Ephesians 3:2 If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:
The gospel is ours because it has been given to us. It has been given in word form. God purposed that men by inspiration of His Spirit write down the word that He has purposed for us to have. These men were not the authors. They were mere scribes for God. This gospel was given to us. In another context the word became flesh. The gospel is that work that the word came to perform. It is that work that we saw in chapter one the faith. It is that work in which the righteousness of God is revealed. That work is the righteousness of God. That work was Christ’s service to God. It was His way to glorify God. In doing so we are saved by that very gospel. It is not the written words that save us, it is the Godman and His work that saved us.
John 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
Paul sees his role in God’s plan is in the revelation of the righteousness of God. God would use him to bring the very word of God to pen and paper. It is the story of the salvation of those who stand condemned before God. It is the story of our release from the bondage of sin.
Galatians 3:25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
Christ had come. The faith, the gospel, had come. What had Christ come to do?
Romans 2:16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
Christ had come. Man would either be in Christ or he would not.
Luke 12:49 I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled? 50 But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished! 51 Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: 52 For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. 53 The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
Matthew 10:34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. 35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. 36 And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.
Christ came to separate the sheep from the goats. He left the 99 sheep and went looking for the 1. He came to redeem His chosen from out of the world. He did this by His faith alone. He did this by the gospel. The gospel would be believed by some and not by others. This very fact would divide man into two groups.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Those who believe do so because they have eternal life. Those who do not believe do not believe because they are condemned already. The justification/salvation of man is in the hands of God and comes by this gospel that Paul calls “my gospel.”