The Doctrine of the mystery, Part 1 Eph 1:9; Eph 3:2-6

Eph 1:8 From which grace He [God the Father] has caused to superabound toward us [super-grace believers].By means of all wisdom and insight

 

In verse 9 is introduced the special wisdom that the Church has the privilege of learning, metabolizing, understanding, and applying.

 

Eph 1:9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him

 

/“He made known” is the aorist active participle of the verb gnwrizw [gnorizo] which means to make known or to reveal.\

 

God is the source of all revelation of truth. Man alone cannot discover truth.

 

The Scripture itself is not dependent on man’s interpretation. God has provided the spiritual gift of PT and the filling of the HS so that the Scripture may be interpreted by God through him under the ICE principle.

 

The listeners also have the filling of the HS so that in the function of GAP they may discern truth from falsehood.

 

Without these gifts from God and His work in all human history the Scripture would mostly hidden from our understanding.

 

/God is the source of all scripture and all revelation of it to man’s soul. \

 

/2 Peter 1:20

But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, \

 

Eph 1:9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him

 

/“to us” is the dative plural of the pronoun e)gw[ego] used here as an indirect object. The dative of indirect object is one in which the person in whose interest the action is being performed is emphasized.\

 

Out of the indirect object we have the dative of advantage. So we are receiving great advantage for having known these things.

           

/“the mystery” – to musthrion[to musterion] is a technical word in the New Testament epistles for the classification of doctrine known as Church-age truth, which was hidden from the OT.\

 

The definite article specifies this mystery amongst many mysteries.

 

 

 

/The noun musterion was originally used to depict the doctrines and the secrets of the Greek fraternities or cults of the ancient world. \

 

The most famous of the Greek mysteries were the initiation ceremonies that were kept secret and dated back as far as 1600 B.C. Only the initiated knew the secrets of the fraternity or cult.

 

Some of the famous mystery cults included Elusis, which was adopted by Athens. Isis, the cult of Egypt, spread to Corinth.

 

The mystery sorority of Dionysus for women only included dancing, drinking, drugs, ecstatics, madness, lesbianism, ritual shouting, and human sacrifice.

 

The mystery cult of Mythris was for men only; the male worshippers of Sybile castrated themselves in the frenzy of the rites.

 

The Orphic mystery cults centered around the singer Orpheus; it was adopted as a mystery system called Orphic theology. It emphasized purification, and the means whereby the soul might escape the body and ascend into the realm of the blessed. A tremendous amount of human sacrifice was related to these cults.

 

 

 

It is interesting to see the contrast of these cults to the plan of God.

/The cults believed that a human sacrifice pleased their gods. In contrast to the perfect sacrifice of our Lord they attempted to substitute the murder of fallen sinners. \

The mystery cults of the ancient world were based on Greek, Egyptian, and Roman mythology. Most of these mystery fraternities were related to the gods or goddesses of the underworld like Dimetre, Dionysus, Sybile, Adonis, Isis. They are related to the growth of crops: they die in the winter, come back in the spring. Thus, human sacrifices were offered in the winter so that in the spring everything would come back.

Every Hellenistic fraternity had secret doctrines and cultic rites in which the destinies of the gods were portrayed, and those initiated were supposed to share the fate of these gods.

Therefore, a vocabulary was developed in the Attic Greek.

The Attic Greek verb (mueo) means to be initiated into the mysteries of the fraternity. This initiation involved teaching someone the secrets and doctrines of the fraternity which were never to be revealed to outsiders. So to be initiated meant to learn so as to pass the test, so that you know what your fraternity stood for.

The Greek word (muste) referred to those who were initiated, to those who persevered until they actually learned all the fraternity doctrine.

The word (mustikos) was used for the secret rites of the doctrines that had to be learned. So all the doctrines were called (mustikos).

/The word (musterion) came down into the Koine and is the word used in the NT. While it referred to the false doctrines of these ancient Greek fraternities the apostle Paul took this noun away from them and Gnostic cosmology and gave it, under the ministry of the Holy Spirit, a Biblical definition which stands in the Word of God forever.\

 

Paul did a similar transition with the word hagios [sanctified or saint], which was also used in the cults for those who were initiated or set apart for the cults. It is interesting to note that Roman Catholicism has taken the word “saint” and distorted it again back to its cultish roots.

 

Both hagios and musterion originated and evolved in this world as words representing evil practices and God, through the apostle Paul, changed them and their meaning in the context of spiritual truth to become representatives of God’s beautiful and magnificent grace.

Mystery doctrine now becomes a part of our vocabulary, referring to the content of the doctrine that is new to the Church and was kept hidden from history prior to the upper room discourse.

 

While most of the attic Greek words remained in the realm of demonism, false doctrine, cults, promiscuity, human sacrifice, yet our noun (musterion) is a Biblical word used twenty-three times in the New Testament. Paul uses it twenty-one times.

/Jesus Christ used the noun for the first time when He first presented Church Age doctrine to the disciples in Mt 13:11 and Mk 4:10-11. \

 

The disciples were trying to understand why our Lord taught in the form of parables. Our Lord answered:

 

/Matt 13:11

"To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them [unbelievers] it has not been granted.\

 

Here it refers to the classification of doctrine known as Church Age truth. This classification was hidden from the Old Testament saints and communicators but is now revealed through the Church Age apostles, as per Ephesians 3:1-5. 

           

Eph 3:1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles — 

 

Eph 3:2 if indeed you have heard of the stewardship [dispensation] of God's grace which was given to me for you;

 

Eph 3:3 that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief.

 

Eph 3:4 And by referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ,

 

Eph 3:5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit;

 

/So now we begin: The doctrine of the mystery.\

           

/1. The word musthrion[musterion] is derived from an Attic Greek word musthj[mustes] which was a person being initiated into a Greek fraternity in the ancient world.\

 

There is a verb that goes with it, also from the Attic Greek, muew, which means to initiate or to instruct in the basic doctrines of the fraternity. Therefore the doctrines or the secrets of the fraternity are known only to those who have been initiated and not to the outsiders.

 

Jesus used this meaning with the disciples in Matthew 13:11; Mark 4:10,11.

           

/2. In the epistles of the New Testament the word “mystery” refers to some aspect of Church Age doctrine – Ephesians 3:2-6. \

           

/3. Mystery doctrine of the Church Age was not revealed in the Old Testament — Romans 16:25,26; Colossians 1:26,27.\

 

Rom 16:25 Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past,

 

Rom 16:26 but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith;

 

Rom 16:27 to the only wise God [in contrast to the gods of the cults], through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen.

 

 

Col 1:25 Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God,

 

Col 1:26 that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations; but has now been manifested to His saints,

 

Col 1:27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

 

Col 1:28 And we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ.

 

Col 1:29 And for this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.

 

/4. Part of the mystery doctrine, including the blindness or hardness of Israel during the Church Age, is also a part of the fifth cycle of discipline – Romans 11:25. \

 

Israelhas a special history in three dispensations—the dispensation of Israel, the dispensation of the Tribulation, and the Millennium.

 

In the dispensation of Israel the Jews became the first client nation to God in history, after the Exodus. The four unconditional covenants to Israel guarantee that Israel will have a future forever, but only to those Jews who possess eternal life through faith in the lord Jesus Christ—in other words, true Israel.

 

/In the Church dispensation the final administration of the fifth cycle of discipline occurred forty years after the Church Age began. It resulted in the times of the Gentiles in which no Jewish nation can be a client nation to God in this dispensation. \

 

Because the Jews in this dispensation have rejected Christ as Savior they are branches broken off the good olive tree.

 

We, the wild Gentiles, are grafted in to the good tree. That tells us that even though in many generations of history there have been relatively few Jews who have accepted Christ as Savior they are still the tree.

 

/Therefore we are grafted in to their spiritual heritage. In effect, our spiritual heritage as the Church, the royal family of God, the body of Christ, is still Jewish. \

 

Through our union with Christ, who is always the vine as well as the seed of Abraham (Gen 12:3 and Gal 3).

 

/Gen 12:3

And I will bless those who bless you,

And the one who curses you I will curse.

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." \

 

Gal 3:5 Does He then, who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?

 

Gal 3:6 Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.

 

Gal 3:7 Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.

 

Gal 3:8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "All the nations shall be blessed in you."

 

Gal 3:9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.

 

 

Gal 3:15 Brethren, I speak in terms of human relations: even though it is only a man's covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it.

 

Gal 3:16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, "And to seeds," as referring to many, but rather to one, "And to your seed," that is, Christ.

 

Gal 3:17 What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise.

 

Gal 3:18 For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.

 

Gal 3:19 Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed should come to whom the promise had been made.

 

Because it is we must avoid any arrogance and, above all, we must avoid like the plague that vicious type of evil called anti-Semitism.