Ephesians overview –The Mystery Revealed, Jesus Christ, part 4.

Thursday February 20, 2020

 

Last time we looked at the mystery revealed of the suffering Savior and that all believers in this age are called to suffer; not of their own doing, but for the sake of Christ. We will suffer in an undeserved way when we live the life of Christ.

 

Now we, in understanding the mystery revealed, have eyes to see and ears to hear and a heart to understand the purposes of God.

 

God’s purpose is everywhere, every day, and in everything. We just have to have eyes to see it. There is not one place, event, or person or persons that God is not in and has plans for.

 

PSA 105:7

He is the Lord our God;

His judgments are in all the earth.

 

ISA 40:22

It is He who sits above the vault of the earth,

And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,

Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain

And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.

 

Do we understand and appreciate to the fullest the treasure we all have as believers in Christ Jesus?

 

2CO 4:7

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves;

 

Despite the open declaration in the NT that a dark power operates all over the earth who is a constant threat, prowling about, it is impossible to read the NT without being impressed by the atmosphere of joyful confidence which pervades it, and which stands out in relief against the rather dull and lifeless religion that passes for Christianity today. Christianity is courage and victory, not defeatism.

 

1CO 15:57

thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

1JO 5:4

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world —  our faith.

 

ROM 8:37

But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.

 

Imagine being a first-century Christian who witnessed the resurrected Christ. You would know nothing but victory, but not in yourself; notice the verses - “victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” and “conquer through Him who loved us.” Christ overcame the world. Christ crushed the devil. Christ won the war. And He did it all at the cross. There is truly only one celebrity in the world.

 

An observer of the cross, and all were like this since none understood fully, would have only seen defeat. “Look at Him there, spread-eagled and skewered on His cross, robbed of all freedom of movement, strung up with nails or ropes or both, pinned there and powerless. It appears to be total defeat. If there is victory, it is the victory of pride, prejudice, jealousy, hatred cowardice and brutality.” [Stott, The Cross of Christ]

 

The reality was the opposite of appearance.

 

Yet, even fulfilling the ancient prophecies, His fulfillment is not exhausted. He solves the problems of the past as He unseals the ancient mysteries, but He creates new and deeper problems, some explained in the continued teaching of His Spirit and His providence, others that remain.

 

Though He fulfills all the prophecy of the past, He brings more questions to bear - His eternal Sonship, His pre-incarnate relation to mankind, His salvation by faith and also predestined, His hypostatic union, His eternity as God and Man, the final outcome of the mediatorial reign and its subordination to the absolute sovereignty of God.

 

These depths Paul sounded with his plummet; but he found them unfathomable. Theological science has explored and defined them, and illuminated them on many sides, but cannot reach to their inmost mystery.

 

Christ uncovered many mysteries of the past, while He also gave us more that remain uncovered. In trying to unravel the further ones some have distorted them.

 

If you can’t untie the knot you shouldn’t cut it. Leave it tied and accept that which is revealed on both sides, and without detriment or deprecation to the other.