Romans 16:25-27 -- Advent 4
Notes
Transcript
Stir-Up Mystery!
Stir-Up Mystery!
Grace to you and peace, from God our Father and from the Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
In 12 days, many people will be excited about doing an everyday, ordinary thing. We will tear a page off the calendar. Then it will be the year of our Lord 2021. Most scholars agree that our Lord was born no later than the year 4 B.C. And now from His birth to today we are already into the third millennium. The point is, man measures time with a crooked stick and makes a fuss over a mere 1,000 years. Our God has a different economy of time.
In our text today, we see that our good Lord has a much longer perspective. A mystery first presented to Adam and Eve, not fully revealed until Jesus was born some 4,000 years later. The good news of God’s plan for salvation is powerful enough to span not only all the millennia of time, but also all of eternity.
Today’s Epistle reading is structured and worded as a brilliant doxology, a proper response to God’s action in answering our prayer of anticipation — “Stir Up Mystery.”
25 Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages 26 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— 27 to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.
The Anticipation of the Mystery was Created by God.
The Anticipation of the Mystery was Created by God.
St Paul uses the Greek term musterion. A “mystery” needs revealing: hence it creates an atmosphere of anticipation.
Paul also testifies that for “long ages” (v. 25) God kept this mystery a “secret.”
The author of Hebrews (1:1) that God spoke in various ways and in fragmentary fashion during the days of the prophets.
So, even the prophets did research on the revelations given them, wondering just who would accomplish all that was being predicted and what kind of age it would be when God’s musterion — “mystery” — would be fully unveiled (1 Peter 1:10-11).
Paul uses the word aionios for the period that we refer to as “BC” to underline the fact that the centuries of expectation seemed to be very long for God’s faithful children.
This era began with the giving of the Law, and this could be seen as a parenthesis in history — Romans 5:20.
The Law’s instruction — Galatians 3:24 — seemed burdensome and wearisome, especially as its demands were spelled out in the “traditions of my fathers” — Galatians 1:14.
The faithful remnant in Israel wondered when God would fulfill His promises given to Abraham, for example, long before the Law was revealed — Galatians 3:16-17.
The faithful realized that the Law could not produce life; therefore, it could not give them any hope or peace.
The Anticipation of the Mystery was Answered by God.
The Anticipation of the Mystery was Answered by God.
The coming of Jesus Christ (Christmas) was the unveiling of God’s secret plan. Eph. 3:4-5; Col 1:26-27; and 1 Cor 1:7-8,
Jesus Christ is, therefore, known as the logos — WORD — in John 1:1
He came in His Person as the fulfillment of the OT
In this way the “prophetic writings” of verse 26 — the Bible of Paul’s day — turn God’s “mystery” into an open secret.
As a result, Christians read the OT much differently than the adherents of Judaism — 2 Corinthians 3:14-16.
In art, this difference is illustrated by the figures of two girls: one with eager, open eyes looking straight into the face of the Savior, the other with a veil over her face.
Even from the OT it is as clear to Christians now as it was to Paul that God’s righteousness — His gift to us in Christ — was made known quite independently of the Law — Romans 3:21.
The revelation of and by Jesus Christ is the subject matter of Paul’s Gospel.
Paul dared to speak of it as “my Gospel” because the Good News had come to him by God’s revelation of His Son — Galatians 1:16 — and, also, to differentiate it from the false gospels that were in circulation at the time.
This Gospel is the kerugma from and about Jesus Christ.
Both the expectant mood of OT prophecy and the satisfaction of the coming of Jesus Christ were brought about by the “command of the eternal God” (Rom 16:26).
26 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—
It’s as if he meant to say, “The time of waiting may have seemed long, but please remember that God is eternal. His plan has a long past, and its fulfillment is worth waiting for.”
The same God who once created light by His command shines in our hearts to give us the knowledge of His glory in Jesus Christ - 2 Cor. 4:6.
His command includes His determination to have that knowledge proclaimed to all nations.
And this proclamation is to bring people to the “obedience of faith,” which is about accepting God’s promises instead of trying to do “works of the law.”
Through Christ Jesus we now live by and for God, who is not only willing but able to make us stand firm (v. 25) amid the changes and the chances of this present world.
Conclusion: An individual may get excited when the odometer in his car rolls over from 999 to 1,000. But that change is only as important as the person makes it. The odometer is of value in measuring the history of a machine that will soon rust in a junkyard. Living in the age of fulfillment as we do, the anticipation of the “Stirring-Up of Mystery” has been answered. The milestones in our salvation history has eternal significance. Here is something to get excited about—the mystery hidden for long ages is now revealed by our wise God in his glorious Son, Jesus Christ!
In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.