“...HAVING MADE KNOWN TO US THE MYSTERY OF HIS WILL, according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself, THAT IN THE DISPENSATION OF THE FULLNESS OF THE TIMES HE MIGHT GATHER TOGETHER IN ONE ALL THINGS IN CHRIST, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, in Him.” --Ephesians 1:9-10
In today’s culture, a mystery is some knowledge that is hidden and needs to be discovered; a “who-done-it.” In a good mystery story, we don’t know who the culprit is until the very end, and it usually comes as a surprise. However, once we reach the end and we know that “the butler did it”, it is no longer a mystery.
But Paul uses the word mystery in a slightly different manner. In Paul’s writing, a mystery is a truth revealed. It is something that was previously unknown, but now has been made known to us by God (see Colossians 1:26). Actually, my understanding of Paul’s writing indicates that he spoke of only one mystery, even though he worded it differently in a couple different places.
Here in Ephesians 1, Paul refers to the mystery of God’s will. In Ephesians 3, he calls it the mystery of Christ. And in Colossians 1, he simply mentions “the mystery.” And in describing this mystery, which has been revealed to us, Paul speaks of different aspects of this mystery. In Ephesians 3:6, we are told this mystery is the truth “that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel,” along with the Jews. Paul repeats this great truth in Colossians 1:27 as he tells his Gentile audience that the mystery is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
In Ephesians 1:10, Paul says that the mystery of God’s will is that He will ultimately “gather together in one all things in Christ.” This is a reference to the culmination of our salvation in glory. All those who have ever trusted in God for salvation, be they Jew or Gentile, from every tribe and nation, every tongue and language, will enter into the great kingdom of God, where we will live throughout eternity, serving, worshipping, and praising our God.
Do you see the connection between the two previous paragraphs? In biblical times, the Jews believed that God’s salvation was for them and them alone. But they rejected the Messiah when He came, and as a result, according to Romans 11, salvation has come to the Gentiles. The mystery of God is that salvation is available to all mankind, that His Holy Spirit indwells all believers, and that all Christians, no matter who they are, will spend eternity in heaven with Him.