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Ephesians 3:1
Paul was preaching and writing but it was all so hard to hear. Devout Jews, including himself, found that what Jesus did was too good to be true. When you read Paul it is as if he is pinching himself to make sure he is living and breathing because he is so happy! Where does he find his joy? In grasping and believing that what Jesus said is true.
In this passage Paul is hammering home that what Jesus came to say and to do was entirely fresh. God's plan to put right what had gone wrong in the garden was executed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Paul says that he received this insight directly from God. He says it is like a secret or a mystery revealed and that if each of us trust God the Father and accept this new way of seeking after God, then each of us will receive the mystery and it will be clear to us personally. No more group think. No more religion. No more lists of rules and requirements or duties that one must perform to please God. That is old and simply never worked well.
However, the old way of doing anything is hard to quit. We have habits of doing and habits of thinking that bind us like chains. We become so comfortable in our chains that when someone says, "here's the key to unlock yourself" we assume this is too good to be true. Paul is saying that Jesus came to unlock the chains and only asks that we accept his free gift of freedom by simply believing and trusting in what Jesus did for each of us.
All people throughout recorded history have sought after God. The Greeks had multiple gods they worshiped and just in case they missed something they had the unknown god. The Jews before Christ were given the 10 Commandments and God sent leaders and prophets to point them to himself. But, we all know that the instructions went unheeded by most.
What Adam erased Jesus replaced with the most elegant and simple solution for us. Jesus lived, taught, suffered, died and rose from the dead so it was not simple for him. Because it was hard for him, it is simple for us and really it seems to good to be true.
Invite Jesus to reveal the mystery to you and he will.
