THE HIDDEN MYSTERY OF CHRIST
Monday – November 28, 2016
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ from The Three Minute Word publication. The Thanksgiving Holiday is in the rearview mirror with Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year’s looming just ahead.
2 Peter 1:2-4 (KJV)
2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, 3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (Bold added by Dr. Wood)
I will now return to our study of the book of Ephesians.
Ephesians 3:3-6 (KJV)
3 How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words,
4 Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)
5 Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;
6 That the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:
As we start to dissect the foregoing passage be aware that the “he” in Ephesians 3:3 is most likely Christ Jesus from Ephesians 3:1 however I would not argue with the “he” being the Grace (Holy Spirit) of God. After all, it is the Holy Spirit who is our teacher and the one who generally interfaces between us, Jehovah (Father), and the Word (Jesus). God uncovered and gave Paul to understand the mystery, the as yet unspoken Truth concerning the coming Christ. At the time of Paul Christ was already come. The price of sin had been paid, Jesus had ascended to the right hand of Majesty on High, and the Blessing (Holy Spirit) was back in the earth giving life. It is not that this Truth was not already available and known by a remnant, however its full breath was concealed and in the fullness of time it was uncovered for the Apostles and Prophets. Look at the following verse which illustrates this point of being hidden in plain sight.
Daniel 12:4 (KJV)
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
In Ephesians 3:4 Paul is telling the people, Jews and Gentiles alike, that they also can and need to understand what he understands of the mystery of Christ. The very next verse goes on to declare that in the ages past this mystery, this Truth, was not made known to the sons of men meaning the rank and file so to speak. However in the first century following the Cross the cover was taken off (revealed) the Truth concerning Christ. In the fourth verse the word translated to English as ‘knowledge’ is the transliterated Greek word, ‘synesis’ according to Strong’s Talking Greek & Hebrew Dictionary. I think you can easily see that we get our word synthesis (mixture, amalgamation, combination) from this root word. So this verse (Ephesians 3:4) could read; ‘that ye may understand my putting together, of the mystery of Christ’. When you synthesis something it involves putting two or more things together arriving at a new thing or in this case have the cover taken off what was previously a mystery.
I suspect that some of you may get tired of my repeating things like the meaning of the word ‘Christ’ but it is so important and there are new readers that must know this to fully understand and implement Scripture. When you find the word ‘Christ’ in Scripture it can be interpreted as Messiah (Jesus), Anointed One (Jesus), or the Anointing (Holy Spirit). When Adam sinned mankind needed someone to take away the sin so that eternal life could be regained with right standing with the Father (Jehovah). Mankind also lost the Anointing, the Blessing, who left at the moment of sin leaving Adam a dead soul and naked without the robe of righteousness or the Anointing. With the sin of Adam death came upon all persons. In time God was able to initiate and culminate a Blood Covenant with a man by the name of Abram/Abraham whose seed became the Messiah, and whose seeds became the Jewish nation. Those who accept the Messiah (Jesus) are no longer Jew or Gentile but one new body, the Church of God. The Jews were the only people with a covenant and relationship with God of so they thought. Since one man sinned bringing death to all persons, one sinless man would answer the sin problem restoring eternal life for all persons not just Jews.
Romans 5:8-12 (KJV)
8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Thank you Jesus for coming and paying price of sin that I can be a living soul awaiting an uncorrupted body.
1 Corinthians 15:45 (KJV)
45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
The bottom line is that all peoples who name Jesus as Lord would be one in the family of God. When a Gentile is born again they enter the Kingdom of God, when a Jew is born again they enter the same Kingdom of God and we are all joint-heirs of God.
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
