bible study
It’s a Mystery
By Linda Rex
December 24, 2023, 4th Sunday in Advent, Christmas Eve—I don’t know about you, but I love a good mystery, the old-fashioned kind, like in an Agatha Christie novel. As you read the text, you try to pay attention to the clues and guess who the villain is before the author unveils the truth at the end of the story. A good author throws about lots of red herrings to distract us or divert us from the truth, and sends us down rabbit trails which keep us from seeing the true perpetrator of the crime.
I wonder if the reason we love mysteries so much is because God loves a good mystery. Indeed, God is the One who set us all in the middle of life’s greatest mystery, and the apostle Paul refers to this mystery in his letters. In our passage for this last Sunday in Advent, Romans 16:25–27, Paul refers to this mystery at the end of his letter to the church in Rome, as he closes with a doxology of praise to God.
Paul says that “the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past” has been revealed. The prophetic word gave us many clues about this mystery, but it was not fully disclosed until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Eph. 3:3–9, Paul calls it the “mystery of Christ” which the Spirit revealed to the prophets and apostles, and that it was for many generations, he says in Col. 1:26, hidden in God but was now made manifest to his holy people.
What is this mystery? In Colossians 1:26, Paul puts it this way: “this mystery among the Gentiles [non-Jews], which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” This is why in Ephesians, he calls it “the mystery of Christ.” The “revelation of the mystery” was the fulfillment of the promise God made over and over, beginning in the garden and on through many centuries to his people ancient Israel, that the Messiah would come and save them.
Even though his people believed this salvation had something to do with land and an earthly kingdom, the Scriptures pointed to a Messiah who would usher in the age of the Spirit, when God would free his people from their proclivity to sin and turning away from him. What was overlooked as well was the many passages which pointed to the redemption and salvation of the nations—people from all nations would be saved and come to worship the Lord.
The mystery revealed to us in Christ is that Father, Son, and Spirit, before time began, determined that all humans God created would be able to share in the divine life and love, and that this would require the self-giving of the Son of God through incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection. This free gift of love and grace was always in God’s plan for every human being, and even though we as human beings did not know this gift was planned for us, God gave us lots of clues along the way, and when the time was right, fulfilled his plan in and through Jesus Christ. Looking again at our passage in Romans, we see that the ability to see this mystery is given to us as a gift. It requires a revelation that only God can give us, and he does this through Christ by his Holy Spirit. We receive it through repentance and faith in Christ.
What you believe about who Jesus Christ is, is important. To see and acknowledge Jesus Christ for who he is as both Lord and Savior opens the way for us to comprehend the mysteries of the kingdom of God, and enables us to grasp this greatest mystery: God has come to us in Christ, joined us in our human flesh, shared an authentic human existence with us, died the death we all die, and rose again, bringing our human flesh into the divine life and love, and sending the Spirit so we all can individually begin to participate in God’s life and love by faith in Christ. As we come to faith in Christ, which is a gift God gives us by his Spirit, we begin to see more clearly all the clues that led to the revelation of this mystery, and we grow in our understanding of the mysteries of the kingdom.
This Christmas season, my prayer is that you experience in a way you never have before, this mystery of Christ in you, the hope of glory. May you have a profound personal revelation of this mystery and begin to share this good news with others. Merry Christmas!
Our Father, thank you for the gift of your Son and you Spirit by whom we may come to share life with you now and forever in your love and grace. Grant that we may see in a way we never have before that Christ is in us, and we are in Christ, and Christ is in you, by your heavenly Spirit. Amen.
“Now to God who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed, and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the Gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith—to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever! Amen.” Romans 16:25–27 NRSV
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A New Capacity
By Linda Rex
PENTECOST—As a pastor, I am often burdened by the struggles and suffering of those I minister to and of those I encounter as I move about in my community. I would love to help people find freedom from the things which enslave them and to find peace, joy, and renewal in a relationship with Jesus Christ.
But I realize how easy it is to allow the distractions and interests of life to occupy my own mind, time, and attention to the place that I lose focus on the things of God. Any relationship becomes stale or divided if not enough attention is given to it. To become indifferent to another person rather than deeply connected with them can easily happen without our realizing it if we are preoccupied with other things.
When we read about the disciples after the resurrection, we find them gathered together in community continuing in their relationship with Jesus Christ through prayer. As a group they were focused in prayer and they remembered that Jesus had told them they were to be witnesses to his life, death, and resurrection. But Jesus had told them to wait—to wait until they were clothed with power from on high.
I have no doubt that Peter could have told a powerful story of his own personal redemption, of how he had betrayed Jesus but Jesus had forgiven him and recommissioned him to tend the flock of God’s people. Matthew could have told about how Jesus found him in the marketplace, a despised tax collector, and told him to follow him, and how Jesus had changed his life and given him a new purpose. Mary Magdalene could have shared how Jesus had freed her from her many demons and given her a new life of service and obedience to her Lord.
But Jesus had told each of them to wait. He had told them that telling his story in their story would not be enough. Something more was needed.
God had come in the person of Jesus Christ, had taken on our humanity, had forged a new human existence for us, and had taught his disciples how to love and serve others in the way God meant us as humans to live. But Jesus was touching only a few people’s lives while he was here on earth. From the beginning God had intended the transformation of the entire cosmos. He had meant a change in the very substance of our human existence which would heal, restore, and renew all things.
For this reason, after his death and resurrection, Jesus needed to return to the Father and send the Spirit. Pouring out this gift of God’s presence and power on all flesh gave each human being the capacity for the new life Jesus forged for us while living in our humanity. And Jesus was frank about the reality that the world would not receive this gift. He knew and understood our human capacity to rebel against God and to resist the gracious love of the Father.
It seems that apart from our Abba’s work, we do not receive this gift and walk in the truth of our existence as his adopted children. Our tendency is to listen to and embrace the lies of the evil one instead and to seek our life in this broken existence rather than in the One who created us and redeemed us. We prefer to design and assume our own self-created identity rather than embracing the one given to us by God—to be his image-bearers, children who love him and one another with a self-sacrificial, humble, serving and gracious love.
What we don’t realize is that apart from this precious gift of the Spirit and the work of God’s power and presence in our lives, we are living as if something is missing. There is a capacity we do not have which we need so that we are able to truly be the people God intends us to be. We are not truly ourselves apart from the indwelling Spirit, for when the Spirit dwells richly within us, God dwells within and we participate in the realization of the kingdom of God. We experience in those moments what it describes in Revelation 21:3-5 where God comes to dwell with man and Jesus works to make all things new.
In Genesis, we read how Adam and Eve walked in the garden of Eden with God, talking with him and sharing all of life with him. Being in God’s presence and experiencing a personal relationship with our Creator is what we were created for. But more than that, we have been given through Jesus Christ by the Spirit the very real presence of God within our very being. Now God dwells within us permanently rather than merely being with us.
The power and presence of God within is lifechanging and transformational, but we will not experience the reality of this as long as other people and interests command our attention and focus. If our dependency is upon the things of this life, we will not depend upon God and his Spirit. Due to God’s grace, we can survive quite nicely for a while doing this, but we will miss out on the capacity to fully participate in our real human existence as children of God. We will struggle to truly express the nature of God in our words and actions and any witness we may give to the person and work of Jesus Christ will be limited and ineffective.
Attending upon the things of the Spirit through the spiritual disciplines such as prayer, worship, silence, sharing, bible study, gratitude, and meditation opens us up to the Spirit’s work within. Slowing down and taking time to focus on Jesus Christ allows the Spirit fill us and renew us for the work we have been given—to testify to the goodness and love of the Father expressed to us in his Son Jesus Christ. Just as the early church learned to wait for the promise of the Spirit before moving ahead on mission with Jesus, today believers learn to rest in Christ and to wait upon the Spirit before attempting to do ministry in this broken world.
Today, how can we pause and make room for the Spirit’s work within? How can we give undivided attention to the Lord Jesus Christ through prayer and the other spiritual disciplines? Perhaps all that is needed is simply silence and rest. God is present and real at all times—we simply need to awaken to his presence and power within, and to allow the Spirit to renew, inspire, teach, and lead us.
Thank you, Abba, that through Jesus you have sent your Spirit. Awaken us to your presence and power at work within us. Enable us to experience renewal, refreshment, and healing by your precious Spirit. Holy Spirit, fill us anew and empower us to bear witness to Jesus, and to live and walk in truth in Jesus’ name. Amen.
“And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.” Acts 2:4 NASB
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.” John 14:12 NASB
“For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” Romans 8:14 NASB
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