Ephesians 3:13-15 comments: the whole family in heaven and earth

13  Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.

He tells them not to be dismayed at the suffering he is going through for them. There is an age old literary device copied from the Bible where in a secular novel the hero, a type of Christ, suffers for the heroine, a type of the church. He who is stronger and powerful and noble and righteous sometimes even lays down his life for the object of his love, who can not do that for herself. He would sacrifice all for her glory. Paul, as a type of Christ, suffers for the little church bodies he has planted. He desires that they faint not.

14 ¶  For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Paul is in awe of God’s plan and in the position of worship for God’s glory.

Psalm 95:6  O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.

Notice the connection of “worship” and “bow down”  by “and” making them synonymous.

Isaiah 45:23  I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.

Romans 14:11  For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.

Philippians 2:10  That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

Modern versions of the Bible lending authority to Westcott and Hort’s Critical Text eliminate, “of our Lord Jesus Christ,’ based on a few corrupted manuscripts from the 4^th, 5^th, and 9^th centuries.

15  Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,

This is the only time the word, family, is used in the New Testament.

The family of God are all those who are on earth and who have gone on before which are God’s whether they be an Old Testament Hebrew or your saved grandfather who passed away or those sitting here, hearing or reading this who are saved.

The Church Triumphant is in heaven and the Church Militant is down here still doing battle, according to the old ways of looking at this.

You have a group of Gentiles before the Law from Adam to Enoch who believed God, as an example. Then you have Gentiles who become Hebrews such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The next group are Jews under the Law. You have Gentiles under the Law who placed their faith in God. You have then the church, the bride of Christ, which we are.

Galatians 3:28  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

You then have Tribulation Jews and Gentiles under the Law. Then, there are millennial Saints walking by sight as Christ is right there.

Paul has told us previously that we are already in heaven even though we are also here on this earth. What was said for chapter 2, verse 6 bears repeating here.

Our future is waiting for us in heaven. If you don’t believe you can be in two places at one time then read this;

John 3:13  And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

Your dead spirit was born again and saved and now you are waiting for the redemption of your body in real time. We are there already, though, in the sense of eternity. It’s already happened from the perspective of eternity, but as a temporal creature we have to wait, in time.  You’re already in heaven with Christ from this perspective.

Hebrew 12:22  But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,   23  To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

An angel is an appearance, a presence, as in Isaiah 63:9, of persons, sons of God, churches, children, God Himself, and, I’m sure, many other things which somehow are projected by the representation that an angel is somewhere else in space-time.

Job 1:6  Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.

John1:12  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

Perhaps the saved will replace the sons of God who, “kept not their first estate,” and, “the third part of the stars of heaven,” who followed Satan in Revelation 12:4, stars representing angels as in Revelation 1:20. 

Ephesians 3:11-12 comments: by Christ alone

11  According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: 12  In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.

Here is Christ’s full name and title, the Lord Jesus Christ. Each name refers to a different character of Christ, as our Lord, the fully man and fully God Jesus, and the Saviour, the Christ.

We have access to God only through Christ and by our faith given by Him to us. And as grace traverses all covenants and dispensations let’s travel to the transition between the Church Age and the Tribulation.

Hebrews 4:16  Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

What is the eternal purpose that God purposed in the Lord Jesus Christ?

That all men might have a personal knowledge of their Creator, when God comes to live inside of each person who believes. We have that direct connection to God through our spirit and His Spirit which came to dwell within when we believed.

Romans 8:26  Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

It is God’s desire that all men be saved and know Him.

1Timothy 2:4  Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

2Peter 3:9  The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

It is God’s desire that those who already know Him come confidently and willingly before His throne. He wants to speak to your heart through His word, to hear you speak to Him in prayer, to give you wisdom and guidance, blessings, and victory over sin and discouragement and to set you apart, to sanctify you, for His purpose through His words in a Book.

John 17:17  Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

This access to God is through Christ alone.

John 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Faith in Christ translates to boldness and forwardness toward God. We can come before God without hesitation because we trust that what Christ did justified us before God and we are approved by Him for that reason and that reason alone, that Christ died for our sins and rose again from the grave for our justification. It was Christ who paid the ransom to God for our souls and it was Christ who propitiated God’s anger towards sin by His own sacrifice of Himself. It is only by Christ that we can come before God with confidence and boldness.

Understanding the Bible, part one

I don’t want to get into a history lesson here but the Reformation was a time when formerly Roman Catholic Europe saw men reject the authority of their church hierarchy and the doctrines of their leadership. These men magnified the words of God over the authority of the Pope in Rome and new church organizations called Protestant were formed, many of them containing similar errors to the church organization they rejected.

However, these men lived in a time when Catholic priests often could not find the Ten Commandments or the letters of Paul in the Bible, priests who knew nothing but the prepared sermons they were to give in their assemblies. The words of God, the Bible, began to be uplifted. The true Christians of the Vaudois, the valley men of the Alps, who had been evangelized by missionaries from Antioch, Syria twelve hundred years before were able to come out of the mountain strongholds, in some measure, although they were still persecuted by not only the Roman Catholic Church but by Protestants like Zwingli.

My point here is that while a rebirth of Christianity was taking place where men would take a love for the words of God across every ocean and into almost every land, that even though they may have had errors in their hearts like the union of church and state, they more than overshadowed those errors by their love of God’s words over all tradition and earthly authority. After some extensive reading, and I want to particularly thank Gail Riplinger for her marvelous works, I think this is a good start for us average Christians to be able to use to understand the Bible better.

When William Tyndale was translating the Bible into English from Greek in the early 1500’s the Roman Catholic Church was insisting that unless you knew Hebrew and Greek you couldn’t understand the Bible and therefore you shouldn’t have it in your own language just like Protestant scholars are saying today. It doesn’t matter who says it, they’re just trying to take away your Bible and make themselves your final authority. Only today, they aren’t allowed yet to kill you for having one.

But a French Protestant reformer, Du Moulin, countered the Catholic church of his day by saying, “Must one be skilled in Greek or Hebrew? But the Popes themselves, who give these rules, are often unskillful! …Is not Scripture rather to be read to get learning?”*

I can’t emphasize too much to you how important it is to read your Bible daily if you want to have victory as a Christian. In fact, here’s a statement by another figure of the Reformation, a Bishop Becke, writing in the foreword of a 1551 reprint of the Matthews Bible;

“If people would spare an hour a day for reading it, they would soon abandon blasphemy, swearing, carding, and dicing! They would put away all pride, prodigality, riot, licentiousness, and dissolute living.”  Prodigality is extravagant wastefulness.

Dean Burgon in a 19^th century sermon on Biblical inspiration says a half hour per day will do.

But, how do you understand it? The biggest killer of a desire to read the Bible is that many people today say they just don’t understand it, even when they read one of the modern versions. Well, to the leaders of the Reformation there were seven keys to understanding the Bible according to Dr. Riplinger;

Key 1. Fear God; “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” (Proverbs 1:7)

Thomas Cranmer said, “Flesh is a cloud before the soul’s eye…” In a book about one of the early English versions of the Bible called The Great Bible, about Cranmer’s forward it is written, “Therefore, says he, the fear of God must be the first beginning and, as it were, an …introduction to all them that shall enter to the very true and most faithful knowledge of the scripture.” See Hebrews 12:28 for a Bible definition of the proper fear for this context.

Key 2. Believe the Bible is the very word of God; “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” (Psalm 119:11) “For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.” (Psalm 119:89). Hold up your Bible.  Do you believe you have the words of God in your hand? Jesus said that every word was important for life in Luke 4:4 and

Matthew 4:4, quoting Deuteronomy 8:3. Do you believe that He was telling you the truth? Translator and martyr, William Tyndale compared the Bible to a “precious jewel,” whose “value” must be recognized and whose words must be believed  to benefit the reader; doubts cast upon the words of God are as firebrands, melting men of straw, said he. William Thorpe, when questioned during his imprisonment, said, “Men and women here in the earth, touched Christ, and saw him, and knew his bodily person, which neither touched, nor saw, nor knew his Godhead, right thus, Sir, many men now touch, and see, and write, and read the Scriptures of God’s law, which neither see, touch, nor read effectually, the gospel. For, as the Godhead of Christ (that is, the virtue of God) is known by the virtue of belief, so (is) Christ’s word..”

Key 3. Be Humble; “The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.” (Psalm 25:9) What does it mean to be meek? Do a word search. Meekness toward God’s will and toward God is the meekness spoken of in the Bible.

Read Matthew 11:25. Philosopher Thomas Hobbes sourly wrote about 16^th and his part of 17^th century England, “Every boy and wench that could read English, thought they spoke with God Almighty and understood what he said”.  Tyndale reminded us that, “remembering that as lowliness of heart shall make you high with God, even so meekness of words shall make you sink into the hearts of men. Nature giveth age authority, but meekness is the glory of youth, and giveth them honour.”

In one edition of the Great Bible we are advised to have the Holy Spirit as our instructor.

“I think it necessary that thou play not the sluggard following the example of the unprofitable drone bee, who liveth only by the honey that the diligent bees gather. But contrary wise, be thou a good bee, search for the sweet honey of the most wholesome flowers of God’s holy word. And in all this give over thy self to the teaching of God’s holy spirit, who instructeth none but the humble spirited and such as seek reformation of their own mis-living and all such he instructeth to the full, making their hearts a meet (worthy) temple for him to dwell in..”

Key 4. Pray; “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” (James 1:5)

When was the last time you prayed for wisdom? For God to give you light from His word? What did Jesus promise about the Holy Spirit in John 14:26?

In 1538 the Bishop of London felt that study without prayer was like lungs without air-no life. “By devout prayer he shall attain, percase, as much or more, as by study or learning, for without prayer the words will little prevail. Look in Christ’s life, and thou shalt find in every thing he went about, he prayed..”

Martyr Hugh Latimer said that worldly wise men are the least likely sources of wisdom and knowledge. Prayer and a willing heart will prevail;

“You shall prevail more with praying, than with studying, though mixture be best…For in the first we must stand only to the Scriptures, which are able to make us all perfect and instructed unto salvation, if they be well understood. And they offer themselves to be well understood only to them, which have good wills, and give themselves to study and

prayer: neither are there any men less apt to understand them, than the prudent and wise men of the world.”

Key 5. Desire to Obey: “I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts.” (Psalm 119:100)

Tyndale said Christians are to “submit themselves unto the word of God, to be corrected.”

“It is not enough therefore to read and talk of it only, but we must also desire God day and night instantly to open our eyes, and to make us understand and feel wherefore [for what reason] the scripture was given, that we may apply the medicine of the scripture, every man to his own sores…This comfort shalt thou evermore find in the plain text and literal sense. As thou readest therefore think that every syllable pertaineth  to thine own self.”  Give example of Canaanites and Hebrews.

Key 6: Meditate on Memorized Scripture: “I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.” Psalm 119:99

Thomas Cromwell, martyr and Henry VIII’s secretary of state, had memorized the entire New Testament.

Adam Wallace, the night before he was burnt at the stake sang the entire book of Psalms by heart to his jailers as they had taken away his Bible.

Joan Waste, a blind girl, purchased a New Testament with money she earned from knitting. She would pay people a penny or two to read the Bible to her so she could memorize it. They burnt her at the stake at the age of 22.

Nicholas Ridley, before he was burned, had his family memorize a large part of the Bible.

Rather than television or your rap and rock CD’s Tyndale would admonish parents;

“Thou shalt buy them wholesome books, as the holy gospel, the epistles of the holy apostles, yea both the New Testament and Old Testament, that they may understand and drink of the sweet fountain and waters of life. Bring thy children to the church, to hear the sermon; and when thou shalt come home, thou shalt ask them what they have kept in memory of the sermon.”

Key 7: Read the Bible again and again: “Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)” Ephesians 3:4

Cranmer’s Prologue to the Great Bible says;

“Peradventure, they will say unto me” how and if we understand not that we read, that is contained in the books. What then? Suppose, thou understand not the deep and profound

mysteries of scripture, yet can it not be, but that much fruit and holiness must come and grow unto thee by the reading: for it cannot be that thou shouldest be ignorant in all things alike. For the Holy Ghost hath so ordered and tempered the scriptures, that in them as well publicans, fishers, and shepherds may find their edification. Who is there of so simple wit and capacity, but he may be able to perceive and understand them? These be but excuses and cloaks for the raiment, and coverings of their own idle slothfulness, I cannot understand it. What marvel? How shouldest thou understand, if thou wilt not read, nor look upon it? Take the books into thine hands, read the whole story, and that thou understandest keep it well in memory; that thou understandest not, read it again and again. And I doubt not, but God seeing thy diligence and readiness will himself vouchsafe with his Holy Spirit to illuminate thee, and to open unto thee that which was locked from thee….Every man should read by himself at home in the mean days and time, between sermon and sermon. Take the book in hand, read, weigh, and perceive. When ye be at home in your houses, ye apply yourselves from time to time to the reading of the Holy Scriptures. Let no man make excuse and say: ‘I am busy. It is not for me to read the scriptures.”

*The Bible of the Reformation, Its Translators and their Work, by the Rev. J.W. Heaton, 1913. Also read Gail Riplinger’s In Awe of Thy Word, which I used to derive a great deal of this information, as well.

Ephesians 3:10 comments: the powers above

10  To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,

“Principalities and powers in heavenly places,” is a reference to those forces in the domain of what we now call Outer Space where the prince of the power of the air resides. These spiritual beings will be mentioned again in chapter six.

Ephesians 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Remember that Satan is the god of this world.

2Corinthians 4:4  In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Context determines meaning, as it is with principalities and powers. If God had thrown an earthly magistrate or two in there you would have known he was talking about earthly rulers, as in Titus 3:1, while Ephesians 6:12 and Romans 8:38 are clearly speaking about spiritual powers.

What God did on the Cross was a sign of their destruction, putting spiritual powers of darkness on notice that their end of ruling the world of men was coming. The Cross not only fulfilled and wiped out the rule of the Law over saved man but it showed these spiritual beings that oppose man and God their defeat.

Colossians 2:14  Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15  And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

The Church, the body of Christ on earth, His bride, revealed God’s wisdom to this spiritual world that we cannot see but which has a profound impact on our governments, our culture, and even sickness, so-called natural deterioration, and death. As has been said previously one of the things that Christ came to do was to destroy him that had power over death.

Hebrews 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

To reinforce where these heavenly places are, remember that the creation of the heaven, that great expanse that separates earth from God’s abode was the only day of creation after which it is not said that “it was good.” See Genesis 1:6-8.

Note that this thing called, “the darkness,” preceded Satan’s time in the Garden of Eden and his successful effort to overthrow humankind’s relationship with God.

Genesis 1:2  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Genesis 1:4  And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

That this darkness could not comprehend the light that Christ brought to the world.

John 1:5  And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.*

*Comprehend can be understand as in Job 37:5 and include as in Isaiah 40:12 and Romans 14:9

John 3:19  And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

This darkness that is the natural state of chaos without God’s hand of order is represented in type in the history of the world when order breaks down and societies, cultures, and kingdoms begin to disintegrate and a violent type of anarchy rules, a rule by the most powerful and the most violent. The first man violated the only rule given to him by God. Whenever man chose not to be ruled by God but by other men the darkness overtaking them was inevitable. See 1 Samuel 8:7.

Ezekiel 28:15  Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.

Where was Satan’s iniquity from that was found in him? His own pride and the darkness he chose over Gods’ authority. Although he can do nothing without God’s permission he rejected God’s sovereignty, something man does continually.

The universe, Outer Space as we call it, is a big place. The number of stars is equivalent to the number of grains of sand on the beaches of the world. Note here by parallel phrasing;

Genesis 22:17  That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;

Until recently in history, a few hundred years ago, the number of stars thought to be in the sky was only a few thousand at most based on sight. But man cannot number them as shown when God challenged Abram to tell or count the stars (think of a bank teller as is clear by parallel phrasing in context).

Genesis 15:5  And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.

God didn’t give mankind any authority there.

Psalm 115:16  The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’S: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.

I am reminded of the 1997 movie entitled “Event Horizon” in which a space ship heads out to parts unknown and comes back infested with evil. It’s much more realistic than Star Trek, Star Wars, or Battlestar Galactica could have imagined.

So, there are principalities and powers above us that have been shown the power and wisdom of God by the events at the Cross and by the church’s very existence.

Ephesians 3:9 comments: who created all things by Jesus Christ

9  And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:

Interestingly, modern versions giving precedence primarily to the authority of the Codices Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, among a few small other manuscripts deny here the entire first part of the Gospel of John where Jesus is said to be the Word by which the universe was created. The NIV, The NASV, The Message, The HCSB, and others have removed “by Jesus Christ.”  If that removal isn’t shocking and disconcerting to you as a Christian that is a sad thing.

John 1:3  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Colossians 1: 15  Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 18  And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

Paul says that part of his goal is to “make all men see” the mystery that he mentioned previously, that the Gentiles could join in with the believing Jews and become a part of God’s plan of redemption. All men will not see, though. Even God, whose will it is that all men be saved, finds that will frustrated by man’s free will as He does not force anyone to believe Him or trust in Him.

1Timothy 2:4  Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

In the Bible it is important to note the two kinds of “all.” There is “all” without exception and there is “all” without distinction. One is all as in “everyone will” and one is all as in “everyone could”.  And, as Paul would admit, all men will not see.

Paul is called to reveal the mystery of the body of Christ. It’s a mystery to the Old Testament prophets. The first great type of the body and bride of Christ, the church, is Eve, and there is Ruth, and Rebecca, and so many others but the prophets just didn’t see that God was going to reach out to all humankind through the church.

Ephesians 3:8 comments: the unsearchable riches of Christ

8  Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;

Paul restates here his God-given mission to preach to the Gentiles (non-Jews) the gospel of Christ.

Galatians 2:7  But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter; 8  (For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:)

Romans 15:15  Nevertheless, brethren, I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort, as putting you in mind, because of the grace that is given to me of God, 16  That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost.

In the next verses which are one long sentence, note verse 25.

Colossians 1:21  And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled 22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: 23  If 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; 24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church: 25  Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; 26  Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: 27  To 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: 28  Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: 29  Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

Paul calls himself the, “least of all saints,” probably because he started as a persecutor and murderer of Christians of Jewish ethnicity.

He watched over the outer garments for those who stoned the martyr, Stephen, when his name was still Saul as Luke relates.

Acts 7:58  And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.

He persecuted Christians Luke tells us.

Acts 8:3  As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.

Acts 9:1 ¶  And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, 2  And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.

Paul himself admits his activity.

Galatians 1:13  For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it:

Now, though, he preaches, “the unsearchable riches of Christ,” to the Gentiles. First, understand that there is God who created all things by Christ, who is also a part of God, being the visible image of the invisible God, the Word (what the Greeks knew as the Logos, the creative power behind all things in existence as it is not an impersonal force but a personal deity which is why John uses that word in his gospel) by which all things were made.

Second, understand that the God who created you requires that those who are in His presence in heaven in eternity be without sin, a sinlessness only He possesses.

Third, realize that only He can provide a ransom for the sinner, which we all are, to pay the sin debt we owe to Him so He came to earth and lived as one of us, died for our sins at our own hand, and rose from the dead justifying us legally before Himself.

Then, it is only by trusting in His righteousness and not our own, in His sacrifice and not our works, and in His grace and mercy and not our good intentions that we may have eternity with Him. (Genesis 1:1; John 1:1; Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3; Exodus 30:12; Mark 10:45; Romans 4:25; Romans 6:23)

An eternity with your Creator unspeakable in its joy (2 Corinthians 9:15; 12:4) unsearchable beyond our understanding (Psalm 145:3; Romans 11:3). As my wife, Beth, has pointed out, these are not about you seeing your loved ones whom you miss or being free from your infirmities or diseases but about being with the one who created you in fellowship and joy for time without end. You might see those you loved. You might never feel pain again. But, most important of all and what every Christian should be focused on, you will be with God and your time with Him will have no end.

If you trust Him now.

Ephesians 3:5-7 comments: the Apostle to the Gentiles, Paul

5  Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; 6  That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: 7  Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.

The church as God’s body on earth consisting of believing Gentiles and Jews was a mystery unknown to the people on earth who lived before Christ. The Jews could not imagine Gentiles becoming one with them apart from becoming Jews. Now, both Jew and Gentile must become something different than either, a Christian.

There are three types of people in the world right now; the unbelieving Jew, the unbelieving Gentile, and the Church.

1Corinthians 10:32  Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God:

Paul was made a minister to the Gentiles to build God’s church. Jesus Christ came to minister to the Jews as almost all of His direct teaching is before the resurrection and salvation by faith in His finished work on the Cross was possible.

Romans 15:8  Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers:

Peter carried on Christ’s ministry to the Jews and Paul was called to the Gentiles.

Galatians 2:8  (For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:)

Romans 15:16  That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost.

Peter initially did work among the Gentiles.

Acts 15:7  And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.

But, Peter eventually went to teach at Babylon where a large contingent of Jews lived in the first and in the second century AD, a place where Jewish Christians would also live. As Jacob Neusner pointed out in his work, A History of the Jews in Babylonia, in 1966 many Jews did live in that region. Another author, T. Boiy, in his 2004 book, Late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Babylon, wrote on page 189 referring to the Jewish writer, Philo, and the Babylonian Talmud that there were many Jews living in Babylon in the first and second century.

Some writers have insisted that Peter went to Rome and called it Babylon but many other writers, even Roman Catholic writers like Erasmus, acknowledged that what the Bible said literally was probably true. See Mason Gallagher’s 1894 Was the Apostle Peter Ever at Rome?

1 Peter 5:13  The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you; and so doth Marcus my son.

In any event, Paul is telling us here that he was made a minister to the Gentiles, “according to the gift of the grace of God,” building the church of God.

1Corinthians 3:10  According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

And through Christ the Gentile is made a fellow-heir with the Jew in the inheritance of God’s kingdom and eternal life.