The Mystery

 

To whom God wills to make known what are the glorious riches of this secret among the nations, which is; Christ among you, the expectation of glory. 

Colossians 1: 27, Concordant New Testament

Have you ever wondered about God?  Wondered why it is that He does what He does?  I have.  In the past, growing up in a Christian home, I was told to pass these feelings off as simply being "God's will."  That worked for awhile, until I had even more questions on the way God did things.  Now, I understand that there are ultimately more than a few things we will ever understand about the Lord, but I feel that He does His best to reveal Himself to the willing.  I've never wanted to know God as a mystery, as something I could not understand nor explain.  Yet, if you read from the apostle Paul, this is exactly how the nations of the earth view the truth of Christ Jesus.  It's Paul who proclaims this truth to be the "Secret among the nations."  Do you know this secret among the nations?  Has it been revealed to you as it has me?  The more people that I talk to these days, I understand why it is that Paul referred to the indwelling Christ as the mystery.  Many Christians just don't understand.  In fact, they would rather embrace the Jesus they know than the one they don't know.  Yet it is the Christ which we don't know that hold the key to our deep relationship with Him.  It is this Jesus we have never known who is the mystery which Paul spoke to.  Of course, he also explained the mystery for any and all willing to accept it.  What is this mystery among the nations?  Christ in you.  That's it.  The Jesus whom you've never known is none other than the indwelling Christ you've never known.  Too many believers hear of Jesus dwelling in them and immediately began to worry if they are worthy.  They accept the church mantra that Jesus Himself can never dwell amongst sin and therefore believe that He could never dwell in sinful man.  Our own sin, it seems, is the stumbling block preventing us from knowing Jesus as He is.  Until we resolve our sin, Jesus will continue to be apart from us, or so the institutional church mantra goes.  But what if that sin which impedes us has already been dealt with?  If you knew that you are no longer guilty of sins past, wouldn't you willingly embrace the Jesus you've never known?  Yet the mystery remains.  

With Christ have I been crucified, yet I am living; no longer I, but living in me is Christ.  Now that which I am now living in the flesh, I am living in faith that is of the Son of God, who loves me, and gives Himself up for me. 

Galatians 2: 20, Concordant New Testament

To be perfectly honest, I'm not really certain how sin could continue to be a stumbling point for so many believers.  Mainstream church theology teaches us that Christ Jesus was crucified on the cross so that our sins would be wiped away.  This is one of the core beliefs of Christianity.  So I pose the question, how many sins did Jesus miss?  How about this, how many times do we need to crucify Jesus?  I'm not just rambling here, but seeking answers to the mystery.  If you cannot accept the indwelling Christ because of your past sins, how is it that you can accept one of the core teachings of the church?  If you believe in your heart that Jesus gave Himself for you, then why does sin continue to be an issue for you?  I believe that the real mystery here is how believers can continue to resurrect something that's dead.  That's right, as a follower of Jesus you are dead to sin {Romans 6:11}.  Sin is no longer an issue.  However, the church continues to sell the idea that we are to beware of sin.  I get it.  It's hard to accept what we know in our hearts to be true when we are continually told something different.  In order to understand the mystery we need to break through many years of church teaching.  As I said, there is a reason by which Paul referred to the indwelling Christ as a mystery.  The mystery will remain until Jesus is revealed in you. 

Knowing this, that our old humanity was crucified together with Him, that the body of sin may be nullified, for us by means to be still slaving for Sin, for one who dies has been justified from sin.  Now if we died together with Christ, we believe that we shall be living together with Him also, having perceived that Christ, being roused from among the dead, is no longer dying.  Death is lording it over Him no longer, for in that He died, He died to sin once for all time, yet in that He is living, He is living to God.  Thus you also, be reckoning yourselves to be dead, indeed, to sin, yet living to God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. 

Romans 6: 6-11, Concordant New Testament 

~Scott~