There are discussions and claims today about discovering new “revelations” of God by accessing the “spirit realm” through visions, dreams, and other subjective personal experiences, insights into things beyond what is recorded in the New Testament. One of the so-called “Facebook prophets,” for example, divines the future from baseball scores. Perhaps God has been holding back information from His people until now.
The Bible certainly
does refer to the “Mysteries” of God, His unexpected ways that differ radically
from human wisdom, truths that have been hidden from men in times past.
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Moreover, Jesus declared that not everyone can understand the “mysteries of the kingdom.” It is God who reveals the deep and hidden things to whomever He pleases, but the New Testament also teaches that what was once hidden is now been revealed in God’s Son, especially in his Death and Resurrection.
God did
not disclose the true understanding of His redemptive plans until the
appropriate time. The “mystery kept silent in past ages has been
manifested,” namely, the “obedience of
faith for all the nations” made known through the “proclamation
of Jesus,” the one whom He sent “in the fullness of time” - (Romans
16:25-27, Galatians 4:4, Ephesians
2:9-22, 3:3-11, Colossians 1:25-27).
God certainly
revealed truth in the Levitical system with its animal sacrifices, but that
earlier word was partial and incomplete. - “In many parts and many ways of
old” God spoke to Israel “in the prophets,” but now, “upon the
last of these days,” He has spoken to us “in His Son” - (Hebrews
1:1).
The
revelation of Who God is has been available to everyone since the Death,
Resurrection, and the Ascension of Jesus and the outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost.
He is not now withholding that knowledge until some future generation or
company of “forerunners” with special insight.
The
prophets foretold the salvation that would be revealed by the Messiah, but
they did not comprehend the details of the promise. They mediated this
information “not to themselves
but to us, which things have now been announced to you” - (1 Peter 1:10-12).
The “mystery” previously concealed was revealed in Jesus at the appointed season, and above all, in his death and resurrection. The “Law and the Prophets” were vital parts of God’s revelation. However, in them, many of His “mysteries” remained hidden.
The rituals
of the Mosaic Legislation have been fulfilled in the “Word made flesh,”
and many of the things of the old order have been relegated to the status of “shadows
and types.” To return now to those outmoded forms would mean bondage under “elemental
things,” regression to an older and incomplete stage of God’s redemptive
plans - (Galatians 4:8-11, Ephesians 6:8-12, Colossians
2:16-17).
His “mysteries”
are unveiled in Jesus, and they are available to everyone who hears the “Word of the Son.” Moses
gave the Law, but “Grace and Truth came to be in Jesus,” the one in whom
the knowledge of the Father is revealed.
There is,
therefore, no justification for seeking to obtain a deeper understanding of God from
secret knowledge or mystical experiences. By God’s grace and His written Word, believers
may behold the glory and fullness of Yahweh in the “face of Jesus Christ.”
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