Joel M Bradshaw

 6This 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

And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. (Galatians 3:29)

1. Paul had been ministering to Gentiles and was writing to a Gentile church.
2. His point is huge: The God of Israel saves the Gentile through Jesus.
3. This was the great mystery, because the Jewish mindset was that the promise would only go through Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3).
4. We learn above in Galatians 3 that Abraham’s promise is fulfilled in and through Jesus.
5. As long as a Gentile trusts Jesus for salvation, he or she gets to partake of the very promises of God and be with Him.
6. This would have been a mystery indeed to Rabbi Paul and his Jewish colleagues. The promises of God flowed through Jesus and not Abraham. Or through Jesus, they were ultimately fulfilled. This means that in Christ, Gentiles have just as much access to God as the Jewish people.
7. So Jewish or Gentile, how do you respond to Jesus? Is it a mystery?–JMB