Let’s Get excited About The Mystery Of The Gospel

"My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ." (Col 2:2)

Pastor’s blog: Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF 8-7-09

Everyone loves a mystery. People are intrigued by mysteries. They want to solve a mystery before anyone. Thomas Jefferson’s friend and mathematician, Robert Patterson, encrypted a message over 200 years ago. People have been trying decode his text since then and finally someone has. It turns out that the mystery text is actually the Declaration Of Independence. Robert Patterson was a genius to make an encryption that would stymie our best minds for two hundred years.

But there is mystery that God has given, that could never be solved by even the most clever of people. It is mystery that no person could even have conceived, even if they were told. (Acts 13:41) It is mystery that must be revealed to us by God himself. And this mystery that was hidden from ancient times, has now been revealed. The mystery of God is Christ himself…Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Col 1:27) In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. When Christ dwells in our hearts, we are encouraged in heart and united in love. The other part of the mystery is that God wants to save all people, even the Gentiles. When Gentiles accept the gospel, then they, too, are indwelt by Christ. They have the same hope to reign with Christ in the heavenly kingdom. You may think that this obvious. But to millions upon millions of people, these facts are still a mystery and many aspects of this mystery may be still mysterious to you. My question is, why are we so excited about discovering the meaning of small mysteries, and ignore understanding the greatest and most glorious and ancient mystery of all, the mystery of the gospel of Jesus?