Once Hidden, Now Revealed
God’s previously hidden mysteries are now revealed in Jesus, especially in his death and resurrection.
The Bible speaks of the “mysteries” of
God, His ways that are hidden from human wisdom and defy our expectations. In
his teachings, Jesus declared that not everyone can understand the “mysteries
of the kingdom.” It is God who reveals the deep and obscure things to
whomever He pleases, and in His Son, He has done so for all the world to see.
According to the New Testament, God did not
disclose a complete understanding of His redemptive plans until the appropriate
time. Indeed, the disclosure of His previously hidden ways marked the arrival
of the era of fulfillment, 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).
SHADOWS
God certainly revealed truth in the
elaborate rituals and sacrifices of the Levitical system, and in the “Law
and the prophets.” But that earlier word was partial, promissory, and
preparatory.
The substance of the gospel was
foreshadowed in the words and images of the former covenant. As the author of Hebrews
puts it:
- “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).
But the prophets did foretell the coming
salvation that would be revealed in the Messiah, though they did not comprehend
all the ramifications of it. For that matter, even angels lacked full insight
into the mysteries of redemption:
- (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
But the “mystery” that was concealed
has been revealed fully in Jesus of Nazareth, and at the appointed season,
above all, in his death and resurrection.
The “law and the prophets” were
vital parts of God’s redemptive purpose, but in them, many of His “mysteries”
remained hidden. But now, “upon the last of these days,” they have been disclosed
in 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.” And 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 his coming, the rituals and regulations
of the Mosaic legislation have been relegated to the status of “shadows and types.” Jesus is the one
who cast the “shadows” in the old order, the one who was prefigured by
the “types” in 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).
For believers to return now to the outmoded
rituals and partial truths of the old system constitutes regression, not
revelation, reversion to bondage under the “elemental things” of the old
system. The inauguration of the New Covenant demonstrates that the former
covenant has been made 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, and they are available to anyone who hears the word that He now “speaks in His Son.”
The hidden “mystery” that the prophets
and angels desired to understand is revealed 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 for all to see.
Moses gave the Law, but “grace and truth
came to be in Jesus.” In him, the knowledge of the Father is
unveiled. No one has seen God at any time except the only born Son who alone, therefore,
is qualified to “interpret” the Father. The fullness of Yahweh is found today
only in the “face of Jesus Christ.”
