“The mystery of God.” Doesn’t that sound, well, rather mysterious? Is it one of those things that is not revealed to us, that we should just leave in God’s hands? Does this mean that we can never really know what Jesus is waiting for? Well, perhaps in one sense, that is true, but the New Testament gives us enough explanation of this subject that we can unravel this mystery to a great degree.
Paul wrote several places about the mystery of God, the mystery of Christ, the mystery of godliness, the mystery of the gospel, the mystery of the faith, and the mystery of God’s will. See Romans 16:25, 26: Ephesians 1:9; 3:3-9; 6:19; Colossians 1:26, 27; 2:2; 4:3; 1 Timothy 3:9, 16. These all are apparently essentially the same thing, that which John called “the mystery of God.” From reading these verses, we find out that before Paul’s day, the mystery was kept secret, but was revealed in his time. Paul wrote about “the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.” Colossians 1:26. In the clearest possible language, he wrote a few verses later, “God’s mystery, which is Christ.” Colossians 2:2. Jesus Christ was and is the ultimate revelation of God’s heart, God’s plan of salvation, God’s mystery. “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: he was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.” 1 Timothy 3:16. What is the mystery of God? It is Jesus, first and foremost. He has revealed to the world and to the universe the thoughts of God that have been unknown to other intelligent beings throughout all eternity.
However, Revelation 10:7 says that the mystery of God would be “finished,” or “fulfilled.” Does Jesus have more to do in the plan of salvation? Didn’t He declare, “It is finished,” long before John wrote the book of Revelation? What else did He need to do? This question brings us back to a central teaching in the Adventist church about the investigative judgment going on in heaven before Jesus returns to earth. We believe that Jesus did all He needed to do on earth while He was here, but there is a work that He is working to complete in heaven even as you are reading this now! But, we don’t need to get too complicated in this matter in order to understand what the mystery of God has to do with us personally and with the mission of the church.
Jesus told His disciples while He was still on this earth, “...whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” John 14:12. The only sense in which His disciples can be said to have done greater works than Jesus did is in the sense of greater geographic coverage in their work. They didn’t do purer or holier works than Jesus did, nor did they save more people by their lives or death, but they did end up traveling to places that Jesus did not personally visit, and they carried the gospel further than He had been able to do in His ministry in Palestine. But, they did so because Jesus went “to the Father.” Jesus was able to be closer to His disciples when He was in heaven than when He was on earth, because through the Holy Spirit, He was able to be in His disciples. He was not with them, but He was in them, closer than when He walked by their sides on the paths around Israel. And this miracle is what is involved in the mystery of God being finished.
“...this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27. The mystery of God is Jesus Christ, and the mystery of God will be finished when Christ is in His people.
“Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.
“It is the privilege of every Christian not only to look for but to hasten the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, (2 Peter 3:12, margin). Were all who profess His name bearing fruit to His glory, how quickly the whole world would be sown with the seed of the gospel. Quickly the last great harvest would be ripened, and Christ would come to gather the precious grain.” Christ’s Object Lessons, page 69
Christ is waiting for His character to be reproduced in His people, and when it is, He will come back. No wonder the same writer also wrote, “Character building is the most important work ever entrusted to human beings; and never before was its diligent study so important as now.” Education, page 225. The development of a Christ-like character is a subject running throughout the Bible, closely tied in to the character of God Himself, and the call for us to glorify Him.
So, when the church reflects the character of Christ fully, He will return to the earth on the biggest rescue mission of all time! This is the event that God is waiting for, the event that will transpire before Jesus returns. God is not waiting for a specific date to arrive, but He is waiting for a specific event to occur among the church here on earth.
Let me be a little bit open and vulnerable with you for a while here. In teaching from the book of Revelation for several years, my classes on Revelation 10 ended here. When I had made it clear that the mystery of God being fulfilled consisted of Christ’s character being reproduced in His people, I figured that my job was done, the lesson was passed on. I was so blind, missing perhaps the most-obvious conclusion that this study should have led me to!
Shame on me! Shame on me for thinking that having the character of Christ consists of eating the right foods, avoiding the wrong foods and drinks, avoiding improper forms of entertainment, dressing modestly, following the eight laws of health, and a whole bunch of other rules and regulations! I honestly have believed that when the church gets its act together, and everybody moves out into the country, becomes vegans and stops wearing jewelry, Jesus would come back! Shame on me, and shame on the people who supported me in my misunderstanding! May God forgive me for leaving such a legalistic, imbalanced impression on my students.
What is the basic character of Jesus? It is love, of course. And how was that love manifested? We can say much about how Jesus demonstrated the love of God, but undergirding His entire life, we see that Jesus was intensely interested in bringing salvation to those who did not have it. The spirit of Christ is a missionary spirit. Jesus left the comfortable, luxurious surroundings that were most-conducive to His spiritual health and growth, and entered the mission field! Jesus is the ultimate missionary! Jesus left heaven to come to a sin-filled, disease-infested mission field, to take the ultimate risk of failure and rejection, in order to bring the good news of the gospel to those who needed it. How could an individual possibly have the character of Jesus without having the character of a missionary? How have we come so far that so many of us have seemed to come to the conclusion that having the character of Christ can happen while we are living separated from contact with people as much as possible? We might not all be able to travel overseas or to another culture, but we can have and demonstrate the missionary spirit wherever we are, and if Christ’s church as a whole has Christ living in them, “the hope of glory”, there will be many more overseas missionaries than we see today. Jesus was a cross-cultural missionary, crossing cultural barriers far greater and far more difficult than any modern missionary could be called to cross on this planet.
Shame on us! Shame on so many of us in the Seventh-day Adventist church who have believed that character development consists in primarily personal matters of what we eat, how we dress, and whether we have a television or not. Shame on us for reducing the kingdom of God to “meat and drink,” for having a religion consisting of “touch not; taste not; handle not.” See Romans 14:17 and Colossians 2:21. What we eat, drink, and whatever we do, is to be done to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31), but let us not forget that giving glory to God is a public matter, a matter especially involved in evangelism. See Isaiah 60:1-3; Revelation 14:6, 7; Isaiah 40:5. Eating right, dressing modestly and healthfully, which Bible translation to use, and having a television or not are secondary or tertiary issues that should be submitted to the great goal of our lives, which as members of the church of Jesus Christ, should be spreading the knowledge of our Saviour as far as possible. If I eat well and stay healthy, then, with that health that God gives me, I can learn from Jesus how to be loving like He is, and I can go to other places, visit other peoples, and share the beautiful gospel with them. But, my Seventh-day Adventist friend, let me tell you that a born-again Christian can be an effective missionary even if they have never heard that such a thing as a health message or dress reform exists. Private, personal religion must be in place for the character of Christ to be reproduced in me or in any other, but private religion in those who are already Christians is not sufficient to bring about the end of this world as long as over 12,000 different people groups have never heard of the message of the three angels which is so central to the teaching of the Seventh-day Adventist church.
Multiple times, Paul ties in the preaching of the gospel to other people groups (Gentiles) to the mystery of God. Notice these texts: “...the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith.” Romans 16:25, 26. “When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” Ephesians 3:4-6.
And if Paul’s statements are not clear enough, John himself, in Revelation 10 itself, refers to the proclamation of the gospel in a cross-cultural context when he records the angel telling him, “you must prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.” Revelation 10:11.
Ok, now we’ve explored the subject of the mystery of God to some degree. This was only one part of the key. There are two more pieces remaining. We need to understand them better in order to get a full picture of what Revelation has to say about why Jesus waits.
2 comments:
not with us, but in us. there is so much comfort and power in knowing that. a friend of mine recently told me that '(insert whatever you do for a living) is just the vehicle for the ultimate goal of loving people and showing them their place in light of God's glory. i thought of that while reading through this.
and i really like the new layout of your blog :) looks a lot fresher.
Thanks for the words, Joar. I don't think there would be a Harrals' Herald if not for all of your encouragement and advice and good example! Yes, may He be in, and not just with.
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