The Mystery of God

Introduction

For some years I have observed that emotional darkness descends upon me when I am simultaneously dealing with multiple marriage crises, this may involve the courts, domestic violence, emotional estrangement and so on. Allied with the relentless push for gay marriage [including within some sections of the Anglican Church to which I now belong] these severe spiritual stresses have drawn me back to reflect on one of the deepest themes in scripture, the “mystery of God”. I am fully convinced that the problems in culture and Church today are so deep they will never be healed apart from a much fuller revelation of the divine mystery.

As an excessively intellectual younger believer I openly denied the place of “mystery” in Christianity. God turned all this upside down when I visited Argentina in 1995 passionately seeking to bring the spirit of revival in that nation back to Australia.  In the midst of the intensity of that time a Japanese apostle and evangelist [Paul Ariga] prayed something over me that at the time seemed very strange. “The mystery is Christ in you the hope of glory.” God seemed to be saying that “the mystery” of the indwelling Christ, rather than spiritual power, was the key to the open display of his glory in the world, which we call revival.

A few days later I was in one of the most spectacular and scenic locations in the world, the Iguassu Falls. As I was praying for a massive outpouring of the love of God I felt led to ask for a “secret” revelation. Early the next morning I was praying on top of my hotel’s rooftop overlooking an awesome scene. The river valley was covered by a fine cloud of mist that had condensed overnight from the spray of the falls whose ominous roar could be heard in the background. As the sun started to rise brilliantly above the hills a strange atmospheric phenomenon took place, in every direction I looked into the mist a series of concentric circles in all the colours of the rainbow appeared. This was a prophetic sign of the many splendoured wisdom and glory of God[1]. Whilst the physics of the event were fairly straightforward[2], I was puzzled as to why a human shadow (mine) always appeared at the centre of the circles of glory. The answer to this puzzle is the content of this message and the proper reply to all our questions about humanity.

Glory in the Beginning

God created humanity in his image to share as far as possible in his own glorious life (Isa 43:6-7). This is why he paired male and female together in the covenant of marriage, a one flesh union of diverse and distinct glories that would reflect and share in the glory of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The brilliant wisdom of God’s creative design meant that in the beginning the first couple were enclosed in the splendour of divine life. This did not last.

From Eden on Satan has attacked marriage in order to rob humanity of the intimacy of sharing in the glory of God (2 Pet 1:3-4). His goal is to sabotage the divine purpose in creating. Marriage breakdown wounds the heart of God in a particularly deep way (cf. Ezek 16; Hos 6:7). The LORD however had a greater plan in store than the splendours of the first creation.

The glory that Adam and Eve shared had strict limits; it was a pure gift of created grace to innocent children. To mature in glory the first couple needed to obey the Word of their Father and rebuke the tempter (cf. 1 Pet 1:14). Instead they rebelled losing their original glory and plunged into death (Rom 3:23; 1 Cor 15:22). God’s ultimate plan however was to impart to humanity a glory which could never be lost, one that is “imperishable, undefiled and unfading”; nothing short of  “sharing in the divine nature” itself (1 Pet 1:4; 2 Pet 1:4). The journey to this new humanity with its elevated level of glory is “the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to God’s people…which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:26-27). The dimensions of this mystery are clearly expounded in the hymn found in 1Timothy 3:16.

Christ the Mystery

“Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: Hewas manifested in the flesh,
vindicatedin the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations,
believed on in the world, taken up in glory.”

While the word “great” is vastly overused in modern culture the greatness Christians confess concerns the pivotal act of God became a human being. The true greatness of God could never be measured by anything he ever did but only by what he became. The Incarnation, God becoming a mortal human being, is not some wondrous miracle in the world but an eternal transformation in God himself. The eternal Word and Creator of took on the “flesh” of weak mortal humanity (John 1:14; Rom 8:3). The site of the revelation of the mystery of God is a feeble human frame (John 6:63). Jesus is God taking the way of lowliness, a lowliness that will terminate in the cross (Rom 8:3; Phil 2:7-8). That the Creator God manifests himself pre-eminently in humility is something overwhelmingly difficult to receive.

What sort of an immortal being would willingly immerse himself in our world of suffering, sorrows and death? Ordinarily people long to be stronger and smarter, but in the Incarnation God became weak and dumbed down. The “mystery” is that the centre of the greatness of the character of God is totally concentrated in the humanity of Christ. If the early church fought to affirm the deity of Jesus, today we must learn the great confession is that in Christ God “was manifested in the flesh”.

If Jesus was “manifested in the flesh” he was also “vindicated in the Spirit”. This speaks of a radical translation from the realm of weakness, sin and death into the realm of God’s supernatural life by resurrection. In raising Jesus from the dead the Holy Spirit witnessed to Christ’s true identity as Son of God in power (John 15:26; Rom 1:3-4). The Spirit testifies to Jesus’ innocence in contrast to the condemnation of the highest human court.  The term translated “vindicated” is normally rendered “justified”[3]. Jesus needed to be “justified” in the resurrection because he took the position of ungodly humanity on the cross. The terrible cry ““My God, my God why have you forsaken me?”” (Mark 15:34) reveals that Christ shared in fallen humanity’s separation from God (2 Cor 5:21; Gal 3:13; 4:5). Whilst the suffering and death of Jesus testifies to our loss of the glory of God, the resurrection is the start of a whole new creation, first for Christ, then for us (2 Cor 5:17).

Paul goes on to say that the risen Christ was “seen by angels”. Once Jesus was raised from the dead he ascended into the heavenly world where his great triumph was beheld with astonishment by the angelic world (Acts 1:9-11; Heb 1:6 Cf. 1 Pet 3:19).  Heaven is now the home of a human being who is higher than all the members of the spirit world (Eph 1:20-21; Heb 1:4-14). From this point on in the hymn Paul expands on the impact of the “mystery” on the world of humanity, Christology shifts to mission.

Jesus has been “proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world”. A similar sequence is found in Romans which teaches that “the revelation of the mystery” brings about “the obedience of faith” in all nations (Rom 16:25-26). The Jesus whom the apostles preached is the “cosmic Christ”, for the revelation of “the mystery of God’s will” is that “all things in heaven and on earth” will be united in Jesus (Eph 1:9-10). Nothing and no-one had been left out of God’s plan in Christ; in particular Gentiles were now included on equal terms with the ancient covenant people of God (Eph 3:1-21). In language similar to our Christological hymn, “God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Col 1:27 ESV). Charles Spurgeon preached this, “Do you know, my dear unsaved hearer, what God’s estimate of the gospel is? Do you not know that it has been the chief subject of his thoughts and acts from all eternity? He looks on it as the grandest of all his works.” I wonder if we share God’s amazement at the fact that each of us is indwelt by his beloved Son and that this is the pledge of the future glorious transformation of the whole universe.

The hymn concludes with the statement that Jesus was “taken up in glory” (1 Tim 3:16). When Christ returned to heaven our humanity ascended in him into the glory that he shared with the Father from before the foundation of the world (John 17:5). In Christ humanity has been “taken into God” (Athanasian Creed). God is now accessible to man and man to God without limit. All that the Father possesses now belongs to one of us (Matt 11:27; 28:18; John 3:35); these are the dimensions of the mystery (cf. Eph 3:14-20). The glorified Christ is the realisation of the goal of all creation (Col 2:2). To the degree and depth we “look to Jesus” (Heb 12:2) everything concerning our shared humanity becomes clear. He is the single lens of human meaning (cf. Rom 5:14). All of life can be seen through this lens.

The dominion over the earth originally granted to Adam and Eve (Gen 1:26-28) has been extended in Christ to all authority in heaven and on earth (Matt 28:18). The work Adam was given (Gen 2:16) reaches perfection in Jesus’ total obedience to the Father (Mark 6:3; John 19:30). Other husbands may fail, but in quoting words from the marriage in Eden Paul points us to the ultimate wedding, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” (Ephesians 5:31-32). The coming of the perfected man to live in us means that every element of our humanity will one day be glorified in the presence of God (John 18:30; 1 Cor 15:49; Heb 2:10; 5:9). Such a transformation is God’s engaging purpose NOW (2 Cor 3:18).

Glory in Us

Glorification is a process most Christians seem to be only faintly aware of. I was visiting a paraplegic friend in the rehab hospital this week and when I asked her what I could pray for she simply replied. “That God would continue his glorious work in me.” That her focus is on becoming like Christ, and not on the temporary alleviation of her personal suffering, is her glory. How aware are we of the dimensions God’s glorious work in us to make us like Jesus (Rom 8:29; Eph 3:18-19)? To explain why most Australian Christians are poorly aware of “Christ in them the hope of glory” (Col 1:27) I need to refer to an unparalleled scene of amazement in the book of Revelation.

In a vision John beholds a crucified and resurrected human being, a “Lamb standing as slain” (Rev 5:6) receiving equal honour with God. “And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honour and glory and might forever and ever!”” (Rev 5:13 ESV). The crucifixion of flesh has blazed the way for humanity into eternal glory. Just as Jesus so emphatically declared to his forlorn disciples on the road to Emmaus, ““Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?””(Luke 24:26 ESV). As a crucified and redeemed human (Rom 6:9-10) Jesus stated with absolute authority that the only way for human nature to be lifted out of its degradations was through the carrying of all our pains on the cross. Suffering is not the cost of glory, it is the way of glory. This “strange perspective” runs like an electric current through the New Testament[4].

Everyone loves Paul’s exposition in Romans on the cry “Abba Father” and how “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ”, but few treasure his subsequent words; “provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” (Romans 8:16-17 ESV). In consoling the Ephesians from his prison cell the apostle shares deep wisdom, “So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.” (Eph 3:13 ESV). Peter is no less emphatic, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 1:6-7 ESV). “But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” (1 Peter 4:13-14 ESV).

The secret hidden inside the being of God from eternity (Eph 3:9), is that only voluntary suffering as an act of unconditional love for wicked humanity can reveal our limitless worth (Rom 5:6). Only the mystery of suffering as the way of glory contains the revelatory power to transcend the depravations and degradations of this fallen world. The totally free but infinite suffering of Jesus on the cross for lost and rebellious humanity reveals our boundless value to God. This way of the passion is both Christ’s glory and ours. Words are inadequate to express the depths of the wisdom of God, but deep down all humanity knows that suffering is the medium of the actualisation of glory[5].

Separated from his fiancée and a few months prior to his execution on the personal orders of Hitler, pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote from his prison cell, “It is not a religious act that makes the Christian [like church going], but participation in the sufferings of God in the secular [ordinary] life. …not in the first place thinking about ones own needs, problems, sins and fears, but allowing oneself to be caught up into the way of Jesus Christ… ‘Pain is a holy angel … through him men have become greater than through all the joys in the world’[6] … The pain of longing, which often can be felt physically, must be there and we shall not and need not talk it away. But it needs to be overcome every time, and thus there is an even holier angel than the one of pain, that is the one of joy in God.” Not despite but because of his agonies Bonhoeffer understood that the triumph of joy over pain was the unselfish motivation of Christ, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb 12:2 ESV)

Death to all that is humanly desirable, enjoyable and beautiful for the sake of another’s benefit and glory is the greatest power in the universe, unconditional love. Jesus understood these things absolutely, which is why his power upholds both this universe and the one to come (Heb 1:3; 2:5). Since these things are so great, why do we see so little of the glory of Christ in the church spilling out into the world (Eph 3:20-21)? The answer has to do with shame.

Hiding the Glory

From the days of Adam and Eve (Gen 3:7) every human effort to look better in the eyes of others reveals a deep underlying sense of failure to be all we were made to be. Shame is a sense of the loss of the glory of God. Like the little boy in Hans Christian Andersen’s tale of The Emperor’s New Clothes Satan can see right through our pathetic attempts to cover our nakedness with our own economic, intellectual, physical and religious achievements and mercilessly manipulates the fallen human conscience with a message of inadequacy.  (Hence the success of all advertising, consumerism, fashion etc.) The single God-provided remedy for shame is to be clothed with Christ. “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” (Rom 13:14 ESV). You “have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” (Col 3:10 ESV).

The revival which I prayed for in Argentina will come to Australia when God grants us a revelation of the restoration of the glory of humanity in Christ. This will be accompanied by spontaneous confession and repentance (Acts 19:18), the eager laying down of all our best ambitions and highest gifts in order to be covered only by Christ. A little pastoral experience will teach you that there are many secret sins in the Church; greed, gluttony, lust, laziness, envy, addictions; these however are not our central problem, the thing which keeps the Church under the judgement of God (1 Pet 4:17) is that our act of holding on to these things obscures the revelation of “Christ in us, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27).

Conclusion

The Holy Spirit is anguishing (Gen 6:5-6) over failing Christian marriages and the relentless push for the acceptance of homosexuality; these are satanic attacks on the intimate glory for which God created our humanity. The depth of the evil of this onslaught is so profound that nothing less than a revelation of the greatness of the mystery of Christ can deliver Western Church and society from the fearsomeness of the judgement of a holy God. Only a revelation of God’s unconditional love in the greatness of the new humanity formed in Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension into heaven can push aside the normal petty concerns of complacent Christianity and release obedience to the total demands of the gospel of grace. When the Church receives such a new vision of Jesus then, to quote Paul Tournier, “…suddenly there dawns upon us the vast, entire endowment of God’s free love and forgiveness, and of the reconciliation He offers us in Jesus Christ. It is this which bowls us over, frees us from the burden of guilt, transforms us, and provokes ‘metanoia’[repentance]”, This is the discovery which has always, in spite of the preaching of the churches, to be made anew. It is this discovery which periodically in history gives rise to an outburst of infectious faith, mass conversions and irrepressible joy.”  It is the expansion of the presence of the glory of Christ in the Church which brings what we call revival, and it is for this we must pray.