Armando Gutierrez | Associate to IOM's Founder
One of the things I find consistently among human beings is how we can use and apply words while at the same time remaining ignorant or clueless as to their proper or actual meaning.
Before we can address the mystery, we need to look carefully at the word "gospel." Only then can we be positioned to consider its mystery. The phrase "The Mystery of the Gospel" was penned by the apostle Paul. The immediate context is found in his epistle (letter) to the believers in the city of Colossae, written in the first century, while eyewitnesses of the event that ratified and ushered the New Covenant and divided human history into B.C. and A.D. were still alive. This event, the crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, seating, plus the day of Pentecost constitute the essence of the entire mystery of the gospel.
Let's start with the word gospel. In the English language, the word gospel comes to us from the hyphenated Anglo-Saxon term "god-spell," which means "good story." In other languages, its derivation from the Latin word Evangelium and the Greek Euangelion, and in those languages, the meaning is "good news" or "good telling.
The mystery of the good news is rooted in God's eternal plan and purpose. It originated in the heart and mind of our Creator. All of the glories of this mystery are in seed form in Genesis, chapters one and two. If you pay close attention, it starts after God speaks beauty and order into a darkened, chaotic and empty planet. And after creating various types of living creatures and planting a garden Himself, He creates a boy and a girl in the boy. These seeds appear in full bloom at the end of the drama we call "history." The boy and the girl reappear, but now as the King and Queen of heaven and earth. See chapters 21 and 22 of the book of Revelation. So, this mystery is primarily about the eternal kingdom, which encompasses heaven and earth. Its central and most prominent character is its King and his perfect helpmeet, his bride.
This mystery is still being revealed, known, and understood, but only by the born-again children of God, who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and have spiritually matured. Please remember that God kept this mystery hidden for ages and generations.
In the gospel, God imparts His secret and hidden wisdom. Wisdom He decreed before the ages for our glory. Therefore, the mystery is beyond what any eye has ever seen, what any ear has ever heard, and what no human or angelic mind has ever imagined, and yet it is what God has prepared for those who love Him. These very things are revealed to us by God, the Holy Spirit.
This invisible kingdom was initially made visible when the eternal King came to earth as fully man and fully God. The gospel or the good news is all about Him. And the mystery is about us (His Queen).
The mystery of the good news is that the King of the eternal Kingdom lives in each bridle member. Altogether, we comprise His betrothed bride. And who will become the queen of heaven and earth at the wedding feast, which will take place at the rapture of all true believers, at which time God will remove the presence of the Holy Spirit from the earth.
The church, the bride of King Jesus, has been under attack ever since her birth, and for the first 300+ years, she grew as the good news spread to the ends of the earth. However, she was deceived and taken captive when the religion of the Roman Empire embraced her. In the early 1500s, the church experienced an event known to us as the Protestant Reformation. The church recovered two primary truths that set the people free from the Roman Catholic religion. But they needed three divine and eternal truths – God does all things in triads. He is trinitarian in essence and person.
The first truth recovered was salvation by faith. The church of Rome had been selling redemption and the forgiveness of sins. Now the good news revealed that Jesus, the King, had paid for the world's sins. The second truth was discovering the absolute authority of God's written revelation, the Holy Scriptures, the Bible. Up to that time, the pope and the priests were the authority over the people. But now, they were set free from the domination of religious traditions and manufactured doctrines to the grace and truth which appeared in Jesus. These two truths ushered in a glorious revival, but after 500 plus years since the reformation, the church, God's people, are divided, confused, and searching in all the wrong places. Because without the missing third truth, truths one and two will always fall short of God's design, plan, and purpose.
The third and glorious truth, which complements and perfectly completes salvation by faith and the authority of the written word, is, as Paul says to us in Colossians 1:27, "…Christ in you the hope of glory". In other words, the living word of God who became flesh and lived among us is now in us. The Indwelling Living Lord Jesus, by His Holy Spirit, illuminates our Bibles, the written word, so that we can live by faith every moment of our individual and collective journey on this earth.
So, as Paul said to Timothy as when handed the baton, I tell you – "Consider what I say to you, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything (2 Tim. 2:7).
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