The Day of Epiphany, January 6, 2025
The Day of Epiphany, January 6, 2025
Paul is captive. Christ Jesus is his captor. Paul is now the prisoner of Jesus Christ. Prisoners receive only what their captors… their jailers… provide for them. Paul received a “stewardship” of God’s grace (vs. 2). In this stewardship, the mystery of Christ was revealed to him. Paul received what had previously not been disclosed, namely that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not merely for the Jews but is given to the Gentiles as well (vs. 6). For grasping the magnitude of this gift, understand that Paul knew only two kinds of people: Jews and Gentiles. The revelation of God’s secret plan proclaimed Jesus Christ as the savior of the entire world—all of its people, not merely the Jews.
Neither Jew nor Gentile bore responsibility for this hidden mystery. Paul (called and sent) received the gift of apostleship by the grace of God, who, in the power of the Father, bestowed the gift upon Paul. Paul’s commission (1 Cor. 9:17) had him “the least of all saints” (vs. 8), preaching this revelation not only to the Gentiles but also disclosing it to the “rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms” (vs. 10).
The result accomplished by God in Christ Jesus—Paul’s Lord—is that now Paul and we are given two blessings: 1) boldness and 2) confident access to God. The boldness is ours not from any quality or behavior of our own but simply because Jesus Christ was faithful. We are bold before the Father and the world even when all the circumstances would deny such boldness. Again, our confident access to God is not the result of our pious practices nor of any quality we may possess in and of ourselves. Instead, Christ’s faithfulness and his faithfulness alone (vs. 12) provides such access.
On this Day of Epiphany, when the royal Lordship of Jesus Christ was revealed to the world, we receive from the Apostle Paul the revelation that this baby Jesus Christ and the man he will become is the royal Lord of the Gentiles (that’s you and me, by the way), too. We possess nothing—not one thing—that brought this about. Only the faithfulness of Jesus Christ accomplishes it.
Table Talk: Discuss what it means to you that Jesus Christ’s faithfulness counts instead of your personal worthiness.
Pray: Heavenly Father, grant that I lean on Jesus’ faithfulness and not my own. Amen
Ephesians 3:1-12 (ESV)
For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles 2 if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, 3 that by revelation the mystery was made known to me, as I wrote before briefly. 4 When reading this, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ 5 (which was not disclosed to people in former generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit), 6 namely, that through the gospel the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus. 7 I became a servant of this gospel according to the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by the exercise of his power. 8 To me—less than the least of all the saints—this grace was given, to proclaim to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ 9 and to enlighten everyone about God’s secret plan—the mystery that has been hidden for ages in God who has created all things. 10 The purpose of this enlightenment is that through the church the multifaceted wisdom of God should now be disclosed to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly realms. 11 This was according to the eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and confident access to God by way of Christ’s faithfulness.