Stir Up Mystery

Romans 16:25-27

December 19, 1999

I like a good mystery, a good “whodonit,” because of the intrigue and secrecy. Searching out the plot exercises the thought processes to follow a number of possibilities until the real thing is determined. The opposite of a good mystery in my opinion would be a soap opera. All one needs to do there is know the sinful human nature and you could write the story line yourself. The best mystery I have ever searched out is the mystery of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. When Paul says, “Now to him who is able to establish you … according to the revelation of the mystery,” he is talking about God’s mysterious plan of salvation.

Now, a mystery usually does not give light to the “whodonit” all at one time. Today, our plan is to explore this mystery of God as He Himself reveals it through His Holy Spirit. If you have trouble getting the plot and the mystery, don’t worry, that is what a mystery is supposed to do. I promise, the mystery will indeed be resolved by the end of this meditation.

In our text, we see that the good Lord has a much different perspective of mystery than we do. Paul writes, “the mystery hidden for long ages past.” God set the mystery in motion already with his curse of the serpent in Eden. “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” God would unfold this mystery over a 4,000 year period. That is four millennia. The good news of this mystery is that it is powerful enough to span not only all the millennia of time, from beginning to end, but also for all of eternity. We might look at it this way: The Lord has been wise enough to stretch the revelation out so it would embrace all people of all time.

In other words, God planned our salvation from eternity. Ephesians 1:4 says, “He [God] chose us … before the creation of the world.” How did He do that? … That is the mystery. For at the creation of the world, the mystery was already hidden.

Over thousands of years as we mark time, the Lord gradually reveals the mystery Through Nathan, a prophet during King David’s reign, the Lord God said, (v 26; 2 Sam 7:1-11) “Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord says: Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up our of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’”

I would like to point a couple of things out from this reading that might help you to understand the mystery more clearly. Notice in God’s Word to Nathan that He is talking about a dwelling place for himself. The question for us is this: Where does the Lord God dwell? The other thing I’d like to point out is the connection between God’s Word and the prophet’s message. They are one and the same.

The mystery becomes more clear when the angel Gabriel makes his Christmas announcement to Mary. (v 26; Lk 1:26-38) saying, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you. … You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

Where is this kingdom today? If the word of God is sure and never changes, the kingdom must still exist, right? It sure does! But that’s part of the mystery that needs to be solved. And why is that important to us? Because, according to verse 25 in our text, the time for revelation is now. The time of our salvation is here. The kingdom of God has already been revealed. What foresight, or for that matter, hindsight of man, could ever devise such an intricate plan hidden from the eyes of natural humanity, yet revealed for all to see?

It is with great wisdom (v. 27) that God reveals himself and his plans for all humanity, to all. Even so, Paul is compelled to quote this scripture from Isaiah the prophet: “`No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’ but God has revealed it to us.”

In great wisdom God Himself has authored the salvation of all people.

In great wisdom God Himself becomes man so that there would be a perfect human sacrifice to appease God’s wrath against sin.

In great wisdom God Himself goes to the cross, a symbol of foolishness to natural man, but a most remarkable display of wisdom for the whole world to see.

In great wisdom, God Himself confounds the wise of the world with Jesus’ resurrection. Why? Paul tells us, “For since death came through a man, [Adam] the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”

In great wisdom, God Himself commands preaching of the written prophetic message to reveal His most evident plan of salvation and obedience to all, for all (v. 26).

Paul calls it the dynamo of God, the gospel, and God’s revelation, which Paul says is the “power” the dynamo of God for the salvation of all. Need I say that a dynamo generates power. And if that power is channeled into man, what is at work in us who believe? Again Paul tells us the answer, “That power” he says “is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at this right hand in the heavenly realms.”

So, you see, the Gospel is God’s power that establishes faith in us (v. 25). And that Gospel is the message of Jesus Christ. There is none other!

There doesn’t need to be. God’s Gospel has the dynamic, living, power to bring all people to faith and salvation (v. 26).

In obedience to that Gospel of God, people continue to come to hear, and be touched, and be saved. Parents obediently bring their little children into God’s great and wise plan of salvation through Holy Baptism because they have heard the good news and believed by the working of God’s Holy Spirit. People still gather around that great and marvelous message to be assured, comforted, and strengthened through the foolishness of preaching and teaching. People continue to search out God’s great mystery through personal study of the written Word because they hunger and thirst after righteousness and are refreshed in the same.

People of every origin in every place can now see what God has planned for so many millennia. It has been evident to all since Christ came in human flesh that his kingdom was right here, right now, with us, and in us who believe. That is what God reveals through His own Son, Jesus Christ. In Him alone salvation comes to all humanity to rescue all from the power of sin and death.

This is the clear prophetic and apostolic message that Paul speaks of when he says, “Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, bu now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him—to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! My friends in Christ Jesus, the mystery has been made know to you and me. Let us rejoice in all that God has done and is doing for us this very day. Amen.