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Topic: Fellow heirs and of the same body, Eph 3. 6.
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epouraniois
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2 Timothy is also a prison epistle.
The point of my saying, is that the teachings of the dispensation of the mystery is not taught prior to its revelation, therefore, it was impossible for anyone to have preached what this great secret was, or the glorious position given to those to whom it pertains.
That Paul's office is magnified in becoming the apstle to the nations was but a shadow of that which was to come after Acts. Paul loved his people very much, even wished himself accursed do to their lack of acceptable responce, wherein the apostle writes in Rom10 that all Israel had indeed heard.
His final hope was the all day conference with his brethren in Rome, and it was there that he was in bonds for the hope of Israel.
In the first epistle written after that dreadful quote of Isaiha's at the end of Acts, Paul reveals a newly created body had been formed and all are equally welcome.
It is this message that is truth for today. To go back to a time, to the teachings, wherein lay the hope of Israel, which has now been set aside, is to wrongly divide the word of truth. God has made these seperate, and marked them by a change in words, chosings, peoples, spheres of blessings, 'hope', 'calling', and all this by the words 'adoption'.
And for teaching that there is a company of believers which are seen as seated with Christ in the superheavenlies with every blessing that is spiritual led everyone who he had preached to, to turn away from him.
As far as I can see, it is only within the last 100 years or so that anyone has had the eyes of thier understanding opened, the seals unveiled.
This is what dispensationalist present, that when the kingdom hope of Israel was set aside and the new revelation given for all nations made known, come the new theme of absolute equality.
This is presented by many words, some of which are presented at the start of this thread, that the members of this body are not merely members in particular one to another as was the case during Acts, but co-chairs as it were.
Joint heirs is the close English equivalent, as stated at the first.
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Caretaker
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2 Peter 3:
15: And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
16: As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
17: Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.
18: But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.
Paul wrote the Books of Colossians, Philemon, Ephesians, and Philippians during his imprisonment in Rome.
The Epistle to the Romans was written from Corinth about 56-58AD, for instance:
Romans 15:
24: Whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you: for I trust to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward by you, if first I be somewhat filled with your company.
25: But now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints.
26: For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem.
The first Letter to the Corinthians was written from Ephesus in the spring of 55AD:
1 Cor. 16:
8: But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost.
9: For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.
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A Servant of Christ,
Drew
1 Tim. 3:
16: And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh..
Posts: 3978 | From: Council Grove, KS USA | Registered: Jun 2002
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epouraniois
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Can we maybe take another approach here?
The Acts. Paul was revealed the mystery, or secret, and sent forth his epistles from the Roman prison. This was about 64AD. What ever the year, we know that this was after Acts had historically ended as per Luke.
At the end of Acts the salvation of God is sent to all nations, Israel takes her Lo-ammi period to herself, placing her amidst the nations, set for soon destruction and scattering.
Peter wrote during the Acts. Peter did not continue to write of the 'at hand' kingdom after Israel's blindness at the end of Acts.
Peter, furthermore, did not preach what Paul preached because he did not preach to the Jew and gentile.
Because of this, Peter had no reason to tell his Jewish brethren of Paul's gospel.
That Peter did in fact preach a different gospel is evident in Galations when he is upbraided by Paul. Then, the HS even gives the two gospels seperate names.
We don't have to understand all this to believe it. In fact, we should be hard pressed to believe anything at all if we must wait till we understand it first.
Faith and trust is the first cause of action. Only by faith can the Lord reveal to us the incredible depths each verse contains. After faith, then comes the ability to be in a place where we can acknowledge that which God is giving of His understanding.
Summary;
Peter taught that it was their fathers promises they could now realize, forgiveness and repentance, baptism into the HS for the kingdom was at hand.
Paul's early ministry was to provoke the Jews by bringing gentiles into Israel's spiritual things without the law, for the hope of Israel.
Paul's latter prison ministry taught the church of the one body who's sphere of blessing is heavenly.
Paul is the minister of the reconcilliation.
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epouraniois
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Yes, the HS did say this through the vessel Paul, the HS's ministry is now advanced to the point where even in Israel's failure, the plan of God is to be forwarded upon the apostles and prophets.
In fact, we have Paul in the Acts proclaiming he preached none other things than Moses and the prophets.
This he can no longer do being a new dispensation had been announced and proclaimed. This is body of believers is a new creation, called to be one new man in Eph2.15, 2.24; Col3.10; the perfect husband in Eph4.13, his body in Eph1.23, 5.30; Col1.24.
All this is upon the prophets and apostles, for they had no part in any of these secrets which are given only to the apostle to the nations are revealed.
Paul cannot any longer base his teachings upon the OT, that is to say, the HS cannot, for all of this chosing which was before the foundatin of the world was hid in God, not searchable, but like Christ now is, hid in God, which,when Christ appears, the church which is His body shall appear with Him there. This body of believers spoken of in the prison epistles not only have for their express hope an heavenly kingdom far above all, but we do not look for His coming, as it isn't mentioned once, rather we look forward to the appearing. Not the coming, but the appearing.
Peter did not preach the appeaaring, he taught the coming. Paul taught both, but not at the same time. Paul taught the coming when the kingdom hope of Israel was in view. Now that the church body is in view, it is the appearing with Christ when He appears.
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Caretaker
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http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/bewareof-hyperdisp.html
Paul himself said that the church is built upon the “apostles” plural and not merely upon himself (Eph. 2:20). And Peter also referred to the writings of Paul and made no distinction between Paul’s teaching and the teaching of the other apostles (2 Pet. 3:1-2, 15-16). Peter said Paul wrote to the same people and preached the same message.
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A Servant of Christ,
Drew
1 Tim. 3:
16: And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh..
Posts: 3978 | From: Council Grove, KS USA | Registered: Jun 2002
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epouraniois
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Fellow heirs and of the same body, Eph 3. 6.
Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
I may repeat myself at times, but repetition is one way to learn. If any here have ever taught school, it is amazing how many just don’t understand the concept set forth. It was the same in the NT with the disciples. They just didn’t understand, even when the Lord Jesus told them how He was going to rise the 3rd day, to meet Him, they could not understand. We’re the same way, we too, have much difficulty ‘understanding’ what it is we are being told, God’s understanding for us, that is to say.
So Paul then has charge over a household, or goods and affairs, or whatever we want to call it, and Paul is to dispense this information to us, not to the Jews, but to us Gentiles. There are some believing Jews, but they’re carried over into this and included. As set forth in ch2:15 of Eph, the two, have been made (Ktizo - fabricated/created) a new creation which is called the church of the Mystery.
Paul’s ministry and the dispensation of the mystery.
First I want to say, that there is no such thing as the dispensation of the grace of God, not in the way we might have it in our mind anyway. It is by God’s good Grace where any are saved and has always been such from the beginning. Grace is not new. Grace is always the only way anyone ever was, or shall be, redeemed. Grace is non dispensational.
Eph 3:2 If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:
So what is this dispensation of the grace of God then? Nothing less than the stewardship given to Paul and to Paul alone toward, or for us Gentiles. for the purpose that Paul might make known to you the dispensation of the mystery. After Paul, there are no writings to indicate anyone else is given the stewardship of Grace to preach. In fact, Paul said in Colossians 1:25 that God chose him to be the vessel by which He would fulfill (Greek pleroo, "complete") the Word of God.
So this dispensation of the grace of God completes the Word of God, Paul continues, and I am removing the parenthesis and parentheses here: Eph 3:3, 6.
"How that by revelation He made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, by the Spirit; That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:"
Fellow heirs:
Some take this to mean Gentiles have been made fellow heirs with Jews. That isn’t what is meant here at all. Fellow heirs is joint heirs, that is true. But all along the members of the body are joint heirs with each other, regardless of whether they’d ever been Jews or Gentiles. All on an equality. You will note, in an estate court, if they are joint heirs, they all have the same amount. The members of this body all have the same amount, given in Eph 1:3, each and every member have an equality with every other member. In the Greek, ‘su’ = joint. And we have this 3 times over here: heirs (su), same body (su), and partakers (su). We can put this into English by saying members of a joint body. We do not have direct equivalents for all these Greek words in our English words.
Now these are language difficulties and they are difficult.
Of course it would be ideal if we could just read the Greek and understand it with the Greek understanding, but not all of us can do that. And not only that, but some of the meanings of this NT Greek have been lost and we are just finding them again these days, which bring us back to the Biblical definition of Faith I placed at the top.
'Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen'.
We have found, through archeology, that that word substance was translated ‘title deed’. Now, read it:
Now faith is the title deed of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
See how nice that comes out? Though we have never seen the things we have title deeds for, they are just as certainly ours as if we had title deeds here to some property or to some land that we have never seen. We don’t have to see it, we don’t have to know all about it, we have the absolute assurance that it is ours. This is an example of how words have to be carefully translated.
Paul, speaking of this church in Col 1:25, "Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill', (or complete) 'the word of God; Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in' (or among) 'you, the hope of glory'. So in Colossians, Paul makes an equal claim for a dispensation God had given to him to make known the mystery.
Eph 3:3 How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words,
Eph 3:4 Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)
Eph 3:5 Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;
Eph 3:6 That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:
Partakers:
Now we can translate that joint heirs, or partaker of His promise by His Christ by the gospel. Now this is a subject, so, Paul has been talking about how us Gentiles are strangers from the covenant of promise, and that is true. The covenant of promise made to Abraham, and also to David, were never made to Gentiles. Now it was made known in the OT, how Gentiles might be made joint heirs, or fellow partakers with Israel in order to provoke Israel to jealousy. But as such, Gentiles were never given the covenant promises given to Abraham and to David, they were Israel’s blessings, and Israel’s promises, and theirs only.
And we saw in the mid part of Acts how some Gentiles were to partake of these things on the basis of grace, without keeping the law, so as to provoke Israel to jealousy, that is the same word ‘emulation’, so she might bear her fruit. This of course was akin to the graphing in of a wild olive branch into a regular olive tree for the purpose of the tree bearing fruit, which is contrary to nature.
In the time present:
2Ti 1:1
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus.
This tells us a little more about this promise to the church which is His body, it is the promise of life.
Tit 1:2
In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began, or before the age times began is a little better translation.
At first this doesn’t seem to tell us a great deal, but there is this little expression thrown in here that tells us a lot if we will only pay some attention to it. Why should these few words be put in here: “which God, that cannot lie”. Well, this speaks of God who promised us something before the ages were created, and Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14, where we hear of the 1st rebellion of the angels and the overthrow we read about in Genesis 1:2. God, who cannot lie; well who did lie? Well, Satan lied. It takes us back to the time when Satan said “I will.” That was his downfall, when Satan said I will, is when he stepped from the path of righteousness.
How many of us are guilty of the same thing? Are we saying I will, when we should be trying to follow God’s will. You read through your NT and see how many times our Lord said ‘I will’. You can find it over in chapter 17 of John’s Gospel. When He said ‘I will’, it was to say that He would, those that are His to be with Him where He was. There is nothing selfish in those I will’s at all, they are about others. But when you go back and see the I will’s of Satan, he was going to exalt his throne above God’s, above the sides of the north, going to make of himself one greater than God, and then we find man taking up the same theme, not saying it maybe, but acting it out. For when the woman reached out her hand and partook of the fruit of that tree, that was exercising her own will against the will of God. And Adam did the same thing, so they’re act was putting into action the words which Satan said.
And thru ought all these ages since, man has partook of the forbidden fruit of the garden, reaching forth his hand, and doing as he will, which is saying, “I will”.
The real Christian:
When we can come to the place, and say, not my will, but thy will oh Lord, then we become the real Christian. Then Christ can walk with our feet and talk with our mouth and work with our hands. That, is true Christianity. And it is the understanding of this promise, which is mentioned to be made before Abraham, before this overthrow, before Satan fell, that God had made promise, had made provision that when ever, in His creation, that somebody should fall, that the 'rent' in the garment was actualized, that we have always had a promise of life in Him, to be worked out in such a way as to redeem all of God's children and set them in His kingdom within various spheres of His blessings, that the whole heavens and all things therein would be filled with Him to the end that God Himself can be all in all. (1 Cor. 15:28)
Well, you might ask, why then, didn't God just make us to where we couldn't sin? but you forget that in order for man to be morally upright, man must be able to chose for himself if he is to follow the creator or the creature, the maker or the thing made. And this is why Satan fell in the first place, because he had a choice. And so, when man was put in the Garden of God, he was put on probation, he was given a choice, and he chose self, and the necessary steps for the outworking of God's redemptive plan of the ages has been made known unto us, and we have a choice.
Eph 3:7 Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.
Eph 3:8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
Eph 3:9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.
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