invented a term that defies explanation, for what is a joint -body?  We must be

careful not to introduce, even mentally, into this verse the idea that all Paul

means by the term `fellow -heirs' is that now the Gentiles have been admitted

into an existing sphere of blessing, namely one in which the Jew was admittedly

first, and that all that the Mystery with its fellow -heirs means is that

Gentiles are now admitted on equal terms with Israel.

If for the moment we concede that the Jew is in view, the teaching then

must be accepted as a veritable revelation of an hitherto hidden mystery, for

where, since the call of Abraham to the writing of the epistle to the Romans

(where the apostle says `the Jew first', etc.), has the Gentile ever received

the threefold equality revealed here?

Millennial blessings, which fulfil the promises to Israel, necessarily

give the Gentile a secondary place; they who were once aliens to the

commonwealth of Israel, but who are finally blessed under the covenant of

promise, are nevertheless `tail' and not `head', and their national

distinctions remain.  Here, in the dispensation of the Mystery, the sphere is

`in spirit' and the equality is concerning relationship among the Gentile

believers themselves.  The only place that a Jew can have here is to lose his

nationality and enter this unity as a sinner saved by grace, even as the

Gentile did.

God does not call Himself merely the God of Abraham, or the God of

Abraham and Isaac.  His full title in this connection is `The God of Abraham,

Isaac and Jacob'.  They were co -heirs.  The equality among all believers in

the dispensation of the Mystery is expressed in similar terms, co -heirs.  This

inheritance is the subject of Ephesians 1:11 and 18, and of Colossians 1:12.

It is a predestined allotment, it is `in the light'.

Although our subject is limited to the reference to fellow -heirs, a note

on the term `the same body' and `fellow -partakers' may not be out of place, as

these are on the same plane as the reference to fellow -heirs, and are very

near to the heart of this new revelation of grace.

The joint -body (sussoma) is as unique as is the word used to express it.

The word occurs nowhere else in the New Testament  or in the LXX.  Words arise

in response to needs, and never before in all the varied ways of God with man

had there been the necessity for such a term.  Kingdom, Firstborn, Church,

Bride, Wife, Flock, these and other terms had been necessitated by the

unfolding of the purpose of the ages, but not until the revelation of the

Mystery was there any necessity to use such an expression as `joint -body'.

The equality in the body is opened up in Ephesians 4:16.  There is but One Head

and the rest of the body are members one of another.

The third item is `joint -partakers', but such an expression does not

convey the truth until the statement is completed:

`Joint -partakers of the promise in Christ, through the gospel of which I

became minister'.

The better readings give the full title, `Christ Jesus'.

`The promise in Christ Jesus'.-- Paul, when writing to Timothy his last

`prison epistle', calls himself: