A Clear Mystery

“This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise of Christ Jesus.” ~ Ephesians 3:6

I often marvel at the simplicity and clarity with which God speaks to His people – even more so at the way we overthink and complicate what He says.  The end result is usually steering ourselves off course and in the opposite direction of His holy intention.

Inevitably the root cause of a scenario like this is always the same – we take our eyes off of God.  Pastor Dsane said it in the first week of our People of God sermon series – “It’s not about you.”  And he’s right, the minute I look away from the source of the gospel and the promise of Christ, my heart and its seemingly altruistic motivations are revealed to be more about what I can do for God than what He’s already done for me.  This message has stirred me.  It drives me to my knees in repentance and makes me ask myself repeatedly if I believe what I say I believe.  Do I know that God is working when it seems that everything is falling apart?  Do I trust that He has a greater plan than the one I’ve poured myself into?  Can I rejoice in the struggle of transition and being stretched outside of my comfort zone in an effort to point people to Jesus?  These are hard questions mainly because despite our best intentions, what the answers should be and what they are often do not align.

I think the mystery that Paul speaks of in Ephesians 3 has little to do with God’s complexity and everything to do with His offering of grace and perfect love to a very imperfect people.  While we complicate and separate, Jesus bridges the gap to bring us together with the magnificent opportunity to be called and become His people.  We need only to keep our eyes on Him and follow His lead to step into our identity as “The People of God.”