The Mystery Of Christ Series

Here it is in verse 6: 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.

So what are these things? All of these Paul has already talked about in Ephesians. But the way he talks about them here is like a summary. He also explains that what he has already talked about is the revelation of a mystery. But in this verse he also teaches us more about these things. Paul says three things about the Gentiles - that is, probably most of us here today. Actually, he says three words, which in your Bibles are translated as three phrases, eg the NIV which says

are heirs together with Israel,

members together of one body,

and sharers together in the promise

is just three words + a couple of ands in Greek.

συγκληρονομα και

συσωμα και

συμμετοχα

sugkleronoma and

susoma and

summetocha

Notice all three words start with su. In Greek it has a wonderful alliterative sound. Its like in English. We use words that start with the same sound or word to get attention, to make it catchy, to drive home a point. In Greek this verse has that effect. But what is also important, is what the su prefix means. It means, together with.

The first word συγκληρονομα sugkleronoma - is su + kleronoma. Kleronoma is the word for inheritance, or heir. We saw it when we looked at Ephesians 1:11-14, which was the sermon about inheritance. Do you remember that sermon? We looked at modern heirs Lachlan Murdock, Paris Hilton. We looked at what they will inherit

and then looked at our inheritance in Christ, which is so much greater and surer. It is not subject to the vagaries of the global economy, politics or the stock market. In that passage, the word for inheritance was kleronoma. Now Paul uses that word again and sticks a su in front. A together with. Which is why the NIV translates it as heirs together, the NKJV as fellow heirs. What Paul says here, hes already talked about in ch 1: that we have an inheritance. But what he stresses here, is that this inheritance is not something we receive alone, but together. It is a joint inheritance, together with believing Jews and with each other.

Next word is sussoma. It is a really interesting word. Why? Because Paul probably made it up! Invented it! There is no other record of this word in any of the ancient Greek literature. It looks like he took the word Soma and stuck Su on the beginning. So what does soma mean? Soma means Body. This is the word used in Eph 2:16. We covered that verse in the sermon just before I went overseas, when we talked about the dividing wall of hostility being broken down and God reconciling believing Jews and Gentiles in one body. The word is Eph 2:16 for body is soma it represents the church in this verse.