But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith: Rom 16:26
Question
It seems a lot of people can see the mystery, in the sense that the operating details of this dispensation were fully hidden but they insist that clues can be found in Old Testament Scripture.
Response
It’s amazing to me that people do this. It’s really a conflict of thinking when they do this. You make reference to the fact that they talked about the operating details being fully hidden but insist that clues can be found in the Old Testament. That’s a contradiction and I know you recognize that but the reason why I’m pointing that out is because it indicates a fundamental problem that most Christians have and they don’t realize that if something is fully hidden, that means God did not speak about it at all and when God talks about the fact the mystery was hid in Himself, He s talking about the fact that He did not say anything about it. He’s talking about the fact, that Paul underscores repeatedly, He did not make it known. People need to face up to the fact that that’s what the revelation of the mystery is. It’s God now making something known that He previously did not make known in any matter or form. He kept it a secret, He kept it to Himself and when He communicated in the past to His people Israel thru the prophets He made no reference at all to the dispensation of Gentile grace. He made no communication at all about the dispensation of Gentile grace that would come in either a veil form, a ‘type’ form, or anything like that. For the Apostle Paul to say what he says about the revelation of the mystery and for that to be true, it necessitates that God said absolutely nothing about it in ages and generations past.
When people talk about clues being found in the Old Testament Scriptures or hints of the mystery being found in the OT Scriptures their failing to recognize what the mystery and what the word mystery means. And usually what I have to end up doing when I hear people talking about clues or hints or the truth of the mystery was there in veiled form, I recognize what needs to be done is that these people first of all need to face up to exactly what Paul says about the nature of the mystery revelation given to him. I end up going to a passage like Ephesians 3 where there’s so much amplified terminology and expressive terminology regarding what the mystery means and I make them face up to exactly what it says when Paul says that it was not made known in ages past and that God kept it hid in Himself. People need to realize that that means that God was not communicating it in any manner or form.
The expression the “unsearchable riches of Christ” means exactly what it says, that you can go back to Genesis thru Malachi, you can go back to all that’s recorded in all that God set forth and set down before He raised up the Apostle Paul and you will not find and cannot find any reference to this dispensation of grace which was revealed to Paul and to the mystery of Christ that was revealed to him. I think it’s important that people do face up to exactly what that type of terminology indicates.
I want to point out to you the kind of things that I point out to other people and undoubtedly you do this also but what I mean by going over it with you, is the fact that people have to face up to what it says. It’s amazing how people try and get away from exactly what it says. You face this and you expect this when you deal with and unbeliever when you go thru the details of the gospel with him and they try and squirm out of the issue of them being totally unable to do anything in their own to make them acceptable to God. We expect to have to deal with the self-defense tactics that people come up with as they try and defend themselves against the blatant charge of guilty before God with the gospel laid at their feet. Unfortunately though, we have to deal with believers on the explicitness of what God says and we have to make believers face up to what exactly God says, time and time again. We do this very often when it comes to the issue of the revelation of the mystery committed to the Apostle Paul.
There’s so many attempts that people have made over the years to get away from exactly what it says and so many attempts to be able to hold onto the Acts 2 dispensational position and so forth and to hold onto to Covenant Theology and viewpoints like that. The explicitness of the terminology regarding the revelation of the mystery has suffered in the sense that people have not dealt with exactly what it says and they come along and have convinced themselves that the expression “hid in God” means that it was hid in the Scriptures. They have convinced themselves that when Paul says that it was “not made known in generations and ages past,” that that really doesn’t mean that it wasn’t made known but it simply means that it wasn’t made fully known. People have come along and manipulated the meanings of words and expressions to some how salvage something out of the Acts 2 position and the Covenant Theology position. It s a very grievous matter and a hard nut to crack at times.
When you make reference in the letter to the issue of the blank look you get out people, that look is coming from the refusal and the conflict that operates within these people when it comes to the redefining of terms that they have developed and have been taught to escape the explicitness of what it says here regarding the revelation of the mystery being a uniquely Pauline revelation and something that has never been made known in any manner or form until God made it known to the Apostle Paul. A passage like Ephesians 3 is marvelous on this because, like I said, Paul uses some very expressive amplifying terminology about the revelation of the mystery that makes it evident that the issue with it is that it was a completely, well kept secret within God and something that was not made divulged by Him in any manner or form before He revealed it to the Apostle Paul.
(1) For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, (2) If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: (3) How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, (4) Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) (5) Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; (6) That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: Eph 3:1-6
You have Paul asserting in verse 3 that by revelation “he made known unto me the mystery” and then he amplifies upon what that means and makes it plain and clear what that is. Verse 5 goes on and says, “Which (the mystery of Christ) in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.”
You have that revealed concept once again in verse 5 and it’ standing in direct contrast to the issue of not being made known in other ages but now it s revealed. Therefore when Paul is talking about this mystery of Christ that was revealed to him as he says in verse 5, he s talking about something that in other ages God had not made known unto the sons of men. Therefore the revelation of the mystery is a communication from God that is now taking place for the first time. God has been communicating before and making things known before but this revelation of the mystery that was given to the Apostle Paul was not something God had been communicating in the past in any manner or form; written, spoken, visions, dreams, etc. There wasn’t anybody to whom it was being made known before. That’s why he says, “Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men but now is being revealed,” now has been made manifest thru his ministry and to the ones associated with him, the holy apostles and prophets referred to there on verse 5.
But terminology like this makes it plain and clear that when Paul is talking about the mystery revelation given to him that he’s talking about something that God had not made known in any manner or form or to anybody until He revealed it to the Apostle Paul. In fact the very word “revealed” of course contains that very issue. It’s repeated again of course down there in verse 9 when Paul says,
And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: Eph 3:9
From the beginning of the world the mystery was “hid in God.” That’s when people come along and often times say, ‘well that does not mean that God didn’t say anything about it, that means that it was a veiled issued’. They say that He kept it hid in the Scriptures in veiled manner. They believe that it was there and covered over and the Apostle Paul was given the map, so to speak, with the “X” on it that he could now go and find it. That’s a complete misunderstanding as you well know of what Paul is saying here. And verse 5 makes it perfectly plain that the issue was there was no knowledge of it that came out of God. He didn’t divulge it. It was a secret that He kept in Himself; hid in God. And verse 10, of course, makes it plain and clear that not only did no man have any knowledge of it because God kept it hid in Himself and wasn’t making it known but no angel did either,
To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, Eph 3:10)
Even the angelic realm is only now aware of the secret God kept hid in Himself. Of course Paul makes that issue perfectly clear back there in I Corinthians, which by the way is another passage to look at along with this one in Ephesians 3, Colossians 1, and Romans 16, where you have the explicitness of the terminology that makes people have to face up to the fact that the mystery revelation is an issue of a never spoken about realm of knowledge now being made manifest.
It’s only when people face up to that issue that they’re able to appreciate the fact that in Romans 16:26 when Paul makes references to the Scriptures of the prophets that that can t be a reference to the Old Testament Scriptures. If people have the idea though that the mystery revelation really wasn’t a “not made known” issue but was only a not fully made known issue well then they don’t see any difficulty and any contradiction with thinking about the Scriptures of the prophets as being a reference to the OT Scriptures. But if they think of the mystery as being a not fully made known (or partially made known), they are misdefining and misunderstanding what the Apostle Paul is talking about.
I don’t see how anyone can do that in Romans 16 anyway because when Paul talks about the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery, he goes on and says that it was “kept secret since the world began.” There’s the very issue once again of God not making it known. They only way something can be kept a secret is not to say anything about it! Even a child understands that. It seems awfully funny at times that we as adults come along and give a different meaning to that. So by definition, if God kept it a secret that means He did not say anything about it. This means, therefore, that it isn’t something that has any hints or clues or types set forth in the OT Scriptures.
The knowledge of it did not come out of Him not until He revealed it to the Apostle Paul, as Paul says, “But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:.” There s two ways in which it is now being made manifest; 1) the preaching of it thru the likes of Paul and 2) by the Scriptures of the prophets.
The very definition that’s supplied to the mystery excludes the OT Scriptures as a means by which it’s now being made manifest. That only leaves therefore the Scriptures of some others that are called “prophets” and often times a big stumbling block to people being able to appreciate what Paul means by that expression is the fact that they have no knowledge of how the New Testament Scriptures were produced. (I’m using that expression New Testament Scriptures in that loose way as you understand.) This is a reference to Paul s epistles. It’s amazing to me how many Christians have very little if any understanding of prophets in Paul’s day. Yet you’ve got verses like we just read in Ephesians 3 where Paul says that “Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.” Now those holy apostles and prophets Paul is referring to are ones that he refers to by name very often in his epistles; Andronicus & Junia.
Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellowprisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me. Rom 16:7
“The apostles” are not one of the 12 apostles. They are the apostles, once again, that were raised up for the church, the body of Christ, and were sent out by the Apostle Paul himself. They’re ones over there in 1Cor 12, where God set them in the church,
And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. I Cor 12:28
There’s some fundamental ignorance in Christians that make passages like this very difficult for them to properly appreciate. And a fundamental ignorance regarding what Paul means when he talks about the mystery and what a mystery is in God’s thinking. And a fundamental ignorance concerning other prophets besides OT prophets causes problems. If Christians understood the ministry of the prophets in Paul’s day, they’d be able to appreciate an expression like this, when Paul refers to “the scriptures of the prophets.”
If they understood the job of those New Testament prophets they’d realize that they had a job of copying Paul’s epistles and making sure that the epistles were available to other assemblies. The apostles that operated with the Apostle Paul, like Andronicus, Junia, Timothy, Titus, Epaphroditus, they had the job of taking those epistles around and making sure that all the assemblies had copies of Paul’s epistles.
There are so many stumbling blocks in Christian s understanding that makes it so that they don’t appreciate and can’t appreciate what Paul is talking about there in Rom 16:26 when he is referring to the “scriptures of the prophets.” It is a reference to his epistles that are being copied and disseminated by those who have the gift of prophecy and by those who were apostles with him that he sent out to the various assemblies.
Failing to understand and appreciate that is the reason why, as you related here in your letter that these folks who are arguing make reference to the fact that Paul had only contacted the Romans once and this is the only epistle the Romans had, etc and insists that Paul was introducing himself for the first time to the Romans thru this epistle and that there were no other writings to the Romans. For anybody to make a comment like that, is grossly ignorant of the very things Paul said in Romans 16. Paul made it plain in Romans 16 that he’s very familiar with the people at Rome! He knows how many assemblies are there, he knows people by name, etc. There are people there that have been with him in his ministry and that he is utilizing in his ministry and that he has all ready demonstrated and has already set forth in the book of Acts that he has sent around and that had been provided communication between himself and other assemblies and they’re now in Rome. And all this indicates the fact that these Romans are in touch with the other assemblies of the saints and that they are familiar with them and that they are in possession of things that have been written to other assemblies. In fact, way back in chapter one, Paul talks about the fact that the faith about these Romans is spoken about thru out the whole world,
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. Rom 1:8
Other assemblies are very familiar with the assemblies in Rome. Phoebe comes from the church in Cenchrea, which is part of the Corinth area. Phoebe has gone there and she’s taken this epistle to Rome but Paul’s already sent Priscilla and Aquila to Rome. When you study out these two, they originally came from Rome and they got in contact with Paul in Corinth (cf Act 18) and they’ve been involved in communicating with other assemblies. They traveled with Paul to Ephesus, they wrote letters to Corinth and their recommendation accompanied Apollos to Corinth. And now they’ve been sent back to Rome and have an assembly in their house in Rome. They had an assembly in their house in Corinth.
All I am simply saying in all this is for some one to come along and make the comment that the Romans did not have any other Paul s epistles and that he was introducing himself for the first time, etc, they are not familiar with what’s been going on. That kind of ignorance leaves the problems and those problems manifest themselves in their misunderstanding and their inability to appreciate what Paul is saying in those last three verses in Romans 16.
But in Romans 16:7, concerning Andronicus and Junia, they are apostles. They are Paul’s apostles. He’s been sending them out. They have been used by him repeatedly already. They’ve even suffered to a great degree by being thrown into prison and were even prisoners of the Lord before the Apostle Paul was even thrown into prison.
Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellowprisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me. Rom 16:7
These saints are experienced messengers of the Apostle Paul and they’ve been sent to Rome already. They would have undoubtedly have been carrying previously written epistles by Paul to the Romans. That whole issue of the function of the apostles and the prophets that operated with the Apostle Paul is something that people have got to have a familiarity with to be able to appreciate how things operated and how the assemblies knew each other so well and how Paul was able to talk about things in his epistles knowing that the saints he was writing to had previous knowledge about certain things that he was addressing in more advanced detail. You have an example of that in Rom 6 where Paul says,
Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Rom 6:3
It’s interesting enough, that s the first time in the epistle that Paul talks about the issue of being baptized into Christ. But when Paul says that to the Romans, he doesn’t come along and explain what a baptism is. The Romans were already familiar with this. They were already familiar with the basic issue of the fact that it’s the Holy Spirit baptizing them into union with Christ. They had some knowledge about this from someplace. Now you can get that knowledge from epistles that Paul had written earlier than having written the Romans epistles, like the Galatian epistle and like 1 Corinthians.
On the basis of that, I think it’s perfectly clear along with the presence of Andronicus and Junia, Priscilla and Aquila, Phoebe and others there in Rome, that had been partners with Paul already that the Romans had writings from the Apostle Paul already in their possession that gave some fundamental understanding of some things but that didn’t put together a structured establishment systematic presentation of those doctrines, which is what the Roman epistle does.
Romans 16 on it’s own, makes it evident that the ministry of those apostles and prophets that worked with the Apostle Paul and copied his epistles and made sure that those epistles were available to the other assemblies and that the completed word of God was being provided for as the word was being completed thru the Apostle Paul’s ministry, as being provided for amongst the assemblies, the very operation of those apostles and prophets referred to in Romans 16 makes it evident that the Romans were included in that and benefiting from that. Therefore when Rom 16:26 comes along Paul talks about the fact that “the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since world began but now is being made manifest, that it was being made manifest by the preaching and by the scriptures of the prophets,” that the Romans were a beneficiary of both of those ministries. They were beneficiaries of the verbal preaching of it, thru ones like Andronicus and Junia and they were beneficiaries of it thru “the scriptures of the prophets.”
There were ones who were prophets right there in Rome. Back there in chapter 12, as Paul sights the issue of the function of the gifts that function at the beginning of the dispensation of grace and mentions ones that will be functioning amongst them,
Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether u, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; Rom 12:6
There were prophets right there in Rome who were going to copy the Roman epistle that Phoebe brought to them. Then Andronicus and Junia would leave Rome and take the copies of that epistle to places instructed by Paul. When you are over there in Ephesians chapter 3 and Paul talks about the fact that he wrote a fore and few words about the mystery of Christ and they can read that understand his knowledge. They could read that from Romans, 1 Corinthians, Galatians, there in Ephesus, in that epistle he just wrote to them they were going to get the full blown, advanced knowledge, so to speak, regarding the mystery. They could read things that Paul had written previously about this, even though he did not previously write directly to them. This was all going to be taken care of thru this network of apostles and prophets whose job it was to make the revelation known to provide for the establishment of the assemblies.
It’s important for us to have a good appreciation of this and there s numerous places in our epistles where that issue is set forth and things are said about it. For example, right there in I Corinthians 12-14, as Paul deals with the issue of the gifts that functions while the knowledge was in part and while the means for setting it forth and disseminating it amongst the assembly was in effect. Paul talks to the Corinthians about those that have the gift of prophecy and asks them a question,
What? came the word of God out from you? or came it unto you only? I Cor 14:36
The Corinthians were acting as if they were the only assembly that was involved in the receiving of and disseminating of the word of God. That was a pretty puffed up view of themselves but it was going along with their misuse of the gifts .But when Paul makes that statement he underscores the fact that this is something that was going on in all the assemblies. The word of God was coming unto them and then the word of God was going out from them. It was coming unto them especially thru Paul’s epistles has he wrote unto them, and it was going out from them as those that were the prophets and the apostles had the epistles had the epistles copied once again and sent them out to various other assemblies. Rome was a beneficiary of that as evident from the individuals cited in Romans 16.
If people would look at the names that are listed there in Romans 16, they’d see that those are the very people who were there in Corinth who had been with Paul from Galatia and so forth and were able to now be in Rome to deliver this form of sound doctrine. Especially when you have people cited who have that very ministry associated with them, like Andronicus and Junia, Phoebe, Priscilla and Aquila, etc. It becomes evident these folks are beneficiaries of Paul’s epistles and that’s who he is referring to in Rom 16:26 when he makes reference to the scriptures of the prophets.
Question
It also seems that the favorite verses that we like to refer to in Ephesians concerning the mystery, being untraceable in Scripture, don’t count because they were written after Romans. These truths that are conveyed in Ephesians were hid in God but what Paul was teaching in Romans can be found in the OT and he was now revealing them thru “prophetic scripture”. Therefore, the operating details that are expounded upon in the prison epistles were hidden but not the info conveyed in Romans.
Response
I get a kick out of that. We point out as you say there the expression untraceable or unsearchable in Ephesians 3. They must conveniently forget that Paul’s already used that terminology once before and the very place he used it the very first time as far as the order of his epistles are concerned is in Romans. When Paul ends up Romans 11, especially the section that talks about the mystery of God having set Israel aside, having turned to us Gentiles in spite of them, after setting that issue forth, the very last verses of chapter 11 Paul says,
O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! Rom 11:33
Paul is not talking about just any old issue that pertains to God in His ways and judgments. He’s talking about the issue of how God has dealt with Israel and what He is now doing and is now revealed that He is doing having blinded Israel and turned to us Gentiles. Paul extols here in this doxology at the end of chapter 11, he cites this as being the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
What God has done once again, is setting Israel aside and turning to us Gentiles is a master stroke of God’s genius. But it was something that was “unsearchable.” This judgement that He has made and this way He is now pursing in this dispensation of Gentile Grace, Paul says that this is an unsearchable issue. Once again it s an unsearchable issue because it is a mystery! Something that God had kept secret since the world began. So here’s that very concept that we point out in Ephesians 3 and based upon the remarks that you received that you relate in your letter, the argument is, oh that doesn’t count because that’s applied to what s revealed now in Ephesians. But people seem to be pretty short on their knowledge of the use of that word or they fail to consult a concordance because Paul’s utilized that very concept earlier on in Romans and he talks about the very things that he’s relating here with respect to the mystery as being unsearchable and past finding out.
You can t go back to Genesis thru Malachi, the Gospels, the opening chapters of the book of Acts and search out the things he’s talking about here with respect to the mystery. They are past finding out. There s nothing to find about them back there.
Keith Blades
Enjoy The Bible Ministries
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