God's Mysterious and Marvelous Plan

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God’s Marvelous Plan for the Gentiles

3 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—2 Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, 3 that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. 4 In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. 6 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 in Christ Jesus.
The word mystery means something that is difficult or impossible to explain or understand.  I happen to like mystery novels were you don't really know what is going to happen until the end.  A good mystery writer leaves you in suspense, and we call the novel a "page turner".  Then, at the end, the mystery is unraveled or revealed.  On the other hand some people don't particularly enjoy history.  They just want to know the truth, black and white.  They are not comfortable with not knowing.  
Paul talks today about the "mystery of Christ".  This mystery was made known to him on the road to Damascus, when Jesus personally revealed himself.  He told Paul that when Paul was persecuting Christians, in fact he was persecuting him.  Paul went blind and was led into the city. Then Ananias was sent to Paul to bring back his sight, at which point he started preaching the gospel.  Importanly Paul became the messenger to the Gentiles, which is why he landed in prison.  The Jewish leaders did not like the fact that the gospel of Jesus was for both Jews and Gentiles.  They didn't believe in mystery.  They were the chosen people and that was it end of story.  There was no room for the Gentiles in their narrative.  
Though the mystery of Christ has been made known to us through the gospel, we continue to live with the mystery of how he will continue to reveal Himself to all those who do not yet know him.  To the Jews the fact that God accepted the Gentiles was appalling to them.  This was one part of the mystery they could not accept. 
Who are the Gentiles in our time?  Who do we think God would never accept because of who we perceive them to be?  Let's stay tuned for the end of this mystery.  The best is yet to come. 

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