Yesterday we thought about "WHOSE Gospel Is It?" Today, we will think about "WHOSE Mystery Is It?" ‘Mid-Acts-hyper-dispensationalists’ divide ‘the mystery’ into ‘different programs’ .... just like they divide ‘the gospel’. They claim to be ‘rightly-dividing’ .... but actually, they are ‘wrongly-dividing’. ‘The mystery’ belongs to God and Christ --- and NOT independently (Col 2:2), as we will see.
Paul wrote of ‘the mystery of Christ’ .... as both a servant and prophet of God (Rev 10:7, Rom 1:1, Titus 1:1, Acts 13:1, 1 Cor 13:2). The old testament prophets realized that the grace they prophesied was for saints in the future (1 Peter 1:10-12). Paul got it explained to him personally from the Lord:
Eph 3:1-4 For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,
2 If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:
3 How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words,
4 Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)
‘The mystery of Christ’ was not clearly comprehended ‘in time past’ the way it is now understood:
Eph 3:5 Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men,
as it is now revealed
unto his holy apostles (plural, not just Paul)
and prophets (plural, not just Paul)
by the Spirit (not by Paul);
Paul clearly defined just what that secret was ....
we are ‘fellow-inheriters’ ....
what ‘they’ inherit, now ‘we’ inherit WITH and AMONG them that are sanctified by faith in Christ (Rom 11:17, Acts 20:32, 26:18) ....
we are all one body (Rom 12:4-5; 1 Cor 10:17, 12:12-13; Eph 2:16, 4:4; Col 3:15) ....
now we are ‘in Christ’ with those before us (Rom 16:7) ....
we partake with them:
Eph 3:6 That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs,
and of the same body,
and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:
What the Gentiles did NOT have in time past --- now we have!
God broke down the middle wall of partition (Eph 2:14), so now we have access (Eph 2:18, 3:12; Rom 5:2) to everything we were shut off from then.
We are not segregated anymore. The unbelieving Jews were mad about our position of equality, being welcomed ‘clean’ into the family of God. They hounded Paul for preaching our ‘no difference’ acceptance:
Col 4:2-4 Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;
3 Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance,
to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds:
4 That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.
The same Greek word [musterion] is translated both singular (the mystery) and plural (the mysteries). I am not saying that there is only ‘one mystery’ but I am saying that the mystery/mysteries belong to God and to Christ, and they two (actually three, including the Holy Spirit) are one God:
1 Cor 4:1-2 Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ,
and stewards of the mysteries of God.
2 Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.
In the Revelation of Jesus Christ, the apostle John wrote that the mystery will culminate at the time of the 7th (the last - 1 Cor 15:51-52) trumpet. God will conclude the mystery then, just like He said He would (Rom 11:25). ‘Mid-Acts-ers’ want to separate ‘the mystery of God’ from Paul, or make it a ‘different’ mystery than that of Paul ---- to maintain their paradigm .... even though Paul also wrote of it:
Rev 10:7 But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound,
the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.
‘Mid-Acts-hyper-dispensationalists’ make two or more of many things.
Rather than see ‘ONE’ .... UNIFIED mystery in Col 2:2 ----
they find two or three (maybe God and the Father being either one or two
.... and then Christ, makes two or three).
However, God settled the issue of ‘WHOSE’ mystery it is:
Col 2:2 That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of
the mystery of God,
and of the Father,
and of Christ;
The mystery of GOD .... IS the mystery of the FATHER .... IS the mystery of CHRIST.
They do not each have their own separate, personal, individual mysteries.
This is David Dowell, saying, "Think about it!"
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