The Mysteries: April 2011
Table of Contents
The Mysteries
The word “mystery” describes a hidden or secret thing, known only to the initiated. In Scripture it stands in contrast to the manifest or public dealings of God. The Lord Jesus, having been rejected, is now hidden in the heavens, and the ways of God are secret to the world but made known — as also His hidden purpose which is being accomplished by His secret ways — to those who have “ears to hear.”
The Lord often spoke in parables to the multitude, but explained them to the apostles, because it was given to them to know the mysteries of the kingdom. To them He said, “Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables.” Christianity is a mystery to the unconverted. The apostles were stewards of the mysteries of God, and they spoke “the wisdom of God in a mystery.” The Apostle Paul spoke of the “mystery of the gospel,” the “mystery of the faith,” the “mystery of Christ,” and the “mystery of godliness.”
The marvelous purpose of God, the mystery of the church that had been hidden for ages, was revealed to Paul, as well as its present administration. The intelligence of it explains how Christ can be here in a scene from which He has been rejected alike by Jew and Gentile. Though there are several things designated mysteries, yet God in His grace has made them known to His saints.
Adapted from Concise Bible Dictionary
The Mysteries in Scripture
In taking up the subject of the mysteries in the Word of God, it is important for us to understand what is meant by the word in Scripture. Rather than conveying the thought of a puzzle or something that is hard to understand, the word has the sense of something that is known to some, but not to others. Among the ancient Greeks, there were rites and ceremonies connected with certain secret societies, and only those initiated into the group possessed the knowledge of them. It is in this connotation that we must understand the word “mystery” in Scripture. It is noteworthy that while the word occurs twenty-seven times in the New Testament, it never occurs in the Old Testament. We will see that this is significant.
In Scripture, the word also gives the thought of that which is outside the realm of natural understanding and which thus can be known only by divine revelation and at the time that God decides to reveal it. It is always connected with something God has chosen to reveal. As another has aptly put it, “In the ordinary sense a mystery implies knowledge withheld; its scriptural significance is truth revealed.” The Lord Jesus first uses the word in Matthew 13:11, in speaking of “the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.” Here He plainly states that some were given to know these mysteries, while others were not. Other mysteries follow in the New Testament, notably the mystery of Christ and the church, but also the mystery of iniquity, the mystery of godliness, and others. In these other cases where the word is used, it is some new revelation suited to the heavenly character of the church or to the present nature of God’s dealings viewed as an interruption of the course of earthly events foretold in the old prophets. These mysteries were not revealed at other times, but in the wisdom of God they are revealed now. Yet even now, they are revealed to some, but not to others.
The Ways of God
In view of all this, some may ask why God chose to have these mysteries and to reveal certain things at certain times to some, but not to others. Also, why were these things not revealed in the Old Testament? The answer magnifies the ways of God, so that we are led to say, as Paul did, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!” (Rom. 11:33). While there was a partial revelation of God in the Old Testament, the full revelation awaited the coming of Christ into the world. While God certainly could have revealed, in the Old Testament, certain truths as facts, they would have been mere head knowledge and without the moral effect on those to whom they were revealed. The New Testament is concerned with God’s heavenly counsels, whereas the purpose of the Old Testament prophecies is to make known His earthly counsels. Instead of inheriting the Old Testament promises and fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies, the church forms the most absolute contrast with them. They are so different that the two cannot exist together. While God’s purposes about the earth were being unfolded, the mystery of the church was hidden. While the mystery of the church is being unfolded, God’s purposes about the earth are suspended.
God’s Purposes in Christ
But God’s desire is always to connect revelation first of all with His glory, and then with a known and enjoyed relationship with His creature. When Christ came into this world, God was fully revealed, and then, through Paul, His purposes in Christ were fully revealed. The understanding of the mysteries is connected primarily with this precious truth — that God is now revealed in Christ. The revealed mysteries, rather than being merely facts, are now connected with the One who is the object of all God’s purposes and in whom “also we have obtained an inheritance” (Eph. 1:11).
In addition to this, the revelation of the supreme mystery, that of Christ and the church, was not given until Christ had been glorified and seated at the Father’s right hand. Rather than having been brought into the good of a truth that we simply know, we can now look up into the opened heaven and see “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). Thus the revelation of the mysteries — and, in particular, the mystery of Christ and the church — is connected with the full revelation of God in Christ and with Christ glorified. What a substance and fullness all this gives to God’s revelation! It is in the full knowledge of the mystery of God (which concerns His purposes in Christ) that “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge” (Col. 2:3 JND). Thus the revelation of this mystery, and others which are connected with it, could not be brought out until Christ, and all God’s purposes in Him, had been manifested.
Knowledge and
Moral Conformity
In saying that these mysteries, even now, are made known to some and not to others, we need to be clear that God is not, at this time, willfully keeping some in ignorance, while enlightening others. As it was in the days when our Lord was on earth, so it is today; namely, there are some who would gladly have the knowledge of what God is doing, but without the moral effect of it in their lives. There were those in our Lord’s day who looked for signs and wonders, and who even appreciated His teaching, but who did not want to follow a rejected Christ. Concerning those, our Lord would say, as He does today, “Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath” (Matt. 13:12). This verse, with minor variations, is repeated five times in the four gospels, showing us that we cannot have the theory of the truth in our heads without the practical effect of it in our lives. Mere head knowledge will be taken away from us, but God is ready to reveal these mysteries today to all who will come in simple faith, acknowledging His Son as both Saviour and Lord, and wanting to follow Him. However, God will not reveal His mysteries to the natural man (who “receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God”; 1 Cor. 2:14), nor will He reveal them to the unfaithful and worldly Christian.
The Old Testament Saints
But will those godly saints of the past, who lived before all these mysteries were revealed, lose out? No, not by any means. The Old Testament saints, while not in the place of nearness that the church enjoys, will surely appreciate and enjoy, as friends “of the bridegroom,” the everlasting revelation of the mystery. When God has fully accomplished His purposes in Christ to “head up all things in the Christ, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth” (Eph. 1:10 JND), all the redeemed, whether in heaven or on earth, will appreciate the mystery. All will be revealed, for God’s glory and our blessing. We enjoy the mystery now; in that day all the redeemed will enter into it. Truly we can say, with Paul, “Of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:36).
“God and the Lamb shall there
The light and temple be,
And radiant hosts forever share
The unveiled mystery.”
W. J. Prost
Two Great Mysteries
In the Word of God we see two great mysteries, which develop themselves during the present dispensation: the mystery of Christ and the mystery of lawlessness. The counsels of God engaged in the first have their accomplishment in heaven. The union of the body of Christ with Himself in glory will evidently have its accomplishment there on high. But, by the power of the Holy Spirit, there ought to be on earth during this dispensation the manifestation of the union of the body of Christ. But here the responsibility of man comes in for its share in this manifestation here below, although in the end all will be to the glory of God. Therefore the dispensation may be in a state of ruin, although the counsels of God never fail; on the contrary, our lie will turn to His glory, although He judges righteously.
In this sphere of man’s responsibility, Satan can introduce himself the moment that man fails to lean absolutely upon God. We know this by every day’s experience.
The Mystery of Lawlessness
It is then revealed that the mystery of lawlessness will have its course. Here it is not a question of counsels, but of an evil done in time. The question here is of this mystery of lawlessness; the apostasy or falling away is not a mystery. There is no need of a revelation to inform us that a man who denies Jesus Christ is not a Christian; he says it. But in this case, it is an evil that has commenced working in the bosom of Christendom, in relation with Christianity — a mystery of which the lawless one will be the full revelation, as the glory of Christ and of the church will be the full accomplishment of the mystery of Jesus Christ. The words translated in most versions “iniquity” and “wicked one” are the same in the original, save that one indicates the thing and the other the person. It is “lawlessness” and the “lawless one” preeminently. This mystery of lawlessness commenced working in the Apostle’s time; later the veil would be removed. The apostasy would be then, and at length the lawless one would come to his end by the appearing of the coming of Christ. Thus is the dispensation to be brought to an end: This is what we have revealed in this passage. Hence, as we see elsewhere, this will be to introduce the glory and reign of Christ, so that all the earth may be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God.
Collected Writings of J. N. Darby, 1:175
The Mystery of Christ and the Church
The truth of the mystery of Christ and the church includes four things:
1. The revelation of God concerning Christ as the second Man.
2. The relation of the church to Him as His body and bride.
3. The nature of this union.
4. What the Head is to the body and to each individual member.
In other words, it is the unfolding of the glory of the Head, the grace which has set the church in relation to Him in that glory, and what the Head is to the body for its present maintenance while on earth.
The Gospel
In the end of Romans, the Apostle first mentions the mystery but does not develop it. In that epistle the Spirit of God gives that which must precede the knowledge of the mystery, that is, the gospel. Until the gospel is known in its fullness, a soul cannot truly appreciate the truth of the mystery. Paul was a minister of both the gospel and also the mystery (Col. 1:23-29). In Romans we get that which meets the need of a sinner, revealing what God is in grace for man. When it is apprehended by faith, the soul is brought to God in peace and liberty, assured that every question as to sin was settled at the cross, once and for all. The believer is reconciled to God, and is brought to know God as Father. Thus the conscience and heart are perfectly set free, the soul is at home in the presence of God, and it needs no more to be occupied with itself and its needs. Being thus delivered from all his fears and cares, the believer is in a condition to be occupied with what is outside the range of his own necessities. He can now be engaged with the glories of Christ and God’s counsels and purposes concerning Christ and for His glory. So then, when the truth in Romans is really known, the saint is prepared to go on to the apprehension of the mystery. This we get developed in Colossians and Ephesians.
The Purpose of God
Concerning Christ
First of all, we get in Ephesians 1 the purpose of God concerning Christ as the second Man. In verse 10 we learn that God has purposed to bring everything in heaven and upon earth under the headship of Christ as the second Man. It is wonderful to see that God’s purpose gives man this place of universal headship over all creation and puts everything in heaven as well as on the earth under His dominion. Christ will take this place, not simply in His divine right as Son of God, but in His acquired glory as Son of Man, for God’s purpose was that the church should co-inherit with Him, which would have been impossible if He did not take the place as man. How the knowledge of this should preserve us from all we find in the world around us, where Christ is rejected and where we see man exalting himself in every way! The principle of the world is, “Men will praise thee when thou doest well to thyself.” We know that this exaltation of man will find its full development in the manifestation of “the man of sin,” who will exalt himself above all that is called God and will be destroyed in the judgment of that day, when all the pride of man will be brought low and when the Lord alone will be exalted.
The Relation of the Church
Second, we learn in the revelation of the mystery how God has associated believers of the present dispensation with Christ, in this place of honor and glory, as His body and His bride. When risen and exalted, He is given to be head over all things to the church, which is His body. It does not say head over the church, but head over all things to the church. Surely nothing could more fully display the riches of God’s grace than that He should be pleased to associate the church (that is, all saints from Pentecost until the Lord comes) with Christ, the One in whom is all His pleasure. Every believer indwelt by the Spirit is united to Christ, the living Head, as a member of His body, and is regarded by the Lord as a part of Himself. The church is thus the fullness of Him who fills all in all, the subject of God’s purpose, that is, Christ the Head and the church His body, making the Christ, as it says in 1 Corinthians 12:12, one perfect man according to God’s counsel, which will be manifested as such in the day of glory. This is the force of the expression, “His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.”
The Nature of This Union
Third, it is important to consider the nature of this union. The true nature of our union with Christ comes out in Colossians, where we see that we must be of His life and nature in order to be united to Him. As natural men alive in this world we have died with Christ; we have put off the body of the flesh. It was impossible for Christ to take sinful flesh into union with Himself, and it was impossible to change the flesh; therefore there was nothing else to be done but to put it off, as that which God has judged in the cross. In Colossians it is not only sin in the flesh which is judged, but the flesh itself. All in which man naturally glories is set aside in the death of Christ as being utterly unprofitable to God. In Christ risen we see man according to God; He is the only man whom God now acknowledges. In resurrection He is the beginning of a new race — a new creation. The believer is alive now in the life of the risen Man. Being risen with Christ, he has left behind the life and condition of the first man, and being identified with Christ risen, he is of that new race, of the new creation of which He is the beginning and Head.
What the Head Is to the Body
Fourth, in Colossians we get what the Head is to the body, as in Ephesians we get what the body is to the Head. “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” — all that God is is revealed and presented to us and is for us in Christ our living Head. What a wonderful thought with which we can be occupied! In Him, who is our Head, dwells all the fullness of the Godhead! Surely the man of this world, with his intellect, wisdom or religion, can add nothing to the one who is filled up in Christ! It is no wonder, when the Apostle recognized the dangers that threatened the saints, that he should so earnestly desire that they should be fully assured of the truth of the mystery of God, in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In Christ we not only have everything which makes us complete as to our standing before God, but also everything which we need for our life and service here. As we learn experimentally the weakness and worthlessness of all that is of the flesh, so we appreciate the fact that we are filled up in Christ — that Christ is all. All the supply for the body comes down from the Head.
Christ in Us — We in Him
We see in Colossians that the aspect of the mystery presented is not so much what we are in Christ, but Christ in us as life and the practical results of this: “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him: rooted and built up in Him.” Philosophy and human religion can only cultivate and develop the flesh; they cannot reveal Christ and what we have in Him, nor form Christ in us, which is the practical object of Christianity. We see too how the church derives everything from Christ and is thus independent of all that is of man.
May God grant to us not only that we may understand the truth of the mystery, but that we may more fully realize by faith and in the power of the Spirit our union with Christ.
Adapted from
The Christian Friend
The Mystery of God and the Mystery of Christ
When speaking of the mystery of Christ and the church, the Word of God refers to it as both the mystery of God and the mystery of Christ. While it is the same mystery in both cases, it is good to recognize why the Spirit of God makes this distinction, for there is a different shade of meaning in these two terms.
In the New Testament, we often find a term referred to God in one passage and to Christ in another. For example, we find that the terms “the Spirit of God” and “the Spirit of Christ” are both used in Romans 8:9. We find the term “the Word of God” used many times, but in Colossians 3:16 it is “the Word of Christ.” We have the term “the peace of God” (Phil. 4:7), but also “the peace of Christ” (Col. 3:15 JND). In Romans 8:39 it is “the love of God,” while in Romans 8:35 it is “the love of Christ.” There are others, such as “the gospel of God” and “the gospel of Christ,” that could be added to this list.
What Concerns God and Christ
While the exact meaning in each case must be ascertained by the context of the passage, yet in a general way we can say that when it is “God” that is connected with a particular thought, it is His nature and power that are brought before us — the essence of what He is in Himself. If we read the term “the Spirit of God,” it is the thought of who the Spirit is in His essential deity and in His power that works in us. If it is the love of God, it is God’s nature as love and the force and power of His love that we are to consider. If it is the peace of God, it is a peace connected with the power of God over all circumstances.
When it is “Christ” who is connected with the same entity, the thought is different. It is rather the practical side of things, referring to our experiences in life and our walk before the Lord, that the Spirit wishes to bring before us. Thus the term “the Spirit of Christ” occupies us with what the Spirit is doing in us and our identification with Christ through the Spirit’s indwelling. The “love of Christ” is spoken of in relation to trials that are in this world, such as tribulation, famine and peril, while the “love of God” is connected with power outside of this world. The peace of Christ is spoken of in relation to our walk, while the peace of God relates more to our having committed everything to God and making our requests to Him.
The Two Parts
How then do we understand these terms as applied to the mystery of Christ and the church? There are really two parts of the mystery: first, that all things shall be put under the headship of Christ, and second, that the church will be associated with Christ in it all, as His body and His bride. When we get the expression “the mystery of God” in Colossians 2:2, the fullness of the Head of the body is being brought before us. Colossians, in a general way, speaks of what Christ is to the church and gives us the highest truth in Scripture concerning His Person and God’s purposes in His Son. Thus the mystery of Christ and the church is referred to here as “the mystery of God,” for it is God’s primary purpose to honor and glorify His beloved Son and to head up all things in Him, both in heaven and on earth. This is the first and most important part of the mystery, for God always begins with Himself and His counsels, for His glory and the glory of His Son. (Note that the words “and of the Father, and of Christ” in Colossians 2:2 KJV should be left out; the verse should end with the phrase, “the mystery of God.” There is no such thing as the mystery of the Father, and it is not the mystery of Christ that is in view here.)
The Mystery of Christ
The term “the mystery of Christ” is used twice in Scripture, once in Ephesians 3:4 (“my knowledge in the mystery of Christ”) and once in Colossians 4:3 (“to speak the mystery of Christ”). In both cases it is connected with our part of the mystery, namely, that God has chosen to associate His church with Christ in all His glory. We get this expressed in Ephesians 1:11: “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.” Ephesians, in contrast to Colossians, brings before us what the church is to Christ and gives us the highest truth in Scripture concerning the blessings of the believer in Christ. In chapter 3, it is the Apostle’s burden that the saints should enter into and enjoy all the privileges connected with the revealed mystery of God — that they might “see what is the fellowship of the mystery” (vs. 9) and that they might have their affections and ultimately their lives formed by that knowledge. Thus it is called “the mystery of the Christ” (vs. 4 JND), for the expression “the Christ” brings Christ and the church together as one.
Likewise, the use of the term “the mystery of Christ” in Colossians 4:3 is connected with the Apostle’s wish for practical boldness to speak of it, even though he was a prisoner and might naturally be a little reticent to bring out clearly what had previously resulted in his being made a prisoner. He might have the knowledge of the mystery, but needed practical grace to give it out fearlessly.
In these two expressions, then, we see clearly God’s pattern, in that He always begins with Himself, and then he brings man into blessing based on His own purposes and grace. This blessing is always connected with and obtained through His beloved Son. In all our thoughts we, too, need to see everything from God’s side, for in this way God will always be glorified and man will enter far more into his blessings.
W. J. Prost
The Dispensation of the Mystery
To Satan, the counsels of God are as secret, until revealed, as to the children of men. It must have appeared a marvelous triumph of his ingenuity and devilish craft when he apparently succeeded in overturning the plans of the prophetic teachings of God, by securing the rejection and crucifixion of God’s King. That the Messiah should take into His hand the reins of earthly government and set up a kingdom of heaven on earth was clearly demonstrated in the Word. That the Messiah had come and no such kingdom had been set up was also clear from the facts. That the prophecies should ever be capable of a literal fulfillment, such as should vindicate the truthfulness of God and His Word, seemed to him, doubtless, as impossible as it has seemed to thousands of God’s own children, who have abandoned the expectation and exchanged it for the fruitless effort to spiritualize the prophecies into a forced and unnatural harmony with existing events.
While many still cling to this error, Satan has assuredly long since been undeceived. The revelation of “the mystery,” unfolded in vain before the eyes of some of God’s children, has been seen of him with clearer discernment. This is not mere conjecture; it is the teaching of the Word itself. In the epistle to the Ephesians, the Apostle, in opening his commission “to make all see what is the dispensation of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God,” adds, “who created all things by Jesus Christ: to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God” (Eph. 3:9-10).
The Display of God’s Wisdom
Here we have the fact that the display of God’s manifold wisdom, by means of the church, was contemplated in His purpose before the creation, with express reference to “the principalities and powers in heavenly places.” Now, if, in Ephesians 1:21 and Colossians 2:10, “principalities and powers” seem employed to designate celestial inhabitants in favor with God, in Ephesians 6:12 the same is used for the deadly enemies of God and man, the wicked spirits known elsewhere as “the devil and his angels.” By them this manifold wisdom will be learned to their confusion and dismay, as by the others to their edification and joy, through the demonstration of God’s ability to accomplish results. This highest and most blessed work is done through the instrumentality of the very elements that seemed most to thwart his plans and traverse his purposes.
Do you dream of a gradually diffused gospel, converting the world under the agency of the Spirit, and ushering in a millennium of spiritual blessedness, without the presence of a personal Messiah, in manifested glory on the throne of His father David? If so, you will have to revise this position before you will be able “to see what is the dispensation of the mystery.” Can a child of God rest satisfied that such a victory should abide in the hands of Satan, as if he had frustrated the literal accomplishment of prophecy and reduced God to the necessity of giving to it only a so-called spiritual accomplishment? No simple reader of the Word could ever suppose this to be correct. No; Satan has not triumphed. God’s purpose is not abandoned; his plans have not been frustrated. A foreseen postponement, yes, has delayed the immediate establishment, but in Satan’s seeming victory the prince of darkness has outwitted himself; he has accomplished God’s secret purpose to suspend, for a season, the erection of the throne, in order to prepare a bride for His King, to be associated with Him in His reign. The church of the living God, a people brought into a special place of nearness, shall have part in His exaltation and glory; those who own and take part with Him in His humiliation and rejection, because they “suffer” with Him, shall also “reign with Him.” They will fill that very place in the heavenlies — the place where Satan and his angels now are. They are the powers of the air of which he is prince. These “wicked spirits in the heavenlies” war in spiritual conflict against the saints.
The Kingdom on Earth
The Old Testament prophecies spoke only of earth; there was no intimation of a people to fill the place of the Satanic powers, no word of their being dispossessed in favor of a people redeemed from the earth. This was a secret, a mystery hid in God. Satan’s seeming triumph gave occasion both to the unfolding and to the accomplishment of God’s multiform wisdom, His grace and His glory. The kingdom which Satan thought to frustrate will yet be set up on earth — the millennium of New Testament prophecy. The literal accomplishment of every detail of God’s Word and the full vindication of the faithfulness of God and the truthfulness of His prophets will be established.
The Present Dispensation
The present dispensation is a parenthetic period, contemplated indeed in the counsels of God, but not revealed till “given” to Paul who set it forth.
Once this truth is seen, it becomes the key to the interpretation of Scripture and to “rightly dividing the word of truth,” in the distinguishing of things Jewish from things Christian. Until it is seen, neither Testament can be understood aright, and Christianity, instead of having its proper and distinctive character, is degraded into a sort of revised form of Judaism.
Christ and the Church
All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid in “the mystery,” so that the dispensation of it, as given to Paul, is the filling up, or completing, of the Word of God. Christ is the center of the truth and ways of God, but the Christ of God’s counsels is not simply the man Christ Jesus, but “as the body is one, and hath many members, so also is Christ.” It is “Christ and the church” — the mystery — the second Adam, not alone, but with His Eve united with Him under a common name. As Adam was incomplete without Eve, so is the Christ of God’s counsels and purposes incomplete without “the church, which is His body, the fullness [or complement] of Him that filleth all in all” (Eph. 1:22-23). With good reason Paul would pray that “the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” (Eph. 1:18).
Adapted from
The Christian Friend, 3:81
The Two Prayers and the Mystery
The prayer in Ephesians 1:15-23 is to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, because He is viewed as man, yet the object of all God’s thoughts. The prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21 is to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ because He is viewed as Son. The first prayer dwells on three great themes: (1) the hope of His calling, (2) the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and (3) the greatness of the power that has put us in the calling. To understand these, the eyes of our heart must be enlightened. The heart of the Apostle overflowed in worship, ascribing blessing to the One who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings. Notice that it is His calling, the calling of God, not our calling. The hope of His calling is not specially the Lord’s coming, but the realization of all that God has called us to, in Christ, as the fruit of His purpose. Even as the calling causes us to look towards heaven, the inheritance directs attention to the earth.
Originally, His inheritance was in Israel; now it is in the saints. We are not the inheritance, but heirs of God. We have obtained an inheritance in Christ. These thoughts should not be confused with each other; they are all quite distinct. Two great parts of this prayer are (a) that the Ephesians might know the place, and (b) that they should know the power that brought them there. That power is exceeding great and finds its measure in Christ’s resurrection from the dead. All around was in death. Man was dead in trespasses and sins, amid which God worked to effect His eternal purpose and at the same time to reveal Himself. The authorities sealed the tomb and set a guard, determined that Christ would never interfere with mankind again, but He was raised from the dead by the glory of God the Father. That same power quickens us together with Him and has raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. The first part of chapter 1 reveals our individual place in Christ before God the Father in eternity, while the second part shows our corporate relation to Christ as His body relative to the work of God to accomplish His eternal purpose.
The Second Prayer
In the third chapter, the Apostle sets forth his double ministry of the gospel and of the mystery, to make all men see what is the administration of it. That mystery relates to the present time; it will not be needed in heaven. It is intended that the conduct of the Christian here should be profoundly affected by it. The angels, the mighty powers in heaven, see in the church what they had not seen in creation nor in subsequent manifestations of God. In the revelation of the mystery is shown a new departure in the ways of God, namely, that the Gentiles should be co-heirs and co-partakers of His promise in Christ in the gospel. Its ill-assorted components (Jew and Gentile) nevertheless form one body, consisting of all who belong to Christ, united to Him in glory. The prayer is not that we may know our place in Christ (as in chapter 1), but that the truth may be freshly dwelling in our hearts in the fellowship of the Christ. There are resources in the riches of His glory — the power by which we may be strengthened by the Spirit in the inner man. It is the Spirit that brings about that the One who dwells in the Father’s bosom may dwell in the Christians’ hearts by faith! The first prayer was relative to our being in Christ; the second prayer, with His being in us. He is the center of eternal purpose; that center is brought into our hearts by the Spirit. The love of Christ will lead the saints to grasp the breadth, length, depth and height of the boundless sphere of glory (which cannot really be defined), and then to know that love itself which surpasses knowledge. The first prayer is objective, since the power is operating externally; in the second prayer the power is operating in us internally and is thus subjective in its bearing. It is very fitting that the prayer should conclude with such a wonderful doxology.
Adapted from J. A. Trench
Top Down or Bottom up?
With the onset of the twenty-first century, it seems that the world, to use a common expression, has changed gears. While technology continues to develop, the problems and difficulties in this world are becoming greater, not smaller. As a result, man is trying, as it were, to pull himself up by his own bootstraps and to invent solutions to problems that in many cases are beyond him. The advice that was considered good enough for the last century is now considered to be obsolete, and new concepts and new approaches to problems are being advanced. The Internet, for example, has radically changed not only our way of doing business, but ultimately our whole way of living. However, these approaches sometimes stray into the moral and spiritual realm, and, as always, man’s thoughts are the opposite of God’s thoughts.
In particular, prominent American author Michael Shermer has recently made comments in his latest book, The Mind of the Market, to the effect that we need to recognize that almost everything important in nature and society “happens from the bottom up, not the top down.” A firm believer in the theory of evolution, he calmly states that “life is a bottom up, self-organized emergent property of organic molecules.” Shermer is the founder of the Skeptic magazine, head of the Skeptics Society, and a contributor to Scientific American. Among other things, he has also written a book on the so-called evolutionary origins of morality and “how to be good without God.” With a strong emphasis on logic, he demeans anything that cannot be ascertained by reason.
Things Beyond Reason
When talking about the natural man and his way of operating in this world, there may be a grain of truth to Shermer’s theory that things generally happen “from the bottom up, not the top down.” For example, it is generally true that those who work hardest obtain the most in this world. However, to reason this way in moral and spiritual things is to leave God out and ultimately make man and his mind the limit of everything we believe. As another has said, “There is nothing in the Bible contrary to reason, but there are many things that are beyond reason.” To deny the existence of what is beyond reason turns man in on himself and ultimately turns him away from God.
With the believer, everything starts with God and ends with God (Rev. 1:8). Thus it is not “from the bottom up,” but rather “from the top down.” The Bible begins with the words, “In the beginning God,” and if man reasons (and it is God who gave man his reasoning powers), he must of necessity begin with God and reason from God down to man. Starting with man will always dishonor God and will eventually deprive man of the blessing that God wants to give him. If man thinks that he can “be good without God,” he will find that he has no basis for the morality he covets. With a sinful heart and with his mind blinded by Satan, he will always be dragged down, never lifted up. But if man starts with God, his reasoning will be on the right footing, and his deductions will more likely be correct.
The Purposes of God
This is true in the highest sense when we consider what God is doing today, in connection with the mystery of Christ and the church. The natural man who starts with himself will never know the purposes of God in Christ, or the blessing God has for him. Indeed, it is the effort of “the god of this world [Satan]” to blind “the thoughts of the unbelieving, so that the radiancy of the glad tidings of the glory of the Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine forth for them” (2 Cor. 4:4 JND). Notice that the blindness primarily concerns the glory of Christ, not man’s need as a sinner (although true). The revelation of the glory of Christ and of all God’s purposes in Him can never come from “bottom up”; it must come from God, from “top down.” Then, in understanding this revelation, we find that God, in His goodness and grace, has also purposed that we should be brought into blessing with Christ and take part in all that He will inherit. It is God who has determined that He will “gather together in one all things in Christ” and who has also determined that we shall also obtain an inheritance in Him (Eph. 1:10-11).
It is for this reason that Paul, in preaching the gospel, starts with God’s purposes in Christ, not with man’s need — top down! Man’s need is met, it is true, but when God’s purposes take precedence, God is far more glorified and man is far more blessed than when man starts with himself. This is true of the unbeliever, but it is also true even of the believer who is not seeking to rebel against God.
Our Everyday Lives
If this principle is true as to our present position before God, as associated with Christ as His body and bride, it is true in our everyday lives too. Living in this world, we are apt to be governed by man’s thoughts and may be tempted to think first of ourselves and our needs rather than starting with God. Seeing the many needs in this world, we may, perhaps even with right motives, seek to meet those needs in our own wisdom, rather than starting with God, who not only is wiser than man, but who loves His creature more than we do. Surely the wisdom of God, which purposed the glory of Christ in a past eternity, is also the wisdom that “God ordained before the world unto our glory” (1 Cor. 2:7). It is a blessed privilege for us, in this time of God’s grace and when all of His counsels are displayed, to have “the eyes of your understanding enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” (Eph. 1:18). All of this must come from “top down,” not “bottom up”!
“What raised the wondrous thought,
Or who did it suggest?
That we, the church, to glory brought,
Should with the Son be blest.
O God! The thought was Thine
(Thine only it could be);
Fruit of the wisdom, love divine,
Peculiar unto Thee.
W. J. Prost
Paul’s Labor
The Apostle Paul preached forgiveness and peace in divinely given energy, but he did more. He had seen Christ in the glory; his soul was filled with Christ there; therefore he preached for the believer here, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” He was not satisfied that converts should be saved from hell and safe for heaven, but he travailed for them that Christ should be formed in them. He labored according to God’s working, which worked in him mightily, that they might know the riches of the glory of the mystery — ”Christ in you the hope of glory.” He longed that saved souls should be freed from the law and from the earth and be free for Christ, and Christ only. In his deep desires for Christ’s glory and his sympathy for souls and their progress, he had great conflict — even for converts he had not seen — that “all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery” might be theirs. Does our preaching so bring Christ Himself before our audience, that they long to “know Him”?
H. F. Witherby
Four Aspects
There are four distinct aspects of the person of Christ in the four Gospels; so in the epistles there are four figures, or aspects, of “the mystery.”
In Matthew the Lord is revealed to us as Son of Abraham, fulfilling all righteousness; in Mark, as the perfect Servant; in Luke, as the perfect Man, Son of Man; in John, as Son of God.
In the epistles “the mystery” is revealed under four aspects: the temple (“In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord”), the church (or assembly), the body and the bride.
Things New and Old, 24:232
The Wall of Partition
The mystery had been hidden in all former times, and in fact it needed so to be, for to have put the Gentiles on the same footing as the Jews would have been to demolish Judaism, such as God had Himself established it. In it He had carefully raised a middle wall of partition. The duty of the Jew was to respect this separation; he sinned, if he did not strictly observe it. The mystery set it aside.
J. N. Darby
Thy Glory, Lord, Is Mine
Thy glory, Lord, is mine — the light
That beams upon Thy lustrous brow;
For changed into its image bright
I yet shall be, as Thou art now!
Thy rich inheritance is mine;
Joint heir with Thee of worlds above;
Lord, in Thy kingdom I shall shine,
And reign with Thee in endless love.
Thy fullness, Lord, is mine — for oh!
That fullness is a fount as free
As it is inexhaustible!
Jehovah’s boundless gift to me!
My Christ! Oh sing, ye heaven of heavens!
Let every angel lift his voice;
Sound with ten thousand harps His praise;
With me, ye heavenly host, rejoice!
With tears, with songs, with holy psalms,
With daily love, with odors sweet,
With broken heart, with outstretched arms,
I’ll pour my praises at Thy feet.
Things New and Old, 11:64