I have been following the teaching ministry of Mark D. Roberts at The High Calling blog site 
for sometime now. I appreciate so much his clear and insightful approach to Scripture. In a couple of recent blogs dealing with Ephesians 3:8-10, Mark has highlighted an important truth about God’s mystery revealed in the Gospel for mankind.
The mystery is not only that Jews and Gentiles are now heirs together in Christ, but that a new twist, as Mark describes it, has been revealed to us. Here are Paul’s own words about this surprising twist in God’s plan (vs.10): “[God’s] intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.”
Mark Roberts comments on this passage by saying, “God’s grand plan for the universe, God’s mystery, God’s manifold wisdom, is to be revealed to the whole cosmos, including supernatural powers, through the church. Through the church! Now that’s an unexpected twist in God’s mystery, if you ask me. I don’t find it intuitive to think of the church as playing such a central role in God’s plan for the cosmos.” I think many Christians intuitively minimize the role and purpose of the Church in God’s plan.
We tend to think of our faith individually and personally, not communally. In fact the postmodern worldview is that the individual is supreme. The result of that thinking is narcissism—it’s all about me. It’s my faith, and I’ll live it in my way. But that’s contrary to what the Bible teaches and what God intends. I’m going to let Mark Roberts fill in the blanks through comments from his posting on this text.
(BTW, I encourage you to sign up for his Daily Reflection at www.TheHighCalling.org. Also, check out Mark’s personal blog site. Click here to link).
Many of us would not expect the church to matter as much as it does. For example, I was raised in a fine church in which my family and I were very active. Yet, I was taught that what really matters in the Christian life is not church, but rather my own, individual, personal relationship with Christ. Everything else, including church attendance, was extra credit.
Now, let me hasten to add that I do believe that an individual, personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ is absolutely essential, not only to being a Christian, but also to experience life in all of its fullness, both now and forever. Yet, as I study Scripture, and as I encounter passages such as Ephesians 3:10, I realize that God cares deeply, not only about individual Christians, but also about the community of Christians, that which we call the church. God’s saving work, as we have seen in Ephesians, is not just a matter of delivering individuals from eternal death. It also includes unifying all things in Christ (Eph. 1:10), thus restoring the cosmos to what God had intended for it from the beginning. The church is an essential part of God’s saving work. It is a result of Christ’s death on the cross, every bit as much as your personal salvation comes from Christ’s death.
The more we recognize the centrality of the church in God’s plan, the more we will look differently at our lives and our participation in the church. We will understand that God has saved us, not only for relationship with him, but also for relationship with his people. In community with God and his people, we, the church of Jesus Christ, will show the world—and, indeed, the entire cosmos—that God’s plan for restoring all things is working.
So what is your view of the Church and how much importance have you placed upon it? Does it measure up to what Scripture teaches? If not, why not? Do you agree with Mark that the church is God’s plan for restoring all things—for displaying the glory and greatness of God to the world? Why or why not?
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