This mystery is that the Gentiles (every race, every ethnicity, every language group in the world) are fellow heirs, members of the same body (with Jesus’ first Jewish disciples), and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel,” quoting the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 3.6.  The mystery of the gospel of Christ remained hidden from Abraham and his descendants, “kept secret for long ages” (Romans 16.25), until Jesus came to reveal it, and Paul to explain it.  Though most American Christians are “Gentiles” from a wide variety of ethnicities, how well do we understand what Paul teaches us?  Many American Christians have traversed the world - and crossed the street - to share the Gospel with people very unlike themselves culturally, linguistically, racially.  But do we know how to welcome every believer in Jesus as a “fellow heir” - that would be like a sibling, a “member of the same body” - even closer - and a fellow partaker of the precious promise of forgiveness and new life in Christ?

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One Book One Story demonstrated a strong pair of Biblical themes flowing from Genesis 12 through to Revelation 7: God is on mission to establish his kingdom to include every nation, tribe, and people group on earth, and God is calling all followers of Jesus to join him in that mission.  God set Abraham’s descendants apart so that they could be a nation of priests to all the other ethnic groups of the earth.  And while Abraham’s descendants exhibited various degrees of obedience over the next 2,000 years, they were fully aware that they were set apart.  They understood that God intended to establish His Kingdom in them and through them, but they could not yet see that God was on mission to establish His Kingdom in all ethnic groups.  Why is this?  Nearly every Bible story incorporates the theme of God being on mission to see His name made great “among the nations.”

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Paul describes this blindness to God’s mission as 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” (Eph 3:4-5).

 

To review verse 6 Paul says, “This mystery is that Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”  Paul then tells us in verse 7 that God building a multiethnic church that experiences multiethnic unity represents the very substance of his life and ministry, “Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power.”

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Paul was a true missionary.  He had clarity about God’s mission to build a multiethnic church that pursued multiethnic unity within each local community of believers.  As individuals and families came to Jesus in faith, he taught them to obey Jesus’ command to love one another.  From the time Peter received Cornelius as a fellow believer and the scattering Jewish believers planted a multiethnic church in Antioch, every new church planted by the apostles was multiethnic. 

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Today we have the benefit of Paul’s teachings, yet we continue to struggle to live out the mystery of the gospel of Christ.  The American church is still largely segregated.  Dr. King famously said, “it is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o’clock on Sunday morning.”  The Gospel mandate isn’t diverse churches, it is unity.  But our segregated churches may be a visible indicator that as Christians we aren’t living into the call to unity given to us by Jesus and the Apostle Paul.  Derwin Gray writes, “the average church in America is ethnically and socioeconomically segregated; granted, sometimes this is because of demographics, but most of the time it’s by choice fueled by indifference, prejudices, petty preferences, or ignorance of the gospel.  Instead of being fueled by Jesus’ heart for reconciliation, we are fueled by the status quo. “ (High Definition Leader, pg. 11)

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We pursue genuine multiethnic unity in the local church, not because it is easy, but because it is what God has called us to do and what brings ultimate glory to His name.