God's Endgame Series

“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29).

2.2 Star Wars Secret

The actor, David Prowse died recently. I didn’t recognize the name either but you’ll easily recognize his character. He played Darth Vader in Star Wars as he wore the black suit and helmet in the original trilogy. If you are familiar with the story behind the movie, then you know there a scene where Darth Vader reveals to Luke Skywalker is his son. Vader delivers the words, “No, I am your father” in a memorable scene. Yet, even David Prowse did not know this about this important plot twist because it was such a closely guarded secret. In fact, his script omitted the words, “No, I am your father” and only three or four people knew about the line among the cast before it was revealed. This major plot twist was a well-kept secret.

2.3 Ten Commandments

God is better at keeping and revealing His secrets than even Hollywood. The word “mystery” speaks of a secret that we couldn’t figure out on our own but God has now revealed it (Colossians 1:26). The Ten Commandments are never called a mystery in the Bible. The Golden Rule is never called a mystery. Why? The gospel is not that if you live a good life, obey the Ten Commandments, live by the Golden Rule, then God will bless you, hear your prayers, and take you to heaven. That’s not the gospel. Do you know why? Because it makes too much sense ?. What is the gospel? The gospel is that the Son of God came to earth and triumphed through weakness and suffering. He won through losing. He gained everything by giving it all away. He overcame your and my sin and guilt by taking it on himself. It is counterintuitive and it is not what you would ordinarily think. It goes against all your instincts that, in spite of how bad you are, you’re saved by sheer grace. The law of God is never called a mystery, because the idea that you’re saved by living a good life makes perfect sense. The idea that you’re saved by grace is a mystery because no human would think this up, but only the mind of God.

2.4 Three Together Terms

Paul spells out the big mystery in verse 6 for us: “This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6). At first glance, most of us don’t really see what the big deal is. We may even look at one another awkwardly and say, “That’s the secret?” If you’re thinking Darth Vader’s plot twist is a bigger deal than God’s plot twist, you’re not understanding how big a deal this whole mystery thing really is. The Bible says that Gentiles are “fellow heirs” “members of the same body” and “partakers” of the same promise.

There are three parallel words/terms in verse 6 that you need to key in on. In Greek, these words each begin with the prefix syn, which means “together with.” All three of those verbs are compound words with a Greek prefix on the front end. In English, we know what syn- means. It means “together with.” We have the word synonymous and synthesis that uses this Greek prefix. The NET Bible reveals what’s happening with the original wording better than many other translations as it says: “namely, that through the gospel the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 3:6). Note carefully the three times fellow pop us for us: “fellow heirs,” “fellow members” and “fellow partakers.” You could say we are “equal heirs,” “equal members,” and “equal partners.”