"If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:

         "How that by revelation He made known unto me the mystery" (Eph. 3:1-3).

What is this mystery and what is the dispensation of the grace of God, which was given to Paul as the prisoner of Jesus Christ for "you Gentiles" about in the text?  Unquestionably, it is what he says in verse 6.

            "That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel" (Eph. 3:6).

Note carefully, it is the Gentiles who had "no hope" and were "without God in the world" because they were "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise" (Eph. 2:12) that he is making reference to.  Paul did not become a prisoner of Jesus Christ for just Gentiles in general.  Rather, it was for these particular kinds of Gentiles (Acts 22:21) to whom he is now referring.  Please observe the use of the phrase for "you Gentiles" in Ephesians 3:1 and the phrase to "you-ward" in Ephesians 3:2.  Therefore the mystery OF the gospel is that Christ died for even WE who never did anything to gain God's blessing but were instead under the curse of Almighty God according to Genesis 12:3.  The fact that we should be made "fellowheirs, and of the same body" with those "who first trusted in Christ" and were already in the covenants of promise such as Paul, Silas, Timothy, Titus etc., has to do with the "mystery OF the gospel" make no mistake about it!  God had never promised to do anything for us in the Old Testament scriptures except damn us because we had no part with Israel back there.  And now that Israel has become Lo-am·mi -- that is not God's people (Hosea 1:9) -- there is no Israel for anyone to bless today.  Israel fell at the cross and was cast away by Almighty God toward the end of the book of Acts or shortly thereafter long before any of us were even born.  If it weren't for Paul's prison ministry and what it is that he has to say concerning we Gentiles who were outside the covenants of promise we would still not know that there was any hope for those such as we.  Thank God for the mystery OF the gospel revealed through the Apostle Paul's pen after he was put in prison at Rome.  Notice as he writes to Timothy after having become a prisoner for we Gentiles.

           "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;

         "Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

         "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

         "Who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time" (I Tim. 2:3-6).