Interplanner
Well-known member
Hate to disagree with you my Acts 9 brother, but nope. That is not the Mystery. The Mystery is Romans 8 and Ephesians 3.
You are not alone, though. Even many Acts 9 writers, aka Mid-Acts, who think the Mystery is Ephesians 2 are off.
The Mystery is Romans 8 and Ephesians 3.
The Mystery is the one new man comprised of Jews and Gentiles saved this side of Israel's fall that God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, is conforming said new man into the image of His Son, by whom (this one new man) God is making known this Mystery fellowship unto principalities and powers in heavenly places by the church.
The issue is a Mystery aspect of the Cross.
The issue is that heavenly aspect of those things that God created by Jesus Christ that fell in with Lucifer - those principalities and powers - seats of governmental authority - that spiritual wickedness in those high places, that God is now revealing this Mystery to by this One New Man: the Church which is His Son's Body.
How that He had not only planned to take them in their own craftiness by the Cross, but dethrone them by this aspect of the Cross - that He'd hid in Himself - that would allow His being able to replace said fallen seats of authority in the Heavenlies with this one new man His Son would be the Head of.
This is why a Rapture, and unto what, for example.
Galatians 6:15; 1 Thessalonians 4:17; 1 Corinthians 2:7-8; Romans 8:29; 11: 11; Ephesians 1:20-23; Ephesians 3:8-11; Ephesians 6: 12; Colossians 1:12-20, etc.
Check the grammar of the last line. It's pretty wild.
The grammar of Eph 3:6 is that the weight of including the nations in "Israel" falls on the Gospel. All of it happens through the Gospel. Not the Law. That is the mystery. It is a mystery to Judaism.
There never was a mystery that the end goal of Israel's history was to get the nations to believe or obey. The mystery was that it would happen through the Gospel rather than the Law. Judaism was already (mistakenly) sending out missionaries about the Law. They were the Judaizers which Paul had constant friction with, and even trouble with James and Peter.