THE MYSTERY
[p. 229] THE MYSTERY
I am anxious to bring the subject of the mystery before you. It is well to look at what is before us. A meeting of this kind is not for edification only, but I might say for education also. It is looking ahead, looking out at what is before us. The first thing we get in this scripture is the earnestness of the apostle. “For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you”. That is a great word to each servant of God. I often ask myself, How much of this earnestness have I? How much real conflict have I? We see more of it in seeking the salvation of souls. I approve that there should be earnestness in that; but “these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone”. I do not see the same earnestness to lead the saints into the knowledge of the mystery. You hardly see anything about the church in any publication now. Why? One is often told, because they are not up to it, but that is no answer. There was great opposition, and the apostle says, “I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you”. With whom is he fighting in prison? Not with flesh and blood. His conflict was with the powers of darkness.
He speaks of “the mystery” in the last three verses of Romans. He tells them that there is something more to learn than the gospel, something that was hid from the beginning of the world, which they had not come to yet. “For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, .. . in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge”. How many could say that? Acknowledgment is a very weak word; the apostle means the real knowledge of the mystery of God, and one would think it would strike any one to read that.
Now, for a moment, I turn to another side. What sort of people were these Colossians? The apostle desired to bring the subject before them because of some impending danger. If I look at chapter 1: 4, I see what sort of people they were: “Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints”. I think I hear someone saying, ‘I should be content if I could see the saints up to that.’ It is not faith in God, but “faith in Christ Jesus”; a very great advance. In Ephesians it is faith in the “Lord Jesus”. I cannot tell you the difference, but there is a difference. I tell you truly that the mass of Christians would be satisfied to see the saints up to the gospel, with good conduct, and good works. Do you ask, What is there beyond that? I reply, The mystery. The former puts you in a commendable light before man. Do you think you would have any less of it by knowing the mystery?
The apostle greatly commends these Colossians, and ceases not to pray for them. It greatly encourages one to pray for a person who is going on well. Now they were in danger of being carried away by the intrusion of the flesh; the character of it is brought out here for the first time. Let me simplify what I mean. I see the flesh working in Corinth in self-indulgence. The corrective of that was the truth of the Lord’s table. How can you indulge the flesh on account of which Christ died? The Galatian intrusion was legality, not self-indulgence. If you put yourself under the law you lose Christ. Now comes the Colossian intrusion, and it is of the most specious order. It is not like that of the Corinthians, nor the Galatians. The snare the Colossians were in danger of was [p. 231] making man a contributor to the Christian; to make the natural man in mind and body contribute to Christianity. The mind and body are for Christ’s service, but there is a great difference between being a servant and a contributor. “The borrower is servant to the lender”. The body of the saint is to be a servant, not a contributor. Now the Colossians were bringing in both mind and body to contribute to Christianity. It was rationalism and ritualism combined, and this is what really has become the vogue now, and called a Christian man.
What is a Christian? You get it in chapter 2: 10, “Ye are complete in him, who is the head of all principality and power”. Someone has remarked: What do I want with your science or with your genuflexions? I am “complete in him”! Need I go farther? We can say, “What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ”. Nothing would suit Christ but Himself; the church could have nothing else nor less. It is not that we contribute to Him, but we derive from Him a life and nature that alone can suit Him. We are fit to be His companions before we enjoy union. I do not believe any one enjoys union unless he enjoys companionship with Christ. You never get union in Canticles. Till the Holy Spirit is come, you neither know the power of the wave-sheaf, nor the two loaves; see Leviticus 23: 11 - 17. That was the characteristic of the day of Pentecost; no free-will offering till then. Every believer is enjoying the benefit of the passover, but how many are there who are in enjoyment of the benefit of Pentecost having “fully come”? When Pentecost is “fully come” we have the two loaves, “a kind of first-fruits of his creatures”, really the church now. Many godly, earnest men do not understand it. What would it have been to George Herbert if he had known it! Now the practical thing for us to maintain is that the day of Pentecost is “fully come”. I say,
[p. 232] by the way, that you never can be moved from Him if you are a member of His body. It is not only companionship. The word to the thief on the cross, “with me in paradise”, means in company with Christ. But when Paul says in Philippians 1, “I ... desire to depart and to be with Christ”, the word he uses expresses co-partnership with Him.
I come now to see why the mystery is brought in. It is really to protect them from religious flesh. Nothing will ever protect you from this snare but the mystery. People forget that every truth has its own speciality. If you look at the gospel history, I do not remember that the Lord ever cured two diseases in the same way. I only give that as an illustration, to show that every truth has its own speciality. If the truth of the Lord’s supper was brought in to correct the Corinthians’ intrusion, that of baptism was brought in to correct the Galatian. “As many of you as have been baptised into Christ, have put on Christ”, Galatians 3: 27. The Lord’s supper is used to correct bad conduct; baptism to correct bad doctrine; but nothing can keep you from the Colossian intrusion but the mystery. When does the knowledge of the mystery come? If you turn to the previous chapter, verses 23 to 25, you will see there are two ministries; the ministry of the gospel and the ministry of the church. I believe they do join, but it would not be easy to say where one stops and the other begins. Still there are two.
Do you think a man could be really effectively in the ministry of the gospel, if he did not know the ministry of the church? I am not speaking of what a man teaches, but of what a man really knows. The ministry of the church is what the apostle desires to bring before them here, in order to preserve them from this intrusion of the flesh which the Colossians were in danger of. It is the good thing that really keeps out the bad. The simple soul will understand chapter 2: 10, “complete in him”! Thank God! I do not want anything more than Christ. You say, Do you object to studying science? I say, You cannot add to Christianity. I do not object to making a man a better vessel, but I have all I want in Christ, “Christ is all and in all”. I condemn sanctimoniousness, but I wish there were more reverence. “Whatsoever you do, .. . do all in the name of the Lord Jesus”. In Philippians 3, I have this Person. There it is experience, but here it is doctrine.
Now let us look a little at what the mystery is in itself. “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you the hope of glory”, Colossians 1: 27. That is not “the hope of glory” as an object, but “Christ in you the hope of glory” as a consequence. The point is Christ in you. Chapter 2: 18 is individual; in verse 19 you have “the Head”, the Source of all. I believe that in all the divisions that have arisen, the great lack has been in understanding the Head. It is the Head from whence all comes. In Ephesians you get the whole body, the Christ, the growing together, “compacted by that which every joint supplieth”. Here it is the Head that is brought prominently before us.
What I would turn to now is how this came. What really is the mystery that was kept secret from the foundation of the world? I will just present to you two or three scriptures: Matthew 22: 44: “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool”. Now the first great step in understanding the mystery is that Christ who is rejected from this scene is exalted in heaven. He is rejected in Matthew 14, but in chapter 22: 44 it is still more definite: “Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool”. He has gone away. He has changed His place. The rejection in chapter 14 leads to His saying, in chapter 16, ‘I will build a new structure,’ “upon this rock I will build my church”. Now we have a very definite thing. He is gone away, He is rejected. It is not that He has no right to the place where He is rejected. He has a right, but He has now another place. Now it becomes a very serious question, What is to become of His own in this place from which He is rejected and where He has no place? That is the great problem, and you never can solve it till you understand the mystery. The religious person cannot solve it. I believe anyone who really searches the Scriptures will see that no one is saved for earth now, but saved for heaven. The very hope of the gospel is heaven.
I turn now to Acts 7: 55. Stephen is led by the Spirit of God to see in this new place a new centre. You say, There is nothing about the mystery there. That I grant you, but there is this fact that the Holy Spirit has come down and leads up the faithful witness, Stephen, the pattern man, to heaven. There is a new thing inaugurated here. All is changed. Jerusalem was the centre; the right hand is now the centre, everything now comes from above. The heavens are thrown open for the first time upon a man (I do not speak of our Lord, they opened on Him first). Stephen looks up and sees “the glory of God and Jesus”. It is not only that He (Jesus) is there, but Stephen knows the great reception in which He is there. Christ’s place is made known by the Holy Spirit to a man on earth. The new centre is now and henceforth “the right hand”. Anyone who wants enlightenment as to this has only to look at the places where “the right hand” occurs.
Now turn to Acts 9: 4. “Why persecutest thou me?” This is the first time that there ever was the slightest allusion to the mystery. When Christ, in humiliation, was bodily rejected from this earth by Jew and Gentile, and refused, in the person of Stephen,
when exalted to God’s right hand (the message sent after Him was, so to speak, “We will not have this man to reign over us”), then came out this wonderful secret. In the very place where Satan had led man to the climax of iniquity, where there is now no cloak for their sin, it is there this secret comes out. I think we do not enough take it to heart, that we are in the scene of Christ’s rejection. You that are seeking honour in the world are seeking it from those who have crucified your Lord. The more you look at it, the more anomalous it appears. Now comes out that centre-piece, that wonderful secret, that great purpose before God for ever. The secret is that Christ’s body is on the earth! Do you believe it, beloved friends? I believe it, though I may not be able to show it to you. The one great effort of Satan has been to frustrate the manifestation of Christ’s body on earth. Why is it not more the subject upon our lips and upon our hearts? Do you say, We cannot manifest it, we cannot set it forth, so we give it up! No! The more we work for it, the more we have it, and the more God will support us. We shall be in the current of God’s thoughts, in the trade winds, as it were, and not in the doldrums. You may have quiet times in the doldrums, but they will be immovable times, no progress. Many a one whom I have seen once vigorous and walking beside me, has now drifted away. What has he given up? The mystery. He would say, It is impossible, impracticable. I know the one prominent thing in the heart of God; it is the body of Christ. It could not be otherwise, because it is Christ in fulness. The apostle might have saved himself from persecution, but he says to Timothy, Do not give in! “Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God”, 2 Timothy 1: 8. Do not give in, on the contrary,
“[p. 236] the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also”. Timothy was timid, but he was not to be intimidated.
To think that there is such a thing upon earth! Do you hear any prayer about it? Where are we drifting to? You may think that you are not able to propound it, but that is no reason why you should not look for it. What can be more wonderful than to think of angels seeing into the manifold wisdom of God through us? What a signal defeat of Satan! Do you wonder at his exasperation? I wonder he can tolerate one bit of heavenly colour down here. We are members of the exalted Man; we never were members of the Man in humiliation. Our business here is to set forth the features of the exalted Man in the very scene of His rejection, to defy Satan here. We are to set forth our exalted Head here in the very place where Satan worked upon us, as men in the flesh, to give Him no place. We are here in Christ’s power to represent Him. Are we to give it up? No; thank God! Read John 17. You will never understand that chapter if you do not keep this simply before you; that it is all between Christ’s heart and the Father’s. Every word is to be fulfilled here on this very earth. The new Jerusalem will be the display of everything according to Christ. Not a single desire of His heart will be lost. That prayer in John 17 gives the full desire of the heart of Christ. How often we have read it and enjoyed it without knowing why. The reason is just this. There is nothing of our defalcations in it. We hear Him pouring out His heart, and our hearts delight in it. It is the pure stream poured into the Father’s ear.
I only turn to one verse more. “For no one has ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as also the Christ the assembly: for we are members of his body”, Ephesians 5:29, 30. Everything is of Christ. We get everything from Him. The [p. 237] great thought in Ephesians 1 is to prove that we are so exalted with Christ, “accepted in the Beloved”, that we are fitted to be brought into union. It is not that union brings us into this wonderful place. Union is the climax of everything. I am established in all that my heart delights in, but I am fitted to be His companion first. He is anointed “with oil of gladness” above His companions. We share with Him in the holiest of all; where Aaron was, there were his sons in type. It is remarkable enough they were reduced to two. We are of His life and nature: “In that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you”. Someone has said, that goes even beyond union. Royalty must be united to royalty; we are made royal to be made fit for union, before union is disclosed. What a delight to the heart to get hold of the simple practical fact. Talk of good works! Your walk is to be as Christ walked. Learn how Christ walked. You must be very near Him to learn it. As the Lord said to His disciples: “Without me ye can do nothing”. That was the most cheering word, perhaps, they ever heard.
The Lord grant that each of our hearts may know the exceeding blessedness of being a member of the body of Christ, to walk about this world, setting Him forth in His beauty, in the very scene in which He has been rejected.