From what we’ve gleamed from some of the statements found on the Christian forum we frequent under the thread: The Mystery Revealed to Paul it is evident that there exist a lot of confusion over just what constitutes the “mystery” being spoken of by the Apostle Paul in Eph 3:1-12 with some imagining he was simply referring to the gospel of salvation itself. This of course could not be the case because the Apostle states that this mystery was not made known to the sons of men in ages past (viz., the Jewish age, the Patriarchal age and etc.), and yet we know that the gospel in essence was preached to Abraham.

“And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, in thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham” (Gal. 3:8, 9).

No the mystery to which the apostle spoke of here was not in reference to “our common salvation” (Jude 3), that salvation which is made applicable to all men through the ransom sacrifice of Christ, no the apostle here was speaking of something altogether different, a new mystery or secret previously unknown, “Which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets.” (Verse 5)

What then is this mystery or secret the apostle is speaking of?

In Verse 3 of Ephesians the apostle states that he had previously alluded to this mystery in some of his writings.

Briefly this is the mystery; this is the secret “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Col. 1:27) a.k.a. “The mystery of THE Christ (the Church)”. More specifically the fact that the Messiah (the Savior), the Christ was not to be an individual, but a composite being composed of many members gathered from amongst the nations and peoples all under one headship. Nor was he to be an earthly being, an earthly ruler as they had supposed, but rather a spiritual being, a new creation. The mystery or secret is in “The upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:14), the high calling made applicable only to those who are called during the Gospel Age.

THE FINISHED MYSTERY

“In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound [i.e. in the forepart of his sounding,] the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.” (Rev 10:7)

Looking backward, who cannot see that our heavenly Father has been pleased to keep some part, and that the very cream or riches of his grace, measurably hidden? In the Patriarchal and Jewish ages only a mere fragment of God’s plan was revealed, and that the inferior or earthly part of his plan–the part properly belonging, to those who are to be inheritors of earthly blessings.

Thus, the Apostles tell us of “The mystery of Christ which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is NOW [since Pentecost] revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets,” “even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but NOW is made manifest to HIS SAINTS. To whom God would make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery.” (Eph. 3:4, 5; Col. 1:26, 27; and 1 Pet. 1:10-12).

God’s plan was complete and perfect from before the foundation of the world, and needs no adding to; but he has kept his plans covered and hidden from the world (and the worldly church, the professing church), and has revealed them only gradually to his church, the true church—his saints. Thus while the unfolding of the mystery of God commenced in the days of the Apostles; it will not be finished until the end of this Gospel Age–under the sounding of the seventh trumpet as shown in the Scripture cited above.

We claim no new revelations, for to our understanding the revelations of God to his saints are completed and finished by the records of John on Patmos. But while God’s revelation, in the sense of utterance ended eighteen hundred years ago, yet revelation in the sense of understanding those utterances has continued down throughout the age.

It is revelation in this sense that Jesus referred to when about to leave the disciples. After having told them many precious things in parables and dark sayings, he said, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now: howbeit when he the spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth.” “He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” John 16:12, 13; and 14:26. Thus during this age the true followers of Christ have been led into a more and more full understanding of God’s truth, and a fuller unfolding of the mystery of God, which was entirely hidden from past ages and is to be finished under the seventh trumpet’s sounding in the end of this age.

Continued with next post.