Light It Up

to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things (Eph 3:9).

Things look so different when the lights are on.  Many times when you flip the light switch in a room, you see something that's been there the whole time.  You just never realized it.  That's an important part of Paul's job.  Flip on the lights.  Let everyone see what's been there the entire time.  He tells the folks in Ephesus that he's "to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things" (v9).  This Good News isn't Paul's.  He didn't make it up.  He's as blown away by this as you and I are.  Jesus just told him to hit the lights.  Christ will take it from here.

Light it up.

From the darkness of a dungeon in Rome, Paul flips on the lights.  Not the literal lights.  But much better than some buzzing, harsh fluorescents, he fires up the Light of the World.  Jesus.  The former Pharisee knows just how bright this Light shines.  Christ blinded him at high noon and knocked him off his high horse outside the city of Damascus.  He shined so brightly that it revealed Saul/Paul's sin.  And the Lord blasted him with a light so life-changing that this one-time leader of the movement to wipe out Jesus' followers into His number one spokesman.  Now THAT'S a bright light!

From the blackness of his cell, Paul writes of his assignment "to bring to light" (v9) the Gospel.  This is actually the Greek verb photizo, which means to give light, shine, enlighten and illuminate.  We get our "photo" words from this term.  Photographer.  Photograph.  Photocopy.  Photovoltaic.  All of those things need light.  And the apostle is flipping the switch.  He's turning on the lights in order to make Jesus clear to the world.  Paul knows that when we see Jesus for who He really is and what He's really done, it changes everything.  Once we're blown away by Him, there's no going back.  When life gets hard, the writer of Hebrews pleads with us to get our eyes back on "Jesus, the found and perfecter of our faith" (Heb 12:2). 

Paul is shining his light on what has been there all along.  Or should I say WHO has been there all along.  Jesus.  Jesus is God.  And Jesus is God's plan.  It's been the plan of our eternal and triune God to save the world through Christ since before time began.  Flip back over to the first part of this letter to Ephesus and see for yourself.  God handpicked each of His followers in Jesus "before the foundation of the world" (Eph 1:4).  I'm not smart enough to know old the world is, but that's a LONG time ago!  By the way, you might want to keep this first part of Ephesians handy.  I think we're coming back in just a minute.

God has a plan.  And He gave Adam and Eve a little peak at that plan just after they jacked everything up by breaking the only rule in God's garden.  In the middle of His curse on the satanic serpent, Yahweh warned, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel" (Gen 3:15).  This is the first glimmer of light on the Good News.  One day, Someone will squish our enemy's head and fix what we've tossed in the trash.

But God's plan is much richer than that.  Much bigger than that.  Much wilder than that.  So much so that Paul calls it a "mystery" (v9).  But this isn't a mystery in the Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie or James Patterson sense.  Paul's talking about a mystery in the past tense.  We know how it ends.  We know the big twist that changes everything.  Over in his note to the folks down the road in Colossae, the apostle flips on the lights so that we know that "God's mystery, which is Christ" (Col 2:2-3).  And if that's not wild enough, try wrapping your brain around the fact that once Jesus saves you, He comes to live IN you!  "This mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col 1:27).  Wherever he is and wherever he goes, Paul is flipping on the lights so the world can see Jesus.

Light it up!

Jesus has two very specific jobs for His man Paul.  First and foremost, he is His "chosen instrument to the Gentiles" (Acts 9:19).  Christ handpicked this former terrorist of His followers to be His evangelist to non-Jews around the world.  He had the incredible news that Jesus has invited them to the party as "fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel" (Eph 3:6).  Two thousand years later, it's really hard for us to realize just how radical this news really is.  But this is mind-bending stuff.  The Jewish Messiah dying for the sins of Gentiles?  This part of Jesus' mission for Paul continually land him in the joint.  

Here we read the second part of that assignment.  To tell everyone about the Tsunami of Blessings that we'll all experience in Christ.  Remember how I mentioned that opening chapter of Ephesians?  Flip back there and let Paul flip on the lights of God's eternal plan through Jesus.  

God puts us under the waterfall of His gracious blessing.  In Christ.  

He chose us to be holy and blameless.  In Christ.  

He handpicked us to be part of His family.  In Christ.

He redeems us at the cross.  In Christ.

He forgives our sins.  In Christ.

He showers us with His grace.  In Christ.

He renews His broken creation.  In Christ.

He gives us a divine inheritance.  In Christ.

He seals us with His Spirit as a guarantee.  In Christ.

That's the plan.  That's what God does for us in and through the radical Rabbi/Carpenter from Nazareth.  That's what Paul wants us to see when he turns on the light.

Light it up!