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Scripture Reading: Col. 1:24-27; 2:2; Eph. 3:4; John 20:22; 1 Cor. 15:45
The Bible, the greatest book on earth, is the most complete book, revealing many things concerning God, the universe, and man. A person today can learn more than the greatest philosophers of the past simply by reading the Bible. However, there is one thing in the Bible called a mystery, which is something that is hidden and difficult to comprehend. An example of a mystery is the physical human life. We know that we have something called life, but no one has ever seen it. We recognize that a machine does not have life, and we know that death is the absence of life. However, we still cannot exactly define life. A medical examination cannot locate life within a person. This indicates that life is a mystery. It is unquestionably real, yet it is hidden, invisible, and beyond understanding. Just as there is a mystery in our physical body called life, there is also a mystery in the Bible. Many great teachers have read and thought that they understood the Bible, yet they never saw the mystery in the Bible.
Colossians 1:24-25 says, “The church; of which I became a minister according to the stewardship of God, which was given to me for you, to complete the word of God.” Minister means “one who serves.” Attendants on an airplane meet the needs of the passengers, serving them with food and drink. Paul was a minister because he served the churches with Christ. Paul’s stewardship was to complete the word of God. Before Paul’s writing, much of the Bible already existed, but without Paul’s writing, the word of God would not be complete. Paul’s fourteen Epistles are the completion of the word of God. Many Bible translations, including the King James Version, do not adequately translate to complete the word of God in verse 25. Paul’s books are as crucial to the Bible as our heart is to our body. A person’s heart is not easy to see. Many Bible readers do not know that the heart of the Bible is Paul’s writings.
Verses 26 through 27 say, “The mystery which has been hidden from the ages and from the generations but now has been manifested to His saints; to whom God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles.” According to Greek grammar, the word of God at the end of verse 25 is in apposition to the mystery at the beginning of verse 26. The completion of God’s word in Paul’s fourteen Epistles reveals the mystery, that which is hidden and beyond understanding.
Verse 27 goes on to reveal that the mystery is Christ in us. Christ in us is the mystery, the completion of the word of God. In today’s age people reject superstition and demand scientific explanations. However, Christ being in us is a mystery. It is not something that we can substantiate by our physical senses or mental comprehension, yet we believe it. It is not superstitious or scientific, but it is real.
For nearly two thousand years countless Christians have read the Bible but have not seen the mystery revealed in Colossians 1:26-27. When most people read the Bible, they see only outward rules and regulations. These things are easy to see, like a person’s nose, ears, and arms. However, like a person’s heart, the mystery in the Bible, which is Christ in us, is real and living but difficult to perceive. This mystery was “hidden from the ages and from the generations.” Even the Old Testament patriarchs, kings, and prophets did not know the mystery of God. Eventually, God raised up Paul and sent him to complete the word of God.
Christ in us is the heart of the Bible, and it is also the heart of our being. Before we believed in Christ, we were lifeless corpses. When we repented, believed in the Lord, and called upon His name, a heart was transplanted into us. That heart is Christ in us.
When I first came to the United States, I found that the Christians were not aware of two crucial things. First, very few knew that they had a human spirit, and hardly anyone talked about the human spirit. Second, I discovered that most Christians in the United States did not believe that Christ is in the believers. When I began to teach that Christ is in us, some began to publish books to oppose this teaching. They said that I made Christ small by saying that He is in us. They believed that because Christ is unlimited and great, man is too small to contain Him. Romans 8:34 says that Christ is at the right hand of God, but verse 10 of the same chapter says that Christ is in us. This is a mystery. Moreover, Ephesians 4:6 says that the Father is in all, which means that the Father is in us. John 14:23 indicates that the Father and the Son make a mutual abode with us. Finally, in John 15:4 the Lord said, “Abide in Me and I in you.” Christ abides in us, and we abide in Him. The meaning of abide implies that Christ is not only in us but also remains and makes His dwelling in us.
Christ being in us is the mystery and the completion of the word of God, the heart of the Bible. Christ is in every believer. Colossians 1:27 says that Christ in us is the hope of glory. We can express Christ because He is in us.
Colossians 2:2 says that Christ is the mystery of God. Because God is hidden, invisible, and beyond understanding, He is a mystery. As the embodiment of God, Christ is the mystery of God (v. 9). Because Christ is in us, God is in us.
In Ephesians 3:4 Paul mentions the mystery of Christ. Verse 6 reveals that the mystery of Christ is His Body, the church. The church today as the Body of Christ is a mystery. Unbelievers cannot understand why we believers love one another even though we are of different ages and nationalities. We are joyful and love one another because Christ is within us.
God is a mystery, Christ is a mystery, the church is a mystery, and even the believers are a mystery (John 3:8). Our acquaintances may not understand why we regularly attend church meetings. The mystery in the Bible is Christ in us, the mystery of God is Christ, and the mystery of Christ is the church.
Christ is a wonderful person. There are many expressions and titles used to describe Christ in the Bible. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Word is Christ (v. 14). It is wonderful that, as the Word, Christ was with God and also was God. Furthermore, according to verse 14, “the Word became flesh.” This flesh was the man Jesus. Thus, Christ as the Word is both God and man; He is a wonderful God-man. Our limited mind thinks of God and man as distinct and separate. However, God and man became one in Christ.
John 1:29 says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Christ is the Lamb of God. According to Exodus 12, a lamb is for redemption. Again, it is wonderful that Christ, who is God, could become the Lamb of God. Christ’s name is Wonderful because we cannot explain Him (Isa. 9:6).
Christ died on the cross as a man and also as God. We cannot explain how God could die. Charles Wesley wrote in a hymn, “Amazing love! how can it be / That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? / ’Tis mystery all! The Immortal dies!” (Hymns, #296). The One who died on the cross was God, the eternal Word who became a man and as the Lamb of God took away our sin.
After dying on the cross and being buried for three days, Christ rose from the dead. On the night of His resurrection, He appeared to His disciples in a way that we cannot comprehend. The disciples were in a room, and all the doors were shut because the disciples were afraid of the Jews (John 20:19). Suddenly, Jesus was standing in their midst. Because He did not come through a door, the disciples thought that He was a spirit, or a ghost (Luke 24:37). But He said, “Peace be to you,” and He showed them His hands and His side (John 20:19-20). Was Christ physical or spiritual? If He was physical, how could He come in when the doors were shut? If He was spiritual, how could His disciples touch His hands and His side? We cannot explain this — it is wonderful.
John 20:22 says, “He breathed into them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.” When the Lord disappeared, He did not go away, for He had entered into His disciples. Just before His crucifixion He had told His disciples that He was going away (13:33). When Peter and the other disciples heard this, they were saddened. The Lord told them, “Do not let your heart be troubled...I am coming again...I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, even the Spirit of reality...He abides with you and shall be in you” (14:1, 3, 16-17). The Lord was not satisfied merely to be with His disciples outwardly. He explained that He needed to go in order to be able to enter into them. To enter into His believers as life, He had to go through death and resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). After rising from the dead, Christ was able to enter into His believers as the Holy Spirit.
First Corinthians 15 deals with resurrection. Verse 45 says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” The last Adam, who was Christ in the flesh, became the life-giving Spirit through death and resurrection. Second Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord is the Spirit.” The Greek word for Spirit, which is pneuma, may be translated also as “breath.” As the Spirit, the Lord is the holy breath; He is like the air. Because we are surrounded by air, when we breathe, the air gets into us. As a result, we are in the air, and the air is in us. Likewise, when we pray and call on the Lord’s name, He enters into us. We abide in Him, and He abides in us.
Today Christ is not only the Word, God, a man, and the Lamb of God but also the life-giving Spirit. As the Lord of all (Acts 10:36), He is in the heavens, but as the life-giving Spirit, He is in us. Thus, He is at the right hand of God (Rom. 8:34), and He is also in us (v. 10). Christ is both in the heavens and in us, just as electricity is both in a distant power plant and simultaneously in many buildings. We worship Christ as the Lord of all, and we enjoy and experience Him as the Spirit. Because Christ is the Spirit, He is able to be in us as our life (Col. 3:4). Christ being in us is the mystery that is the heart of the Bible.
As Christians, we are not disciples of a philosopher but receivers of Christ. Light bulbs shine because they are receivers of electricity. When they receive electricity, they spontaneously shine. The Christian life is the shining of Christ from within. Christ is within us as our life, life supply, power, strength, wisdom, patience, kindness, love, and everything. When we live Him, He expresses Himself through us. Then when we come together, we are the church, the Body of Christ, for Christ’s expression. Christ is not a religion but a living person. We do not care for outward regulations. Instead, we have Christ in us, which is the mystery that has been hidden from the ages and from the generations but now has been manifested to us and has become our experience. Because we daily experience this mystery, we are living members of the Body of Christ.
