© 21 July 2017 Revive Israel Ministries

One New Man: The Mystery of Messiah

Ariel Blumenthal

Paul concludes his teaching of the One New Man in the first 6 verses of Ephesians chapter 3. He calls it a “mystery,” and then “the mystery of Christ,” which was uniquely committed to him by God’s grace. He even declares that this mystery is something that was not revealed (or at least not in the same way) to the OT prophets; but is now being revealed to/by the NT apostles and prophets. He concludes: 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… (Ep 3:4-6)

Here, the Apostle uses three compound words in the Greek to describe the mystery: synkleroma, sysoma, synmetoka-- all starting with the prefix “syn,” from which we get English words like synchronize, synthesize, and synergy. NT Greek scholars tell us that it is hard to capture the clout of these three words in other languages.

First is synkleroma—“co-heirs.” This legal term suggests not just an equality of shared privilege, as in two business partners or family members sharing profits or an inheritance; not simply “joint heirs” like the two brothers in the story of the Prodigal Son—ie, “we have a common father, I get my portion and you get yours;” but instead it is more like two “blood-brothers” who have utterly bound themselves together, totally dependent on each other for whatever inheritance, hope, and success they can expect to receive from their common father. In Messiah, we Jews won’t get our ultimate inheritance from the father until the nations get theirs—and vice-versa!

Second is sysoma—“co-body” people, “of one body.” As in Romans 12:5 or 1 Corinthians 12:27, the Apostle describes the ecclesia with an organic, biological term—we are a living body, and Christ is the head. Now, in the Gospel of Messiah, Jew & Gentile have become one living organism, with the same spiritual blood of Christ joining us together; we have the same heavenly DNA, we are of the same family/household. (John 1:13) Whatever happens to one part of the body effects the whole. 

Last is synmetoka—“partakers of the same promise” in Christ Jesus. “Promise” is in the singular, not “promises.” In keeping with the rest of Paul’s writings, we can understand him to be specifically referring to the pre-figured, Gospel promise made to Abraham, as taught in Romans 4, 8:17, and Galatians 3:26-29. Romans 4:11-17 brings together these ideas from Ephesians 3:6, and other chapters in this book.

Abraham was made a promise (singular), described in two ways: that he would be the “heir of the world” and that he would be “a father of many nations.” The incredible mystery of the Gospel is that together in Christ Jesus (the greatest son of Abraham!) Jew & Gentile are co-heirs of the same Abrahamic promise; we are members of the same Messianic family (the body of Messiah); and all of this is based on the very same promise made to our now mutual father/ancestor—Abraham.

Greta Mavro

I returned recently from a wonderful trip to the land. I spent time with the Tikkun-Revive team in Jerusalem and with special friends. The Lord also provided some special divine connections for sharing the gospel. 

While in Haifa, I met a young Italian Jew at a Christian guesthouse who has been traveling the world for several years doing yoga and meditation. He told me he was surprised when he passed the guesthouse because he had seen it in a dream, so he walked in. I shared Yeshua and told him about true meditation on the word of God. He shared that he had been studying in Jerusalem at a Yeshiva, but suddenly left when they started to say very detestable things about Yeshua and he began to feel a surprising but deep pain in his soul. He was open to hear about the Lord, so I opened the scriptures and later he prayed to receive his Messiah and a Bible. Then we both left the guesthouse to go our separate ways. As I walked by the sea before leaving the area, I saw him sitting under a tree reading the Bible I had given him. He said, “I was just thinking about you!” He asked me to sit down and he told me that he had had a dream a few days before where someone showed him a big black book and told him to read it, just like the big black Bible I had given him from the guesthouse!

Dear friend, evangelism and salvation is supernatural! The Lord does it all by His Spirit. He says, “follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” We cast the net according to His word and He fills it with fish.

God continues to use the Watchmen for the Nations to bless and unify the nations by bringing different people groups together to pursue their mutual destiny as the Body of Messiah, Arab Christians, and Messianic Jews in particular.

Watch our short report HERE!

Subtitles available in: Danish, Dutch, English, French, Polish, and Portuguese (Brazil)!