エフェソの信徒への手紙3:3-6　Ephesians 3:3-6,

初めに手短に書いたように、秘められた計画が啓示によってわたしに知らされました。あなたがたは、それを読めば、キリストによって実現されるこの計画を、わたしがどのように理解しているかが分かると思います。　　　　　　　　　　（エフェソ3:3-4）

「初めに手短に書いたように」とは、おそらくこの手紙の2章11節から22節に記された内容を指しているのでしょう。その箇所に記されている内容を簡単に要約すれば、次のようなことです。すなわち、「エフェソの人々のような異邦人は、かつてはまことの神様から遠く離れて生きていたが、キリストの十字架の救いによってまことの神様との和解を与えられ、神の民であるユダヤ人と共に一つの共同体をつくって生きるようにされた。それがキリストの体である教会である」ということです。これをパウロは「秘められた計画」と呼んでいます。そして、この手紙の2章11節から22節を読めば、「キリストによって実現されるこの計画を」パウロがどのように理解しているかがわかります。本日の箇所の3章6節では、この「秘められた計画」の内容が「すなわち、異邦人が福音によってキリスト・イエスにおいて、約束されたものをわたしたちと一緒に受け継ぐ者、同じ体に属する者、同じ約束にあずかる者となるということです」と言い換えられています。

「秘められた計画」と翻訳されているミュステーリオンというギリシア語は、英語のミステリーの語源となった言葉です。英語でミステリーと言うと、不可解なこと、なぞ、さらには推理小説のことなどを思い浮かべる方が多いのではないでしょうか。確かに、新約聖書のギリシア語辞典によれば、ギリシア語のミュステーリオンには「普通の理解を超えること」という意味もあります。しかし、ギリシア語のミュステーリオンの第一の意味は、「神様の現れていない、もしくは秘密の計画」という意味です。注意しなければならないのは、秘密の計画が秘密のままであったのではなく、3節に「秘められた計画が啓示によってわたしに知らされました」とありますように、神様の秘密の計画が特別な啓示によってパウロに明らかにされたということです。これは、パウロが地上の人生の中で何度も神様の秘密の計画を知る経験をしたことを指しているのでしょう。とりわけ大きな経験は、天から語りかける復活のキリストの声を聞いて回心した経験です。パウロは、回心したときにキリストから次のように自分の使命を告げられました。「わたしは、あなたをこの民と異邦人の中から救い出し、彼らのもとに遣わす。それは、彼らの目を開いて、闇から光に、サタンの支配から神に立ち帰らせ、こうして彼らがわたしへの信仰によって、罪の赦しを得、聖なる者とされた人々と共に恵みの分け前にあずかるようになるためである。」（使徒25:17-18）この御言葉こそ、神様の秘められた計画をパウロに示した啓示の言葉であると言ってよいでしょう。　　　　　　　（3月30日の説教より）

What determines the way each one of us lives our lives? Many people think that it is determined by one’s own qualities and the environment in which one grows up. However, even if people have similar qualities, how they make use of those qualities will differ from person to person. Also, even if people grow up in similar environments, there will be people who live very different lives. What determines how people live is not a simple matter and involves a variety of factors. And one of the major factors is whether or not a person knows the God who calls out to one saying “you” and waits for one’s response.

In the second and third chapters of the book of Genesis, the well-known story of Adam and Eve is recorded. God created Adam, the ancestor of the human beings, and placed him in the garden of Eden, where there was an abundance of fruits that could be eaten. God then commanded Adam, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). “Eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” means that human beings will come to decide for themselves what is good and what is evil. Essentially, only God, the Creator, can decide what is good and what is evil. Human beings must obey the standards of good and evil that God has set. If they were to decide for themselves what is good and what is evil, they would create their own standards of good and evil that suited their own needs, and there would be 100 different standards of good and evil if there were 100 different people. That is why God commanded Adam, “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.”

God then created Eve as Adam’s partner, and the two of them lived in peace. However, one day they gave in to the temptation of the tempter and ate the fruit from “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” disobeying God’s command. In other words, they stopped obeying God and began to decide for themselves what was good and evil. As a result, Adam and Eve, who had disobeyed God’s command, began to avoid God. When God walked through the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve hid among the trees to avoid God. So, God asked Adam, “Where are you?” That is, God did not leave Adam, who had disobeyed God’s command, as he was, and searched for him calling out to him, “Where are you?” After that, Adam and Eve were sentenced to judgment by God, and were expelled from the garden of Eden, and began to live outside the garden of Eden.

However, God did not abandon human beings, the descendants of Adam and Eve, and raised up people who believed in and worshipped God among human beings. One representative of those who believed in and worshipped God was a man called Abraham, who was a patriarch of the Old Testament and an ancestor of the Israelites. To Abraham, God said the following, as recorded in Genesis 12:1-3.

“Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

When we speak in Japanese, we don’t usually use the word “you” that many times. In fact, in the original Hebrew text, the word which means “you” and “your” are used a total of 11 times in this passage. When God called Abraham to be the ancestor of those who would be saved by believing in the God’s promise, he repeatedly called out to Abraham, saying “you.” Then, Abraham responded to God, who was calling him “you,” and went on to live his life on earth in response to God.

The New Testament also shows that God is the one who calls out to human beings as “you.” In the New Testament, God’s call is made through Jesus Christ, God’s only son, and the people Christ sent. For example, when Christ called Simon Peter and Andrew, who were fishermen of the Sea of Galilee, to be his disciples, he called out to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men” (Mark 1:17). And immediately they responded and followed Christ. Also, when Paul and Silas, who had been sent by Christ, were persecuted and imprisoned in Philippi in the province of Macedonia, they spoke to the jailer, saying, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:21). God called the jailer to believe in Christ through the prisoners Paul and Silas and invited him to the path of faith. The jailer responded to this invitation and believed in Christ and was baptized along with his family.

In this way, God calls out to human beings using the word “you” and waits for a response. The purpose of this was to invite human beings, which had turned its back on God and moved away from God, to return to a proper relationship with God. In the Old Testament, God’s invitation was extended to the people of Israel, and in the New Testament, it was extended to both the Jews, who were the descendants of the Israelites, and to the Gentiles, who were not Jews.

In verse 2 before today’s passage, Paul writes, “Surely you have heard how God’s gift of grace to me was designed for your benefit” (REB). By “how God’s gift of grace to me was designed,” Paul is referring to the fact that, as a Jewish teacher who persecuted the Christian church, he encountered the resurrected Christ who spoke to him from heaven, was converted and became a Christian, and then became a person who preached the gospel of Christ to the Gentiles. Following verse 2, in verses 3 and 4 of today’s passage, Paul writes as follows.

It was by a revelation that his secret purpose was made known to me. I have already written you a brief account of this, and by reading it you can see that I understand the secret purpose of Christ (REB).

“I have already written you a brief account of this” probably refers to the content of 2:11-22 of this letter. If we summarise the content of that passage in short, it would be something like this: “Gentiles like the people of Ephesus, who used to live far away from the true God, were reconciled to the true God through the salvation of Christ’s cross, and were made to live together with God’s people, the Jews, as one community. This is the church, the body of Christ.” Paul calls this “his secret purpose.” If you read 2:11-22 of this letter, you can see how Paul understood this purpose that was being realised through Christ. In verse 6 of today’s passage, the content of this “secret purpose” is rephrased as “that through the gospel the Gentiles are joint heirs with the Jews, part of the same body, sharers together in the promise made in Christ Jesus” (REB).

The Greek word mystēlion (μυστήριον), translated as “secret purpose,” is the word from which the English word “mystery” is derived. When we hear the word “mystery” in English, many of us probably think of something puzzling or even a detective novel. Indeed, according to a Greek lexicon of the New Testament, the Greek word mystēlion also means “that which transcends normal understanding.” However, the primary meaning of the Greek word mystēlion is “the unmanifested or private counsel of God.” It is important to note that the secret purpose was not kept secret, but that God’s secret purpose was revealed to Paul through a special revelation, as we read in verse 3, “It was by a revelation that his secret purpose was made known to me.” This probably refers to the several times in his earthly life that Paul experienced learning of God’s secret purpose. In particular, the most significant experience was his conversion after hearing the voice of the resurrected Christ speaking from heaven. When Paul was converted, Christ told him of his mission as follows.

“But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts 26:16-18).

It is fair to say that this is the word of revelation that revealed God’s secret purpose to Paul. This is also in line with the content of 2:11-22 of this letter.

In verses 5 and 6 of today’s passage, Paul writes as follows.

In former generations that secret was not disclosed to mankind; but now by inspiration it has been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets, that through the gospel the Gentiles are joint heirs with the Jews, part of the same body, sharers together in the promise made in Christ Jesus (REB).

Paul says that God’s secret purpose, that is, that Gentiles would inherit the forgiveness of sins and eternal life together with Jews, and that they would belong to the church, the body of Christ, “was not disclosed to mankind” “in former generations.” The phrase “in former generations” refers to the time of the Old Testament. The phrase “was not disclosed to mankind” means that it was not made known to people. Those who have read the Old Testament carefully will remember the story of Ruth, a Gentile woman, who married Boaz, an Israelite, and became a member of God’s people, and argue that there is the story in the Old Testament in which salvation was given to the Gentile. Also, some people may think that God loved and saved not only the Israelites but also the Gentiles, recalling the story of the people of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, which was a Gentile city, repenting and being saved (Jonah 3:1-10), and the story of the Gentile general Naaman’s illness being healed (2 Kings 5:9-14). Indeed, there are stories in the Old Testament about the salvation of Gentiles and prophecies that can be interpreted as referring to the salvation of Gentiles.

However, it was only after the time of the Acts of the Apostles, when the Holy Spirit began to be given to the Gentiles, that Jews and Gentiles actually began to form a community together. It was also only after the time of the Acts of the Apostles, when the meaning of the prophecies in the Old Testament became clear through the work of the Holy Spirit and could be interpreted as referring to the salvation of the Gentiles. The phrase “now by inspiration” in verse 5 of today’s passage refers to the work of the Holy Spirit. When you think about these things, it must be said that it was not yet known to people in the Old Testament time that the Gentiles would inherit the forgiveness of sins and eternal life together with Jews, and that they would belong to the church, which is the body of Christ, together with Jews.

The phrase “it has been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets” probably refers to the revelation of God’s secret purpose to the apostles sent by Christ, such as Peter and Paul, and to the prophets in the churches of the New Testament time. The “prophets” in this case are not the prophets of the Old Testament. As I explained about 2:20, they were the people who proclaimed Christ in the New Testament time, led by the Holy Spirit in each church. In 1 Corinthians 14:1, Paul says, “Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.” In this case, “prophesy” refers to proclaiming Christ in an understandable way, guided by the Holy Spirit, and is the equivalent of preaching today. Although they were not people who had met the resurrected Christ in person, as the apostles had, Paul probably refers to those who proclaimed Christ in their respective churches as “prophets.”

In the Old Testament time, only the people of Israel were able to hear the call “you” of the true God and live in communion with God. However, in the New Testament time and beyond, both the Jews, who are the descendants of the people of Israel, and the Gentiles, who were considered unclean in the Old Testament time, have come to hear the call “you”of the true God. Both Jews and Gentiles can now live in response to the true God who calls them “you.” When we live in response to the true God, we are given the power to live, and we can walk the path of a blessed life in fellowship with God.