Mysteries Revealed
In popular Christianity, there are discussions and even claims about discovering new “revelations” of God by accessing the “spirit realm” via visions, dreams, and the like, insights into things beyond what is recorded in the New Testament. One of the so-called “Facebook prophets,” for example, deciphers spiritual insight from baseball scores.
It seems God has been holding
back information from His church until the current generation. The Bible certainly
does speak of the “mysteries” of God, His unexpected ways that differ radically
from human wisdom.
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| [Photo by Terry Tan De Hao on Unsplash] |
And Jesus declared that not everyone is able to understand the “mysteries of the kingdom” - It is God who reveals the deep and hidden things to whomever He chooses.
IN JESUS
However,
the New Testament also teaches that what was once hidden has now been
revealed in God’s Son, Jesus of Nazareth, especially in his death and
resurrection.
God did
not disclose the full understanding of His redemptive plan until the
appropriate time. The “mystery kept silent in past ages has been
manifested,” which is the “obedience
of faith for all the nations” made known through the “proclamation
of Jesus,” whom he sent “in the fullness of time” - (Romans 16:25-27,
Galatians 4:4).
He certainly
revealed truth in the Levitical system with its animal sacrifices and other rituals,
as well as elsewhere in the Torah and “the prophets.” But that
earlier word was partial and incomplete. - “In many parts and many ways of
old” God spoke to Israel “in the prophets,” but now, “upon the
last of these days,” He has spoken to us fully “in His Son” - (Hebrews
1:1).
The full
understanding of Who God is and how He works has been available to everyone
ever since the ascension of Jesus of Nazareth and the outpouring of the Spirit
on Pentecost. He has not held this knowledge back until some future generation.
The
prophets foretold the coming salvation that would be revealed by the Messiah;
but they did not possess or comprehend the details or ramifications of that
promise since they were “not
to themselves but to us were ministering them, which things have now been
announced to you” - (1
Peter 1:10-12).
HIS DEATH AND RESURRECTION
The “mystery”
previously concealed has been revealed in Jesus, and at the appointed season.
And above all, in his death and resurrection.
The “law and the prophets” were vital parts of God’s revelation but
in them, many of His “mysteries” remained hidden. However, they are now
disclosed in His Son - And nowhere
else.
The rituals
and ceremonies of the Mosaic legislation were fulfilled in the “word made
flesh” and relegated to the status of “shadows and types.” And Jesus
certainly is the one who casts those ancient “shadows.”
To now return
to the outmoded rituals and incomplete understandings of the old system is to
regress to bondage under the “elemental things” of this fallen age, including
the “powers, principalities, archons, angels, and world-rulers” - (Galatians 4:8-11, Ephesians 6:8-12, Colossians 2:16-17).
Neither is
there any need to resort to mystical practices, scrutinizing astronomical signs,
or decoding Hebrew letters and numbers for deeper insight into the divine “mysteries.”
His “mysteries”
are revealed in Jesus, and they are available to anyone who hears the “word of the Son.” The
mystery “not made known in other generations, has now been revealed” in him
- (Romans 16:25, Ephesians
2:9-22, 3:3-11, Colossians 1:25-27).
Moses gave
the Law, but “grace and truth came to be in Jesus.” IN HIM, the
knowledge of the Father has been revealed. No longer must men attempt to obtain
a deeper understanding of God from secret knowledge or mystical experience.
By God’s
grace forgiveness and salvation are made available to every man and woman. And
by His Word and the inspiration of His Spirit, anyone may behold the glory and
fullness of Yahweh in the “face of Jesus Christ.”
