Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Ephesians 5:32

"This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church." — Ephesians 5:32 (ASV)

This is a mystery of far-reaching importance. But what is meant by “mystery” here? Already we have seen that for Paul in this letter “mystery” means a secret of revelation made known through a special dispensation of grace (3:2–3). Usually it embraces the total sweep of God’s purposes in Christ (1:9; 3:3–4, 9; 6:19), but it may also refer to some specific truth within that wider revelation (cf. Romans 11:25; 1 Corinthians 15:51). With regard to Ge 2:24, the more profound truth now revealed is that in order for Christ, the husband, to win his bride, the church, he had to sacrifice himself for her on the cross (v.25).

Paul does not add the words “but I am talking about Christ and the church” as if he has been diverted from his theme. Rather, he is saying that so far as he is concerned, he refers the mystery to the relation between Christ and the church— a mystery into which he himself had been given unusual insight because of the revelation entrusted to him.