Eph.3:8 – To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
Paul was trying to describe the riches of Christ and he came up with the word untrackable in his tracking of the riches of Christ which are on full display through His grace in the salvation of fallen man. Paul was stunned by God’s grace given to him when he considered himself the least of the believers. Why would Paul call himself the least? It was because he had been responsible for the death of Steven, the first Christian martyr, and the persecution that broke out in Jerusalem under Paul’s leadership. Paul was given a revelation of God’s grace in his own life that was beyond anything he could understand. It included the redemption of Paul the persecutor as well as salvation for the gentiles that to a Pharisee like Paul was totally impossible. The Lord instituted His plan before the earth began; he convicted Paul of his sin, drew him in with His love, and filled him with the Spirit of revelation of the message of redemption like no one else had known, and called Paul to be the Apostle to the Gentiles. Here is how Adam Clarke describes this verse.
“The unsearchable riches of Christ. The word anexichniastos, to trace out, from ichnos, a step, is exceedingly well chosen here: it refers to the footsteps of God, the plans he had formed, the dispensations which he had published, and the innumerable providences which he had combined, to prepare, mature, and bring to full effect and view his gracious designs in the salvation of a ruined world, by the incarnation, passion, death, and resurrection of his Son. There were in these schemes and providences such riches — such an abundance, such a variety, as could not be comprehended even by the naturally vast, and, through the Divine inspiration, unparalleledly capacious mind of the apostle. Yet he was to proclaim among the Gentiles these astonishing wonders and mysteries of grace; and as he proceeds in this great and glorious work, the Holy Spirit that dwelt in him opens to his mind more and more of those riches — leads him into those footsteps of the Almighty which could not be investigated by man nor angel, so that his preaching and epistles, taken all in their chronological order, will prove that his views brighten, and his discoveries become more numerous and more distinct in proportion as he advances.”
These unsearchable riches are on full display some 2000 years later. The nations of the world are experiencing a harvest of souls that numbers in the millions and the gospel is being preached all over the world. His untraceable riches go back before time began as the Lord determined to bring a people from every tribe and tongue together. Somewhere in God’s eternal plan He chose you to be His. With that in mind remember this, the Lord has a plan for your life and all of your struggles will result in God being glorified.
