In this message we shall cover more aspects of the experience and enjoyment of God as the Father in His love.
The Father gives grace to the believers according to the operation of His power, to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel, and to bring to light what is His economy of the mystery hidden in Him, that is, to have the church (Eph. 3:7-10). God’s giving grace to the believers is a matter of His dispensing Himself into them, and this dispensing is according to the operation of His power. Because Paul received such an inner dispensing of God as grace, he could preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, and he could bring to light the mystery hidden in God. Through God’s dispensing Himself into us as grace, we also are able to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel and bring to light God’s economy of the mystery hidden in Himself. This mystery is to have the church.
In Ephesians 3:7 Paul says, “I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God, which was given to me according to the operation of His power.” The grace of God is God Himself, especially as life, partaken of and enjoyed by us, whereas the gift of grace is the ability and function produced out of the enjoyment of the grace of God. Hence, grace implies life, and the gift is the ability that comes out of life.
The grace in 3:7 is nothing less than God Himself given to us, gained by us, and enjoyed by us. In Christ and through Christ we receive God, and God becomes our enjoyment. Therefore, grace is God Himself as our enjoyment. Dispensing this grace into others is our ministry according to God’s economy. Because we partake of God as our enjoyment, we can dispense Him as grace into others.
In 3:7 Paul tells us that grace was given to him according to the operation of God’s power. This is the power of the resurrection (Phil. 3:10), which operates within the apostle and all the believers (Eph. 1:19; 3:20). By such an inward operating power of life, the gift of grace was given to the apostle, that is, produced in him. As members of Christ, we all have the power of God operating within us to produce a certain ability. This ability is the gift that makes us ministers to impart God as grace to others.
In 3:8 Paul goes on to say, “To me, less than the least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach to the nations the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel.” This indicates that all the saints can receive such grace as was given to the Apostle Paul. As to the person of Paul, he was the least among the apostles (1 Cor. 15:9), but as to his ministry he was not behind the chiefest apostles (2 Cor. 11:5; 12:11). Yet, as to the grace he received, he was less than the least of all saints. This implies that all the saints can receive the grace which Paul received. This can be compared to all the members of our physical body, however small they may be, receiving the same life blood, but the ability (gift) that comes out of the life blood differs with the members. All the members of the Body of Christ can have the same grace of life as Paul, but their gifts are not the same as Paul’s.
According to 3:8, the grace is given that we may preach the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel. Our ministry is not to present doctrine nor simply to teach the Word in letters. Our ministry is to preach Christ with His unsearchable riches to others.
The preaching of the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel is for the producing of the church. The church as the Body of Christ is brought forth out of the unsearchable riches of Christ, not out of doctrines or systems of organization. As the Body of Christ the church can be brought forth only out of the untraceable riches of what Christ is.
In Ephesians 3:9-10 Paul continues, “And to bring to light what is the dispensation of the mystery, which from the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things; in order that now to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenlies might be made known through the church the multifarious wisdom of God.” God’s mystery is His hidden purpose. His purpose is to dispense Himself into His chosen people. Hence, there is the dispensation (economy-arrangement, plan) of the mystery of God. This mystery was hidden in God from the ages, that is, from eternity and through all past ages, but now it has been brought to light to the New Testament believers.
The church mentioned in verse 10 is produced out of the unsearchable riches of Christ spoken of in verse 8. When God’s chosen people partake of and enjoy the riches of Christ, these riches constitute them the church, through which God’s multifarious wisdom is made known to the angelic rulers and authorities in the heavenlies. Hence, the church is God’s wise exhibition of all that Christ is.
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