What is the mystery? Alan Naas Oct. 27,2024

This is an obvious question when someone is presented with the doctrine of the Body of Christ as a mystery. It is an important question and a very valid one. There are five important points in answering the question:

  1. The meaning of the word mystery is not a riddle or puzzle or something to be solved, but it is a profound secret, something wholly unknown and cautiously kept concealed. In the Bible it is anything in the character or attributes of God, or in the administration of divine providence, which is not revealed to man unless and until God deems it proper in His plan and purpose for the ages. It does not mean something mysterious.

  2. This mystery can only be spiritually revealed to a saved man by God. (Eph 1:17-19) (Col 1:9) Only a saved person has the Divine Spirit. Paul calls these saved persons “saints”. Then that saved person must acknowledge and believe the secret by faith. Paul calls these “the faithful in Christ Jesus”. His good works going forward are evidenced by how this secret has confirmed his new position in Christ and his position in God’s overall plan. The way he approaches life, love, worship, faith, and hope will change in accordance with the new position.

  3. The Mystery of the Body of Christ is especially of interest to those who are seeking the truth of God’s word. It is of little interest to those not seeking further knowledge of Christ.

  4. If the person does not see and acknowledge that a major paradigm shift took place at the end of Acts, they are not likely to see any differences from what they were taught by traditional Christianity.

  5. As soon as this secret was revealed to Paul, Satan also knew it. Satan immediately went to work to prevent anyone from understanding this secret. He is a master of deceit and lies. He works mostly in religions and perverted bibles. He promotes traditions and doctrines of men for the sole reason to keep us from knowing the truth of the Scriptures. Christ represents the truth. Truth is a holy thing.

    Everything about this mystery is spiritual and invisible. This is unlike any visible earthly church or religion. The Body of Christ is not a denomination or a church or a religion. It is made up of individuals chosen by God before the overthrow of the world as part of a calling-out (ekklesia) who “are being built together for an habitation of God in Spirit” (Eph 2:22). It is not an assembly because we are not all yet assembled together. We will be assembled together with Christ our Head when He appears in glory and we appear with Him in glory (Col 3:4). This is different from “the rapture” at His second coming.

    Does God keep secrets? If He does, then why does He? God has an enemy. God is at war with an enemy. God does not want to reveal all His plans to the enemy. Whenever the enemy thinks He has the upper hand, God reveals a secret aspect of His plan to regain the upper hand.

    Jesus told His disciples that he spoke in parables so that they would know the mysteries (secrets) of the kingdom of heaven and the others would not know them. Mysteries in the Bible are not for everyone. That is why this mystery of the Body of Christ is not revealed to everyone. It is only revealed by God to whom He chose before the overthrow of the world. I cannot reveal this mystery to anyone. I can only point it out. Paul wanted to make all saints see the mystery, but only God can do that.

    Every saved person is eligible to be a member of the Body of Christ. But many refuse to accept and acknowledge that the Body of Christ is a post-Acts secret revealed to Paul and is a special callingout for a heavenly hope and purpose with a prize. Ephesians 1:1-14 defines the revealed secret called the mystery of the Body of Christ. What is contained in these fourteen paragraphs has never been before in Scriptures said about any of the people of God. This is something completely new and different. It is an advanced position in Christ for any saint who can accept it and acknowledge it. It is a blessed promotion. It has nothing to do with Israel. It is a high calling of God. It is not an evolution of the body in 1 Corinthians 12:12-20.

    Paul explains it best in Philippians 3:12-14 12

    Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. 13Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

    Even Paul had to forget what he had been taught before in order to learn new things from the Lord. In Ephesians 1:15-23, the writer, Paul, prays that God would give the reader the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the precise knowledge of Him: the eyes of your mind and heart having been enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of your calling as explained in Eph 1:1-14, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the most holy heavens, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe it, according to the working of the power of His might, which he used when He raised Christ from the dead.

    It takes the same power to make us see, believe, and acknowledge this hidden secret that it took for God to raise Christ from the dead. What an amazing thing to comprehend!

    As we read Ephesians and Colossians we will see many other aspects of this secret. This secret was hid in God from the beginning of the world until it was now revealed to Paul (Eph 3:3), hid from ages and from generations, but is now made manifest to His saints (Col 1:26).

    John 16:13 tells us that “when He the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth…and will show you things to come.

    This Body of Christ is a spiritual concorporate (equal) body with Christ as our Head. It is not like a physical body as in 1 Cor 12, which body of Christ has members in particular including eyes and ears and parts of the head which are allegories for gifts of the Spirit.

    The intent of the Body of Christ is explained in Eph 3:10-12. 10

    To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the ekklesia (Body of Christ) the manifold wisdom of God, 11According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: 12 In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.