A PEOPLE PREPARED FOR THE LORD
Ephesians iii. 3-6. How that by revelation he made known unto me
the mystery (as I wrote afore in few words, whereby, when ye read,
ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in
other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now
revealed unto the holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the
Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers
of his promise in Christ by the Gospel.
This day is the feast of the Epiphany. Epiphany, as many of you
know, means 'shewing,' because on this day the Lord Jesus Christ was
first shewn to the Gentiles; to the Gentile wise men who, as you
heard in the Gospel, saw his star in the east, and came to worship
him. And the part of Scripture from which I have taken my text, is
used for the Epistle this day, because in it St. Paul explains to us
the meaning of the Epiphany. The meaning of those wise men being
shewn our Lord, and worshipping him, though they were not Jews as he
was, but Gentiles. He says that it means this, that the Gentiles
were fellow-heirs with the Jews, and of the same body as them, and
partakers of God's promise in Christ by the Gospel.
This does not seem so very wonderful to us; and why? Because we,
though we are Gentiles like those wise men, have lived so long, we
and our forefathers before us, in the light of the Gospel, that we
are inclined to take it as a matter of course; forgetting what a
wonderful, unspeakable, condescension it was of God, not to spare
his only begotten Son, but freely to give him for us.
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