The Mystery of Piety.
IT should be cause for unfeigned thanksgiving that one mystery there is which has ever been cherished and contended for by the devout of all communions in Christendom. “And without controversy great is the mystery of godless: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory” (1 Tim. 3:1616And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. (1 Timothy 3:16)).
Editors and translators differ considerably as to the exact rendering to be preferred; but the doctrine remains untouched in any reputable version. The excellent translation of J. N. Darby reads, “And confessedly the mystery of piety is great. God has been manifested in the flesh,” etc., using the past-perfect tense through the balance of the verse. Some question the right of the word “God” to remain; but in that case we must understand, “And confessedly great is the mystery of piety [which] has been manifested in flesh;” and only in Immanuel, “God with us,” is this fulfilled.
This is the battle-cry of the soldiers of the new dispensation. “The secret of piety has been manifested in flesh!” God has appeared on earth, taking manhood into indissoluble unity with Deity, or Godhead; and “we beheld His glory (as the glory of an only-begotten with a father), full of grace and truth.” To deny this is to apostatize from the faith, and to surrender all rightful claim to the name Christian.
By this confession spirits are tried and the claims of teachers weighed. “Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world” (1 John 4:2, 32Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. (1 John 4:2‑3)).
No truth has been more bitterly denied than this; no teaching more relentlessly assailed by Satan’s ministers, oftentimes transformed as angels of light. Not only Jews, but heretics of all ages since the cross, have leveled their venom darts at this most precious mystery of godliness; but it abides to-day the cherished ark borne by the people of the Lord through the wilderness of this world, on their pilgrimage from the cross to the glory.
And, indeed, it was this very truth that the ark set forth. There the gold spoke of the dine nature; and the acacia wood—the incorruptible wood of the desert—pictured the human nature of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here was God’s throne. Here He could rest: in no mere creature, surely, but in His own eternal Son become flesh, and accomplishing His will perfectly in the scene where He had been so terribly dishonored.
It is on no equivocal statements of Scripture the believer rests his faith that Jesus is very God and very Man, two natures in one person, inseparable and indissoluble.
Of this mystery the former revelation speaks, though in such a way that only when Christ had come could its statements and predictions be clearly understood. The second psalm minutely portrayed beforehand His rejection by the nations and the people of Israel, and then adds, “I will declare the decree: Jehovah hath said unto Me, Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee” (vs. 7). Jehovah could not so address a creature. Between the Creator and the greatest of His creation there is an immeasurable gulf. It is the deity of the Son that the psalm makes known. So Zechariah declares the reality of His manhood, while asserting His equality with Jehovah, when he writes, “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the man that is My fellow, saith Jehovah Tsebaoth: smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn My hand upon the little ones” (ch. 13:7). Micah similarly testifies that He who should be the smitten Judge of Israel, and who should be born in Bethlehem Ephratah, was the One “whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (chs. 5:1,2). The holy Babe of Bethlehem and the eternal Son who was before all things are one and the same person.
Nor can Isaiah’s words in chapter 50 be made to bear any other meaning. He who came to redeem could say, “Behold, at My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness:... I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.” It is no different peon, but the very same, who goes on to declare: “The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary”; and who further adds: “I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting.” In this solemn chapter, He who of old had dried up the Red Sea and driven back Jordan is shown to be identical with Him who on earth had the opened ear, the smitten back and the flinty face I—all, all fulfilled in Jehovah-Jesus, He who was both the Root and the Offspring of David.
Many other passages there are which at first sight might not seem to refer to the Son, but which the Holy Spirit in the New Testament makes plain, declaring His eternal power and Godhead. A number of such are quoted and applied to the Lord Jesus in the first chapter of the treatise addressed to the Hebrews. Passing over the opening verses, which are meaningless if they are not to be understood as maintaining the full equality of the Son with the Father, we find in verse 6 that Psalms 97:77Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods. (Psalm 97:7) is to have its fulfillment “when He bringeth again the First-begotten into the world “; that is, when God sends Jesus the second time; “whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:20, 2120And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: 21Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. (Acts 3:20‑21)). This throws a flood of light upon the psalm in question. At once it becomes evident that it is a millennial paean of praise upon the return of the once-rejected Jesus to take His great power and reign. verse 7, in the Hebrew, is, “Worship Him, all ye gods,” which the Septuagint, as quoted by Paul, renders, “all ye angels.” Now we know it is written in the law, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.” Manifestly then, when the Father calls upon all angelic intelligences, good and evil, to bow in worship at the feet of Jesus, He is asserting in the fullest possible way His true deity. If all other proof were lacking, here is incontestable evidence that in Jesus we see “God manifest in flesh.”
But the other passages quoted are equally striking. verse 8 and 9 show us that it was “unto the Son” the Father was speaking in the 45th psalm, which is devoted to “things touching the King.” verses 6, 7 are addressed to Jesus. “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever: a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.” The first verse asserts His true Godhead; the next, the reality of His manhood. It is the “mystery of piety” in all its preciousness.
The next quotation might never have been noticed in its true bearing, were it not for the Holy Spirit’s use of it here. In Psalms 102 we have the suffering Saviour, undergoing the agonies of the cross. It is the cry “of the afflicted [One] when He is overwhelmed, and poureth out His complaint before the Lord.” (See the Heading.) Touchingly He portrays His desolate condition when He was “as a sparrow alone upon the housetop.” In verse 23 He says, “He weakened My strength in the way; He shortened My days.” And in the first clause of verse 24 He adds, “I said, O My God, take Me not away in the midst of My days.” Now in our Bibles a colon follows this, and the next words apparently finish the sentence. According to the inspired use of the passage in Hebrews, however, a period would follow what has just been quoted, for the next words are seen to be the answer of God to the holy Sufferer’s cry. “Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of Thy hands: they shall perish, but Thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but Thou art the same, and Thy years fail not.”
How marvelous the recognition of the mystery of piety here! The anguished Sufferer on the cross is the One-who laid the foundation of the earth, and whose years shall never fail! And this is the uniform testimony of Scripture.
If we turn to Matthew, Jesus is Immanuel, the virgin’s son, “which being interpreted is, God with us” (ch. 1:23). Mark takes care to show us that John the Baptizer was sent to prepare the way of Jehovah, for such is the original for “the Lord” in Isaiah 40:3,3The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. (Isaiah 40:3) which he quotes in chapter 1:3. Who else than He could baptize with the Holy Ghost? Think of a creature, even though the greatest of all creatures, attempting so to do It would be to make Deity subservient to creaturehood.
Gabriel’s message to Zacharias, as recorded by Luke, coincides with this. Of John it is declared that “many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before HIM in the spirit and power of Elias,” etc. (chs. 1:16, 17). What other antecedent expression can the pronoun Him refer to but “the Lord their God”? Oh, how marvelously do angels, prophets, and apostles, with holy men and women of all ages, unite to ascribe the highest honor to the Crucified, and own that in Him is revealed this wondrous secret of piety!
The entire Gospel of John shines with this truth of all truths. Every chapter bears witness to it. The first starts with the oft-quoted statement that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.” Here, His eternity of being, distinctness of person, unity of nature, and eternal Sonship, are all alike maintained. And it was the same uncreated Word, Himself the Creator, who “became flesh, and tabernacled among us.” He was as truly man as He was God. And such Nathanael owns Him, ere the chapter closes, as he adoringly cries, “Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God; Thou art the King of Israel” (vs. 49).
In the second chapter He asserts His deity when He says to the Jews, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (vs. 19). “He spake of the temple of His body.” Deity was there enshrined; and when that tele should be destroyed, of His own power He would raise it again. What creature could so speak without blaspheming? John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)— “Luther’s miniature Bible”— makes known to Nicodemus that He who was supposed to be, at the most, “a teacher come from God,” is really “His Only-begotten Son”; therefore one with Him in life and nature.
But space forbids our going from chapter to chapter. I only pause to note that He who could say, “Before Abraham was, I AM,” could be no other than that holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts whose glory Isaiah saw, as John 12:4141These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him. (John 12:41) declares: “These things said Esaias, when he saw His glory, and spake of Him.” He it was who “came from God, and went to God,” and who could speak so familiarly to His Father of “the glory which I had with Thee before the world was” (ch. 13:3; 17:5). Is it any wonder that Thomas, convinced at last of truth long doubted, cries out in holy ecstasy, “My Lord and My God!” (ch. 20:28.) Nor is he rebuked by Jesus, as he must have been if he were applying to a creature the titles of Deity.
From the balance of the New Testament, of which it can be truly said, as of the temple of old, “every whit of it uttereth His glory,” I select only three scriptures, ere passing on to consider the next great mystery that claims our attention. I notice first the touching words of 2 Corinthians 8:9: “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.”
Let those who deny the eternal Sonship of our blessed Lord, and blasphemously assert that He is but a creature, whose course began when He was born in Bethlehem, tell us when He was ever rich down here! “He was rich,” but when? Poverty surrounded His lowly birth.
“Which would no glory borrow,
No majesty, from earth.”
His childhood and young manhood were not spent amid wealth and luxury; and as He went about on His mission of love, He was poorer than the beasts and the birds, for He had no place to lay His head. At last He died in ignominy and shame on a malefactor’s cross, and was laid in a borrowed tomb. Tell us, O unbelieving Socinian, who deniest His preexistence in glory, tell us, when was He rich? We wait in vain for an answer if the truth be not owned that He was rich in the glory that He had with the Father in the past eternity, when, “subsisting in the form of God, [He] did not esteem it an object of rapine to be on an equality with God.” Then He was rich! The next verses show the poverty to which He descended: He “emptied Himself, taking a bondman’s form, taking His place in the likeness of man; and having been found in figure as a man, humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, and [that the] death of the cross” (Phil. 2:6-86Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. (Philippians 2:6‑8)―J. N. Darby’s translation).
In Col. 1 There is a passage the full force of which is obscured in our English rendering of the Authorized Version. We read that “It pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell” (vs. 19). It is really, “In Him all the Fullness was pleased to dwell.” The connection makes it plain that it is the divine Fullness the apostle is writing of. All the Fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Jesus. Of what creature could this be said, however holy and exalted? It is the peculiar glory of Him “who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in Him were all things created that are in the heavens, and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or authorities: all things were created through Him, and for Him: and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist” (Col. 1:15-17,15Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. (Colossians 1:15‑17) Newberry’s rendering).
The last scripture I notice now is the scene of Rev. 5. The Lamb once slain is there beheld in the midst of the throne of God—a place no creature shall ever take. The moment He takes the book of judgment, all the redeemed, together with angels and all other created intelligences, “fall down before the Lamb,” and worship Him as Saviour and Head. It is the bringing-in of the glory, and is a wondrous and glorious picture. Could anything more be needed to show that in Him all recognize the supreme Object of worship? If He be not God, heaven will be filled with idolaters 1 But with hearts won by His bloody passion, and minds illuminated by the word of God, all saints join in rendering to the once-slain Lamb all homage and adoration, worship and glory and blessing, both now and throughout eternity.
The “mystery of piety” is confessedly great. God has been manifested in flesh, and the divine and human will nevermore be separated.
If any deny this, he is to be refused as an antichrist, and neither received into the house nor given greeting, “for he that greeteth him is partaker of his evil deeds” (2 John 10, 11,10If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: 11For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds. (2 John 10‑11) literal translation). God cannot tolerate neutrality when the doctrine of Christ is in question. Oh that His beloved people everywhere were aroused to the importance of uncompromisingly standing for this cardinal truth, now so frequently and unblushingly denied even among professed Christians!