This Hope Gives Me Peace
"To me, the very least of all saints, this GRACE was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Messiah..." (Ephesians 3:8)
I agree with Paul. The "riches of Messiah" are truly "unfathomable".
It was his privilege to preach to Gentiles in places where it had never been heard.
"My goal was to spread the Good News where the name of Messiah was not known." (Romans 15:20)
He did so "all over the world" and in his final letter to Timothy he states that he "had kept the faith" and his job was "finished"...
"The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it...the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." (Colossians 1:23; 2 Timothy 4:6-7)
So was preaching such good news a resounding success - apparently not for he also says at the beginning of that last letter to Timothy...
"You know that everyone in the Province of Asia has deserted me" (2 Timothy 1:15)
He means they had deserted the message he had preached to them - the message of God's gift of salvation to all mankind and the future reconciliation of all creation to God through the "riches of Messiah". Faith in that message has continued to be mostly abandoned to this day in favor of the various religions of the world. That is not surprising for even Jesus himself had lamented...
"...when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8)
I agree with Paul. The "riches of Messiah" are truly "unfathomable".
It was his privilege to preach to Gentiles in places where it had never been heard.
"My goal was to spread the Good News where the name of Messiah was not known." (Romans 15:20)
He did so "all over the world" and in his final letter to Timothy he states that he "had kept the faith" and his job was "finished"...
"The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it...the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." (Colossians 1:23; 2 Timothy 4:6-7)
So was preaching such good news a resounding success - apparently not for he also says at the beginning of that last letter to Timothy...
"You know that everyone in the Province of Asia has deserted me" (2 Timothy 1:15)
He means they had deserted the message he had preached to them - the message of God's gift of salvation to all mankind and the future reconciliation of all creation to God through the "riches of Messiah". Faith in that message has continued to be mostly abandoned to this day in favor of the various religions of the world. That is not surprising for even Jesus himself had lamented...
"...when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8)
I sometimes wonder what Paul would say about the preaching of today with its mixture of law and grace. Most likely the same thing he said to those who mixed it up in his day...
"I am astonished how quickly you are deserting the One who called you by the grace of Messiah and are turning to a different gospel— which is not even a gospel...You who are trying to be justified by the Law have been severed from Messiah; you have fallen away from grace. But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the hope of righteousness." (Galatians 1:6-7; 5:4-5)
"I am astonished how quickly you are deserting the One who called you by the grace of Messiah and are turning to a different gospel— which is not even a gospel...You who are trying to be justified by the Law have been severed from Messiah; you have fallen away from grace. But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the hope of righteousness." (Galatians 1:6-7; 5:4-5)
Our salvation has been promised based solely on the "grace" of God and His Messiah. It will not be completed until we have been raised from the dead. And it is by this "faith" that we "eagerly await" that event, and have peace and joy in our "hope of righteousness".