The Great Debate
to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, Ephesians 3:6 NASB
Fellow heirs and fellow members – Put aside, for a moment, the great theological themes of Paul. You know, those doctrines like justification by faith, election, righteousness, predestination, and ecclesiological formation. Just for a moment, ask yourself, “What idea seems to be the real motivator for Paul’s letters and his efforts on behalf of Gentiles?” Perhaps you will come to this conclusion: Paul wanted to establish, once and for all, that anyone experiencing the call of the Messiah was a full-fledged, equal participant in God’s Kingdom. Yes, each person’s role, and each group’s contribution, might be different, but in terms of status, everyone called was equal. There were no partial sons and daughters, no less-worthy inheritors, no honorary members. If you’re in, you’re in. End of story.
But it wasn’t the end of the story in the Jewish world of the first century. You see, there were “proper” ways of joining the Jewish assembly of those who were called out by God. There were prescribed steps to be taken. No shortcuts. No exceptions. If you wanted to truly worship the God of Israel in the community of the faithful, then you needed to become Jewish. That meant, among other things, studying Torah, eating correctly, participating in the assigned festivals, worshipping on Shabbat, getting circumcised (males, of course) and several other less culturally offensive practices. If you didn’t do these things, then you were not an heir and you couldn’t be a member. Sorry. It’s just the way it is. You might be a God-fearing Gentile, but you still weren’t “really” in.
It is precisely this rigidity that inflamed Paul. Once he believed the same thing, but something happened, and now he taught a different route. Confession, repentance, and acceptance. All the rest might (or might not) come later, but when the Messiah calls and you or I respond, we are instantly fellow heirs and full members.
Why did Paul go to such lengths to articulate this fact? Perhaps we need to recognize that his letters, particularly Ephesians and Galatians, are written to stop the local assemblies from differentiating between full Jewish members and contingent Gentile members, between the true sons directly related to Abraham and the adopted sons, entering into some kind of covenant arrangement not quite as robust as the original. The discrimination between these two groups actually went both ways. If you were a Gentile and now realized you had all the rights and privileges of the Kingdom, you might have the tendency to boast about this, and in the process, look down on those who were Kingdom citizens because of birth. This is one of the themes of the letter to the Romans—Gentile discrimination, not Jewish. But here in Ephesians and also in Galatians the target of Paul’s concern is the discriminating Jew. Galatians 3:28 and Romans 10:12 reiterate what Paul introduces here: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus,” that is, in the Kingdom of God there is but one status—forgiven. Perhaps we need to take another look at our own assemblies and our own attitudes. Maybe we need a letter from Paul too.
Topical Index: heir, member, discrimination, Ephesians 3:6, Galatians 3:28, Romans 10:12
