"In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed to God's holy apostles and prophets." (Ephesians 3:4, 5)

      What is this "Mystery of Christ"? Before we examine Paul's revelation of this mystery, let us make sure we understand his use of that word 'mystery'. A mystery is something:--

	"That was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed to God's holy apostles and prophets" (Ephesians 3:5).
	"And to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things" (Ephesians 3:9).
	"According to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God" (Romans 16:25, 26).
	"And he made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment" (Ephesians 1:9, 10).
	"The mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints" (Colossians 1:26).

      Therefore, according to the above verses, the "Mystery of Christ"--

1. Is a PLAN ordained of God. It is His purpose, His will, His pleasure. (Ephesians 1:9, 10)
2. It is an OLD PLAN. Something God planned and purposed long, long ago. Before "long ages past," "ages and [94] generations" ago. It is not an afterthought or accident. (Romans 16:25, Colossians 1:26)
3. It was a SECRET plan of God. He did not tell anyone here on earth about it. It "was not made known to men in other generations." He did not reveal His plan to the Old Testament prophets. If he had done so it would have been a prophecy, not a mystery. Therefore, a New testament mystery is not an Old Testament prophecy. God kept it "hidden for long ages past." He kept it "hidden for ages and generations."
4. This secret plan of God was ordained by Him to be put into effect at a pre-determined date in human history. A date which was itself a secret, a part of the mystery; "to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment." (Ephesians 1:10)
5. As God begins to implement this plan and puts it into operation, He then reveals and explains what He is doing--"it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets" (Ephesians 3:5.)

      It is "now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God" (Romans 16:26).

      It "is now disclosed to the saints." (Colossians 1:26).

      We should also understand:

      This 'mystery of Christ' therefore, is a particular thing concerning the Christ that was not prophesied.

What is this mystery?

"This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 3:6).

      This 'one body' is the church.

      The Gospel itself is no mystery, it was prophesied in the Old Testament.

      That Gentiles would find salvation through Israel's Messiah was no mystery, it was prophesied in the Old Testament.

      What was not prophesied was that God purposed to form a new body in Christ that would be neither Israel nor Gentile but made up of both.

      This is a new body. ". . . His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two . . ." (Ephesians 2:15). And, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation . . ." (2 Corinthians 5:17).

      The church is this new man, this one body, the body of Christ made up of both Jews and Gentiles. Therefore, this 'mystery of Christ' is the church. Therefore, the church--as the church--was not prophesied in the OT.

      The church was a secret plan of God. It was His will, His pleasure, His eternal purpose which He kept hidden for long ages past, for ages and generations. But which He has now brought into existence when the times He had ordained had reached their fulfillment.

      He has now revealed and made it known by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. God has commanded that this secret plan of His should now be revealed and made known through the prophetic writings of the New Testament. It is now disclosed to the saints. [95]

      This new man, the church, is not the old man of Israel, nor the old man of the Gentiles. It has its own identity.

      Jesus said, "I will build my church." (Matthew 16:18) He did not say He was going to re-build something that had fallen into ruins. He was to build something that was not yet in existence. He would make a new creation.

      In John 10:16 Jesus began to reveal this mystery of the new body made up of both Jews and Gentiles."I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there will be one flock and one shepherd."

      To build the church, Jesus takes some sheep out of the sheep pen of Israel and some sheep out from the Gentiles and joins these two lots together to make one flock--with Himself as the one shepherd.

      The choice of words Jesus used was not accidental. There is a big difference between a "sheep pen" and a "flock." A "fold". Or "sheep pen" is not synonymous with a "flock." The Law was the sheep pen, the corral, that fenced Israel in. A flock of sheep exists outside the fence and is held together by the shepherd. You cannot have a "flock" of sheep without a shepherd. Without the shepherd they would be scattered sheep. It is the shepherd who makes the flock. "My sheep listen to my voice . . . and they follow me." (John 10:27).

      The old sheep pen of Israel still exists. This new flock is a new creation, the new man in Christ.

      The Old Testament essentially recognizes only two classifications of people--Israel and the Gentiles.

      God created Israel and put a wall of separation between them and the Gentile nations.

"For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, His treasured possession" (Deuteronomy 7:6).

"You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be My own" (Leviticus 20:26).

      But in the New Testament--after the creation of the church--there are three groups or classifications of people:

      "Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks, or the church of God" (1 Corinthians 10:32).

      It is not correct, then, to refer to the church as spiritual Israel.

      Salvation for the Gentiles was indeed prophesied in the OT. That the Gentiles could be saved by Israel's Messiah was no mystery, it was foretold by the prophets.

      But the mystery, the secret plan and eternal purpose of God, was the creation of a new body, the church, made up of both Jews and Gentiles, having its own identity, separate from Israel.

      Gentile Christians are never called sons of Israel, or sons of Jacob. Israel is never referred to in the New Testament as the father of the faithful. But we are called sons of Abraham and so inherit the promises made to Abraham.

"Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham." (Galatians 3:7)

"For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave or free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to promise" (Galatians 3:27-29)

      We are spiritual sons of Abraham, not Israel. It is therefore not correct to speak of the church as spiritual Israel. [96]

      The "mystery of Christ" is the church, the new man in Christ Jesus. It is not the old man of Israel reformed and revamped, but is a new body made up of both Jews and Gentiles who come in on an equal basis through the sanctifying blood of Christ.

      The church is His body, it is the mystery of the "pearl of great value" formed through that terrible injury to his side and continually transformed into a thing of glory through intimate contact and fellowship with Himself.

      The church is the profound mystery that was hidden in the manner in which God created Eve from the injury to Adam's side. Which mystery was not revealed until after the beginning of the church.

      The church is that holy temple in the Lord which is "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone." (Ephesians 2:20)

      Note that the apostles are mentioned first, before the prophets. Therefore these are the New Testament prophets. If they had been the Old Testament prophets they would have been mentioned first. The church is not built on the foundation of the Old Testament prophets.

      The New Testament prophets are mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:28, Ephesians 4:11, Acts 13:1. Their laying of the foundation is referred to in Hebrews 2:3, 4.

"His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known . . ." (Ephesians 3:10).

1. Who are the true circumcision?

      "For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:3). Does that make the church to be spiritual Israel?

      No. It does not. It makes Christians to be sons of Abraham!

". . . So then he (Abraham) is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised . . . and he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised." . . . "He is the father of us all" (Romans 4:11, 12, 16).

      Notice the distinction in verse 11 and 12. Verse 12 says that Abraham is the father of the circumcised to those Israelites (the circumcision) who follow in the faith of Abraham. But verse 11 says that Abraham is simply the father--not the father of circumcision--but the father of those who believe without being circumcised.

2. Is The Church the Israel of God?

      One writer quotes from Galatians 6:16 "And those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God" (NASB). And then he says of this verse, "Paul referred to the Lord's church as the Israel of God."

      He is greatly mistaken. He overlooks the fact that Paul spoke of two groups in that verse.

      Notice that peace and mercy is pronounced upon:

      1. "Those who will walk by this rule"
                  "AND UPON."
      2. "The Israel of God" (NASB).

      It is not correct to say that the 'Israel of God' is the church. That is an interpretation that is in conflict with the verse itself, with verse 15, and contradicts the whole meaning of the book of Galatians.

      We should understand that the Galatian church was mostly Gentile believers in Christ. They had come out of the darkness of false gods and ancestor worship. They knew nothing of the Law of Moses. They only knew and believed that Jesus had died for their sins and had been raised for their justification. [97] But then some false teachers came to Galatia, they claimed to be from Jerusalem and told the Gentile believers that it was not enough to believe in Christ, but that they must also be circumcised and keep the law of Moses, otherwise they could not be saved. (See Acts 15:1, 5.)

      Paul wrote the letter to the Galatians to counteract that false teaching. He warned the Gentile believers in Christ that they must not receive circumcision as something to make them acceptable to God. To do so would nullify the sacrifice of Christ.

      Paul concludes in 6:15 by giving a rule:

"Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, what counts is a new creation."

      This rule was expressed earlier as:

"For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love" (Galatians 5:6).

      Paul is pronouncing peace and mercy upon two groups in 6:16.

      The first group, 'those who will walk by this rule,' are the Gentile Christians who trust in Christ for salvation. They refuse to be circumcised because they are following the rule of verse 15.

      The second group, 'the Israel of God', are those Jewish Christians, who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. They have already been circumcised--but only because they are sons of Israel. (An Israelite boy was circumcised when he was only eight days old.) However, they do not trust in their circumcision. Their faith is solely in Jesus Christ.

      Those Israelite Christians, and only Israelite Christians, are the 'Israel of God.'

      Gentile Christians are not the Israel of God, they are the Gentiles of God.

      Gentile Christians are never spoken of as "sons of Jacob "or "sons of Israel." Abraham (not Israel) is the father of those who believe, according to Romans 4:7-17 and Galatians 3:29.

3. What about application of Old Testament passages to the church?

      There are many places in the New Testament where certain Old Testament blessings and spiritual promises are applied to the church. But that does not disinherit Israel, and it does not make the church to be 'spiritual Israel.'

      Those things are not taken away from Israel. Israel shall yet receive those things, but only when that nation repents and accepts Jesus whom they crucified as their Messiah.

      Meanwhile these things are ALSO given to us in Christ. This is made clear by Ephesians 1:3.

"God . . . has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3).

      Whatever spiritual blessings God promised to Israel are also ours. But they are not thereby taken away from Israel.

      One example is 1 Peter 2:9, 10. One modern amillennial writer erroneously confuses Israel with the church by saying of this passage that it is a "concise affirmation that the church is New Testament Israel," and claims that Peter was asking his readers to rejoice in the truth that Christians are God's true Israel!

      But the word 'Israel' is not found anywhere in 1 Peter! Yet that writer goes on to say, "These verses will teach us that we are spiritual Israel."

      Certainly we Christians are a "chosen people." But that does not make us to be spiritual Israel. The nation of Israel is also a chosen people. God has not disinherited Israel. He will keep His promises to them.

      That same writer quotes Deuteronomy 7:6 and Exodus 19:5 concerning Israel, "For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth." "Now then If you will indeed [98] obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be my own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine." (New American Standard Version)

      And then--without any Scriptural warrant whatsoever--that writer makes this astonishing statement, "However, in this last age of human history, Christians, not fleshly Israelites, are God's chosen race. The old Israel led to, formed the foundation of, and found fulfillment in the new Israel, the church."

      What an astonishing statement! Nowhere does the Scripture teach any such thing!

      The old Israel did not lead to the formation of the church.

      The church is not the "new Israel."

      The old Israel does not find fulfillment in the church.

      The old Israel does not form the foundation of the church! Nowhere does the Scripture even hint such a thing!

      What saith the Scripture?

      Jesus said, "upon this rock I will build My church" (Matthew 16:18). That foundation rock is the truth that He, Jesus, born of Mary, is "the Christ, the Son of the living God."

      Again, the Scripture says, "For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:11).

      And again, the church is "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone." (Ephesians 2:20)

      The prophets of Ephesians 2:20 are the New Testament prophets. If they were the Old Testament prophets they would have been mentioned first; but the apostles are mentioned first. The church, as such, was not prophesied in the Old Testament. It was a mystery. It is now being built on the foundation (teaching) of the apostles and (New Testament) prophets.

      James declared that in the present age God is visiting the Gentiles to take from them a people for His Name--the formation of the church--and that "after this," God would return and rebuild David's fallen tent. James is saying that after the taking out of the Gentiles to form the church, after that is completed, then the Lord will return and rebuild the tabernacle of David.

      The words 'after this I will return' are not in the original prophecy of Amos 9:11, 12. James, under the inspiration of the Holy spirit, adds those words to the prophecy. Here the mystery of the church is being revealed.

      Most Israelite believers in Christ wrongly thought that the Gentile converts to Christ were being brought into Israel, therefore they must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. James is explaining the mystery of the church. It is a new body with an identity separate from Israel. And only after its completion will the kingdom promises to Israel be fulfilled.

      The "tabernacle" or "tent" of David is NOT the Church. How does the Church require to be built again? Jesus did not say of the Church "its ruins I will rebuild." He said, "I will build My Church" (Matthew 16:18), meaning a completely new building; not the restoration of something that had fallen. The church is not built upon the ruins of Israel. It is a completely new structure built upon the foundation (teaching) of the apostles and (New Testament) prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.

      The tabernacle of David is the royal house of David. The Church has never been built before--as has the House of David--and is not being built again--as will be the house of David. When did the Church "fall down?" The Church is now being built (not rebuilt), as God [99] takes from the Gentiles a people for His Name. The building of the Church does not wait for Christ's return, but will instead be found complete at His coming.

      Jesus Christ is of the house of David. He is the Son of David. He is the one to inherit David's throne. He will take up His inheritance at His second coming. The prophecy of Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 find their ultimate fulfillment at the second coming of Christ. It is then that the tabernacle of David is rebuilt. It is then that the kingdom will be restored to Israel. It is then that the "kingdoms under the whole heaven will be handed over to the saints" (Daniel 7:27). It is then that Christ shall exercise His authority as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

      To Israel, Peter said, "Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, . . . and that He may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you--even Jesus. He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as He promised long ago through His holy prophets" (Acts 3:19-21).

      It is significant that the promise that God will send the Christ if they will repent, is never spoken to the Gentiles. That offer is extended only to Israel. Peter was speaking to Israel. (Read the whole passage from verse 12.)

"Men of Israel . . . You disowned the Holy and Righteous one . . . you killed the author of life, but God raised Him from the dead . . . But this is how God fulfilled what He had foretold through all the prophets, saying that His Christ would suffer. (they had not believed or understood the prophecies about the suffering) Repent then, . . . so that your sins may be wiped out, . . . and that He may send the Christ . . . He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything promised . . . "(Acts 3:12-21.)

      This can only mean that the sending of the Christ to Israel cannot take place until after the repentance of that rebellious nation. Jesus was appointed for them, Israel. He is the son of David, their King. The times of restoration promised by the Old Testament prophets cannot take place during the absence of the King. The restoration can only take place after His return because the Scripture says He must remain in heaven until the times of restoration.

      This time of restoration is further explained in Romans 8:18-25. "The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed." The creation itself--this earth with its animals (see Isaiah 11)--"will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God."

      That freedom is not our present freedom in Christ but is the freedom that shall be ours at the "redemption of our bodies."

      That redemption is realized at the return of Christ, not before. The redemption of our bodies is the time when--at His coming--Christ "will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body" (Philippians 3:20-21). It is then, that we, the sons of God will be revealed.

      The creation is waiting in eager expectation for that event. Dear reader, are you also waiting eagerly for His coming? Are you prepared?

[KOG3R 94-100]