Charles Hodge on Ephesians 3:6

V. 6. The mystery made known to the apostles and prophets of the new dispensation, was εἶναι τὰ ἔθνη συγκληρονόμα, κτλ., i. e. that the Gentiles are, in point of right and fact, fellow-heirs, of the same body, and partakers of this promise. The form in which the calling of the Gentiles was predicted in the Old Testament led to the general impression that they were to partake of the blessings of the Messiah’s reign by becoming Jews, by being as proselytes merged into the old theocracy, which was to remain in all its peculiarities. It seems never to have entered into any human mind until the day of Pentecost, that the theocracy itself was to be abolished, and a new form of religion was to be introduced, designed and adapted equally for all mankind, under which the distinction between Jew and Gentile was to be done away. It was this catholicity of the Gospel which was the expanding and elevating revelation made to the apostles, and which raised them from sectarians to Christians.

The Gentiles are fellow-heirs. They have the same right to the inheritance as the Jews. The inheritance is all the benefits of the covenant of grace; the knowledge of the truth, all church privileges, justification, adoption, and sanctification; the indwelling of the Spirit, and life everlasting; an inheritance so great that simply to comprehend it requires divine assistance, and elevates the soul to the confines of heaven. Hence Paul prays (1, 17. 18), that God would give the Ephesians the Spirit of revelation that they might know what is the riches of the glory of the inheritance to which they had been called.

They are σύσσωμα; i. e. they are constituent portions of the body of Christ; as nearly related to him, and as much partakers of his life as their Jewish brethren. The hand is not in the body by permission of the eye, nor the eye by permission of the hand. Neither is the Gentile in the church by courtesy of the Jews, nor the Jew by courtesy of the Gentiles. They are one body.

What in the preceding terms is presented figuratively is expressed literally, when it is added, they are partakers of his (God’s) promise. The promise is the promise of redemption; the promise made to our first parents, repeated to Abraham, and which forms the burden of all the Old Testament predictions. Gal. 3, 14. 19. 22, 29.

The only essential and indispensable condition of participation in the benefits of redemption is union with Christ. The Gentiles are fellow-heirs, and of the same body and partakers of the promise, says the apostle, in Christ, i. e. in virtue of their union with him. And this union is effected or brought about, by the Gospel. It is not by birth nor by any outward rite, nor by union with any external body, but by the Gospel, received and appropriated by faith, that we are united to Christ, and thus made heirs of God. This verse teaches therefore—1. The nature of the blessings of which the Gentiles are partakers, viz. the inheritance promised to the people of God. 2. The condition on which that participation is suspended, viz. union with Christ; and 3. The means by which that union is effected, viz. the Gospel. Hence the apostle enlarges on the dignity and importance of preaching the Gospel. This is the subject of the verses which follow.