Great is the Mystery of Godliness I Timothy 3:16
We begin a study of the six themes that Paul says make up the Mystery of Godliness. As Luke says, these are “those things which are most surely believed among us.” (Luke 1:1) In His two books, he gives us a full account of these historical and spiritual anchors of our faith. And they are more than that, for they are all about our Beloved God/Man, God come in the flesh for the Father’s adopted children. And this is the only work that God sanctions–believing in Him Whom He has sent. (John 6:29) This believing alone leads to the circumcised behavior of the New Covenant as stated in Phillippians 3:3. It is a mystery, a Divine Mystery, as to how Spirit birthed believing in these six truths can lead to the radical change of behavior stated in Phillippians. But it must and it does, for this is the Power of the Gospel. This is the Power of the Grace of our Glorious God!
Mystery: #3466 musterion-from a derivative of muo (to shut the mouth) “In the NT it denotes, not the mysterious, as the English word implies, but rather that which, being outside the range of unassisted natural apprehension, can be made known only by Divine revelation, and is made known in a manner and in a time appointed by God, and to those only who are illuminated by His Spirit.” (New Strong’s Dict. Of Bible Words)
Contemporary Christianity has lost the Mystery, the Mystery of God. We come to a building and call it a church-missing the mystery of Christ and His Body, the church.(Col 1:24, Eph 5:32) We approach the Bible as a textbook, howbeit a special textbook, drag out our tools, consult our commentaries and pat ourselves on the back that we have grown in the knowledge of God’s Word, but have missed the mystery of our long prophesied Mediator Who is the Word, spoken of on nearly every page. Our mouths are not shut, our hearts are not in awe, we do not fall on our faces either figuratively or actually, before the God of the Word and the Word Incarnate. God can only be known, adored, and worshiped through His Mysteries!
“In the ordinary (English) sense, a mystery implies knowledge withheld. (The best mystery is one whose solution is kept hidden, the reader kept guessing, until the end.) In Scripture, however, mystery implies truth revealed. Hence the terms associated with mystery in scripture are, “made known”, “manifested”, “revealed”, “preached”, “understand”, “dispensation”. (NSDBW)
Consider Colossians1:26-27 “the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now as been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the Hope of Glory”
Note (1) the hiddenness, (2) the revelation, (3) the source of the revelation-God, (4) the people receiving this mystery-the Gentiles (Paul’s calling was this stewardship to the Gentiles, I Cor 4:1), (5) the Source of the Glories of this Mystery- Christ in you, (6) the “benefit” of this revelation- Christ in you means you have “the Hope of Glory, Eternal Life in Him! Notice the beginning of verse 29- “Him we preach”. This “sets the stage” for all consideration of the Mystery of Godliness. The Mysteries are all about The Christ! The Mysteries are all revealed in Him! The Mysteries are mediated to us only in believing Him!!!!!!
A caution: Do not confuse Biblical, Godly Mystery with mysticism! Remember what I have said about Satan being the master of counterfeits. He introduced mysticism and the mystics into church history to divert attention from Biblical, Spirit taught Mystery. He also introduced Gnosticism for the same purpose. It’s “hidden knowledge” was only for the special few. Mysticism had no Biblical anchor. Mysticism was for the few, the mass was left to venerate the few. Beware, the Desert Fathers are popular today. The Mysteries, however, are the meat and drink of all who are born from above. The only one venerated in the Mystery of God is His Son and through Him, the Father.
I Corinthians 2: In Colossians 2:27 we saw that it is God Who makes known the Mystery. In I Cor. 2, we see that “no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.” (Vs 11) To make sure we understand, Paul adds in vs 14, “But the natural man (who does not have the Holy Spirit) does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him: nor can he know them, because they are Spiritually discerned.”
Note vs 7, “But we speak the Wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory.”
Now vs 10, “But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God”. Vs 11b-“Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.”
This then is the Biblical context of I John 5:20–The Son of God came and has given us the Father’s good gift–His Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13), the Spirit of Spiritual Understanding, and that for one reason and one reason only–that we may know Him (have fellowship with I Jn 1:3) Who is True, and we are in Him Who is True (this is speaking of the Father), even (KJV) in His Son Jesus Christ (our Hope of Glory) Now notice: This is the True God and Eternal Life.” The mysteries of God, of which Paul was a steward (I Cor 4:1) are given and revealed in Scripture by the Spirit of God for this purpose. To lead us to Know Him, be in Him, and to fellowship with Him for all Eternity.
Matthew 13:11 (In the context of the parable of the soils) Jesus spoke in parables to the masses because the mysteries of the Kingdom of God were hidden to them, but were revealed to His disciples, although they apparently did not “get it” until the Holy Spirit came upon them at Pentecost. This mystery of the Kingdom is all about the Gospel of Christ’s impact in the world.
I Corinthians 13:2 A mere knowledge of these mysteries that does not bear the intended fruitfulness--godliness, which is love–is nothing. Biblical information, and most of all, the mysteries of God, are never about mere information. They are always about transformation!
Ephesians 1:9-10 Here is the Bosom of the Mysteries–the Good Pleasure of the Eternal Father, to adopt a family in His Beloved Son and in so doing restore all things in heaven and earth unto His Glory. Ephesians is a very “mysterious book”. Eph 1:9, 3:3-4 & 9, 5:32, 6:19 It’s all about Jesus. 3:4 “Whereby, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ.”!!!
Colossians 4:3 “Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am in bonds.”
II Thessalonians 2:7 There is a mystery of lawlessness (iniquity) already at work. It is a mystery to me how supposedly intelligent people can believe and support the nonsense that fills the news today. And this lawlessness has exploded in recent years. We shouldn’t be surprised.
I Timothy 3:9 Paul says that deacons are to “hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.” Surely this implies a grasp of the Body and Blood of our Jesus as the only once done conscience clearing sacrifice as made plain in Hebrews 10.
I Corinthians 15:51-53 “Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
So you see, everything that we hold dear, everything which we surely believe, the totality of the Object of our faith–all has been revealed in a mystery, in the perfect timing and purpose of our Sovereign Father. And it is all about Jesus, and it will bring us into godliness. But remember, to know the mysteries requires absolute dependence upon the Holy Spirit of God.
We begin a study of the six themes that Paul says make up the Mystery of Godliness. As Luke says, these are “those things which are most surely believed among us.” (Luke 1:1) In His two books, he gives us a full account of these historical and spiritual anchors of our faith. And they are more than that, for they are all about our Beloved God/Man, God come in the flesh for the Father’s adopted children. And this is the only work that God sanctions–believing in Him Whom He has sent. (John 6:29) This believing alone leads to the circumcised behavior of the New Covenant as stated in Phillippians 3:3. It is a mystery, a Divine Mystery, as to how Spirit birthed believing in these six truths can lead to the radical change of behavior stated in Phillippians. But it must and it does, for this is the Power of the Gospel. This is the Power of the Grace of our Glorious God!
Mystery: #3466 musterion-from a derivative of muo (to shut the mouth) “In the NT it denotes, not the mysterious, as the English word implies, but rather that which, being outside the range of unassisted natural apprehension, can be made known only by Divine revelation, and is made known in a manner and in a time appointed by God, and to those only who are illuminated by His Spirit.” (New Strong’s Dict. Of Bible Words)
Contemporary Christianity has lost the Mystery, the Mystery of God. We come to a building and call it a church-missing the mystery of Christ and His Body, the church.(Col 1:24, Eph 5:32) We approach the Bible as a textbook, howbeit a special textbook, drag out our tools, consult our commentaries and pat ourselves on the back that we have grown in the knowledge of God’s Word, but have missed the mystery of our long prophesied Mediator Who is the Word, spoken of on nearly every page. Our mouths are not shut, our hearts are not in awe, we do not fall on our faces either figuratively or actually, before the God of the Word and the Word Incarnate. God can only be known, adored, and worshiped through His Mysteries!
“In the ordinary (English) sense, a mystery implies knowledge withheld. (The best mystery is one whose solution is kept hidden, the reader kept guessing, until the end.) In Scripture, however, mystery implies truth revealed. Hence the terms associated with mystery in scripture are, “made known”, “manifested”, “revealed”, “preached”, “understand”, “dispensation”. (NSDBW)
Consider Colossians1:26-27 “the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now as been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the Hope of Glory”
Note (1) the hiddenness, (2) the revelation, (3) the source of the revelation-God, (4) the people receiving this mystery-the Gentiles (Paul’s calling was this stewardship to the Gentiles, I Cor 4:1), (5) the Source of the Glories of this Mystery- Christ in you, (6) the “benefit” of this revelation- Christ in you means you have “the Hope of Glory, Eternal Life in Him! Notice the beginning of verse 29- “Him we preach”. This “sets the stage” for all consideration of the Mystery of Godliness. The Mysteries are all about The Christ! The Mysteries are all revealed in Him! The Mysteries are mediated to us only in believing Him!!!!!!
A caution: Do not confuse Biblical, Godly Mystery with mysticism! Remember what I have said about Satan being the master of counterfeits. He introduced mysticism and the mystics into church history to divert attention from Biblical, Spirit taught Mystery. He also introduced Gnosticism for the same purpose. It’s “hidden knowledge” was only for the special few. Mysticism had no Biblical anchor. Mysticism was for the few, the mass was left to venerate the few. Beware, the Desert Fathers are popular today. The Mysteries, however, are the meat and drink of all who are born from above. The only one venerated in the Mystery of God is His Son and through Him, the Father.
I Corinthians 2: In Colossians 2:27 we saw that it is God Who makes known the Mystery. In I Cor. 2, we see that “no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.” (Vs 11) To make sure we understand, Paul adds in vs 14, “But the natural man (who does not have the Holy Spirit) does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him: nor can he know them, because they are Spiritually discerned.”
Note vs 7, “But we speak the Wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory.”
Now vs 10, “But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God”. Vs 11b-“Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.”
This then is the Biblical context of I John 5:20–The Son of God came and has given us the Father’s good gift–His Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13), the Spirit of Spiritual Understanding, and that for one reason and one reason only–that we may know Him (have fellowship with I Jn 1:3) Who is True, and we are in Him Who is True (this is speaking of the Father), even (KJV) in His Son Jesus Christ (our Hope of Glory) Now notice: This is the True God and Eternal Life.” The mysteries of God, of which Paul was a steward (I Cor 4:1) are given and revealed in Scripture by the Spirit of God for this purpose. To lead us to Know Him, be in Him, and to fellowship with Him for all Eternity.
Matthew 13:11 (In the context of the parable of the soils) Jesus spoke in parables to the masses because the mysteries of the Kingdom of God were hidden to them, but were revealed to His disciples, although they apparently did not “get it” until the Holy Spirit came upon them at Pentecost. This mystery of the Kingdom is all about the Gospel of Christ’s impact in the world.
I Corinthians 13:2 A mere knowledge of these mysteries that does not bear the intended fruitfulness--godliness, which is love–is nothing. Biblical information, and most of all, the mysteries of God, are never about mere information. They are always about transformation!
Ephesians 1:9-10 Here is the Bosom of the Mysteries–the Good Pleasure of the Eternal Father, to adopt a family in His Beloved Son and in so doing restore all things in heaven and earth unto His Glory. Ephesians is a very “mysterious book”. Eph 1:9, 3:3-4 & 9, 5:32, 6:19 It’s all about Jesus. 3:4 “Whereby, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ.”!!!
Colossians 4:3 “Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am in bonds.”
II Thessalonians 2:7 There is a mystery of lawlessness (iniquity) already at work. It is a mystery to me how supposedly intelligent people can believe and support the nonsense that fills the news today. And this lawlessness has exploded in recent years. We shouldn’t be surprised.
I Timothy 3:9 Paul says that deacons are to “hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.” Surely this implies a grasp of the Body and Blood of our Jesus as the only once done conscience clearing sacrifice as made plain in Hebrews 10.
I Corinthians 15:51-53 “Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
So you see, everything that we hold dear, everything which we surely believe, the totality of the Object of our faith–all has been revealed in a mystery, in the perfect timing and purpose of our Sovereign Father. And it is all about Jesus, and it will bring us into godliness. But remember, to know the mysteries requires absolute dependence upon the Holy Spirit of God.