Introduction
Nothing excites the imagination like a tale of hidden
treasure. No lure is quite so irresistible as the prospect of a
fortune there for the finding. So much for the treasures of this
earth. The Bible also speaks about hidden treasure: “the mystery of
God; in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge”
(Col. 2: 2, 3). Note the words. Not some, not many, but
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Surely such amazing
treasure ought to fire the imagination of
all? Or are you more interested in the world’s fading baubles
(see Matt. 6: 19–20)? The test is “where thy treasure is, there will
be also thy heart” (v21).
Earthly treasure hunters often use maps to find their treasure. It
is no different in spiritual things. God’s map is the Bible and it
shows where the treasures of wisdom and knowledge should be sought:
“the mystery of God; in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom
and of knowledge” (Col. 2: 2, 3). Whatever is meant by the mystery
of God, it is
there that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are to be
found.
Mysteries and
The Mystery
The word
mystery is a transliteration of the Greek word
musterion. Its modern
meaning is something no one
understands, but its NT sense is
a thing hidden to most but revealed to some—a
secret. Hence “to you it
is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens, but to
them it is not given” (Matt. 13: 11).
The Bible speaks of several mysteries, including that of the olive
tree (see Rom. 11: 25), and that of lawlessness (see 2 Thess. 2: 7)
as well as those of the kingdom already mentioned. However, there is
one mystery that is so distinctive that it is often referred to
simply as “the
mystery” (Eph. 3: 3—my emphasis).
Of
the mystery, Paul says
“This mystery is great, but I speak as to Christ, and as to the assembly” (Eph. 5: 32). Thus
the secret,
the mystery, is not Christ by Himself, or the Assembly (the
Church) by itself—it is the two
together.
Strictly speaking, the word
assembly means
those called out, but that
is not the way in which it is viewed in the mystery. Nor is the
Assembly presented as the temple or the house. The view of the
Assembly in the mystery is as the body: “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” (Eph. 3: 6).
This “joint body” is Jew and Gentile having equal status in one
body. It is not that Gentiles are brought into the fold of Israel or
have Israel’s blessings, but that both are brought onto an
entirely new ground so
that together they are formed in Christ “into one
new man” ( Eph. 2: 15, my
emphasis).
But the mystery is not just the Assembly, but Christ
and the Assembly. How
is Christ presented in the mystery? The mystery does not involve
Christ as Lord or as Son, but as Head, hence: “he
is the head of the body, the assembly” (Col. 1: 18). Thus the full
thought of the mystery is Gentile and Jew in one body on earth
united by the Holy Spirit to Christ the Head in heaven.
The Revelation
of the Mystery
As long as the nation of Israel held a unique place in the
ways of God, (one that demanded separation from the Gentiles), the
mystery could not form part of the public testimony. Accordingly, we
read that the mystery of the Christ “to which silence has been kept
in [the] times of the ages” has in other generations “not been made
known to the sons of men” (Rom. 16: 25; Eph. 3: 5). It was “hidden
throughout the ages in God” (Eph. 3: 9). That is why there nothing
about the mystery in the OT, the Gospels or anything explicit in the
transitional period of the book of Acts. The concepts of the
Assembly as the temple, the flock and the house all have their roots
in the OT but the idea of the body of Christ is entirely absent.
While the truth of the mystery was made known to the other apostles
and then the saints in general (see Eph. 3: 5; Col. 1: 26) and
through the “prophetic scriptures” of the NT writers (Rom. 16: 26)
it was
first revealed to Paul
alone, encapsulated in the Lord’s words “Saul, Saul, why dost thou
persecute thou me?” (Acts 9: 4)—the Head in heaven identifying
Himself with the persecuted saints of His body on earth. Paul is the
only apostle to say that the mystery “has been made known to me”
(Eph. 3: 3), and, indeed, the truth of the mystery is
unique to his writings.
The Ministry of Paul
It is
Paul that says it was
“given me towards you to complete the word of God, the mystery which
[has been] hidden from ages and from generations, but has now been
made manifest to his saints” (Col. 1: 25, 26). The use here of the
word complete does not
mean that Paul was to be the last NT writer, but that his ministry
would fill out what was already there in outline. When Israel
crucified her Messiah and compounded that sin with her rejection of
the Holy Spirit’s testimony through Peter, Stephen and others, she
was temporarily set aside in judgment. The prophetic clock was
paused and a gap created in the ways of God. Into the gap came
Paul’s unique ministry to complete the Word of God. His ministry
gave a distinctive character to the Gospel such that he refers to it
as “my glad tidings” (Rom. 2: 16 etc.), which, if followed through,
leads to the truth of the mystery, accounting for the personal
absence of Christ at the present time.
In the context of the mystery, the Assembly is
described as the “new man” (Eph. 2: 15), where
new means a
different kind, rather
than freshness. The
servant taken up to record this ministry was similarly of a
different kind. The twelve
apostles knew the Lord on earth, but nothing in their ministry was
unique to the Assembly (the Gospel, the Kingdom, new birth, eternal
life, the government of God etc. are all rooted in the OT). Of all
the NT writers
only Paul speaks of
the Assembly as
the body of Christ or
writes concerning
the mystery. Now the
identifying mark of an apostle was to have seen the Lord (see 1 Cor.
9: 1), but Paul never saw the Lord on earth. Accordingly, he saw the
Lord in a
new (different)
way—glorified in heaven. Significantly, as already mentioned, the
Lord apprehended him on the
Damascus
road with the words “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” (Acts 22:
7), implying Himself as the Head in heaven, with the Assembly, as
His body, on earth. Thus, as ever, the vessel chosen for a
particular line of ministry was in keeping with the service to be
rendered.
So also is the
Christ
In Job 1: 8, God eulogised Job’s character and ways
to Satan: “Hast thou considered my servant Job …?” However, Job
still failed. Only when Christ was here could God declare that there
was a perfect man on earth: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have
found my delight” (Matt. 3: 17). Satan sought first to corrupt (see
Matt. 4: 1–11) and when that failed, to destroy that unique
Man.
When Christ was crucified, Satan must have thought that he had
secured his greatest victory. However, this only opened the way for
God to enact the “purpose of the ages” (Eph. 3: 11) ensuring that
the features of that blessed Man should be
continued here, not in Christ personally, but in His body. Hence
Paul’s words describing the Assembly as the body are: “so also [is]
the Christ” (1 Cor. 12: 12). The Assembly as the body is Christ
characteristically.
Naturally, a man is identified by his face, his head, but acts
through his body. The same is true of Christ. Everything that is
known of Christ practically in this world now is to be found in His
body. Thus the mystery involving the Assembly as the body is the
continuation of Christ here: “Christ in you the hope of glory” (Col.
1: 27).
The Importance
of the Mystery
Paul’s prayer at the end of Romans is “Now to him
that is able to establish you, according to my glad tidings and the
preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the [the] revelation of
[the] mystery” (Rom. 16: 25). These are the two things that are
needed for the establishment of the saints: the Gospel and the
mystery. We meet them again in Eph. 3: 8, 9: “to announce among the
nations the glad tidings of the unsearchable riches of the Christ”
and “to enlighten all [with the knowledge of] what is the
administration of the mystery hidden throughout the ages in God”.
The stability of the Christian rests
not just on the Gospel
but also on the mystery. In rough terms, the truth of the Gospel
fits a man for heaven; the truth of the mystery fits him for earth.
The Gospel shows me my place individually; the mystery shows me my
place collectively.
Wisdom
Solomon declared that “wisdom is better than rubies,
and all the things that may be desired are not equal to it” (Prov.
8: 11). Wisdom is the ability to know what to do or say in seemingly
impossible circumstances and the capacity to unravel divine enigmas.
How true it is that “Blessed is the man that findeth wisdom” (Prov.
3: 13), but as Job asked “But wisdom, where shall it be found?” (Job
28: 12). So where is wisdom to be had at the present time? Certainly
not in the “teaching of men” (Col. 2: 8). Even the truth of the
Gospel is not enough on its own to preserve the saint here
intelligently in the will of God. What is needed is the truth of the
mystery “in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of
knowledge” (Col. 2: 3). That is why Romans, that great epistle of
the Gospel, needs its appendix setting out the mystery (see Rom. 16:
25–27).
Wisdom and
Perfection
Now wisdom is intimately connected with
perfection. In 1 Cor.
2: 6, 7 Paul says “but we speak wisdom among the perfect … God’s
wisdom in [a] mystery, that hidden [wisdom] which God had
predetermined before the ages for our glory”. God’s wisdom is seen
in the truth of the mystery. But Paul had not been able to enlarge
on that truth to the Corinthians because they were “babes in Christ”
(1 Cor. 3: 1) and hence not perfect in the sense of
full–grown or
mature.
The Colossians (and Laodiceans—see Col. 4: 16) were
told that in the mystery “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of
knowledge” (Col. 2: 3). Paul’s ministry to them was to “present
every man perfect in Christ” (Col. 1: 28). Yet when John wrote to “the seven assemblies” (Rev. 1: 11—my emphasis), Colosse,
neighbour to Laodicea,
is not mentioned. The assembly there had ignored the apostle’s
injunction of “holding fast the head” (Col. 2: 19) and had gone.
The truth of the mystery is absent from Hebrews and
the thought of wisdom does not appear either. The Hebrew saints were
not up to such ministry. However, the concept of perfection is there
(see Heb. 5: 12–6: 12) for the Hebrews were in danger of abandoning
Christianity and going back to Judaism. While they were grounded in
essential truths identified with Christ on earth (“the beginning of
the Christ”) such as “repentance” and “faith in God”, the writer
urged them to go on to what belonged “to full growth” (Heb. 6: 1).
Christian maturity (or perfection) involves “intelligence in the
mystery of the Christ” (Eph. 3: 4). How many today hold the
foundational basics of the faith and little else? They do not know,
and do not care to know, anything more. Yet the truth of the mystery
is essential for full growth (see Eph. 4: 13)! People may have the
basics of the Gospel, but if they don’t go on, then like the Hebrews
they are in danger of going back—there is no standing still in
Christianity.
Wisdom and
Knowledge
The companion treasure of wisdom in the mystery is
knowledge. Today man’s
knowledge is increasing at a phenomenal rate (in line with Daniel
12: 4) but it is a knowledge of that which will shortly disappear
forever when “[the] earth and the works in it shall be burnt up” (2
Pet. 3: 10).
Real treasure lasts.
Paul desired “that ye may be filled with the full knowledge of his
will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” and in “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” (Col. 1: 9; 2: 2). His ministry was “to enlighten all
[with the knowledge of] what is the administration of the mystery”
(Eph. 3: 9). The believer alone has knowledge of real value. A
perceptive physicist once remarked to the author that ‘The more we
know, the more we realise how little we do know: our knowledge may
be increasing, but our ignorance is increasing faster’.
The Gifts
The sufferings and the glories of the Christ
(associated with a Christ on earth) were “searched out” (1 Pet. 1:
10) by the OT prophets, but they knew nothing of “the unsearchable
riches of the Christ” (Eph. 3: 8) in the mystery—riches available to
the Christian. In the same context I read “that now to the
principalities and authorities in the heavenlies might be made known
through the assembly the all–various wisdom of God” (v10). Thus the
body of Christ is where angelic beings are to view the wisdom of
God. Amazing thought!
In Ephesians the gifts are given for the building up of the body of
Christ “until we all arrive … at [the] full–grown man, at [the]
measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ” (Eph. 4: 13).
It is not full–grown
men, for only
One Man is in view. While
individuality is not lost sight of, it is what is corporate that is
presented. God’s measure of growth is Christ. In nature, stature is
linked to height, but Paul links it to fulness, this being the
practical working out of the mystery here. Hence it is that “we may
grow up to him in all things, who is the
head, the Christ: from whom the
whole body, fitted
together, and connected by every joint of supply, according to [the]
working in [its] measure of each one part, works for itself the
increase of the body to its self–building up in love” (vs 15, 16—my
emphasis). When the gifts are described in the NT, they are always
spoken of in relation to the Assembly as the body of Christ (see
Rom. 12: 3– 8; 1 Cor. 12: 7–12; Eph. 4:
7–16). The truth of the mystery is essential for spiritual
stability. Hence Paul declares that the gifts are exercised so that
“we may be no longer babes, tossed and carried about” (Eph. 4: 14).
But how many today are just that, carried here, there and everywhere
by the latest doctrinal fad? What is needed is the wisdom and
knowledge found in the truth of the mystery.
Holding Fast
the Head
A man’s head does not guide or advise his body, it
dictates to it—its rule is absolute. Now this figure of the head and
the body are applied to Christ and the Assembly in the mystery. That
being so, I can see no warrant for weakening the force of the figure
and hence the Assembly as the body is there to obey the
dictates of the Head
in heaven. In the words of Scripture it is “holding fast the head”
(Col. 2: 19). The very expression of “holding fast” suggests that
there are forces that would separate the two. In the previous verse
the Apostle gives examples of individuals not holding fast the head.
Notice the prescriptive clauses: “doing his own will in humility”
and “vainly puffed up by the mind of his flesh”. Humility may mark
the action but it is his
own will and thus not
that of the Head. The inflationary work of leaven is there in the
mind of
his flesh and not “the
mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2: 16). This is individual responsibility of
course, but it works out in the measure in which Christ is expressed
here collectively by His body. What we see too often today is the
body acting without the Head.
Conclusions
When it comes to divisions and differences of
opinions, what can match Christianity? Outwardly the Assembly is in
ruins with no visible unity. Uncertainty and instability mark much
of what claims to be Christian. All of this should exercise
believers greatly. In many eyes Christianity does not go beyond the
preaching of the Gospel and what is individual. To them the Gospel
is everything and they see nothing beyond it. While they may be
clear for heaven and eternity, they can hardly “stand perfect and
complete in all [the] will of God” (Col. 4: 12). Something more is
needed for the believer’s establishment—the truth of the mystery. It
is there that the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found, and
how these attributes are needed today! Without this distinctive
truth of Christianity, the believer is not full grown.
A final word. Ministry is like a signpost. In itself it will not
take you anywhere, but merely points you in the right direction.
Believers who read and listen to ministry but never search things
out for themselves are like people standing underneath a signpost
reading its directions but not moving and hence getting nowhere! I
have tried to give an outline of the mystery and the treasures it
contains using God’s map of the Bible. You must now dig out these
precious things for yourselves from the Scriptures, and follow them
through into practice.
