Opus 2024-131: Mystery

I have a friend who likes to emphasize Paul talking about mysteries.  When he talks about Paul and the mysteries, he is talking about a specific doctrinal position focusing on the revelation that Paul received from Jesus.  He is talking about Paul revealing something totally new.  And he has his reasons for proposing that.  Most of those reasons have to do with fitting into his system of theology.  That, of course, is my opinion offered without charge.

I would suggest that when the word mystery is used in the Bible, it does not refer to some secret knowledge.  I would suggest that mystery in the Bible refers to things that we can proclaim and share, but not to even begin to totally understand.  Paul uses the term in regard to the resurrection.  I need to look at some of the other uses of the word mystery, but it does not mean secret knowledge.  In modern terms I would think of the trinity and incarnation.

When my friend quotes what the secret knowledge means, everything he comes up with I can find reference to in the Old Testament except for a clear statement that the cross finished something.  When Paul says in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, I can find reference to that multiple times in the Old Testament as God declares that He is the God of all people and that all nations will come to him.  When it comes to grace and faith, I can find lots of references in the Old Testament about how we are saved by God‘s power and by our belief in him.  And so forth.

So I submit that mystery is not some secret that God was hiding from us, but a glory that we will spend eternity delving into.  I don’t know if it applies or if it’s just spiritualizing, but take how God refused to show his face to Moses, because Moses could not handle seeing God’s face.  That will not be true in eternity. And the same thing may apply about many of the realities that God has hinted that and has laid the foundation for.

Eternity is going to be ________________ (fill in unknown English word that is a million times more awesome than awesome).

homo unius libri