“To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

‭‭Colossians‬ ‭1‬:‭27‬ ‭

“At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison—”

‭‭Colossians‬ ‭4‬:‭3‬ ‭

We use the word mystery to describe television shows that contain a strong “who did it” discovery moment. The mystery of Christ has more to do with the nature of the Christ and what the work of Christ really was. Paul describes for the Gentiles in Eph 3 that the mystery had to do with the Jews sharing their inheritance of the messiah/Christ with Gentiles. He then says that was a portion of the mystery. So the fact that the messiah was to be an indwelling life within Jews and Gentiles was kept a closely guarded secret for millennia. Finally the apostles and New Testament prophets unlocked the mystery and proclaimed that the Christ was indeed a king, but he was forming a vessel for his kingship, a body which could house his life and carry out the manifestation of his nature. That mystery was not revealed to Moses or Elijah, but to Paul and Agabus etc.

Now the stirring question remains from our second verse. Paul wants people to pray for him that he can declare with confidence the mystery of Christ. Here we see a remarkable  deviation of the Apostolic concept of the content of preaching from the modern concept of what should be proclaimed. Paul spent 4 chapters unpacking Christ in you, the hope of glory and then wanted prayer to keep on revealing it. How then can our modern Christian proclaimers steer their words to salvation and heaven as though that is what the Apostles were doing? It is more likely that proclaiming Jesus as the Christ, the son of God (“and that by believing you may have life in his name”, John 20) was the first point and then the content they were intent on was the indwelling Christ. The Christ was firstly Jah-shua, Jesus, God saves. The Christ was secondly and indwelling Life.

This mystery shows up as language used in Ephesians as well. It is here that the mystery is more fully explained and Paul ends his letter as such:

“To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel,”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭6‬:‭18‬-‭19‬.

Paul, as we discovered in other posts, explains the eternal purpose in Christ Jesus, which is a mystery to humanity until it is revealed. A mystery which is beyond our need for a savior and out into the need of God for a dwelling place.

Perhaps as we move into the end of this age and transition into the next we might recapture what the Apostles knew: that Jesus is the name of the savior, but Christ is the role of the Being who must be fully glorified in a house called church.