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.

Sunrise Photo by Terry Tan De Hao on Unsplash
[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.”