The Greatest Mystery of History

One of admittedly many things that has always intrigued me about Scripture is when Paul talks about a great mystery. I love mysteries. I love ones that after reading the book or watching the movie I find myself completely shocked at how it ends and that I did not see the it coming. Well, the mystery Paul speaks of almost has this sort of ring to it. Many clues were given in ages past, but no one was able to put the puzzle pieces together and see the complete picture, no one that is, till after Christ came and revealed it specifically to Paul.

Consider Paul’s words in Ephesians 3:1-6 (taken from the ESV);

For this reason, I Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles – assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.

A mystery not made known previously. Paul is not saying the clues were never given, his regular usage of the Old Testament bears witness to that. Instead, he is pointing out that the full picture was never put together or understood till after Christ came and revealed it to chosen stewards of it. But what exactly is the mystery?

Thankfully Paul does not leave it undefined for us. The final sentence in the passage above (which actually in the Greek this entire passage is one long run-on sentence), Paul gives us a mostly clear definition. In short, the mystery is that the Gentiles would be partakers alongside the Jews of the New Covenant. The two terms “heirs” and “promise” both refer first to the promise given to Abraham of blessing, but even through that comes the New Covenant of Jeremiah 31 and 32.

Admittedly the mystery aspect of this is difficult for us to understand. We are far removed from the early days of the church, far removed from the initial difficulties raised by people we now call “judaizers” and the debate which occurred in Jerusalem in Acts 15. It took time, significant time, for the Jewish Christians to accept the Gentiles into the Church. Indeed, there has always been aspects of the Gospel that have been hard, even for those who believe it, to swallow.

Which brings me to today. We may not be dealing with the same difficulties the early church dealt with, but are there not other aspects of the Gospel that are difficult for us to swallow? Consider the call Jesus regularly put forward; denial of self, denial of family, giving of all our possesions, taking up an instrument of torture and death for ourselves to follow him? This is not the American way. Our American way, even the American Christian way is the pursuit of expanding our personal net worth.  But the cost of coming to faith in Christ is exhuberant, it will cost us everything. Are we prepared to give up everything for him?

Billboard Disgust

I saw a couple billboards this week, both within a few miles of each other in Ohio, that left me feeling very sad and very disgusted. I wish I could have snapped pictures, but alas, I’m just not that quick so I will have to describe them for you.

The first one I saw simply had these words on it:

The True Sabbath is Saturday. The Anti-Christ Changed It

This one is just a sad, poor representation of the church. The true church has never changed the Sabbath. If anything, we do not observe the Sabbath in a “biblical manner.” Correct, the Sabbath was on Saturday. But we do not celebrate the Sabbath necessarily. Instead what we celebrate by worshipping on Sunday is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Without it, even Sabbath observance would mean nothing to us, for we would be doomed. I could go into more discussion, but I do not want to make this post long.

Here is the second, far more disturbing billboard. On one side there was a depiction of Mary, the mother of Jesus. The words next to it read;

This is My Time

I had to do a double-take to make sure I read it right. I am certain it was referring to the Christmas season given the colors of the billboard and the timing. I am also sure the billboard’s message is grossly wrong. It seems to imply that the Christmas holiday is about Mary, her great faith and experience in bearing the Christ-child. I am confident though, if we were able to ask Mary, her response would be far more focused on Christ. The birth of Jesus is about Him. It is about the fact that the God of the universe miraculously humbled himself and took on the form of a baby. I am sure Mary would not want any of the attention placed on her. It was not “her time” but “His time” that really held any importance.

Sure when we celebrate Christmas we do tend to let it be about gifts, Santa, food, and family gatherings. In this sense we do tend to fail if we do not make it about that baby born in Bethlehem so many years ago. But I am also sure that we would fail if we made it about the mother of that baby born. It is Christ’s Time. Not Mary’s.