“We speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, even the wisdom that hath been hidden, which God foreordained before the world unto our glory” (1Co 2:7).
Please share my nascent understanding of what Paul refers to as “mystery” mystērion; a derivative of muo (to shut the mouth). English translations frequently fail to convey Paul’s precise intent in using the transliteration “mystērion,” which is “that which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed“. Therefore, “the mystery” Paul in the “fullness of times” revealed is no longer a mystery, nor should it be considered mysterious.
Paul’s epistles refer to a number of explicit mysteries, yet there is a consonance, suggesting that even in their distinctiveness they are “one,” even as a brilliant-cut diamond has many facets, so do the mysteries of Paul’s epistles, i.e., all being facets of His comprehensive “will” spanning this “dispensation of the grace of God.”
The story of the “mysteries” in Paul’s epistles begin where we are told that “by revelation He made known” unto Paul “the mystery” “which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy [New Testament] apostles and prophets by the Spirit” (cf. Eph 3:3-5).
“The mystery of His will”:
The first facet, to which all others appear subordinate, is the “the mystery of his will,” i.e., the “will of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” “That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth” in our Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Eph 1:9-10, emphasis added).
Or as John Nelson Darby so eloquently observed: “It is a marvellous purpose of God which, uniting redeemed ones to Christ in heaven as a body to its head, gave them a place in heaven. For, although we are journeying on the earth, and although we are the habitation of God by the Spirit on the earth, yet in the mind of God our place is in heaven.”
“The mystery of Christ”:
The gathering “together in one all things in Christ” infers “the mystery of Christ… That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel whereof… [Paul] “was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God” (cf. Eph 3:4-7).
Before this mystery, Jews were a “chosen” people “above all people… upon the face of the earth.” Today the Jew and Gentile are “one” in the Body of Christ. However, after the “final” mystery, all things will be as before.
The mystery of the gospel:
“Now to him that is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching [(proclamation)] of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal, but now is manifested, and by the [New Testament] Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, is made known unto all the nations unto obedience of faith” (Rom 16:25-26, emphasis added).
The mystery of the blindness of Israel:
“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob” (Rom 11:25-26, emphasis added).
“And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn” (Zec 12:9-10, emphasis added).
The “great” mystery, personal, intimate, and ever lovely, concerning the Lord and the Body of Christ.
“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church” (Eph 5:25-32, emphasis added).
The mystery of “Christ in you, the hope of glory“:
Scripture frequently dwells on the phrase “in Christ,” but only rarely mentions the indwelling of Christ!
“Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:26-27, emphasis added).
The “mystery of iniquity”:
“For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way“(2Th 2:7, emphasis added).
Today Satin’s surrogate “Messiah” is drawing ever closer to the threshold of “that Day” when the restraint of the Holy Spirit will be removed and the mystery of lawlessness will be revealed, but not before the “final” mystery!
“We shall not all sleep” is both the final facet of the mystery of His will, and the “final” mystery:
“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1Co 15:51-52, emphasis added).
At the “last trump” the Holy Spirit “will be taken out of the way,” the dispensation of grace and the “Body of Christ” on earth shall be no more, and “we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (cf. 1Th 4:17).
©2020 Christopher. All rights reserved.
