This week week’s theme is “The Mystery of the Gospel Revealed” from Ephesians 3:1-21.

A good mystery book will draw you deeply into the story, making the characters feel like personal

friends or foes, while only revealing small clues as you proceed. Want to know why? Let me write you a

terrible mystery story right here in a devotion.

Once upon a time there was a man named Joe. He was on the tall side. His neighbor, Bob, resented Joe’s

success in business. One night Joe’s car was stolen from right outside his house. Bob is the one who stole

the car. The End.

Do you see what I mean? A great mystery should draw us into the story and let us connect with all the

characters and walk through the process with them as they figure out what’s going on. It’s how we get

invested in the story. What I wrote was not a good mystery (although now I’m wondering how much

work it would be to create a series of fifteen-second-long true crime podcasts about the misadventures

of Joe and Bob).

I need to be careful here because I don’t mean to imply that God toys with us like a good mystery writer

would, but I can see some parallels in what Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus. A mystery was resolved

after we got to know the characters and after the timing (God’s timing) was right:

The mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have briefly written above. By reading this you

are able to understand my insight about the mystery of the Messiah. This was not made known to

people in other generations as it is now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: The

Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and partners of the promise in Christ Jesus through

the gospel. (Ephesians 3:3-6 HCSB)

Was salvation through Jesus available to everybody or only a select few? After many years, many

characters, and many clues along the way, the mystery was clearly and satisfyingly resolved through a

revelation received by Paul. We are all coheirs, and we are all included in God’s story.

But I think there’s a secondary lesson here for us. We are all living a story together, written by God, and I

think you’ll agree we are surrounded by some characters. How all of this is going to turn out is a mystery

to us in the moment, but we know Who is writing the ending.

And I think it’s going to be awesome.

By Mark Stuart



Mark is the husband of Laura, father of Shelby and Jacob, and father-in-law of Bailey.