Paul, in his letter to the Colossians, refers to… the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but is now made manifest to his saints (Col 1:26).
In thinking about that some time ago I was taken with one translation of “the mystery” (musterion; The holy secret). It means a truth that cannot be discovered by human reasoning, but only by divine revelation; regardless of the fact that it is hard to understand. Here Paul makes the point that while the Christian faith includes great and glorious secrets, they are all “open” secrets that are open to everyone. For example, as we study the Word of God it is clear that the church was concealed in the Old Testament, but has been fully revealed in the New Testament.
As you know by now, for me the church has been more fully revealed as the bride of Christ, which is modeled for us in the Old Testament in the lives of many brides. Go back and consider Eve. She represents the formation of the church while Rebekah displays the faith of the church as represented by Abraham sending his servant (representing the Holy Spirit) to find his son a bride. If you listen to the discussion Rebekah had with the servant, he never talked about himself, he only talked about the father and the son. And so does the Holy Spirit, He never talks about Himself.
But the key point I want to make is that Rebekah’s journey was a step-by-step revelation of Isaac. It’s easy to imagine that the long trip to Isaac was filled with many questions about him as she learned who he was. I wonder if the servant told her about Isaac’s symbolic “death and resurrection” on Mount Moriah? I am pretty sure that the farther she moved away from her previous home and family the more the expectation grew with respect to meeting her bridegroom, and it is not unreasonable that her love for him grew as well. And that set a key for us in understanding the “holy secret.”
We are on our journey to meet our bridegroom face-to-face, and along the way the Father has given us His Counselor, the Holy Spirit, to answer our questions and reveal Jesus to us. We just need to remember that while the journey down here may be a long and tiresome one, unlike Rebekah, we already have our bridegroom with us…
Col 1:26-27 the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. 27 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.
Christ in you, the hope of glory… how can we ever grasp the truth, the dimensions of that? How can we ever understand this Holy Secret that is being revealed to us. Jesus not only came to earth in human flesh, He has chosen to take up residence in each member of His bride… Christ in you!!! As one commentator so aptly put it … “He who once died as me now lives in me.” What a Holy Secret… What an incredible truth… No wonder Paul refers to it as the riches of the glory of this mystery. This is truly no ordinary mystery, no ordinary truth… it is truly a rich and glorious truth.
We need to be asking the Holy Spirit all about our bridegroom as we journey onward toward our heavenly home. The more we know about Him it is certain the more we will fall in love with Him… that is no longer a holy mystery, it is a holy truth and a holy certainty for the bride!