◄ What Does Ephesians 3:10 Mean? ►

Israel had a special and unique ministry, which was given to them by God. They were His people, and He was their God, and they were called and chosen to be a light to the Gentiles. They were to shed abroad the wonders of His name and proclaim throughout the world the glorious news of salvation by grace through faith to those who were dead in sin.

The whole earth has been lying in the evil one, ever since Adam sinned in the garden of Eden. Since that day, men and nations have remained under the evil control of rebellions principalities and powers. But God in His grace, chose Israel to become His one and only witness to a lost and dying world. They alone were chosen for a special and unique ministry which would circumnavigate Satan's plan to be, "like the Most High." Israel was commissioned to undermine the works of evil and to overturn Satan's wicked influence on humanity.

When apostate Israel rejected their Messiah, God needed a different body of believers to continue His work on earth - until the nation of Israel would resume their calling, in the coming 'Time of Jacob's Trouble'. And so, He called out of the Gentiles a people for His name to carry out this important part of His redemptive plan for mankind. Israel had to be set aside for the duration of the Church age, and a new body of believers were commissioned to carry out God's 'ministry of reconciliation'.

God's witnesses, in this Church age, consist of a body of believers who are made up of a remnant of believing Jews, together with a body of believing Gentiles. They are called the 'Body of Christ', which is 'the Church' and like Israel, have also been entrusted with their own special and unique ministry for God.

Paul disclosed that this body of believers was part of a new creation who would be born again into the family of God, by faith in Christ's sacrificial work and glorious Resurrection. They were to be God's witness to the world during the Church dispensation. Like Israel, the Church was to be used by God to circumvent the forces of evil. They were to restrain Satan's evil ploys, and they were to go into all the world preaching the message of salvation to lost and dying souls - making disciples of all people groups, all tribes, and all nations - teaching individuals of every colour and every clime.

But Paul, Christ's chosen apostle to the Gentiles, disclosed certain additional truths regarding the important ministry and work of believers, in this 'Dispensation of the Grace of God'. We are not only called to shed the light of God's plans and purposes on all humanity by proclaiming the good tidings of great joy to all people, but we are also called to demonstrate the unsearchable riches of Christ and the multi-faceted wisdom of God, to principalities and powers in heavenly places.

We are part of that body of believers who have been born again and made a new creation in Christ. We are those that have been commissioned to show forth the riches of God's grace to the kingdom of Satan and spiritual powers in heavenly places. The Church is called to be a witness of God's grace to both holy angels and demonic beings... and we are not only to show forth His goodness and grace in this day and age, but also in the ages to come so that they too might come to a knowledge of the manifold wisdom of God and His amazing grace towards mankind.

Angels and heavenly bodies, whether holy messengers or fallen beings, have never personally experienced the wonderful, saving grace of God, because mankind alone was made in God's image and formed in His likeness. Only humanity is the recipient of God's redemptive grace, whereby Christ become one of us and took upon Himself the role of man's Kinsman-Redeemer when He died for our sin, on Calvary's tree. And He also rose again to give us eternal life by God's amazing grace - through faith in the only begotten Son of God.

Heavenly Father, there are no words that are sufficient to praise and magnify Your holy name for choosing to make man in Your own image and likeness and to set aside Your glory so that Jesus could come as our Kinsman-Redeemer, to save us by grace through faith in His sacrificial death and glorious Resurrection. May I fulfil my calling and the work that You have prepared for me to do, and I pray that I may show forth Your manifold wisdom to principalities and powers, not only in this world but also in the ages to come. Thank You, in Jesus' name. AMEN.