His Mysteries Revealed

The mysteries of God previously hidden are revealed in Jesus of Nazareth, and especially through his Death and Resurrection.

The Bible speaks of the “mysteries” of God, His ways that are hidden from and contrary to the wisdom of this world. Jesus declared that not everyone could understand the “mysteries of the kingdom.” God reveals the deep and obscure things to whomever He pleases, and in His Son, He has done so for all the world to see. In Christ’s Death and Resurrection, God has disclosed His nature and the salvation that He offers to all men and women.

[Cross - Photo by CRISTIANO DE ASSUNÇÃO on Unsplash]

God did not disclose a complete understanding of His redemptive plans until the appropriate time, the “fullness of time”:

• “Now, to him who has the power to establish you according to my gospel, even the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, in age-past times kept silent, but now made manifest” - (Romans 16:25-27).

• “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” – (Galatians 4:4).

God did communicate truth through the rituals and sacrifices of the Levitical system, and in the “Law and the prophets”; however, His earlier revelations were partial, promissory, and preparatory. The substance of the Gospel was foreshadowed in the words and images of the former covenant and the history of Israel. As the Author of the Letter to the Hebrews wrote:

• “In many parts and many ways of old, God spoke to the fathers in the prophets, but upon the last of these days, He has spoken in a Son…” – (Hebrews 1:1-2).

The prophets did prophesy of the coming salvation that would be revealed in the Messiah, though they did not comprehend all the ramifications of that promise. Even the angels of God lacked full insight into the mysteries of redemption that would be revealed by God’s Son and Messiah:

• (1 Peter 1:10-12) – “Concerning which salvation prophets, who concerning the grace for you did prophesy, sought out and searched out, searching into what particular or what manner of season the Spirit of Christ which was in them was pointing to when witnessing beforehand as to the sufferings for Christ and the glories after these, to whom it was revealed that, not to themselves but to us they were ministering them, which things have now been announced to you <…> into which things angels are coveting to obtain a nearer view.”

NOW REVEALED!

The “mystery” concealed previously has been revealed in Jesus of Nazareth, at the appointed season, and above all, through his Death and Resurrection. The “Law and the Prophets” were vital parts of God’s redemptive purpose, many “mysteries” remained hidden before the arrival of the Messiah.

The Mosaic Law was an interim stage in Salvation History. However, now, “upon the last of these days,” God’s plans have been disclosed in and through His Son:

• ”In whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, disclosing to us the mystery of his will, according to his good -pleasure which he purposed in him” - (Ephesians 1:7-9).

Paul and the Apostles were appointed Christ’s ministers and sent to reveal the “mystery that has been hidden for ages and generations, but now has been manifested to his saints.” This disclosure is the “riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory”- (Colossians 1:26-27).

With Christ’s coming, the rituals and regulations of the Mosaic legislation have been relegated to the status of “shadows and types.” Jesus Christ was prefigured by the “types” and patterns of the Hebrew Bible:

• “Let no one, therefore, judge you in eating or in drinking, or in respect of a feast, or of a new moon, or of sabbaths, which are a shadow of the coming things, and the body is of the Christ” – (Colossians 2:16-17).

If we return to the obsolete rituals and partial truths of the old system, we will regress to bondage under the “elemental things.” The promise of a New Covenant meant that the old covenant was deficient, and its inauguration by the Messiah demonstrates that the former covenant is now obsolete - (Galatians 4:8-11, Hebrews 8:13).

Neither is there any need to turn to mystical practices such as the observation of astronomical signs and lunar cycles for deeper insight into divine “mysteries.” In “these Last Days,” God’s nature and “mysteries” are revealed, and fully so, in His Son. They are available to anyone who hears and heeds the Word that God is speaking through His Son.

The hidden “mystery” that the prophets and angels desired to understand is unveiled to all men and women of faith. What is required is not secret knowledge or mystical insight, but the “obedience of faith.” The mystery “not made known in other generations has now been revealed” in Jesus of Nazareth.

Moses gave the Law, but “grace and truth came to be in Jesus.” In him, the knowledge of the Father is unveiled in all its fullness. No one has seen God at any time except the only-born Son, therefore, he alone is qualified to “interpret” the Father. The fullness of the God who made all things is found today in the “face of Jesus Christ.”

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SEE ALSO:

• Yea and Amen in Jesus - (The promises of the Hebrew Bible are fulfilled in the Son of God and Messiah of Israel, Jesus of Nazareth, period)

• Logos - The Living Word - (Jesus is the Word become flesh through whom the glory of God is revealed, the same Word by which God created all things)

• Revealing the Unseen God - (The fullness, grace, and truth of God are found in the Word made Flesh, Jesus of Nazareth, who alone has seen the unseen God – John 1:14-18)

• Grace and Truth - (The fullness, grace, and truth of God are found only in the Word made Flesh, namely, Jesus of Nazareth – John 1:14-18)