PAUL'S ADMINISTRATION OF THE REVEALED SECRET
I once had a visit from a spiritual Christian from New Zealand. During our conversation he remarked "there are no 'ifs' in Ephesians." Actually there are two 'ifs' in Ephesians here 3:2 and 4:21 but I think he must have known this too and was really commenting on the absolute, unqualified nature of Ephesian truth. "The letter kills but the Spirit gives life" 2 Cor. 3:66Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. (2 Corinthians 3:6). What is remarkable is that the 'if' in 4:21 is in connection with learning Christ, the 'if' in 3:2 is in connection with hearing what had been given to His Apostle. There are Christians today who deny the Apostle's greatness in the Church and the authority of his words. Their password is 'only Paul said that.' Consequently they suffer from a governmental blindness. They simply are incapable of understanding the great truths of the (revealed) secret. This is the force of the Apostle's word "if indeed you have heard of the administration of the grace of God which has been given to me toward you." The Apostle simply states the truth it is not boasting but humility God gave him this gift for the good of the Ephesians. Then he emphasizes this further by stating "that by revelation the (revealed) secret has been made known to me." Furthermore Paul was not alone in receiving the revelation for "it is now revealed unto His holy Apostles and prophets by the Spirit." (The prophets mentioned here are New Testament prophets, the same as in 2:20. This is clear from the first part of verse 5 "which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men" 3:5). The story of Peter and Cornelius in the Acts of the Apostles should be re-read not only to see how God made the secret of Christ known to him as one of His holy Apostles, but also how Peter resisted the revelation because he was a Jew and Cornelius a Gentile. However though Paul points out that the secret of Christ was made known to others, it is his part in it we are to consider here.
The Secret of Christ—What Is It?
The meaning of this expression is given to us in Col. 1:2727To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: (Colossians 1:27) Christ in the Gentiles the hope of glory a hope completely unknown to the prophets. It is spelled out in the sixth verse "that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel." The Gentiles? The very thought was stunning to the Jew. Fellow-heirs of the Kingdom of God the inheritance with them? Search as he might through the Old Testament Scriptures he could find no such thought as this. As for the inheritance, he confined it to the promised land in his thinking. An inheritance consisting of the universe itself was incomprehensible to him. As for the Church "the same body" united to its Head in heaven, a rejected Messiah where was that? He was looking for a triumphant Messiah on earth, not a rejected one in heaven. And to think that Christ should be no more a purely Jewish Messiah! As for God's promise in Christ by the gospel, all he knew about was the promise of life on earth "this do and you shall live" Luke 10:2828And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. (Luke 10:28). But here is a different promise "and this is the promise that He has promised us eternal life" 1 John 2:2525And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. (1 John 2:25). And eternal life in the soul brings with it the promise of the incorruptible body in which, as we have previously pointed out, we receive the inheritance.
Could the Jew not have read Isa. 53 you say, and seen in that how Messiah must suffer first and be glorified after? Well, Peter tells us that the prophets inquired diligently into these matters (as the angels also desired to do) only to be told that they concerned us, not themselves 1 Peter 1:10-1210Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: 11Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. 12Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into. (1 Peter 1:10‑12). When the Ethiopian eunuch went to Jerusalem to inquire, he found no help in its famed rabbinical schools Acts 8:3434And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? (Acts 8:34) so God sent Philip to him to open his eyes.
The thought of the Church containing Gentiles "the secret of Christ" could never be understood by man until it was divinely revealed, for it was hidden in God 3:9 not even hidden in the Scriptures. God conceived the thought of the Church in a past eternity and destined it for a future eternity. Thus although the Church, as a practical matter has to be gathered out in time by the preaching of the gospel, in the mind of God it belongs solely to eternity. Time is related to Israel the Church to eternity. This statement can be proved by quoting two Scriptures which give us our respective origins. For Israel Christ says "come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" Matt. 25:3434Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: (Matthew 25:34). On the other hand we are chosen in Christ "before the foundation of the world" 1:4. The kingdom is the climax of God's ways in the earth the Church of His purposes. The Church will always be closer to His heart because of its purchase price
“Thy Father, in His gracious love,
Did spare Thee from His side;
And Thou didst stoop to bear above,
At such a cost, Thy bride.”
The Two Ministries of the Apostle Paul
In his Colossian letter Paul throws light on the passage we are about to consider. He tells us there of his two ministries. He was a minister of the gospel Col. 1:2323If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister; (Colossians 1:23) and a minister of the Church Col. 1:2525Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; (Colossians 1:25). As a minister of the gospel Paul's commission was primarily to the Gentile world 3:8 but the gospel itself has no boundaries Col. 1:2323If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister; (Colossians 1:23). As a minister of the Church Paul was responsible to complete the Word of God Col 1:2525Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; (Colossians 1:25)*1 and in our Chapter to enlighten all with the knowledge of the administrative government of the revealed secret in his hands.
To bring these comments into perspective, what Paul is talking about is his personal role in the world and Church of New Testament times. The other apostles and prophets had their role this is Paul's. What we are about to consider then is historical and can best be understood by re-reading that portion of the Acts of the Apostles which records the Apostle's life and ministry.
Paul Preaches the Unsearchable Riches of Christ Among the Gentiles
Paul had a divine commission as a minister of the gospel which was never laid on other servants of the Lord with such force. He dared not ignore it "Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel" 1 Cor. 9:1616For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel! (1 Corinthians 9:16). Still he anticipates objections to him personally because of his former role as a persecutor of the Church. So he frankly admits his past history, taking the ground that he is less than the least of all saints because of it. But this in no way disqualified him from being a minister of the gospel, for the gift of the grace of God was given to him. So much for the objections. On the positive side we find the working of divine power in Paul. The foundations of the prison were shaken when he brought the gospel into the jail at Philippi Acts 16:1616And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: (Acts 16:16).
But perhaps you think why does Paul use such an expression as "the unsearchable riches of Christ" to describe his gospel preaching. Why doesn't he stress the fundamentals of the gospel instead the ruin of man forgiveness of sins through the blood of Christ and so on. We may depend upon it he did. But the gospel Paul preached took in the widest possible range of things not only the fundamentals but such themes as the second coming of Christ and the revealed secret too. Unsearchable riches indeed! The gospel is like a rainbow. We might compare the red in the rainbow to the fundamentals of the gospel but what fools we would be to ignore the other colors. Paul never did. "I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God" he told the Ephesian elders Acts 20:2727For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. (Acts 20:27). He commended them to God and the Word of His grace, which was able to build them up and give them an inheritance. He had faithfully preached the Kingdom of God among them. Note the recurrence, in this address to the elders, of the leading truths found in the Ephesian letter the divine counsels, the inheritance, the Kingdom of God. Clearly the gospel starts in the world but continues on in the Church as our understanding of all it contains is expanded. We progress to the other colors of the rainbow, learning more daily of "the unsearchable riches of Christ." Such is the range of the gospel the full gospel Paul preached.
Paul's Administration of the Revealed Secret in the Early Church
Now we come to the administration (or government) of the revealed secret which Paul was to make all see that is, all created intelligences in heaven and on earth not men only but also angels the "principalities and powers" of verse 10. And what they would see was the mind of God in the union of Jew and Gentile in the mystical body of Christ, the Church. This would be opposed by the Jew who wanted to maintain his exclusive religious privileges Abraham, Moses, the law, the Temple, the inspired Scriptures. God, however, instituted a governmental administration of His revealed secret through His Apostle Paul to enforce His will. Thus we have the stage, the actors, and the audience. The play was staged in New Testament times, for this is the history of the early Church. And the play script is the Acts of the Apostles. Paul was the Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God 1:1. In three missions he administered that will in the world of his day, displaying the government of the revealed secret.
Paul's first mission. This met violent Jewish opposition to the revealed secret the union of Jew and Gentile in one body, the Church. At Antioch in Pisidia the Jews contradicted and blasphemed. Paul had to tell them that he was turning to the Gentiles because they judged themselves unworthy of eternal life. It was hatred of the revealed secret which made the Jews stone Paul at Lystra. But Paul returns to Antioch, the missionary center, with his first mission accomplished.
Paul's second mission Paul made it clear that although he was administering the revealed secret he was doing so under divine direction. When God overruled his preaching plans Paul obeyed and patiently waited for the Lord's mind. In a night vision he was told to go to Macedonia. This shows us the beauty of Paul's administration of the revealed secret. Although he doesn't understand why he is forbidden to go to Asia and Bithynia, he obeys and waits for marching orders, so to speak. The door into Europe is opened and with it great gospel blessing. Out of weakness a few women praying at the river side Acts 16:1313And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither. (Acts 16:13) came strength the foundations of the prison were shaken Acts 16:2626And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed. (Acts 16:26). But this minister of the gospel also preached the revealed secret that God intended to bless the Gentiles equally with the Jews. He explained the common inheritance of all believers in the coming reign of Christ. Having listened to such sermons in the synagogues at Thessalonica, the Jews accused him before the rulers of the city of proclaiming Jesus as King. Clearly envy of God's purposes to bless the Gentiles was behind their "forbidding us to speak to the nations that they might be saved" 1 Thess. 2:14-1614For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews: 15Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: 16Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost. (1 Thessalonians 2:14‑16). But all was grace to the Gentiles. Before the Areopagus at Athens Paul summarized the history of the Gentiles as Stephen had once summarized the history of the Jews before the Sanhedrin. It began with forgetfulness of God and ended with the unknown God. But why shouldn't God, who is rich in mercy, call them back to Himself? When the Jews opposed him at Corinth Paul told them "your blood be upon your head I am pure; from henceforth I will go to the nations." Undeterred, they turned to violence, dragging Paul before Gallio's judgment seat. Paul finally left Corinth, visited Ephesus and Jerusalem and concluded his second mission at Antioch once more.
Paul's third mission Paul now received the fruit of the harvest fields of Europe. Because he obeyed the Holy Spirit previously (he did not preach in Asia when the Holy Spirit told him not to) God now gives him Asia, the capital city of which was Ephesus, as the crown jewel of his work. When his testimony in the synagogue at Ephesus was rejected, he separates the disciples from the synagogue. By this act he publicly "makes all see the administration of the (revealed) secret" 3:9. For now believing Jews and Gentiles meet together on the ground of their union into one mystical body of which Christ is the Head in heaven and they the members on earth. Out of the Church flows healing power to the world. "God wrought no ordinary miracles by the hands of Paul" Acts 19:1111And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: (Acts 19:11). It is important to see the reason for this. Christ performed great miracles to relieve man when He was personally on the earth. But now He is represented on the earth by His body, which is indwelt by the Holy Spirit the same power by which He performed His miracles. Then just as Christ overthrew Satan's power when He was on earth, now the devil is attacked at the seat of his power, relieving man of his oppression, so that the Ephesians burn their occult books. Satan reacts by stirring up a riot at Ephesus, although the people thought they were championing the waning fortunes of their goddess. But the power of God prevails.
Paul departs for Jerusalem in spite of warnings. The elders of the Church at Jerusalem accuse him of teaching the Jews abroad apostasy from Moses. The Jews from Asia (the seat of his teaching ministry) see him in the Temple and he is beaten in the outer court. The soldiers of Rome rescue him. Then he addresses the Jews in his defense. They listen to him until he speaks of the revealed secret, at which point their anger becomes uncontrollable Acts 22:21, 2221And he said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles. 22And they gave him audience unto this word, and then lifted up their voices, and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live. (Acts 22:21‑22). It was the revealed secret they hated the will of God to bless Gentiles also. To protect him from the frenzy of the Jewish mob the Roman soldiers escort him to the safety of a nearby prison. While this incident is under review in a meeting convened by the Roman military, the Jewish High Priest unlawfully commands Paul to be struck in the mouth. More than forty Jews conspire to assassinate him. He publicly testifies before high public dignitaries but ends in Rome as a prisoner. Here he calls together the leading Jews and gives them a parting testimony. Here too he writes the prison letters Colossians, Ephesians, Philippians and Philemon.
Such then was Paul's administration of the revealed secret an administration now past, but enshrined in immaculate detail on the inspired pages of Holy Scripture.
The Two Administrations
The observant reader will by now have noticed that two administrations or systems of government have been presented for our consideration in the doctrinal part of Ephesians the Divine administration of 1:10 and the Pauline administration of 3:9. The Divine administration is presented first for it is a revelation of the thoughts and purposes of God; the Pauline administration is presented last, but comes first in point of time. We have already considered both these administrations in this book, but the question arises what can we learn from them.
The first lesson is that, under Paul's administration, the early Church expressed the mind and purpose of God that the body of Christ should be an undivided unity on earth subject to its Head in heaven. All created intelligences could observe that unbroken organic unity. Angels could look down and see the members of the body on earth 3:9 and learn the all-various wisdom of God from it; man could look up and see the Head in heaven, as Stephen did Acts 7:5555But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, (Acts 7:55). This is what Paul meant when he wrote "and to make all see what is the administration of the (revealed) secret" 3:9. True, the seeds of division existed there were schools of opinion at Corinth 1 Cor. 11:1818For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. (1 Corinthians 11:18) trouble makers like Diotrophes who threw people out of the Church 3 John: 10 infiltrators with evil teachings Jude 44For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. (Jude 4). But the spiritual energy of the Apostles, who never forgot that Christ was the Head of the Church, held everything together.
After the departure of the Apostles from the Church the Headship of Christ was soon forgotten and the passage of time brought in division and breakup. No wonder that miracles ceased. The expression of the unity of the body of Christ before the world ceased. How then could power flow out to the world when the members of Christ's one body denied their unity to their Head and to one another? Today if I were in the City of Bombay and asked a Christian in that city to direct me to the Church of the living God, the body of Christ, where could he send me? Alas neither men, nor principalities and powers can see such a thing today. But God can. Looking down on Bombay He can identify each one of Christ's members in that city, regardless of how scattered they now are. All will be gathered together to meet Christ on the cloud 2 Thess. 2:11Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, (2 Thessalonians 2:1) at His coming. Then the unity which was originally seen by all on earth in apostolic times will be seen by all in heaven. And that unity will never be broken.
This brings to mind a story of my youth. As a young boy my father took me to the deathbed of an old believer. He had been an engineer in his day and had built many great bridges. But he was also a man who deeply loved our Lord Jesus Christ. I vividly remember how his mind wandered to the bridges he thought he was erecting once more over great rivers. "Quite a rig" he would, repeat. But father brought him back to divine things and the response showed that the new man never dies. He seemed to think he was in heaven and exclaimed in great satisfaction of spirit "Oh the oneness of that ONE BODY oh the unity of it." Soon we too shall see that unity in glory a unity never to be broken throughout eternal ages a unity of God. Hallelujah! May that day be hastened, Lord Jesus. Come, precious Savior, and take us to Thyself. Amen and amen.