For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles — assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. 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.

I love a good mystery novel. I like seeing how the author weaves the story together, sometimes giving you enough clues to figure out “who done it,” and sometimes throwing such an unexpected twist in the end that I spend weeks thinking about it and what clues I might have missed while reading the story.

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I feel like this might be how the people of Israel felt. For thousands of years, they had been told they were the chosen people of God. Then, after 400 years of silence, a Savior is sent and the silence is broken. Plot twist — the Savior dies. And not only that, but now those people are part of the plan… “the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”

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Seeing Gentiles (meaning everyone outside of the line of Abraham), who had often been their enemies throughout history, now being called heirs, family, and being promised salvation through the Messiah must’ve been hard to swallow. These nations had attacked and oppressed them, taken them captive, and removed them from their homelands. The Egyptians enslaved them, the Assyrians and the Babylonians stole them from their homes, and after having been freed, finally, by Cyrus the Great and rebuilding their temple, yet another oppressor came on the scene in the form of the Roman Empire. Time and time again, the nation of Israel (albeit because of their own sin) was treated badly by these other nations, these Gentiles.

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And now…

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Now they are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus? Now that’s gotta hurt to hear. Can you imagine? But isn’t that the upside-down kingdom of God?

I’ll be honest with you — I’d struggle with that, as well. Although I understand it intellectually, emotionally I don’t see the justice in it. Like the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15, I can relate to the indignation of the son who stayed home. And like the story of the wages in Matthew 20 where the workers who started at the end of the day received the same wage as those who worked many more hours, I would also be angry. I would feel slighted. I would feel less valued.

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And there’s the crux of it — I am thinking all about ME. The upside-down kingdom flips everything on its head, and it all becomes about JESUS! And thank you, God, that it is that way. Because left to ME and my own devices, I could never, ever, ever earn His sacrifice, and neither could you…It’s not about what I do, whether I work all day or just at the last hour, whether I leave home and waste all my inheritance or stay home and work hard, whether I was born or Jew or a Gentile — it’s all and only about what JESUS did — for all the nations.

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So, like a good mystery novel, the plot twist at the end is fabulous and exciting. Unlike with a novel though, I don’t have to try to figure it out. I don’t have to go back and pick the parts out that might have pointed me to the end of the story. It is plainly written throughout Scripture. Everything from Genesis to Revelation points to Jesus as our Savior — points to the plan that was in place before the beginning of time.  In Christ, we are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. PRAISE JESUS!!

Father God, thank you for taking the pressure off me and placing all the burden on Jesus. Had it not been for Him, none of us would be worthy of your kingdom, your inheritance, your family. Thank you that in your upside-down kingdom, even the least of us has the opportunity to choose you and choose life. Lord, show us how to live daily in that truth and to show others what that can look like. All to your glory in Jesus’ name ~ AMEN!