“Unto me (Paul), who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8).

Christ gave to Paul a new gospel message of pure grace containing unsearchable riches. Unsearchable means it could not be searched or found in the Scriptures of that day. Unsearchable riches were not part of Peter’s message.  The searchable riches for Israel came to them under the Old and New Covenants – these are NOT the Unsearchable riches Christ gave Paul to preach for “the body of Christ.”

If we searched enough we can find all sorts of riches God has promised in the Scriptures, but if they are found in the Jewish Scriptures of the O.T., the four Gospels, and Hebrews to Revelation, then they are searchable, they’re not “unsearchable.” Paul describes our riches under grace are “unsearchable.”

Anyone in Israel could read about the riches God had promised Israel through her Messiah. They are found in Covenants and Promises and are all a part of Prophecy. This is why the noble, seeking, Berean Jews could “searched the Scriptures daily” to find out whether Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ (Acts 17:11) as Paul had said He was. They could not yet read Paul’s epistles as they had not yet been written! In the Jewish Scriptures, they could have searched out the many prophecies about the first coming of Christ being fulfilled in the coming of Jesus of Nazareth, and prophecies of the promised Kingdom blessings. Peter at Pentecost preached the coming restoration of Israel and the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel in the New Covenant for Israel. All these New Covenant riches had been spoken of by the prophets since the world began, they could be searched out (Acts 3:19).

We have riches in Christ that are not found in Israel’s Scriptures. Paul wrote:

“Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God” (Eph 3:8-9)

These unsearchable riches are the subject of what Paul calls “the mystery of Christ.”  

“Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my (Paul’s) knowledge in the mystery of Christ)” (Eph. 3:4)
“Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds:” (Colossians 4:3)

“To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is (part and parcel of) Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27)

God is creating a “new creature” today “in Christ.” “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2 Cor. 5:17) This new creature was not described and can’t be searched out in the Jewish Scriptures. It was a ‘mystery (kept secret),’ it concerns “the body of Christ” destined to dwell “eternal in the heavens” (2Cor. 5:1b).

God has promised Israel the Kingdom on earth, but God has heavenly destiny for “the Body of Christ,” that could not be described as Israel’s prophecy or promises in the Old and New Covenant. The unsearchable riches of “Christ according to the revelation of mystery (secret),” can’t be searched out in the Scriptures to Israel.

We learn of the “unsearchable riches” from our Apostle Paul who was the first to preach “Christ according to the revelation of the mystery.”

y” (Rom. 16:25), “in whom are hid (dwells) all the treasures” (Col. 2:3)

“Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my (Paul’s) gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, ²⁶ But now is made manifest, and by the Scriptures of the (grace) prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:” (Romans 16:25-26 (KJV)