Jesus & Paul, Part 11

Loving the Christ-life!

Revelation Of The Mystery

By Tammy Lacock

“Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began.” (Romans 16:25)

Warren now focuses on the Apostle Paul’s “preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery” in Romans 16:25, a mystery God had kept hidden since the beginning of the world. Christ revealed this mystery only to Paul, and he is passing it onto us.

From the time of his conversion on the way to Damascus to his experience in the Arabian desert (roughly three years), Paul preached Christ and him crucified as our means of salvation. Yet here in Romans, by revelation of the Holy Spirit, he takes his gospel of Jesus Christ a step further and shares with us the mystery within it. The mystery is this: Christ is now alive and well living in every believer. By Him living in us, the Word of God is fulfilled, and we are complete.

“Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:25-27)

Paul knew that he must preach his gospel and his revelation of the mystery with great boldness because this was a gospel no one had ever heard before, not even the apostles and the early church. He came up against much resistance especially from the early church because they had been preaching the Kingdom message, preached by Jesus, commingled with Judaic law. And here Paul, who was previously persecuting Christians, is now raised up by Christ Himself to preach a new gospel of grace, that we are saved by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and nothing we do or don’t do. Adherence to the law is no longer required for salvation. And on top of that, Christ now lives in us! This was an extremely difficult truth to grasp back then, and it is still a problem for us today because churches today are commingling law and grace.

In 2 Corinthians 3:11-17, Paul tells us the law has been abolished by his gospel of grace, that Christ fulfills the law.

All we need is Christ, the Christ Who now lives in us. It’s no longer a mystery! May the Holy Spirit renew our minds to this revelation of Christ and our brand-new life in Him.