THE MYSTERY

J.D.Gray

Romans 16: 25-27; Ephesians 3: 1-6; Colossians 2: 1-15

I would look to the Lord to guide me to say a little about the mystery. Perhaps anything that will be said will be apparent, but I thought it would be profitable for those of us who are younger to see something of the distinction that attaches to what is brought out in these passages and referred to as the "revelation of the mystery". The dear younger brethren should know that the record of Scripture in the old dispensation before Christianity did not bring out the truth of the mystery. It was not revealed in it. We can go back to Old Testament scriptures and find out things that set out in type features of the assembly, but in their disclosure to those who lived then, prior to the incoming of Christ, God did not reveal the truth of the mystery. He was going on with the Jewish nation which was separate from the nations around, but the mystery is not a national thought. It does not relate to the Jewish nation. The apostle speaks about "obedience of faith to all the nations" but that involves the Gentile world. It involves the western world largely where the truth of the assembly has been made know n but how few are in the understanding of the secret of the mystery today - how few! How few are in the enjoyment of it, though perhaps knowing something of it in a sort of abstract way. The Lord Jesus said when He was here not to cast your pearls before swine. There is something that the believer holds dear and precious that is not for the world. The testimonial aspect is more related to what is external, but the truth of the mystery is a secret matter, secret to persons initiated, and we want all to be among them.

Paul brings it out to the saints at Rome briefly, and I wondered if this is what he refers to in Ephesians when he says, "I have written before briefly". He has touched on much in the epistle to the Romans, bringing out how men should have been affected by the creation, by the stars. He brings out the degradation to which man had gone. He brings out also what man is as in Christ, and how he would have the believer to present his body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God. Now that persons are secured for God through the glad tidings, he says he wants to tell them about something that has been in God's heart and mind from eternity. The mystery was not a second thought with God. It was one of His primary thoughts, but yet in the wisdom of His ways He did not disclose it. You may say that we read sometimes on a Lord's Day about Adam and Eve as types of Christ and the assembly in Genesis 2. That is typical and the understanding of it is confined to persons who have the Spirit of God, who can enquire into the truth of the Old Testament from the standpoint of the New, but the mystery and what it involves, was not made known to the sons of men. What a privilege is yours and mine to be among persons to whom the revelation of the mystery is disclosed. I want to elevate your thinking, dear brethren, in relation to these truths, to grasp something of them, the magnitude of them, the greatness of them. Go to the Old Testament and you will find prophecy that has been fulfilled and prophecy that has yet to be fulfilled when the assembly goes, but you will not find a whisper of the assembly period involving the truth of the mystery, literally you will not. It did not form part of the ways of God, it was distinct. The Lord did not develop the truth of the mystery although He alludes to it in a direct way particularly in Matthew 16, 18, "On this rock I will build my assembly". As we enquire in the Gospels we will find allusions to it, but the unfolding of the teaching in relation to the truth of the mystery awaited divine timing, until Christ took His place on high. Christ is up there. That is not the mystery. The mystery is not that Christ is in glory. Mr Taylor sen says, 'That is a plain fact'. It is good to be assured in your soul, dear young brethren, that it is a plain fact that Christ is in glory. It is a plain fact because the disciples saw Him go up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight, but what the mystery brings out is not Christ in glory, but Christ in you, Christ down here. Who is in the secret of that? Paul just touches on it in Romans. He says ".....silence has been kept in the times of the ages, but which has now been made manifest, and by prophetic scriptures - (I think that is the New Testament scriptures) - according to commandment of the eternal God, made known for obedience of faith to all the nations". So there is an ingredient that is necessary - that is faith, and if you have faith, there is an added feature - obedience of faith. Now it is presented from that point of view in Romans in which as secured by the gospel you are a subject person and ready to be initiated into the mystery on the basis of the obedience of faith.

In Ephesians Paul is a prisoner, held by the Roman governor, you might say with no will of his own. He would look at his bonds, as he said to Agrippa when he addressed him, "I would to God both in little and in much that not only thou but all who have heard me this day, should become such as I also am except these bonds" (Acts 26, v 29); but he never lost heart. What a man Paul was! From the moment that he got an inkling as to what was here on this earth till the time that the Lord took him, he was assiduous in relation to what had been committed to him. He is a prisoner "of the Christ Jesus for you nations" - that is for the Gentile nations - and then he says, "if indeed ye have heard of the administration of the grace of God which has been given to me towards you, that by revelation the mystery has been made known to me". He wrote it to the Roman saints and now he is reiterating to persons in whom the truth of God was seen in its fulness, that "which in other generations has not been made known to the sons of men". Do not let us lose sight dear brethren, at the close of the dispensation of the distinctiveness of what the mystery is. It came in through Paul as something distinct and apart from all that had proceeded before. He says "as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets". That is a most interesting allusion because he says "by revelation the mystery has been made known to me" (verse 3). It is himself distinctively, but then he brings in others, "it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets", as if others have been brought into the distinctiveness of what Paul has been given and we have the gain of that in our time. The vicissitudes of the testimony, the sorrows of church history, have not resulted in the loss of this to us. We still have what has been revealed "to his holy apostles and prophets". These are New Testament persons. Think of what the Lord has afforded in the time of the recovery, because that feature of holy apostles and prophets is there. It has been revealed to us through them. What a thing to be revealed! He says "that they who are of the nations should be joint heirs, and a joint body, and joint partakers of his promise in Christ Jesus by the glad tidings". There never was anything like it before. You think of a godly Jew hearing what Paul was bringing out, that the nations should be joint heirs, and a joint body, and joint partakers of His promise in Christ Jesus, that Christ should be in glory and His body should be here, and that the nations should be built into that, bound up in it. The middle wall of partition which was there in the old dispensation between the Jew and all that was around, God has broken down, and He is bringing out something that is far greater than anything He ever had in mind in regard of Judaism. What thoughts are these! Oh! to grasp that they can be yours now! and that you can be amongst persons initiated into the fulness of the mystery. You take account of the brethren and find out that Christ is in them. Find out that you are a joint partaker, you are a joint heir, a joint body. It is not something you have on your own, but something you have that is joint. It involves others. It involves the brother next to you. It involves the sister next to you. It involves finding out what is so precious that is in them.

Paul is bringing that out. He says as it were that he wants you to know something of the administration of the mystery and how it has been arrived at. Not only that the mystery was in the counsels of God but it has been arrived at now. In the assembly the allvarious wisdom of God is seen now. It is seen by the angels, "that now to the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies might be made known through the assembly the all-various wisdom of God." Think of what comes out in the assembly, the assembly as convened, the all-various wisdom of God. The principalities and authorities saw the foundations of the earth laid, the sons of God shouted for joy, Job 38: 7. They saw the vicissitudes of time and al I that happened in the periods of the earth's history, but they had never seen anything like this before. What God was doing in the formation of the assembly here in this scene, was bringing in a vessel that is going to be translated to glory finally.

What drew me to these scriptures was what is said in Colossians, "to the full knowledge of the mystery of God; in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge", (chap 2: 2-3). If you want wisdom, you will find it there. You may have to search, you may have to dig, but you will find it. We cannot afford dear brethren, to settle on our lees. We have come through much, through difficult times, but we do not want to fall short of the apprehension and enjoyment of what God has for us in the mystery. Paul saw a danger at Colosse and Laodicea. He says "what combat I have for you"; he brings forward the truth as to the mystery and the truth as to Christ as the Head of the body to help them forward. Now church history brings up the question as to whether the beloved brethren in Laodicea reached it. In the Lord's address to them in Revelation, He is outside, and He is standing at the door knocking. He would want to come in. Paul's combat was real, "I would have you know what combat I have for you, and those in Laodicea, and as many as have not seen my face in flesh; to the end that their hearts may be encouraged," Col 2: 1-2. He wants to encourage your heart. Do not give up. He wants you to be strengthened, "to the end that their hearts may be encouraged, being united together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the full knowledge of the mystery of God; in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge." Have you found that? Oh the wealth that is resident in the assembly! What the men of the recovery have brought out is that Christ in glory is one thing, but that Christ in you is the truth of the mystery. Oh to see what God is doing, dear brethren, that God is forming Christ in you. It is that Man that is being formed in you, and that is the mystery. Man may accept that Christ was here, he may accept that Christ is in glory but the truth that Christ is here, formed in you, so that you come out in those features, is a secret, but not to the Christian as initiated into it. It gives him added impetus to go forward and to watch for the dangers. The treasure is hidden, it is not immediately apparent, but you can find it. It is not beyond you, it can be found. Job (chap 28: 8) brings out that there is a way which the proud beasts have not trodden nor the fierce lion passed over. Do you know that way? Do you know what is down there in that place where the gold is, where the silver is? He is speaking literally about the mines in the earth, where the wealth is hid. God hid it there. Man by his efforts has found it. Spiritually the truth is hidden. The treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden. Where? In the mystery. You have to find it. By diligence and by the Spirit you can find it. Oh the gain that comes from diligence! the gain to the soul that finds something real that God has in one and another. Find it in your brother, find it in your sister, find it in yourself! That Christ is in you and that something is being formed down here on this earth which will be translated to glory, which is eternal in character and unrelated to the earth in one sense. It is heavenly in origin and heavenly in destiny. Oh, the grace that passes understanding, that we should be brought into it - we of the nations! What claim had we on it? None. We have been brought in, joint heirs, joint partakers, a joint body. So Paul would tell us that these things are there. Go in for them. But you have to watch. In Colossians you are not in heaven, according to the teaching. You are still on the earth, so there are dangers around. There is philosophy and vain deceit, but he says "As therefore ye have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in Him." There are elements around not according to Christ, but he adds that in Christ dwells the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Oh dear brethren, let us consider the fulness of that statement. In Him, in Christ dwells the fulness, or as the note points out, the completeness of the Godhead bodily. Mr Darby says 'in a real, human body', and we are complete in Him. All the fulness of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily now up there, but we are in Him, complete in Him. There is nothing you require outside of Christ. The fulness of the God head is there in Christ bodily and is towards us, and we as towards God are in Christ, complete in Him. Who understands these things? We do not understand them fully, dear brethren, but it bows our hearts in worship to the God who has revealed them to us. That is the Person in whom you are complete, and "in whom also ye have been circumcised with circumcision not done by hand, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of the Christ." You put it off, you do not want to be clothed that way, the body of the flesh. You have done that in baptism, as it says "buried with him in baptism". Learn the truth of your baptism, that you are buried with Christ in baptism. You have been found alive in sins? You want to be for God down here? Well, how can you be with all the burdens and all that lay on you, so you are buried with Christ in baptism. This is His death, you are buried with Him in baptism. Baptism is a type of that, that you are buried with Christ, and further "in which ye have been also raised with him through faith of the working of God." That is, God has raised Christ and through faith we apprehend that He has raised us. And He has not raised you in condemnation; He has not raised you in your sins. Christ has been raised and He has left our sins in His grave. What a thing, dear younger brethren, to think that God, through the death of Christ, has operated in relation to all the liabilities and they have all been left behind in the grave, in the death of Christ. So He is raised free from that and so are you raised free from that. You are still on the earth but you are risen. But oh, the Person of Christ is holding your heart. The dangers are around, but grasp something of the fact that the liabilities have been met. God has set you at liberty, liberty for what? liberty for Himself. Everything else has been taken out of the way. He has quickened us. He has given us life, a new life that gravitates to Himself, and wants to live in relation to the divine interest; a life that can enjoy what the saints are as the body of Christ, what the mystery is. You are not quickened to live again in this world. You are quickened in relation to another world, but you are still down here. You are risen by faith but you are still down here. Beware of the dangers! Hold on to something of what Christ becomes to you, the greatness of the Person of Christ in whom you are complete. You are complete in Him, in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily. Well, may the Lord encourage us, dear brethren, for His Name's sake.

GRANGEMOUTH

23 February 1974