Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
The mystery hidden through past ages and generations but now made manifest is Christ dwelling in believers, including Gentiles, as their hope of glory and the riches of God's grace. It was entrusted to Paul to fulfil God's word by revealing God's eternal purpose to redeem fallen humanity through Christ incarnate, crucified, risen and ministering as Advocate. This plan embraces God's love, compassion and power, prepared before creation and first foretold in Eden, by which Christ gave His life as ransom to pardon, renew and recreate sinners in God's likeness. Making it known means preaching Christ to warn and teach every person in all wisdom in order to present every person perfect and mature in Him. Those who receive it are to represent Christ in character, becoming living messages changed from glory to glory by beholding Him and showing holy unselfish love in good works.
Hidden Ages, Revealed to Saints
The mystery was hidden from ages and from generations through all past time, but now it is made manifest to His saints, to God's own people. What was once concealed through past ages and generations is now revealed to His saints, and God uses His people as His human instrumentalities to demonstrate the power of His grace. The riches of the glory of that plan of redemption are thereby made known, which is Christ in believers, the hope of glory.
That unveiling was entrusted to Paul, who was made a minister according to the dispensation of God given for believers, for the church, to fulfil the word of God by revealing it. The minister is thus put in trust with the gospel under a divine dispensation to make manifest Christ, the mystery hid from ages but now revealed to the saints. Paul was commissioned to preach Christ's unsearchable riches and to bring light, fulfilling the Word by making the hidden mystery known.
Gentiles means the world, and the now-revealed mystery is made known among God's people including the Gentiles. It is made known to saints so they can make it known to others, to the world, as Christ in the believer, the hope of glory and the riches of His glory. The revelation among the Gentiles displays its glorious riches, His matchless love and the power of His grace.
The mystery is God's direct unveiling of truth in His Word. The Bible is the great instrument of His government through probationary time, and the mystery hid from ages is God's Word now made open to His saints. It contains a treasure worth everything to every person, a divine treasure, providing knowledge of God and of the laws that govern human life.
Truths hidden for ages, after superstition and error had buried them, are recovered and brought to light by careful study of Scripture, comparing passage with passage under the guidance of the Spirit of God. They are opened to the humble seeker not by repeating arguments borrowed from other minds but by daily earnest study and earnest prayer before God. By painstaking effort there is digging in the mine of truth to present to the people things new and old.
Human understanding of these spiritual truths is limited, and earthliness has kept people from receiving further light. They cannot be grasped by great human intelligence or mortal striving alone, for human intelligence alone cannot grasp these revelations. They are revealed by God's Spirit and are received through faith in Christ, in whom are found all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, the mystery having been hidden in the Father and the Son.
In the last days these truths hidden for ages are to be revealed to humble people who depend on God's infinite power and lean upon the arm of infinite power. Truth in God's Word is opened to the humble seeker whose life is hid with Christ in God, whose life is hidden with Christ in God.
Striving to be original and being wise above what is written cannot make plain or unravel mysteries hidden from ages from mortal man. Such striving is foolishness that proves men are far behind in comprehension of the divine will and purposes of God, like a man floundering in mud unable to extricate himself while telling others how to get out of the muddy sea he is in. This describes men who set themselves to correct the errors of the Bible, for no man can improve the Bible by suggesting what the Lord meant to say or ought to have said.
The same infinite God who reveals truths hidden for ages to those who believe in Him can also solve the most difficult problems. His infinite knowledge reaches beyond what is believed, and the same principles run through the spiritual and natural worlds.
Christ Indwelling, Hope of Glory
The mystery hidden through past ages and generations and now revealed to the saints is Christ among the Gentiles and Christ in believers, the hope of glory, with the glorious riches that belong to it. It is God's plan of redemption now opened to His people and made known among the Gentiles through them, and through human agencies He demonstrates the power of His grace in it. That mystery embraces much about God's love, goodness, compassion and matchless love, and the power of His grace working in Christ in the believer. The world is meant in the Gentiles to whom its riches are carried.
The hidden mystery is Christ as God manifest in the flesh, the Son of God of matchless attraction and Saviour of the world. Looking to Him gives life, and accepting or rejecting Him decides eternal interests. It is the great and profound mystery of godliness, that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among men, Christ taking human nature inferior to His heavenly nature in wonderful condescension. This is because God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, a truth presented with simplicity so that all may grasp it and be enlightened. The same mystery is God's plan revealed in Christ as the union of divinity and humanity in His incarnation and the atonement He made. It was first revealed in Eden in the prophecy that the woman's Seed would bruise the serpent's head while suffering a bruised heel, and Christ came to make it known to every person, Jew and Gentile. His sufferings fully met the claims of God's law, so that no apostle could make up any deficiency in His work.
God's manifestation in Christ perfectly reflected God's own image because their characters were entirely one. The revealed mystery is that Jesus gave His life as the ransom for sinners, making pardon, renewal in God's likeness, restoration and recreation in Christ possible through Him rather than through the law. By it believers are recreated in Christ and built up as God's spiritual house. The mystery now made known is Christ crucified and risen, serving as humanity's Advocate at God's throne. After Christ returned to the Father, the greater work of the disciples was through the Holy Spirit to proclaim this Redeemer and point people to heaven.
Eternal Plan Foretold and Unsealed
The mystery is God's eternal purpose for what would be done if heavenly intelligences should fall away, an offering prepared in His eternal purposes to redeem fallen humanity. He knew before creation what would happen, yet He did not shape His purposes to force events. That purpose was first made known in Eden through the promise that the woman's Seed would bruise the serpent's head while Himself suffering a bruised heel. Christ came to make that mystery known to every person, both Jew and Gentile, as the union of divinity and humanity in His incarnation and the atonement He made. His sufferings fully met the claims of God's law, so that no apostle could supply any deficiency in His work.
When this mystery was revealed in the world the heavenly host beheld it with wonder. Satan and his followers worked to destroy Christ and to cut off communication between earth and heaven, Jewish rulers joined that attack, and the people chose Barabbas over the Son of God. The same mystery was revealed to Paul, who was commissioned to preach Christ's unsearchable riches and to bring light to the Gentiles. The treasures of wisdom kept hidden for ages are now to be brought out to enrich the lost and opened to the view of the world. Nothing has been withheld, for in giving His only begotten Son God gave all the treasures of heaven and revealed power and glory in Christ Jesus.
The schooling God gave Israel throughout its wilderness journey belongs to that gospel revelation. It should be understood today by every living soul in order to know what God requires of His church. Grasping these revelations requires more than human intelligence and cannot be grasped by great human intelligence alone. Those who do not weigh that instruction sufficiently are left to Satan's deceiving workings, which beguile the conscience concerning individual weaknesses and sins and catch hundreds in his snares.
Preach to Present Perfect
Making the mystery known means preaching Christ, and Christ crucified as the burden of the message, warning every person and teaching every person in all wisdom in order to present every person perfect, holy, unblameable, unreproveable, complete and mature in Christ Jesus, laboring and striving according to His working which works mightily within the worker. This preaching and teaching belongs to the revealing of the mystery hidden through past ages and generations and now made manifest to the saints, identified as Christ in believers, the hope of glory, including among the Gentiles.
The verse sets a high standard of attainment and qualification before ministers and workers for Christ in this preaching, warning, teaching, laboring and striving work. A very high attainment is possible to all who put themselves entirely under Christ's control and learn meekness and lowliness daily in His school under the great Teacher.
This work requires more than ministering as a pleasing speaker; it requires thorough work that binds off the labor and does not leave churches uninstructed in duty. It speaks not as pleasing men but God, rightly divides the Word of truth, and sanctifies the Lord in the heart. A solemn responsibility rests on those who teach God's Word to fulfil it; they are not to try to work the Holy Spirit but are themselves to be worked by the Holy Spirit. Limitless power is at God's command for the minister who in great need shuts himself in with the Lord to receive what will be a savor of life unto life, while souls lost through unfaithfulness bring accountability to God.
Because Christ with His character, words, and work has not been brought before the people, churches are ready to die without spiritual life and discernment. The lack of power and grace to present Christ comes from reaching to human agencies for strength instead of going directly to Christ the Fountain Head in trouble, discouragement, and perplexity to receive strength by faith and acquaintance with Him. The message for this time is not a new truth but the very same that Paul and Christ Himself taught and must be lifted up, for Christ is an infinitely perfect character and the power, might, sanctification, and righteousness of all who believe, giving fresh manna instead of dry theories. Resisting it with a Pharisaical spirit that clings to good old theories puts teachers and people on the self-satisfied ground of the Pharisees of old. In this setting the revealed gospel truth fulfilled in Christ is to be proclaimed to the world calling people to obey God's commandments and keep His holy day.
Transformed Character and Mission
The mystery hidden through past ages and generations is now revealed to the saints, and that revealing calls for Christ to be represented in character so that believers become living messages known to others. Making it known means preaching Christ by warning every person and teaching every person in all wisdom in order to present every person perfect in Christ Jesus, laboring and striving according to His working which works mightily within the worker. Those who win souls must therefore be guarded in every action lest they make a wrong impression, deal faithfully with minds in spiritual and temporal lines, put on Christ, and advance continually in knowledge and understanding. They are to learn daily of Christ in meekness and lowliness so He can lead them and go before them as their righteousness, follow in His footsteps fulfilling His requirements, strive for His peace and gentleness, have lives conformed to the truth revealing the Saviour's character, and be changed from glory to glory and from character to character as they behold Christ, and by such lives move the world.
Truth received into the heart opens the door to Jesus, who is the light and the life, bringing a refining, sanctifying, and ennobling change through genuine faith. Christ's presence in the heart is shown by holy, unselfish love for others rather than self-exaltation or selfishness, and heavenly grace is manifested in character through discretion, kindness, sympathy, and Christlike tenderness. The religion of Christ makes all who possess it truly benevolent, bearing fruit in good works that bears heaven's endorsement, allowing no littleness and no mean, cheap, covetous transactions. It gives true Christians a nobility that shuns actions that disgrace the doer, and requires those in responsible positions to make straight paths for their feet lest the lame be turned out of the way.
Those who teach are to live and speak carefully, uphold God's commandments, and lead people toward right belief and practice. The verse calls for far greater knowledge of the Word than is now possessed, including understanding and practicing the laws that govern human being and cultivating pure, clean, healthful principles to preserve harmonious action of body and mind. Erroneous habits such as tobacco, tea, coffee, and strong drink that destroy self-control and reason are to be rejected, for seeking treasure in worldly scholastic knowledge while laying the Bible aside loses the true treasure and ruins physical and mental powers. Every divine resource is placed at man's disposal to become a worker together with God in rebuilding and reshaping character to moral rectitude and recreating sinners in Christ's image for pardon, elevation, and eternal glory, and this commissions God's people to awake and give themselves, their means, and their ability to enlighten and save those in dense darkness, teaching them to read God's Word, honor and obey His law, and be prepared for a part in the new earth. Missionary activity is of no value unless it is wisely directed toward successful results, as specified for the work God expects missionary effort to accomplish.
The mystery hidden through past ages and generations but now made manifest is Christ dwelling in believers, including Gentiles, as their hope of glory and the riches of God's grace. It was entrusted to Paul to fulfil God's word by revealing God's eternal purpose to redeem fallen humanity through Christ incarnate, crucified, risen and ministering as Advocate. This plan embraces God's love, compassion and power, prepared before creation and first foretold in Eden, by which Christ gave His life as ransom to pardon, renew and recreate sinners in God's likeness. Making it known means preaching Christ to warn and teach every person in all wisdom in order to present every person perfect and mature in Him. Those who receive it are to represent Christ in character, becoming living messages changed from glory to glory by beholding Him and showing holy unselfish love in good works.
Hidden Ages, Revealed to Saints
The mystery was hidden from ages and from generations through all past time, but now it is made manifest to His saints, to God's own people. What was once concealed through past ages and generations is now revealed to His saints, and God uses His people as His human instrumentalities to demonstrate the power of His grace. The riches of the glory of that plan of redemption are thereby made known, which is Christ in believers, the hope of glory.
That unveiling was entrusted to Paul, who was made a minister according to the dispensation of God given for believers, for the church, to fulfil the word of God by revealing it. The minister is thus put in trust with the gospel under a divine dispensation to make manifest Christ, the mystery hid from ages but now revealed to the saints. Paul was commissioned to preach Christ's unsearchable riches and to bring light, fulfilling the Word by making the hidden mystery known.
Gentiles means the world, and the now-revealed mystery is made known among God's people including the Gentiles. It is made known to saints so they can make it known to others, to the world, as Christ in the believer, the hope of glory and the riches of His glory. The revelation among the Gentiles displays its glorious riches, His matchless love and the power of His grace.
The mystery is God's direct unveiling of truth in His Word. The Bible is the great instrument of His government through probationary time, and the mystery hid from ages is God's Word now made open to His saints. It contains a treasure worth everything to every person, a divine treasure, providing knowledge of God and of the laws that govern human life.
Truths hidden for ages, after superstition and error had buried them, are recovered and brought to light by careful study of Scripture, comparing passage with passage under the guidance of the Spirit of God. They are opened to the humble seeker not by repeating arguments borrowed from other minds but by daily earnest study and earnest prayer before God. By painstaking effort there is digging in the mine of truth to present to the people things new and old.
Human understanding of these spiritual truths is limited, and earthliness has kept people from receiving further light. They cannot be grasped by great human intelligence or mortal striving alone, for human intelligence alone cannot grasp these revelations. They are revealed by God's Spirit and are received through faith in Christ, in whom are found all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, the mystery having been hidden in the Father and the Son.
In the last days these truths hidden for ages are to be revealed to humble people who depend on God's infinite power and lean upon the arm of infinite power. Truth in God's Word is opened to the humble seeker whose life is hid with Christ in God, whose life is hidden with Christ in God.
Striving to be original and being wise above what is written cannot make plain or unravel mysteries hidden from ages from mortal man. Such striving is foolishness that proves men are far behind in comprehension of the divine will and purposes of God, like a man floundering in mud unable to extricate himself while telling others how to get out of the muddy sea he is in. This describes men who set themselves to correct the errors of the Bible, for no man can improve the Bible by suggesting what the Lord meant to say or ought to have said.
The same infinite God who reveals truths hidden for ages to those who believe in Him can also solve the most difficult problems. His infinite knowledge reaches beyond what is believed, and the same principles run through the spiritual and natural worlds.
Christ Indwelling, Hope of Glory
The mystery hidden through past ages and generations and now revealed to the saints is Christ among the Gentiles and Christ in believers, the hope of glory, with the glorious riches that belong to it. It is God's plan of redemption now opened to His people and made known among the Gentiles through them, and through human agencies He demonstrates the power of His grace in it. That mystery embraces much about God's love, goodness, compassion and matchless love, and the power of His grace working in Christ in the believer. The world is meant in the Gentiles to whom its riches are carried.
The hidden mystery is Christ as God manifest in the flesh, the Son of God of matchless attraction and Saviour of the world. Looking to Him gives life, and accepting or rejecting Him decides eternal interests. It is the great and profound mystery of godliness, that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among men, Christ taking human nature inferior to His heavenly nature in wonderful condescension. This is because God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, a truth presented with simplicity so that all may grasp it and be enlightened. The same mystery is God's plan revealed in Christ as the union of divinity and humanity in His incarnation and the atonement He made. It was first revealed in Eden in the prophecy that the woman's Seed would bruise the serpent's head while suffering a bruised heel, and Christ came to make it known to every person, Jew and Gentile. His sufferings fully met the claims of God's law, so that no apostle could make up any deficiency in His work.
God's manifestation in Christ perfectly reflected God's own image because their characters were entirely one. The revealed mystery is that Jesus gave His life as the ransom for sinners, making pardon, renewal in God's likeness, restoration and recreation in Christ possible through Him rather than through the law. By it believers are recreated in Christ and built up as God's spiritual house. The mystery now made known is Christ crucified and risen, serving as humanity's Advocate at God's throne. After Christ returned to the Father, the greater work of the disciples was through the Holy Spirit to proclaim this Redeemer and point people to heaven.
Eternal Plan Foretold and Unsealed
The mystery is God's eternal purpose for what would be done if heavenly intelligences should fall away, an offering prepared in His eternal purposes to redeem fallen humanity. He knew before creation what would happen, yet He did not shape His purposes to force events. That purpose was first made known in Eden through the promise that the woman's Seed would bruise the serpent's head while Himself suffering a bruised heel. Christ came to make that mystery known to every person, both Jew and Gentile, as the union of divinity and humanity in His incarnation and the atonement He made. His sufferings fully met the claims of God's law, so that no apostle could supply any deficiency in His work.
When this mystery was revealed in the world the heavenly host beheld it with wonder. Satan and his followers worked to destroy Christ and to cut off communication between earth and heaven, Jewish rulers joined that attack, and the people chose Barabbas over the Son of God. The same mystery was revealed to Paul, who was commissioned to preach Christ's unsearchable riches and to bring light to the Gentiles. The treasures of wisdom kept hidden for ages are now to be brought out to enrich the lost and opened to the view of the world. Nothing has been withheld, for in giving His only begotten Son God gave all the treasures of heaven and revealed power and glory in Christ Jesus.
The schooling God gave Israel throughout its wilderness journey belongs to that gospel revelation. It should be understood today by every living soul in order to know what God requires of His church. Grasping these revelations requires more than human intelligence and cannot be grasped by great human intelligence alone. Those who do not weigh that instruction sufficiently are left to Satan's deceiving workings, which beguile the conscience concerning individual weaknesses and sins and catch hundreds in his snares.
Preach to Present Perfect
Making the mystery known means preaching Christ, and Christ crucified as the burden of the message, warning every person and teaching every person in all wisdom in order to present every person perfect, holy, unblameable, unreproveable, complete and mature in Christ Jesus, laboring and striving according to His working which works mightily within the worker. This preaching and teaching belongs to the revealing of the mystery hidden through past ages and generations and now made manifest to the saints, identified as Christ in believers, the hope of glory, including among the Gentiles.
The verse sets a high standard of attainment and qualification before ministers and workers for Christ in this preaching, warning, teaching, laboring and striving work. A very high attainment is possible to all who put themselves entirely under Christ's control and learn meekness and lowliness daily in His school under the great Teacher.
This work requires more than ministering as a pleasing speaker; it requires thorough work that binds off the labor and does not leave churches uninstructed in duty. It speaks not as pleasing men but God, rightly divides the Word of truth, and sanctifies the Lord in the heart. A solemn responsibility rests on those who teach God's Word to fulfil it; they are not to try to work the Holy Spirit but are themselves to be worked by the Holy Spirit. Limitless power is at God's command for the minister who in great need shuts himself in with the Lord to receive what will be a savor of life unto life, while souls lost through unfaithfulness bring accountability to God.
Because Christ with His character, words, and work has not been brought before the people, churches are ready to die without spiritual life and discernment. The lack of power and grace to present Christ comes from reaching to human agencies for strength instead of going directly to Christ the Fountain Head in trouble, discouragement, and perplexity to receive strength by faith and acquaintance with Him. The message for this time is not a new truth but the very same that Paul and Christ Himself taught and must be lifted up, for Christ is an infinitely perfect character and the power, might, sanctification, and righteousness of all who believe, giving fresh manna instead of dry theories. Resisting it with a Pharisaical spirit that clings to good old theories puts teachers and people on the self-satisfied ground of the Pharisees of old. In this setting the revealed gospel truth fulfilled in Christ is to be proclaimed to the world calling people to obey God's commandments and keep His holy day.
Transformed Character and Mission
The mystery hidden through past ages and generations is now revealed to the saints, and that revealing calls for Christ to be represented in character so that believers become living messages known to others. Making it known means preaching Christ by warning every person and teaching every person in all wisdom in order to present every person perfect in Christ Jesus, laboring and striving according to His working which works mightily within the worker. Those who win souls must therefore be guarded in every action lest they make a wrong impression, deal faithfully with minds in spiritual and temporal lines, put on Christ, and advance continually in knowledge and understanding. They are to learn daily of Christ in meekness and lowliness so He can lead them and go before them as their righteousness, follow in His footsteps fulfilling His requirements, strive for His peace and gentleness, have lives conformed to the truth revealing the Saviour's character, and be changed from glory to glory and from character to character as they behold Christ, and by such lives move the world.
Truth received into the heart opens the door to Jesus, who is the light and the life, bringing a refining, sanctifying, and ennobling change through genuine faith. Christ's presence in the heart is shown by holy, unselfish love for others rather than self-exaltation or selfishness, and heavenly grace is manifested in character through discretion, kindness, sympathy, and Christlike tenderness. The religion of Christ makes all who possess it truly benevolent, bearing fruit in good works that bears heaven's endorsement, allowing no littleness and no mean, cheap, covetous transactions. It gives true Christians a nobility that shuns actions that disgrace the doer, and requires those in responsible positions to make straight paths for their feet lest the lame be turned out of the way.
Those who teach are to live and speak carefully, uphold God's commandments, and lead people toward right belief and practice. The verse calls for far greater knowledge of the Word than is now possessed, including understanding and practicing the laws that govern human being and cultivating pure, clean, healthful principles to preserve harmonious action of body and mind. Erroneous habits such as tobacco, tea, coffee, and strong drink that destroy self-control and reason are to be rejected, for seeking treasure in worldly scholastic knowledge while laying the Bible aside loses the true treasure and ruins physical and mental powers. Every divine resource is placed at man's disposal to become a worker together with God in rebuilding and reshaping character to moral rectitude and recreating sinners in Christ's image for pardon, elevation, and eternal glory, and this commissions God's people to awake and give themselves, their means, and their ability to enlighten and save those in dense darkness, teaching them to read God's Word, honor and obey His law, and be prepared for a part in the new earth. Missionary activity is of no value unless it is wisely directed toward successful results, as specified for the work God expects missionary effort to accomplish.