QUESTION:
Paul writes in Ephesians 3:8, that to him “was granted this grace: to bring the evangel of the untraceable riches of Christ to the nations.” Did Paul mean that what he proclaimed, no trace of it could be found in the Old Testament?
ANSWER:
No, Paul proclaimed “untraceable riches” because these treasures were not made known to him through research, but by revelation, as he writes in this same chapter:
for by revelation the secret is made known to me …
Ephesians 3:3 (See also verse 9 and Rom.16:25 and Col.1:26)
Paul had been directly informed by the Lord, Himself, when he was in Arabia, on the Mount Sinai (cp Gal.4:25 and 1:16). After all, following His appearance on the road to Damascus, Christ would appear even more to Paul (Acts 26:16).
Great secrets have been revealed to him. Paul, himself, demonstrates this in the Ephesian letter. In chapter 5:30, he writes that, as believers, we are members of Christ’s body and he clarifies this in 5:31 with a quote from Genesis 2:24:
Therefore a man shall forsake his father and his mother and cling to his wife, and they two become one flesh.
(CLV)
Why this quotation from Paul out of Genesis 2:24? Does this verse, somehow, speak of Christ and the ecclesia? Indeed it does, because Paul continues:
THIS SECRET is great: yet I am saying this as to Christ and as to the ecclesia.
Was the truth about Christ and the ecclesia traceable in Genesis 2:24? No, but now that we know this truth (because it is revealed), we recognize it on every page of the Bible, by types, symbols, narratives, cryptic statements, and so on.
This is a great incentive to go on a discovery-journey for the hidden treasures of the Scriptures!
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Translation: Peter Feddema
