July 4th, 2018

The Mystery Revealed

“…the mystery which has been hidden from ages and generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.  To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.  Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.  To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.”  Col. 1:26-29

What is the mystery?  It is the gospel message given to the Gentiles – the simple yet utterly profound truth of Christ in us, the hope of glory.  This very Christ we have identified in the previous pages, this Christ is IN US.  He is our hope of glory.  We have hope because we have Christ IN US.  We experience glimpses of glory because we have CHRIST IN US.  We are no longer alienated and enemies in our mind by wicked works, because we have CHRIST IN US.  We have been reconciled through the atonement made possible by Jesus Christ, and that atonement is still in effect for us.  After salvation, the one truth we should all apprehend in our spirit is CHRIST IS IN US, THE HOPE OF GLORY!  Hallelujah!

Let us go deeper into this truth.  Paul writes that Christ is in us.  He doesn’t write that Jesus is in us, or even that Jesus Christ is in us.  The apostle very clearly states it is Christ.  In fact, if we go back to the start of chapter one, we find Jesus Christ and the Lord Jesus Christ is written three times (in verses 1 through 3).  The apostle uses the name Lord once in verse 10.  Paul uses the expression Christ or Christ Jesus, six times.  Why would Paul employ the use of Christ more often?

To understand the reason, let’s review what the name Jesus Christ means.  We recall that Jesus means Savior, as found in Matthew 1:21: “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”  This suggests that when we read the name Jesus in Scripture, it denotes Him as our Savior.  He came to save us.  The child was given a name and His name was Jesus.