Staggering

⁸ To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, ⁹ and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; ¹⁰ so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 3:8-10)

I’ve been reading Ephesians this week, rereading each chapter several times before moving on, and these verses jumped out at me this morning. Paul is talking about the “mystery” of God’s inclusion of the Gentiles in his plan of redemption. It’s not just for Israel, but for all people.

What strikes me is what a grand purpose is assigned to the church here. We hear often of church as a place for teaching, fellowship, community, “outreach.” But when was the last time we thought of ourselves as “making the manifold wisdom of God known to the rulers in the heavenly places”?

Recently my husband and I listened to a teaching by David Jeremiah on the subject of Revelation. He spoke of the ongoing battle referred to there between “the dragon” and the church. Christ, Scripture teaches, defeated the powers of evil once and for all at the cross, but if that victory is not enforced — through the church, and primarily through the instrument of prayer — then it’s the equivalent of having a law on the books that no one knows about or obeys.

These verses reminded me of that. As the commentary I read this morning on verse 10 affirms, “the ecclesiological implications of such a verse as this are staggering indeed. Through the mirror of the church, the angels of heaven see the glory of God.”

Arise and shine, church.