Unity & the Christian Fundamentals (III), Progressive Revelation of “the Mystery”

Mark 4:10-12 (NASB) 10 And as soon as He was alone, His followers, along with the twelve, began asking Him about the parables. 11 And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God; but those who are outside get everything in parables, 12 in order that while seeing, they may see and not perceive; and while hearing, they may hear and not understand lest they return and be forgiven.”

Romans 16:25-26 (NASB) 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, 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;

Jesus’ parables were intended to gradually reveal various aspects of the “mystery of the Kingdom.” His parables were intended to both conceal the “mystery” from the unbelieving leaders of Israel yet reveal to His faithful followers. The Apostle Paul was given the task of continuing to reveal more aspects of this “mystery” which was concealed in the Old Testament Scriptures. The entirety of the mystery was not comprehended by the leaders of Israel, and not fully comprehended by the Apostles at the beginning of their evangelistic outreach.

It should not come as a surprise that Jesus sent out His Apostles to proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom without their training and knowledge being complete. He told them that their training was incomplete, and that He would continue to instruct them from God’s right hand through the Breath of Truth, giving them much fuller revelation during their on-the-job training.

John 16:12-15 LGV 12 I still have much to tell you, but you are powerless to carry it right now. 13 But when that should come, the Breath of Truth, it will lead you into all the truth, for it will not speak from self, but will speak whatever it hears, and it will inform you [about] what is coming. 14 That will glorify Me because it will receive out from Me and will relay-message to you. 15 Everything, whatever the Father has, is Mine. Therefore I said [that] it will receive out from Me and will relay-message to you.

This “mystery” was taught progressively to the Apostles by Jesus Christ through the Breath of Truth and was articulated plainly by Paul. Full understanding of the concealed mystery was not essential at the beginning since the Gospel of the Kingdom was confined primarily to Judea and to the synagogues in Jewish communities of the Diaspora (Acts 2:5-12,37-42). Yet as the Gospel spread beyond the synagogues throughout the Roman world (primarily through Paul), comprehending the mystery became essential in order to make Christianity inclusive of all ethnic peoples, not only Israelites. The “mystery” forms the very bedrock of mature Apostolic Christianity as it relates to all nations, including us. Understanding the mystery separated Apostolic Christianity from Judaism.

The “Mystery” concealed in the Old Testament concerned the Abrahamic Covenant, the Hope of immortality and the inheritance, exactly how God would bring together both Jew and Gentile as equals into the inheritance that He seemingly only promised to Abraham and his physical descendants. The Old Testament Scriptures, both the Torah and the prophets, are very Israel-centric. The Abrahamic Covenant acknowledges that Abraham’s “Seed” will also be a blessing to “all nations” (Gen. 18:18; Gen. 22:18; Gen. 26:4). Yet the application and fulfillment of the Abrahamic land inheritance is seemingly promised exclusively to the Twelve Tribes in the Torah (Exod. 6:8; Exod. 13:11). In the treatment of the Kingdom by the prophets the land inheritance is still viewed as pertaining to the twelve tribes of Israel. Even Ezekiel’s description of the Promised Land in the Kingdom has it divided among the twelve tribes (Ezek. 48). Israel is placed as head of nations with restored Jerusalem as its capital (Isa. 65-66). Israelites will take Gentiles as their servants and will rule over all other nations that previously oppressed them (Isa. 14:1-2).

But the mystery, concerning how the Abrahamic inheritance can become the possession of the faithful remnant from all nations, and how individual Gentiles could become “Abraham’s Seed,” becoming equal members and heirs of the Abrahamic inheritance, was completely hidden until revealed through Paul. This is described primarily in Galatians (chs. 3-4) and Ephesians (chs. 1:9-18; 2:11-22; 3:1-9). This important truth was not revealed in the Old Testament, nor was it taught to the disciples during Jesus’ ministry. The only exceptions were a few hints from Jesus which the disciples did not comprehend until much later (Matt. 8:11-12; John 10:16).

From the beginning of the synoptic Gospels, Jesus’ birth and His role as the Anointed King was announced to Mary in terms of His occupying the Throne of David and ruling over the house of Jacob forever (Luke 1:30-33). Mary’s “Magnificat” is entirely Israel-centric. “… He has helped His servant Israel, In remembrance of His mercy, As He spoke to our fathers, To Abraham and to his seed forever” (Lk. 1:54-55 NKJ). John the Baptist’s father, Zacharias, also prophesied similarly (Luke 1:68-75). From His birth until His crucifixion, Jesus was portrayed, not as “King of kings and Lord of lords” as in Revelation, but as “the King of the Jews” (Matt. 2:2; Matt. 27:11-12,29,37).

For several years after Pentecost the Apostles continued to have a very Israel-centric paradigm derived from Moses, the prophets, and Jesus’ preaching “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 15:24). Not until Paul was chosen by Jesus to proclaim the mystery to the Gentiles, to preach and adapt the Gospel of the Kingdom to the Gentiles, was this mystery fully revealed (Rom. 16:25-27; Col. 3:1-9). In fact, the first hint of this mystery was at first strongly resisted by Peter. It took the vision of the sheet let down from heaven to pry Peter away from his taboos concerning accepting the Gentiles (Acts 10), and even eating non-kosher with them (Acts 11:1-3; Gal. 2:11-16). Later it took the Jerusalem Council, having heard and considered Paul’s reports of how God was working mightily among the Gentiles through His ministry, to convince the other Apostles and elders to decree that the Gentiles need not become converts to Moses and Israel in order to partake of the inheritance (Acts 15). Paul, in writing to the Gentiles, took great pains to announce that they were equal members in the Body of Christ (Eph. 2), and would share in the Abrahamic land inheritance (Gal. 3:3-29), that God would also give them “an inheritance among those who are sanctified” (Acts 20:32).

The “Mystery,” concealed in the Old Testament, also concerned the Davidic Covenant and deals with the relationship of Jesus the Messiah to both David and God. The Davidic Covenant promised David a dynasty and a specific heir who would sit upon “the Throne of David” and reign over David’s kingdom forever (Isa. 9:6-7).

1 Chron. 17:11-14 NKJ “And it shall be, when your days are fulfilled, when you must go to be with your fathers, that I will set up your seed after you, who will be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom. 12 He shall build Me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. 13 I will be his Father, and he shall be My son; and I will not take My mercy away from him, as I took it from him who was before you. 14 And I will establish him in My house and in My kingdom forever; and his throne shall be established forever.”‘”

Thus the Messiah was presented first as “the son of David,” but also “the Son of God.” Lest one suppose that He would be God’s Son only by adoption, David quoted the Son of God declaring what the Father said to Him on the very day that He was begotten: “You are My Son, today I have begotten You.” (Psalm 2:7; Heb. 1:5). Thus He was God’s Son by procreation out of God Himself (Jn. 8:42 Gk).

The mystery of how the Messiah could actually be “begotten” by both God and David, thus having two fathers, was not understood by the Jewish leaders. In fact, Jesus used this very mystery to completely stump the Jewish scholars.

Matt. 22:41-46 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” They said to Him, “The Son of David.” 43 He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him Lord, saying: 44 ‘The LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool “‘? 45 “If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?” 46 And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.

Some might suppose that Jesus’ question was not that difficult to answer. David simply called his descendant, the Messiah, “my Lord” (Master), because the Messiah outranked him. Yet that is not possible in Jewish thought because an ancestor always outranks his descendants. In a kingly dynasty, a successor can never outrank the founder of that dynasty. David was the king of Israel and the first king of the Davidic dynasty thereafter referred to as the “Throne of David.” The word “Messiah” is Hebrew for “the Anointed” (“Christos” in Greek, and “Christ” in English). David himself was called the Lord’s Messiah – Anointed – Christ many times (1 Sam. 16:13; 2 Sam. 19:16; 2 Sam. 22:51; 2 Sam. 23:1; 2 Sam. 23:1; Psalm 18:50 etc.). So also was Solomon his immediate successor (2 Chron. 6:42). Each of the kings of the Davidic dynasty were an Anointed, Messiah, Christ, and each one sat upon “the Throne of David” (1 Kings 2:24,45; Jer. 22:2,4,30; Jer. 29:16; Jer. 36:30).

God promised David that one of his descendants would sit on his throne and reign forever (lit. unto the ages), thus defying death. The Messianic expectation by the leadership of Israel was that the last “Messiah” would simply be the last king of the Davidic dynasty in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy.

Isaiah 9:6-7 NASB 6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.”

If Messiah was merely the last king of David’s royal line to sit upon David’s throne there is no way he could be David’s “Lord” (Master). This is why the scholars were completely stumped by Jesus’ riddle. However, the solution to this “mystery” was progressively revealed in the New Testament. The teaching of the pre-human existence of God’s only-begotten Son is absolutely essential to resolve this conundrum. That the Son was “begotten” as “the Beginning” of God’s works (Psalm 2:7; Prov. 8:22 LXX; Prov. 30:1-4), that He was God’s agent through whom God created everything, including mankind (“Let Us make man in Our image and after Our likeness” {Gen. 1:26}), makes the Son of God anterior to David and indirectly the source of David’s own existence. Thus, the Son of God was David’s “Lord” (Master) because He participated in the creation of man, and interacted with man directly as God’s personal Agent, thus bringing about the Davidic Dynasty in the first place. Yet He also eventually became David’s descendant through Mary.

Jesus Himself, in the book of Revelation recorded by John, unambiguously gave the solution to the riddle that He posed much earlier to the Jewish scholars when He said to them, “What do you think about the Christ, whose son is he?” The correct answers is: “I am the Root and the Offspring of David,” (Rev. 22:16). That is, “Jesus is the Christ” (meaning Son of David and heir to the Throne of David), but also “the Son of the living God“ (who was begotten of God before David) (Matt. 16:16; John 20:31). This is THE solution to the mystery of the Davidic Covenant, and how the Son of God can have two fathers. He was “begotten” of the Father as “the Beginning” (Prov. 8:22-25 LXX; Prov. 30:1-4) and then later “begotten” through Mary whose father (Heli) was a descendant of David (Luke 3:22-31). When Jesus posed this riddle to the temple scholars He knew they could not answer because they were looking only for a man who would be exclusively David’s son, and God’s “son” merely by election and adoption. They did not understand Micah 5:2 which states about the Messiah who would be born in Bethlehem, “whose goings forth have been from old, from ancient times.”

The aspect of the “mystery” which concerns the Davidic Covenant is that the Messiah is both the only-begotten Son of God, preceding David, yet He is also the “Christ” (Messiah), the son of David. Paul’s prayer for the Colossians was that they would fully comprehend this “mystery.”

Colossians 2:1-3 LGV “For I wish you to have observed the great struggle I have concerning you, and those in Laodicea, and as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, 2 so that their hearts may be called near, being united in love and unto all riches of the complete assurance of comprehension unto full knowledge of the mystery of the God and Father, and of Christ, 3 in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.”

Exactly how the Son of God who preceded David could also be David’s offspring was explained by Paul as follows:

Phil. 2:5-8 NASB “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Just as the mystery of how the Abrahamic inheritance was completely concealed and then fully revealed through Paul, so also “the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ” was also concealed in the Torah and in the prophets but fully revealed through Paul’s mission to the Gentiles. In Paul, Jesus went from being portrayed merely as the “King of the Jews” to being the Redeemer and restorer of the whole creation (Col. 1:19-20). This mystery included His having been begotten out of God as “the Beginning,” His role as “Wisdom” and “Word” in the creation of all things (Col. 1:15-18), and having interacted with mankind as “the Messenger (Angel) of the Lord.” Thus, from the beginning the “only-begotten Son” had a personal relationship with the patriarchs Adam, Seth, and Noah whose descendants eventually were divided forming all nations. The Son had a special relationship with Abraham, and was the Agent of God who made and confirmed the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic Covenants on God’s behalf. Then coming as a Man, He also made and confirmed the New Covenant on God’s behalf with the disciples. Both of these mysteries were concealed in the second Psalm; first that the LORD’s “Messiah” (vs. 2) was literally “begotten” out of God (vs. 7), and second that “all nations” and “the ends of the earth” would be the Son’s inheritance and possession when He is installed on Mt. Zion as King.

John’s Role to Defend the Mystery: Both Paul and Peter predicted that after their martyrdom false teachers would arise within the assemblies (Acts 20:28-31; 2 Peter 2; 2 Peter 3:15-18). That is precisely what occurred because of the vacuum of leadership in Paul’s and Peter’s absence. Jude, observing the deteriorating situation, wrote his short epistle as a plea for help in defending “the Faith once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3-4). In response, John stepped up to reinforce and defend the mature Pauline teachings of the “mysteries” against their being twisted and adapted to Greek philosophy. John took over the seat of Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles at Ephesus shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. John directly exposed and took on the heretics, particularly the Nicolaitans and Cerinthus. All of John’s works directly challenge these Gnostic heresies and reinforce Paul’s earlier teachings.

John’s primary work, his Gospel, confirmed Jesus as the Word (Logos) who was in the beginning with God, and through whom God created all things. This was intended to confirm Paul’s statements in Colossians 1:15-18 & Heb. 1:1-3. He then recalled John the Baptist’s testimony concerning Jesus, that “He was before me,” even though John was six months older that Jesus (John 1:15,30). He then reinforced Paul’s statement in Eph. 4:9-10, “Now this ‘He ascended’ what does it mean but that He also first descended unto the lower parts of the earth.” John affirmed the Son’s prior descent to earth by his own editorial comment, “No one has ascended into heaven except the one who came down from heaven“ (John 3:13). John recalled many things Jesus Himself said about His preexistence, including “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me“ (John 6:38), and that the appearances of God to the ancient people was actually the Son, because “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him“(John 1:18 NKJ); that Jesus is the only one who has ever seen the Father (John 6:46); that He existed before Abraham (John 8:58), that He was about to “ascend back to where He was previously” (John 6:62); having asked the Father to again bestow upon Him the glory that He formerly possessed beside the Father before the world was (John 17:5). All of this was to confirm (often from Jesus’ own mouth) what Paul had already taught in passages such as 1 Cor. 1-2; Eph. 1-2; Col. 1-2; and Heb. 1-2. John poured it on thick in order to give no quarter whatsoever to the Gnostic heretics who were twisting Paul’s letters (2 Pet. 3:15-16), claiming that the one who descended from heaven was a different person than the man Jesus. John continued to do the same in his epistles, calling “antichrists” those who denied that the one who came down from heaven had “come in the flesh.” Then in Revelation, John gave several more proofs of the Son’s preexistence, that He was the “Angel (Messenger) of God” (Rev. 1:1-2). John then quoted Jesus as claiming to be “The Beginning of the Creation of God” (Rev. 3:14) thus validating Paul’s statement that the Son was “the first-produced of all creation” (Col. 1:15) and “the Beginning” (Col. 1:18), both of these were referencing Prov. 8:22-31 from the Septuagint. He quoted Jesus as claiming to be “the First and the Last” (Rev. 1:17) which was the claim of the Angel [Messenger] of the Lord (Isa. 48:3,12). Then John is the one who recorded Jesus as saying “I am the Root and Offspring of David” (borrowing from Isa. 11:1,10). Finally, John emphatically stated that “His name is called Logos of God“ confirming Paul’s statement about “Logos of God” in Heb. 4:12-15, and leaving no question as to the meaning of John. 1:1-3.

Through Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles, all aspects of the “mystery” were gradually but fully revealed, not only the Gentiles being included as equals in Israel’s hope of resurrection and the land inheritance, but also the full identity and purpose of the Son of God, “the hidden Wisdom,” and “Word” (Logos) whose true identity had been concealed from Israel in plain sight from the very beginning. But the disguise of God’s only-begotten Son throughout the Old Testament was absolutely necessary as Paul explained.

1 Cor. 2:6-10 LGV “And we proclaim Wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or the principle [men] of this age, those being deposed. 7 But we speak the Wisdom of God in a mystery, having been concealed, whom God predetermined before the ages for our glory, 8 who none of the principle [men] of this age have discovered. For if they had discovered, they would not have crucified the Master of glory. 9 But just as it has been written, ‘That which the eye did not see and the ear did not hear and the heart did not ascend towards, these things God prepared for those loving Him.’ 10 Yet God revealed [the mystery] to us through His Breath. For the Breath searches everything, even the deep things of God.“

“Wisdom” is portrayed by Solomon in Proverbs 8 as a Person, begotten out of God at the beginning of the creation, and as God’s agent, a “master-craftsman” (sub-contractor), working beside God in forming the entire creation. Wisdom is portrayed as: “the LORD made me The Beginning of His ways for His works, He established me before time was in the beginning, before he made the earth: even before he made the depths; before the fountains of water came forth: before the mountains were settled, and before all hills, he begets me. The Lord made countries and uninhabited tracks, and the highest inhabited parts of the world. When he prepared the heaven, I was present with him; and when he prepared his throne upon the winds: and when he strengthened the clouds above; and when he secured the fountains of the earth: and when he strengthened the foundations of the earth: I was by him, master-crafting [ἁρμόζουσα], I was that wherein he took delight; and daily I rejoiced in his presence continually. For he rejoiced when he had completed the world, and rejoiced among the children of men.” This is precisely the passage Paul had in view, identifying the one Solomon called “Wisdom” as the Son of God.

Col. 1:15-18a (LGV) 15 “He is the image of the God who is unseen, first-produced of all creation, 16 because through Him everything was created, what is in the skies and what is on the land, the seen and the unseen (including thrones, dominions, principalities, and authorities). 13 Everything has been created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before everyone, and everything has been established together through Him. 18 And He is the head of the Body (the assembly), who is The Beginning, …” Notice that Paul called Jesus by the very title of the begotten Wisdom, “The Beginning.” That is, Jesus is the one whom Solomon called “the Beginning,” Wisdom.

According to Paul, “the Mystery” which was concealed from Israel, but fully revealed through Paul, concerned these three aspects: (a) how the Gentiles would become full recipients of the inheritance of the Land by being joined to Christ, the singular “Seed” of Abraham, (b) how this “Seed” of both Abraham and David could also be the “Son of God,” and (c) how that the Christ was “the Wisdom of God” (of Proverbs 8) who was God’s apprentice in creation, and “the Master of Glory” (of Psalm 24:7-10) whom the Jews crucified in their ignorance of this concealed mystery. The writings of Paul, and then John’s greatly reinforcing Paul, provide the mature and full revelation of all aspects of this formerly concealed mystery. The Abrahamic Faith and the Gospel of the Kingdom are incomplete and largely ineffective without the full understanding and proclamation of “the Mystery.” Paul’s desire was that the Gentiles come to understand the richness the mystery which has great benefit for Christians who fully comprehend and embrace it.

The Benefit of Understanding the Abrahamic Covenant: “Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints“ (Eph. 1:15-18 NKJ).

The Benefit of Understanding the Davidic Covenant: “that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge“ (Col. 2:2-3 NKJ).

The Benefit of Understanding “the Wisdom of God” as Christ: “But we speak the Wisdom of God in a mystery, having been concealed, whom God predetermined before the ages for our glory, who none of the principle [men] of this age have discovered. For if they had discovered, they would not have crucified the Master of Glory. But just as it has been written, ‘That which the eye did not see and the ear did not hear and the heart did not ascend towards, these things God prepared for those loving Him.’ Yet God revealed [the mystery] to us through His Breath.”

These three aspects of “the mystery” are treasures that God wants to share with all of His adopted sons and daughters because of their motivational value.

The Son of God was not a latecomer to the Abrahamic Faith. He said, “Before Abraham was, I exist.” He was and is both “the Founder and Finisher of the Faith,” the same Abrahamic Faith which was held by “the great cloud of witnesses” since Abel (Heb. 12:1-2). He was “in the beginning with God” (John 1:1), through whom God created all things (Prov. 8:22-29 LXX; John 1:3; Col. 1:15-18; Heb. 1:2). The Father mentored His only-begotten Son as they together fashioned what would eventually become the Son’s own inheritance (Psalm 2). The Son was “the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15) and “the express image of His Person” (Heb. 1:3) to Adam, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses; the one whom Isaiah calls “the Messenger of His Face” (Isa. 63:9). As God’s personal Agent, the Son led Israel out of Egypt into the Promised Land (Exod. 23:20-23; Judges 2:1-4; 1 Cor. 10:4,9; Heb. 11:24-26). The “image of the invisible God” was “The Messenger (Angel) of the LORD” in both Testaments (Mal. 3:1; Rev. 1:1) and was the sole personal “Mediator” between God and man since creation, and He continued to be so after He “became flesh.” No one has ever come to the Father except through the Son. No one receives “life” in the resurrection except through the Son (John 1:4; John 5:21,25-27). The Son of God has always been THE buffer between sinful man and the one and only Almightly and all-sovereign God. This role as intermediary from the very beginning was absolutely essential simply because “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” (Jn. 1:18).

The “mystery” was and is central to “the Faith once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3) for which we are called to contend. This is the true “Abrahamic Faith.” As Christians, we are called to “walk in the steps of THE FAITH of our father Abraham” (Rom. 4:12) while also “looking to the FOUNDER and FINISHER of THE FAITH – Jesus” (Heb. 12:2).

Go to: Part IV: Fellowship & the Mission