God does work in mysterious ways. God’s ways are not the ways of man and humanity’s thinking is not the same as God’s thoughts. God declared, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8–9 ESV). Furthermore, Moses recorded that the secret things belong to God, yet God has revealed many secret truths to His people in His words (Deuteronomy 29:29). Despite many false assumptions, God is not so mysterious that His people cannot know His words.

God has given faithful Christians a foundation to know the secret truths of God. God revealed these hidden truths by Jesus. For the revealing of the mysteries of God, the apostle Paul described his part as having “the stewardship of God’s grace” meaning that he is a manager of God’s house, the church (Ephesians 3:2). In other words, God has given Paul the responsibility of revealing God’s secret truths to His people. The apostle explained that God’s people, the church, are built on the apostles and prophets with Jesus as the cornerstone (Ephesians 2:19–22). By this “stewardship of God’s grace,” the apostle Paul gave revelation that is essential to the foundation of the church as Paul expanded upon how God’s grace saves the faithful to be God’s “workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works” (2:10). God has given Paul a duty and responsibility to help maintain His house, the church, and Paul does so by writing Scripture.

What secret truths did Paul reveal from the mysteries of God? The apostle does this work by writing revelation of truth from God (Ephesians 3:3–5). The apostle Paul called these secret truths “the mystery of Christ” and he wrote so that faithful Christians could read his insight into the mystery of Christ (Ephesians 3:3–4). Paul explained that the mysterious truths of God are now revealed to Christ’s “holy apostles and prophets” by the Spirit (3:5). Jesus taught that He would send the Spirit to His apostles, and the Spirit would reveal all truth to them (John 14:26; 16:12–13). All of this supports Paul’s words at the end of his life when he taught that every Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable to make the person of God equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16–17).

For the truth of God’s Word in the Scriptures, Paul recorded the mystery of Christ is that the nations and the Jews partake of God’s promise and are members of the same body in Christ through the gospel message (3:6). The Word of God is recorded for the faithful to read and be united in one body. God made Paul a minister of the gospel message according to His grace and by the working of His power (Ephesians 3:7). Paul recognized himself as the least of saints, yet God gave him grace to evangelize to the nations proclaiming the unsearchable wealth of Christ (3:8). Paul’s role was to enlighten God’s plan for everyone to see what was hidden from the ages in God who created everything (3:9). Through the least to the greatest, God shows the truth of His Word through Jesus that the apostles and prophets have written for the faithful to read and perceive the truth.

For faithful Christians, the ability to perceive God’s mysterious plans of His everlasting purpose is an amazing blessing. God revealed these truths by the apostles and prophets to make known the depths of His wisdom even to the rulers and authorities “in heavenly places” through the church (3:10; cf. 6:12). God did this according to the purpose for the ages that God worked and accomplished by Jesus Christ (3:11). Thereby, the faithful have boldness and access to God by confidence in the faithfulness of Christ (3:12). For this reason, Paul encouraged the faithful to be confident and not to be discouraged because of his trials on their behalf, which are to the glory of those who in Christ (3:13).

Thank God that we can have confidence by reading the revealed Word of God that God kept hidden from the world. We can perceive the secret truths of God given by His apostles and prophets in the Bible. We can make known God’s wisdom because we, the faithful, are the church of Christ.