To Encourage You

1 Corinthians 1:30 “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”

The Bible talks about mysteries.  One such place is Colossians 1:26 which mentions “the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.” The Greek word that is translated “mystery” in the Bible is not the way we usually think of this word.  Most people who hear the word “mystery” think in terms of a murder mystery, like in an Agatha Christie novel, a “whodunit” type of mystery.  However, the word “mystery” in the Bible speaks of things that were previously hidden that have now been disclosed.  In Colossians 1:27 the mystery that is being spoken about in verse 26 is revealed. Namely, it is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” It’s a mystery in that it was pointed to throughout the Old Testament but not revealed fully until Jesus came. 

Everywhere we look in the Old Testament the writers were pointing to Jesus. Jesus said as much when He rebuked the Jews who didn’t believe in Him with these words: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (Matthew 5:39). The Scriptures He was referring to, of course, were the books of the Old Testament, for that is all that they had at that time.  Yet, the writers didn’t fully understand the reality of what they were writing about as the Spirit of Christ was speaking through them.  Peter spoke of this when he wrote “Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look” (1 Peter 1:10-12). 

It was not until Jesus came into the world that the mystery of the Old Testament about Him was fully revealed.  And this mystery of Christ is revealed to us in two ways.  First, it is revealed in the writing of the New Testament.  We see that the suffering servant of whom Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 53 is Jesus Who suffered for us on the cross.  We see that the One who would crush Satan’s head in Genesis 3:15 is Jesus as He defeated the devil and all his works, again on the cross. And on and on it goes. 

However, there is another wonderful way that the mysteries of Christ are revealed to us. That is in a very personal way when a person is born again. Suddenly that person understands things that they could never understand before. Suddenly there are new desires that fill their heart. It was all a mystery before they were saved, but now it all makes sense in the form of a growing revelation that continues for the rest of their life.  This new reality is perhaps best expressed by two phrases that are stated over and over again in the New Testament. The first is “Christ in you.” The second is “You are in Christ.” It is the second term that is used in the verse above from 1 Corinthians 1. It’s an expression of the objective reality that becomes true the moment one becomes a Christian. It’s something that is true no matter how one may or may not feel about it.  It’s something that is true because God has declared it to be true and Christ has acted to make it true.  It’s the multifaceted truth that Christians are seen by God as being “in Christ Jesus.” That wonderful relationship means that many things that are true of Christ now become true of us by virtue of our relationship to Him. The Bible speaks of this relationship in terms of branches (believers) in a vine (Christ), stones in a building, and members in a body. What is true for one of these entities is true for all the others. It’s an incredible truth with astounding effects. 

As the verse above exclaims, because we are “in Christ,” we have been endowed with, among other things, His wisdom, His righteousness, His sanctification and His redemption.  The believer is given the wisdom of God in that he or she is given the very “mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). That means that Jesus’ wisdom is available to us and understandable by us as we read His Word and as the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to what it means.  We have been given His very righteousness. That’s how God sees us – forgiven, blameless, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing (Ephesians 5:27). Wonderfully, in Christ, “though (our) sins (were) like scarlet, they (are now) as white as snow; though they (were) red like crimson, they (are now) like wool” (Isaiah 1:18).  We are sanctified, set apart to God as holy just as Jesus is set apart to the glory of God. And we have been redeemed, bought back from the curse and slavery of sin by the payment of Jesus’ precious blood. 

What a wonder are the mysteries of God. What an awesome thing that because of Him, we who were once very far from Him are now very close. In fact, we are now “in Christ.”

Praise the Lord!