A Radical Change of Thought



Ephesians 3:1-6
1For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles—
2assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you,
3how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly.
4When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ,
5which 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.
6This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Somewhere along the educational process I learned that mankind used to believe that the earth was flat. That would be an easy conclusion to come to if all you had at your disposal was the information regarding your immediate surroundings. Everything looks pretty flat, taking into account the hills and valleys. But as we began to spread out and explore the planet that God gave to us, our understanding of the shape of the earth changed and we came to understand that the earth is round(ish) – probably not a perfect circle, but round nonetheless. With space exploration, the proof was in the photographs. We now know that the earth is not flat – at least most of us do. There is still a number (albeit a small number) of people who believe that the earth is flat. (Google “flat earth society” and you can learn all about them.) For those flat earth society members, there is no proof that can change their minds about this fact. They base their beliefs on a very literal understanding of Revelation 7:1 and 20:8. If the earth has “four corners” it must then be flat.

Paul speaks of the fact that Jesus came both for the Jew and for the Gentile. In His redemptive work, Christ united all mankind under the shedding of His blood for the forgiveness of sins. For the Gentile, it meant coming into a faith that had previously been a pure mystery to them. For the Jew, it meant turning the page and allowing Christ to completely redefine what it meant to believe in the God of the Universe. Jesus came as the pivot point upon which the ancient faith of Judaism was to turn. God’s people go from being the Children to Israel to Followers of Christ. It was a time for radical change. Many of those who practiced the Jewish faith at the time of Jesus did indeed make that change. All 12 of the Apostles were Jewish men, chosen by Jesus to spread the story of His life, death, and resurrection to the entire world. Not one of the Apostles was a Gentile, although some of the Biblical writers were.

The truth is that ALL of us must experience radical change, Jew or Gentile. All of us must be turned away from our sin and turned toward God. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. None of us is worthy to be chosen by God. And yet His Son died so that we all might be saved. Your radical transformation may have taken place in your infancy when your parents brought you to the waters of baptism; or you may have had a personal encounter with Jesus in your adult life so that you are forever transformed. Either way, you went from being a rejected sinner to being a chosen child of God. Believing that the earth is flat isn’t going to alter your eternity. But refusing to embrace Jesus as Savior will – that’s an eternal mistake.

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