Scripture Reference: Ephesians 1:3-3:21

From last lesson: God has made, therefore, a new people in this world, which is the church, composed of Jews and Gentiles.

Ephesians confronts us with the lofty nature and place of the church. We may think certain political, institutional, or economic structures are first in the hierarchy of structures. Actually the church is a living community, made alive and given direction by Christ, and it is the most strategic “society” in the world. As Christ makes the church by people’s response to Him in faith, barriers of alienation and hostility among humanity fall. The significance of this reality for our divided and warring world is obvious.

The phrase “in Christ,” which takes the form of other expressions such as “in him” and “in Christ Jesus,” is important to Paul’s thought. The phrase has basically three connotations.

First, “in Christ” suggests a mystical sense by which the people of God know their identity and nature. In this sense Christ is in them and they are in Christ, something like our being in the air and the air being in us.

Second, to be “in Christ” is to be in the “eschatological” age. That is, Christ’s people are in the last age of existence inaugurated and determined by Christ. “Last age of existence” does not refer to a chronologically determined countdown of time, but to a time of existence whose nature, purpose, and destiny are determined by God in Jesus Christ.

Third, many times Paul used “in Christ” to mean “in church.” Of course this is not a reference to a church building, denominational structure, or church organization. Rather, the church is the body of Christ, and the people who belong to Christ make up His body. Identifying the church as body is more than metaphor here, for the church really is the visible body of Christ in this world when it acts in accord with His will.

A statement about Paul’s relationship to the mystery (Ephesians 3:1–13), a prayer for the readers (Ephesians 3:14–19), and a benediction, or doxology as some refer to it (Ephesians 3:20–21), closes the first major section of the letter. Paul emphasizes that the mystery of God was “made known” to him “by revelation” (Ephesians 3:3). The mystery, again, is that God makes a diverse people into one people in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 3:6). Paul was a servant dedicated to spreading this very important good news, a privilege granted to him by God’s grace (Ephesians 3:7). The prayer is primarily for the readers to know the strength and love they have in Christ, and the benediction affirms the blessing of the One who “is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (Ephesians 3:20).

The fact and truth that we are “one in Christ” has always been an important message in much of Paul’s writings. Today we can be assured that we truly are one in the Body of Christ.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
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