the Church―and then brings them into a state of grace. So we see that pattern right here. And the pattern for us to see is again, teaching prayer, teaching prayer, which is what a spiritual leader does. That's what a pastor does. We remember from Acts chapter six, remember that whole story in Acts chapter six, where this, the formation of the deacons is about to happen. And the whole reason, the whole catalyst behind that was the apostles were being taken away from their primary duty, which was teaching and prayer. From Acts chapter six, verse four, “We will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” So the apostles at that point, they say, we can't, these are valid needs, these are true needs. And we need to, as a Church, we need to address these needs. But we can't be taken from our primary duty, which is teaching, praying for those that we teach, teaching, praying for those that we teach. So here's just a quick takeaway there. If you ever find yourself, wherever you are, find yourself in a Church in which you do not know for certain that the pastor not only teaches, but prays for you regularly, weekly, then let me suggest to you―you are not being pastored. That you do not have a pastor, because that is the essence, the fundamental essence of what happens in spiritual leadership, is teaching and then praying for those that you teach, teach and pray for those whom you teach. So if you find yourself in that place, wherever you may be, in your spiritual journey, if you find yourself where you cannot say for absolute certainty, that this person is teaching me and praying for me, then you need to find a pastor who will do that because that is what the Word teaches us, is the role of the spiritual leader. So this is what Paul is doing. Once again, he's taught and prayed, taught and prayed. So here, here it begins. Now this other section, the second sort of a section of teaching, so chapter three, verse one, again, for this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and we'll kind of skip over that. But just to sort of make note of this, we'll come back to this. He calls himself a prisoner for Christ Jesus make note of the fact that Paul often calls himself a prisoner. Never once does he call himself a prisoner of Rome. Never once does he call himself a prisoner of the Jews. He calls himself a prisoner of Christ Jesus or for Christ Jesus on behalf of you, Gentiles. We'll talk about that next week. Verse two, assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you. So we'll come back to that next week. Because that's also going to have some benefit for us to take a look at. Because typically we think of grace, as that which comes to us salvifically, that that which comes to us to save us. We've talked about this in chapter two, “For by grace you have been saved,” twice. For by grace you have been saved. So we typically think of grace as that work of God, which comes to us to save us sinners, to make us alive to God and dead to sin. However, Here Paul is going to use grace in a different way, not as the work of God that's coming to a sinner for salvation, but instead something that's given to Paul, that he is then to minister or the word here is steward to others. So just a brief note about that, sort of plant that into your mind and be thinking about that. We'll come back to that next week. So assuming verse two, again, that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, verse three, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation. So here we'll stop here for a little while. And this will be the bulk of what we say today. This mystery that was given to me by revelation, so we see that word mystery, maybe are your sort of perk up. You probably have a subheading at the top of this section of your Bible that says probably something to the effect of the ‘Mystery of the Gospel Revealed,’ something like that. So we hear that word mystery sort of gets our attention, because we like mysteries. mysteries are fun to read, fun to watch on TV and movies and that sort of thing. But we've heard this before, but it's worth repeating. When the New Testament talks about a mystery, it's talking about something categorically different than what we understand as a mystery in our present culture today. We think of a mystery as something that we don't know. But we got to figure it out. Right so think Agatha Christie, think Colombo, right, there's something that you don't know, but you got to sort of figure it out and it's to coin a word, it’s “figure-out-able.” That's the modern concept of a mystery, where the New Testament uses the word mystery and uses it frequently 21 times in the New Testament, almost all of those by call six times in Ephesians. When the New Testament talks about a mystery, it's not at all talking about something that is unknown, that you need to figure out, instead is talking about something that was previously unknown, and could never have been figured out. But God has now told us, that is the definition, the understanding of mystery in the New Testament, something some truth of God that you couldn't know. You could never figure it out. But God has now shown it to us. So the scriptures will talk about a lot of mysteries that have now been revealed to us. The New Testament’s gonna talk about, for example, the mystery of how Christ was incarnated into man. So that's something that the Old Testament saints didn't, there was no understanding in the Old Testament of the Incarnation of Christ. That was a mystery that was revealed in the New Testament. Or, for example, the permanent, full indwelling of the believer by the Spirit. That also was something that was not understood in the Old Covenant Scriptures, but was made plain, was revealed in the New Covenant. So we've got a lot of these mysteries that come in the New Testament things that are truths of God realities of God, we never could have known these things, but God has now revealed them. So you see here the connection between ‘mystery and ‘been revealed’ or ‘revelation,’ those two concepts always go together, they must go together, because neither one of them makes sense without the other. So if there's a mystery, by definition, by New Testament definition, that mystery has been revealed, if it's if it hasn't been revealed, it's not a mystery. It's just an unknown. So the revelation, the revealing, and the mystery are two things that must go hand in hand, if there's a mystery. There's also a revelation. If there's been a revelation, then there's a mystery. So we see here, Paul says that there's this mystery, how the mystery was made known to me, by way of revelation. So isn't it a blessing to know that we serve a God who desires to reveal himself? That's something that's easy to kind of overlook the fact that God who is not visible he has no physical presence for us to see, wants us to know Him, and shows Himself to us. That that is something that's easy to not thank God for, because it's so I guess, fundamental to just knowing God, is that He has shown himself to us and revealed Himself to us. But that is a tremendous thing to thank God for, that he wants to be known. He desires to show himself He's, He's not hiding Himself. He's not concealing Himself. Neither is He complacent about whether or not He's known. He wants to be known. Psalm 19 says that the heavens declare the glory of God. Day after day they speak speech and words that speak about God all day long every day because God wants to be known. What a thing to be thankful for, that we know a God who wants us to know Him and thereby has revealed Himself to us.

Part 2

The greatest scandal of the New Testament was that, by faith, everyone who is in Christ is an equal partaker of the kingdom of God.

Assuming―verse two, again―that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me, for you, verse three, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation. So here, we'll stop here for a little while. And this will be the bulk of what we say today. This mystery that was given to me by revelation, so we see that word mystery. Maybe our ears sort of perk up, you probably have a subheading at the top of this section of your Bible that says probably something to the effect of the ‘Mystery of the Gospel Revealed,’ something like that. So we hear that word mystery, sort of gets our attention, because we like mysteries. mysteries are fun to read, fun to watch on TV and movies and that sort of thing. But when the New Testament talks about a mystery, it's talking about something categorically different than what we understand as a mystery in our present culture. Today, we think of a mystery as something that we don't know. But we got to figure it out, right? Soo think: Agatha Christie, think Colombo, right? There's something that you don't know, but you got to sort of figure it out. And it's to coin a word here figure-out-able. That's the modern concept of a mystery. When the New Testament uses the word mystery, and it uses it frequently, 21 times in the New Testament, almost all of those by Paul, six times in Ephesians. When the New Testament talks about a mystery, it's not at all talking about something that is unknown, that you need to figure out. Instead is talking about something that was previously unknown, and could never have been figured out. But God has now told us. That is the definition: the understanding of mystery in the New Testament, something some truth of God that you couldn't know. You could never figure it out. But God has now shown it to us. So the scriptures will talk about a lot of mysteries that have now been revealed to us. The New Testament gonna talk about, for example, the mystery of how Christ was incarnated into Man. So that's something that the Old Testament saints didn't―there was no understanding in the Old Testament of the Incarnation of Christ. That was a mystery that was revealed in the New Testament, or, for example, the permanent, full indwelling of the believer by the spirit that also was something that was not understood in the Old Covenant scriptures, but was made plain, it was revealed in the New Covenant. So we've got a lot of these mysteries that come in the New Testament―things that are truths of God realities of God, we never could have known these things, but God has now revealed them. So you see here the connection between ‘mystery’ and ‘been revealed’ or ‘revelation.’ Those two concepts always go together, they must go together, because neither one of them make sense without the other. So if there's a mystery, by definition, by New Testament definition, that mystery has been revealed, if it's if it hasn't been revealed, it's not a mystery. It's just an unknown. So the revelation, the revealing, and the mystery are two things that must go hand in hand, if there's a mystery, there's also a revelation. If there's been a revelation, then there's a mystery. So we see here, Paul says that there's this mystery how the mystery was made known to me, by way of Revelation. So let's think about this mystery that he's now going to talk about what is this mystery that was once unknown that has now been made known how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly now, I'm going to take ‘that I have written briefly,’ I'm going to take that to mean, what he said earlier in the letter. Some people speculate maybe there was another letter that he had written to the church in Ephesus, I think, undoubtedly, there were many other letters that he wrote. But I don't necessarily think that's what he's talking about. I think he's talking about what he said earlier. We'll talk more about that next week. As I've written to you briefly, verse four, when you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of man and other generations, it has been revealed to me by His Holy, (I'm sorry), it has been now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. So there's affirmation there of the definition that we just mentioned that this this mystery is a thing that we couldn't know, but has now been revealed. Paul just stated that much right there that God has now revealed this to his apostles and prophets, and the revelation has come by the Spirit. Always, revelation always comes by the Spirit. The Spirit is the instrument of revelation. The Spirit is the person of the Godhead that does the revealing. So this revealing has come by way of the Spirit. Now verse six is going to tell us what the mystery is: This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs are members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. So that's the mystery. It shouldn't surprise us, because he's already told us this. In fact, that's been the theme of the letter. Remember, all those times we talked about the pronouns? Paul says, we were the people of promise, we were the ones who received the Scriptures, this was our inheritance. “But you, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believe you two were sealed with the same spirit, the same promise the same inheritance.” And this really was the theme, especially the theme of the second half of chapter two that we talked about last week. So this shouldn't surprise us. But at the same time, we don't yet have a good grasp of what Paul is saying to us yet. So that's how we're going to spend our time this morning is just to really understand this profound mystery. This mystery that the Gentiles are complete, full heirs with the Jews, the believing Jews in the kingdom of God. So just one quick thing here to say about the word revelation.This word―revelation, apocalypsin in the Greek, from apocalipsis―we know we know that word. So this word, the cultural context of revealing, or revelation, the Hebrew cultural context of that word, is the context of a Jewish wedding. You may not have heard this before. But that's, that's what it was called. There was the revealing, there was the revealing in a Jewish wedding and you know, what the revealing was? Yeah, it was the veil being lifted. So that was called the revealing. So do you know when the veil was lifted? You might not. We lift the veil…when the thing’s done, don't we? At the end, you know, now pronounce you man and wife, and you lift the veil to then reveal the bride or, or present the bride. In a Jewish wedding that revealing doesn't take place at the end of the ceremony, the revealing takes place at the beginning. Can anybody take a guess why. If you think about this, if you know your Bible, and you think about it, you can figure it out. Rachel and Leah, Leah and Jacob remember the whole wedding thing? I mean, that's a pretty darn good reason to change your your wedding chronology there, right? That whole story about Jacob and how he worked for seven years for Rachel. And then there was the swap. And he lifts the veil and goes, No, this wasn't what I thought I was getting into! So after that, there developed the custom that they were going to lift the veil at the beginning. And we all in the room see exactly why, right? So that was the custom that a Jewish wedding there was this revealing. And the revealing was done at the beginning so that the two people being married, knew who they were married. You see the connection? There's a wedding coming. And we are the bride. And there's a Bridegroom. And there's a revealing of who we are prior to the ceremony. So there's this beautiful connection. So whenever Paul is going to use this word revelation, it might not be something at the front of his mind. But in the back of his mind, he is a Jew. And he has this cultural context in his mind. Now you do, too. Every time you read that story of Jacob and Leah, you can think Jesus knows me. Jesus knows me, not like Jacob didn't know who he was getting. Jesus knows who's he who he's getting. And he has revealed me to him. So this cultural context was always in the back of Paul's mind. John will use the word of course, about four times in the Revelation, it's always in the back of their mind, this context of there's a bride and a Bridegroom, and there's a revealing. So this mystery that's revealed is also along the same lines, it's a revealing of who the bride is. And this is the mystery of who the bride is―the bride, verse six, is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. So this, again, has been the theme all along. We could go look back at chapter one, verse nine and 10, where Paul says, you know, that he made known to this mystery of his will according to His purpose, which is set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to do what unite all things in him things in heaven and things on Earth. So now that's making even more sense to us as we see how this is the mystery. This is the point. This is the whole crux of the matter is that all things are being united in Christ. But specifically, this New Humanity is being united in Christ, the new man, from the old man, the new man, the New Humanity, who are the believing Gentiles in the believing Jews who aren't just entering into this relationship of friendship. They're not just entering into this relationship in which they get along. Now, you know, you don't go to the, to the, to this church that Paul's writing to, and the Jews sit on one side and the Gentiles sit on the other, but they all sort of get along. That's not what Paul's talking about. What Paul's talking about is there is a New Man, a New Humanity, that's now one. And this is how Christ has brought together his bride. That's the mystery that he's talking about here. So this is what has not been seen, not been understand, not been understood, (sorry), prior to, of course, the age of the New Testament church when this is revealed, and Paul now reveals it here. This is in true form, the mystery that was not known prior. So let's just think carefully about what it is what it was that the Jewish believers believed about Gentiles prior to the revealing of this mystery. Sometimes we can, I think, oversimplify how it was that Old Testament Jews thought of Gentiles. And we can kind of oversimplify that by saying, you know that the Jews didn't believe that the Gentiles can be saved, they weren't the people of God were the people of God. And it's really an oversimplification of how they understood the Gentile world, because God had revealed to them a number of truths that told them without mistake, that the Gentiles, in fact, could have a place in the Kingdom of God, and could be part of God's people. However, that revelation to God's people in the Old Covenant was incomplete. And it was not full, we should say, but we understand that God began in Genesis four times there in Genesis to tell as he's speaking of his covenant, that there will come blessing to all people by way of the descendants of Abraham, by way of the people, the people, the Hebrew people, the Jewish people, their descendants, by way of their descendants, all people will be blessed, all nations will be blessed. So they at least first of all understood that God somehow had in mind a blessing for the Gentiles, by way of the Jewish people. So they understood at least that much God made that plain four times to them. But then they also understood that the Gentiles would in some way, they would come to a place of blessing God of acknowledging God, of in fact, blessing God. We won't go back to talk about how we talked about ‘blessing God’ back in chapter one, verse three. But suffice to say that blessing God has more to do than just acknowledging God―blessing God speaks of a heart, that's glad that he's God. That is praising Him that He is God, right? And so the Gentiles will have that heart, Psalm 72, in verse 17, “May people be blessed in him, all nations, call him blessed.” We see, furthermore, that the there was an understanding in the Old Testament Scriptures that the Messiah would be the One that would, in some way, bring salvation to the Gentiles. Look at Isaiah 49, it’s a well known passage, Isaiah 49, God says, God, the Father says to God to son, “It's too light of a thing, that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserve of Israel, I will make you as a light for the nations.” Now, light is a metaphor for salvation. And so in some way, God the Father is saying to the God the Son, you will be a saving…a saving event. And maybe I should use that word, you this saving event for the Gentiles in some way you will be made a light for the nations, a light for the Gentiles. Or take a look at this: Isaiah chapter 60.” And nations shall come to Your light.” So in some way, there was this Old Testament understanding that Messiah would also be the vehicle for salvation to come to the Gentiles as well. Then we see in Joel chapter two and verse 28. We're all familiar with this one because Peter quoted this after the Pentecost event, in which Joel prophesies that God says, I will put My Spirit I will pour my spirit out upon not just believing Jews, but all people, all nations, Gentiles, will be the ones upon whom I pour out My Spirit. So that's some information that an Old Testament Saint would have known about the Gentiles as they relate to salvation, as they relate to becoming a people of God. We also know that there were examples remember, of course, Rahab, or you remember, Ruth, both of those were Gentiles who were in incorporated into the people of God. So, there was precedent that the Jews could understand that just being a Gentile did not mean that you were untouchable, that you were unsavable. But in fact, God did not care about you at all. But instead, there was this definite understanding that you were on God's radar. And God does have a way of salvation. And that way of salvation has something to do with Messiah. But that's all that was understood. So now this mystery comes and is revealed to Paul, and the mystery that's unreal, this revealed to him was not, of course revealed until the time of the New Testament Church and the revelation of the mystery, the unfolding of the mystery is that: not just will Gentiles be saved, but that they will by faith, and here's the kicker, this is the crux of the whole matter. This is where the spiritual rubber meets the road. The crux is: not only will they be saved, but by faith, they will have the full place in the kingdom right alongside you. That's what stuck in their craw. In fact, that was the greatest scandal of the New Testament. The New Testament also, of course, knows of the scandal of a Messiah who suffered and died. And that was scandalous. And certainly, that was a stumbling block for a lot of people. Paul talks about that to the Corinthians, he talks about that to the Galatians, the stumbling block of how our Savior was made to be a curse. However, that was not the biggest stumbling block. That was not the biggest scandal. The biggest scandal of the New Testament was that by faith, those who were not the covenant people of God, those who were not the recipients of the scriptures, those who were not the keepers of the law, those who were not the givers of the sacrifice, those who were not the guardians of the tabernacle in the temple, those who were not the people to whom the prophets came, those who were not the people to whom the Messiah came―were nevertheless, by faith, given all of the inheritance that God's people were given. Now, let me just show you from the Scriptures how it is that we can be confident that that was, that was what rocked the boat. We remember of course, the story from…remember Stephen, let me start with Stephen. So Stephen―Acts chapter seven―they're about to stone him, and He gives that long sermon basically takes up most all chapter seven. And have you ever looked at Stephen's sermon and tried to follow his train of thought, what Stevens point, it's kind of a hard one to follow, because it kind of sounds like, well, it kind of sounds like he's stalling for time. I've read that before and thought, kind of sounds like he's, he's going to this long history of God's people. So it sounds like he's stalling for time. Actually, what Stephen is doing is he is delivering a poignant sermon. And the point of that sermon is: God's work is not only in the land of Israel. God's work has been outside the land of Israel, more than it's been inside the land of Israel. That's the whole point of his sermon. I won't go through it all, but that's what, that's what, that's what Steven is saying. And remember the reaction when Peter concludes, and he says, You stiff-necked people, you never understand that God is not confined to the Temple. They get his point. His point is, God loves Gentiles. And they grind their teeth. And they're so enraged that they kill him with rocks. So that's the story of Steven. But then fast forward a couple of chapters. Now the story of Peter, we're talking about Peter last week in Acts chapter 10, the vision of the sheet comes down, there's the unclean animals, right. Ten years after Pentecost, not a single Gentile convert in the church, still made up of only a believing Jews. And so here's Peter, and the sheet comes down to the unclean animals three times, Peter gets it. Peter understands this is telling me to go to the Gentiles. And so right then, you know, there's a knock on the door, and there what do you know, God set this up? Like he always does. And there's the people there this envoy from Cornelius, the Gentile Centurion, who believes in YAHWAH. And he sent word he says, “His angel told me to come and fetch you.” And so Peter gets some other witnesses, some other Jewish witnesses and it goes to Cornelius his house and remember what happens when it gets there. He opens the door. And Peter says, You will know how illegal it is for me to step foot in there, you will know that I cannot step foot in there, because we're not on the same spiritual footing. Nevertheless, God has shown me that within God, there is no partiality. There is no favoritism. And so therefore, I'm here. Now remember what Cornelius was doing that whole time. He was bowing, before Peter. What did the Jews think of the Gentiles. They thought of them as dogs. And here's Cornelius behaving like people would behave like one who believed in Yahweh, yet was not a Jew. He's behaving just like they would behave before a Jew, he's bowing before him. And Peter says, Get up. For God has shown me that this is all wrong. God has shown me that we are not on a spiritually more higher footing than you. And so then he goes in and he shares with him and the Holy Spirit falls on them. And remember what the Jews, that were there, Peter and his friends―they were speechless. They couldn't believe, God has come upon the Gentiles. Just like he came upon us. God is pleased to come to a Gentile in the same way that he's come to me. That was staggering. Now few chapters later, Acts 15. Remember the whole story next 15? There was there was just we said last week, the book of Acts is the story of two worlds colliding. And in that collision, is this turmoil, turmoil over Gentiles who are believing. And they just don't know what to do with this. And so then there's this big ruckus in chapter 15. You remember, at the beginning of chapter 15, it’s described as no small dissension. That's Luke's way of saying this was a massive argument because they couldn't understand how to process this, that the Holy Spirit was coming to people in the same way who weren't Jews as he was coming to those who were Jews. So they had this big meeting. And James's was presiding over the meeting. Finally, Peter stands up. And Peter says, listen, brothers, we saw with our own eyes, the Holy Spirit was pleased to fall upon Gentiles, in the same way that he fell upon us. And they, too, were speechless. And they said, What can we say? Other than God is pleased to now save the Gentiles by faith, as he has saved us. But the problem wasn't over the problem was just getting started. Every single church that Paul planted, every single one, struggled with the same problem. If you think back to years to when we were studying Philippians, you might remember the whole Judaizers remember that thing? Where every single church that Paul planted, the same thing happened, these believing Jews who believed in Jesus, they would come to this church to Paul started and start teaching them: listen, if you want salvation, Jesus is the Savior, and He wants to save you. But he can't save you until you do the things that we've been doing. Because we're God's favorite people. And what makes us God's favorite people are all these things that we do, the ordinances that we keep the dietary laws that we keep the sacrifices that we make. That's what makes us God's favorite people, something about us makes us his favorite. And we want you to be too. So all you need to do is circumcision, and three times a year ago to give the sacrifices in Jerusalem. Remember Paul's response to that whole thing? Paul did not say, you know that that's really deficient theology. Let me, I'll come back around and another mountain. Let me work that out with you―no. Paul said that's a denial of the gospel. Paul didn't say, we need to straighten out your theology. Paul said that is a denial of the gospel because Paul understood that salvation by faith necessarily puts all of those who have saving faith on the same footing with God. This is why he says to the Gentiles, there is neither Greek nor slave, barbarian, nor Scythian, man nor woman, we are all one in Christ. This was the major issue of the entire early church period. This issue of well, in case this sounds foreign to us, does it sound a little bit foreign? Are you sort-of thinking in your mind: this kind of interesting, but no, I don't know any believing Jews. So it's really just sort of theoretical. If it sounds that way, here's the crux of the issue. The crux of the issue is the nature of grace. The crux of the issue is really: is it really true that by grace, you have been saved through faith? And this is not your own doing that is the gift of God not a result of work so that no one may boast? Is that really true? If it is, then all are one in Christ, necessarily so. And so this is really a struggle with grace, isn't it? Which is the defining attribute of the kingdom of God? Why did Jesus tell so many parables about grace do you think? Remember the parable of the prodigal son? The parable of the prodigal son is a parable about grace. It is a parable about those who think that they have despite what Paul says in Ephesians eight, verse Ephesians, two verses eight through 10. Despite that, they think that they do have reason for boasting. So you remember the older brother, right? The younger the younger son takes the money and goes and squanders it, the older son stays home and works. The younger son comes home, the father welcomes him home, and the older brothers peeved. I was here the whole time. I never left. In other words, I deserve more than him. Now you've welcomed him back with full sonship. I never left. I deserve more than he. Do you see what Jesus is saying? Even before that became the issue, Jesus is telling us, this is what the issue is. There will be those who feel as though their obedience to the law, their keeping of the ordinances, their ritualistic practices, their ethnic identity, all of those things, put them in a place where they're just a little bit above some others in the Body. Or remember the Parable of the Vineyard, the workers in the vineyard? Some work all day, some work just the last hour of the day when the temperatures are cool. And then the owner comes and gives them all the same payment. And then the whole point is the ones who worked all day said, “Wait a minute, you gave us the same, same as you gave them.” And the owner says, “Well, I paid you what I told you, I’d pay you. I've not, I've not done―I've kept my word. And the point is, they felt like they deserved more. Yet, Jesus's point is, this is the nature of the kingdom. That's how he said―that's how he introduces the parable, the kingdom of heaven may be thought of in this way. The Kingdom of Heaven is a kingdom of grace. And grace is not a comfortable thing. And so there will be these who do feel like that their standing their position is higher or more privileged. And this is kind of the whole, the whole point. This is the most offensive aspect of the gospel of the new humanity.

Part 3

The only true and genuine expression of Jesus Christ on earth is the oneness and togetherness of His Church. The only way the world can genuinely see Christ, is to see the oneness of the Church.

The book of Acts is the story of two worlds colliding. And in that collision, is this turmoil, turmoil over Gentiles who are believing. And they just don't know what to do with this. And so then there's this big ruckus in chapter 15. You remember, at the beginning of chapter 15, it’s described as no small dissension. That's Luke's way of saying this was a massive argument because they couldn't understand how to process this, that the Holy Spirit was coming to people in the same way who weren't Jews as he was coming to those who were Jews. So they had this big meeting. And James's was presiding over the meeting. Finally, Peter stands up. And Peter says, listen, brothers, we saw with our own eyes, the Holy Spirit was pleased to fall upon Gentiles, in the same way that he fell upon us. And they, too, were speechless. And they said, What can we say? Other than God is pleased to now save the Gentiles by faith, as he has saved us. But the problem wasn't over the problem was just getting started. Every single church that Paul planted, every single one, struggled with the same problem. If you think back to years to when we were studying Philippians, you might remember the whole Judaizers remember that thing? Where every single church that Paul planted, the same thing happened, these believing Jews who believed in Jesus, they would come to this church to Paul started and start teaching them: listen, if you want salvation, Jesus is the Savior, and He wants to save you. But he can't save you until you do the things that we've been doing. Because we're God's favorite people. And what makes us God's favorite people are all these things that we do, the ordinances that we keep the dietary laws that we keep the sacrifices that we make. That's what makes us God's favorite people, something about us makes us his favorite. And we want you to be too. So all you need to do is circumcision, and three times a year ago to give the sacrifices in Jerusalem. Remember Paul's response to that whole thing? Paul did not say, you know that that's really deficient theology. Let me, I'll come back around and another mountain. Let me work that out with you―no. Paul said that's a denial of the gospel. Paul didn't say, we need to straighten out your theology. Paul said that is a denial of the gospel because Paul understood that salvation by faith necessarily puts all of those who have saving faith on the same footing with God. This is why he says to the Gentiles, there is neither Greek nor slave, barbarian, nor Scythian, man nor woman, we are all one in Christ. This was the major issue of the entire early church period. This issue of well, in case this sounds foreign to us, does it sound a little bit foreign? Are you sort-of thinking in your mind: this kind of interesting, but no, I don't know any believing Jews. So it's really just sort of theoretical. If it sounds that way, here's the crux of the issue. The crux of the issue is the nature of grace. The crux of the issue is really: is it really true that by grace, you have been saved through faith? And this is not your own doing that is the gift of God not a result of work so that no one may boast? Is that really true? If it is, then all are one in Christ, necessarily so. And so this is really a struggle with grace, isn't it? Which is the defining attribute of the kingdom of God? Why did Jesus tell so many parables about grace do you think? Remember the parable of the prodigal son? The parable of the prodigal son is a parable about grace. It is a parable about those who think that they have despite what Paul says in Ephesians eight, verse Ephesians, two verses eight through 10. Despite that, they think that they do have reason for boasting. So you remember the older brother, right? The younger the younger son takes the money and goes and squanders it, the older son stays home and works. The younger son comes home, the father welcomes him home, and the older brothers peeved. I was here the whole time. I never left. In other words, I deserve more than him. Now you've welcomed him back with full sonship. I never left. I deserve more than he. Do you see what Jesus is saying? Even before that became the issue, Jesus is telling us, this is what the issue is. There will be those who feel as though their obedience to the law, their keeping of the ordinances, their ritualistic practices, their ethnic identity, all of those things, put them in a place where they're just a little bit above some others in the Body. Or remember the Parable of the Vineyard, the workers in the vineyard? Some work all day, some work just the last hour of the day when the temperatures are cool. And then the owner comes and gives them all the same payment. And then the whole point is the ones who worked all day said, “Wait a minute, you gave us the same, same as you gave them.” And the owner says, “Well, I paid you what I told you, I’d pay you. I've not, I've not done―I've kept my word. And the point is, they felt like they deserved more. Yet, Jesus's point is, this is the nature of the kingdom. That's how he said―that's how he introduces the parable, the kingdom of heaven may be thought of in this way. The Kingdom of Heaven is a kingdom of grace. And grace is not a comfortable thing. And so there will be these who do feel like that their standing their position is higher or more privileged. And this is kind of the whole, the whole point. This is the most offensive aspect of the gospel of the new humanity. One last illustration, I think this will really kind of bring it home. So here's Paul, fast forward now a couple of chapters in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 21, Paul is on the final missionary journey that the book of Acts relates for us. And the problem between the believing Jews and the believing Gentiles is not better, it's worse. And so Paul wants to do something to alleviate this. And he sees the perfect opportunity. The perfect opportunity was there was this famine in Jerusalem. And the believing Jews in Jerusalem were hurting, they were starving, they didn't have food, they didn't have money. And so Paul sees this, and he says, here's the perfect opportunity, we can take a collection for those brothers, and this collection will come from the Gentile believers. And maybe this will get through to the hearts of those Jewish believers in in Jerusalem. So he goes around to all the churches, sends these letters ahead, saying make sure you’ve gotten your collection all taken up. When I get there, I don’t want to have to wait for it. I'm going to take this collection back to Jerusalem. So he does this, he takes the collection back to Jerusalem thinking, this will help the situation. He gets back to Jerusalem. He's talking there with James and James saying to him, Look, the problem is really worse than you thought it was. There are those here, who are they profess Christ, but they really are not happy with you. They think that you're going around teaching believing Jews to stop practicing the laws of Moses. So he says, really, I don't think that this offering―is thoughtful and is loving, and it's kind as it is―I really don't think that's going to do it. I've got another idea, Paul, there's four, there's four Jews here, four Jewish boys here and they are taking a vow. They're doing this vow, this type of special Jewish bow where they shave their head and they give these special sacrifices in the temple. And so they say, Paul, why don't you do this now that you're here, why don't you: number one, take the vow with them, and number two, sponsor them―meaning by their sacrifices for them and stuff. And maybe that gesture, that's a very, very Jewish thing to do. Maybe that'll help. So Paul does that. They go into the temple, they make their sacrifices. Paul comes out of the temple with these four Jewish boys. And the crowd season, the crowd who doesn't like Paul, they see him coming out of the temple. And one of them shouts out hey, there's Paul. You know what? Two days ago I saw Paul with that fella Trophimas, remember Trophimas was an Ephesian Christian, a Gentile Christian. We saw Paul with Trophimus. He just brought Trophimus out of the temple, which he didn’t. And that was just like throwing a match onto a powder keg. Boom. The crowd starts beating Paul in the street. The Roman Tribune shows up, rescues Paul by putting him in chains. And he's trying to get to the bottom of this whole situation. And what's going on, what? What did they do? Who are you? Who are you? And then, and he starts to figure this out. And Paul says, Let me speak to the crowd. Let me let me speak to the crowd. And so Paul stands up, motions for everybody to be quiet. And then he begins speaking in Hebrew. That's a very Jewish thing to do, because they didn't even speak Hebrew at that point, they're speaking Aramaic. So he's speaking in the language of the Scriptures. Again, Paul's trying to just, he's trying to put some salve on this wound. So he starts speaking in Hebrew, and he's gonna give his story, he's gonna give his testimony about how he sat at the feet of Gamaliel, this Pharisee teacher, the greatest Pharisee teacher of his day, and how he was a Pharisee of Pharisees, and how he persecuted the church, and on and on, and he talks about the Damascus Road experience and how Jesus found him on the Damascus Road knocks him off his horse, bright light, a voice from heaven, all this sort of thing. And Luke tells us that the crowd is speechless, you could hear a pin drop…until Paul said one thing, and that one thing that he said, was what the voice of Jesus said to him, and Acts chapter 22, “Go for I will send you far away to the Gentiles. Up to that word, they listened to him, then they raised their voices and said away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live.” That that was the powder keg. Do you see how that was, that was the raw nerve, the raw nerve that this man is going to tell Gentiles that, by faith, they have the same thing we have. We're okay with Gentiles being saved. And we're really okay with Gentiles being saved, as long as they kind of do what we do, and follow in our footsteps and recognize we were the first. We're not okay with Gentiles being told: by faith, you have the full kingdom. And this is the this is the mystery that's now revealed. This is, this is what Jesus prayed for. In John chapter 17, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word that they may all be one just as you father are in Me and I in you.” So Jesus is praying on the night of his arrest, he is praying that his kingdom would be this oneness, this sameness, this togetherness, whose example is the Trinity. We were talking earlier about the Trinity, the Trinity, is the example. You want to you want to think about what Jesus wants his kingdom on earth to be what Jesus wants his church to be, what is this new humanity to be? Look at the Trinity. The Trinity is our example. The oneness, the unity, the togetherness of the Trinity, is what Jesus says. That's the example of what New Humanity on earth should look like. And that's the very thing that was so difficult for them to accept. This oneness, this togetherness, this being infused into the Body of Christ, having the same privileges and the same graces and the same blessings, as those who, at least diligently tried to keep the law, or those who for so many years thought of themselves as being in a privileged position with God. This oneness, this togetherness, is the New Humanity. The expression of Jesus Christ on earth is this New Humanity. Let me say that again: the true expression of Jesus on earth is this New Humanity, a New Humanity in which by faith, all are given all of the kingdom. Following Christ is not a private experience. Being put into Christ necessarily means being put into his body, there is no other option. Following Christ is not an individual experience. Is there a way that we could take Paul's words, through the second half of chapter two and into chapter three, iIs there a way that we can take his words and find any kind of any kind of sense to the idea of being put into Christ without being put into this New Humanity? Is there any way that that makes sense? That there is some way of being put into Christ without being put into this oneness, the sameness this togetherness, this new humanity. No. This is, in Paul's words, the true expression of Jesus Christ here on earth is this idea of this New Humanity that were put into, all of us put into it, by grace through faith, and once being put into it, we are recipients of the entire kingdom. We are recipient recipients of all of God's graces, as Paul began in chapter one, verse three, “In Christ are all the blessings in the heaven places.” The New Testament would consider one who would think of being put into Christ, without being put into the New Humanity, the new, the new testament would consider that some sort of an aberration, kind of like an eyeball without a body, right? Because that's what the New Testament calls us, right? We are members of the Body of Christ. And so in the same way that that a disembodied hand is an aberration, the New Testament would consider the one who believes that they are put into Christ without also being put into the new humanity also, would be an aberration. The New Testament knows nothing of that, because we are the New Humanity at the true expression of Jesus Christ on earth. Secondly, if your view of being put into Christ is primarily of the individual level, you will to one degree or another, sooner or later, begin to regard the Church as an optional addition. Let me say that again, if your primary view, if your fundamental understanding of being put into Christ begins with something individual, is rooted in something individual, if that governs your perception of what being put into Christ is, is something that's individualistic. Sooner or later, to one degree or another, you will begin to see the New Humanity, which is the Church of Jesus Christ to be something that's optional. Something that's added on something that benefits, but something that's not necessary, there is no other way to go. If your understanding of being put into Christ is simply individual, then the church will be optional for you. You may find it very helpful, you may find it extremely beneficial. But you will think of the Church as where you need to go to get what you need to live this life. Now, does the church give what you need to live this life? Absolutely, it does. But that's not the main purpose of the Church. The central purpose of the Church is not, as Paul is gonna say in chapter four, to equip you to live this life well. It does that. That's not it’s central purpose. What did Paul just say the central purpose of the church is? The central purpose of the church is to be the expression of Jesus Christ here. This new humanity is here. We exist in order to be the true expression of Jesus here in a fallen world. In such a way, that when the world looks at the oneness and the togetherness, of the New Humanity, that is the only true genuine expression of Jesus here on Earth. And those aren't my words, is that not what Paul's saying? That this new Man, this oneness, this newness, this is Christ's expression of Himself here. Now, chapter four, five, and six, are going to give us that equipping, that says, Listen, this, when you come to Church, this is what the Church is here to do. There's apostles and preachers and teachers and all these different offices, and their role is to equip you to do the work of the ministry. Yes. But Paul begins by saying: This is what the Church is, the Church is the true and genuine expression of Jesus Christ here on Earth. Now, lastly, the last point I'll make and then we'll be done. In order to see this, let's look down to verse nine. Verse eight, “To me, although I was the least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone. What is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.” And that's a mouthful, we'll have to sort of take that apart as we get to it. But what Paul here is saying at the very minimum, what he is saying is that this New Humanity, this oneness in which Jew and Gentile―think back to last week we talked about all the deep animosity and the deep hatred from last week―that hatred has been put aside. And we're not talking about people that get along now. We're not talking about people that just are able to worship together in the same Church, maybe share a meal together. We're talking about people who have been made one with each other, they've been fused together to a new humanity. Jesus―or Paul here says, that is what shows the world the wisdom of God. When the world wants to see the wisdom of God, Paul says, look to the New Humanity, look to the Church, that's where you'll see it. When you see how God has fused together into a new, a New Humanity, those who were had nothing in common. Those who had completely different backgrounds, those who spoke different languages, those who had no common hobbies, those who were completely in fact―earthly enemies, and the Gospel has taken those and put them together in that way. That's what the world sees when they see Christ, when they look to see Christ. Look to the Church. And that's how you see Christ. So that our togetherness, our oneness is how the world sees Jesus. In such a way that is not possible to show the world a true and genuine expression of Jesus, without the togetherness of his new humanity. Because that oneness, and that togetherness, that being knit together into a new humanity, Paul was saying that that's the glory of Christ right there. And apart from that, apart from that, that's not the glory of Christ, that's not showing the world Christ. That is not even a true expression of Christ in you. Because the expression of Christ Jesus says, Remember John 13:34 35, “A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you, and by this, all people will know.” They'll know who I am. They'll know me they'll know you by your love for each other.