Chapter 8 | Introduction to the Mystery of God

The mystery of God is a broad subject covering multiple people groups over long periods of time, past, present, and future. It is intertwined closely with God’s purpose and work in Yeshua the Christ as an expression of righteousness in heaven and on earth. Though it can be said Yeshua the Christ is the mystery of God, this only represents the most obvious characteristic of it. We can be drawn deeper into the mystery by looking closer at the work of God in Christ. Understanding one enables us to understand the other; considering its origin and scope, its characteristics, its connection across covenants, its relationship to the faithful, its relationship to the descendants of Israel and Judah, and its goal to lead many sons and daughters to glory.

 

By its very nature, a mystery is intended to be unknown, at least for a period of time. That doesn’t preclude that it is unknowable. It simply means that it won’t be lying on the surface, obvious to everyone who glances over it. Secondly, a mystery rarely consists of only one thing. It typically comprises numerous characteristics which must be gathered together in order to understand the whole mystery in a coherent manner.

This requires caution and patience on our part. Patience because it will take time to discover and understand each characteristic as it is revealed and its connection to the whole. Caution, in that some characteristics may go unnoticed and some connections missed. This requires a degree of flexibility as we learn and grow, recognizing that more may be revealed in the future, which can significantly impact our understanding. There is nothing unreasonable about this. It reflects precisely the process of maturation all Christians go through as we come out of the world and take on the mind of Christ.

The Lens of the Mystery of God

The mystery of God is a basis for understanding God’s deeper purpose in completing the work of the new creation in and through Christ our Lord. The lens of the mystery of God adds depth and scope to our understanding of the many facets of the way, the truth, and the life brought to the world by the Son of Man. In him, the promise of salvation is made manifest and magnified, a promise originally given to God’s chosen son Israel. This in turn reveals a kingdom-building relationship between the Mosaic covenant and the new covenant, and more important to this book, a direct relationship between our initial creation and the coming new creation.

All of this seeks to expose what the Son of Man came to fulfill for the Father – making the Father known and giving eternal life to all those whom the Father gives to him.

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. (Fourth Gospel 171-3)

 

Throughout human history, God has been revealing himself to and through specific groups of people for a specific purpose;

• to Noah and his family amidst a corrupted world;
• to Abraham in a covenant of fidelity (faithfulness) for all the nations;
• to the prophets, saints, and faithful remnant of all twelve tribes of Israel;
• to the faithful Gentiles called and chosen from among the nations.
• In the future, to the disobedient and unbelieving descendants of Israel;
• to the disobedient and unbelieving nations;
• and finally, to the disobedient and unbelieving resurrected dead.

All will be Touched

All the peoples of the earth will at some time or another come face to face with Yeshua the Christ and the mystery manifest in him. In this mystery is the command of God for eternal life.[1] The process of kingdom-building Christ uses to fulfill the mystery takes us into the future, but it is built on the past and our initial creation.[2] Through this perspective, we will see the complete scope of what Christ has committed to accomplish, who it involves, their respective roles, and how they will work, together with Christ, to deliver the finished kingdom to the Father.[3]

 

The mystery of God reveals how the Gentiles are included in the redemptive work of Christ. It’s not accidental that their inclusion comes through the disobedience and unbelief shown by the descendants of Israel and Judah.[4] It also explains why the Jews in Judea expected one thing from their Messiah, but were shown something all together different. Even the twelve disciples stumbled on the reality of the suffering servant of God who came to put the cross before the crown of glory.

In its entirety, the mystery of God leads to the praise, glory, and honor of the Father and the Son, and is the means by which Israel and the world receive a greater inheritance than either could imagine. This, as we know, is the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise to Abraham, that from his seed the hope of the nations would arise.[5]

 

Abraham was not just any random Gentile dwelling in the land of the Chaldeans. It was through the son of Terah and Nahor that God would preserve the seed of Adam,[6] the earthly son of God,[7] in order to bring about the last Adam, the heavenly Son of God.[8] This too was a mystery only to be revealed at the incarnation of the Son of Man. In all this we see the command of God for eternal life comes in Yeshua the Christ,[9] the last Adam. It was never a command for the first Adam.