The Mystery Revealed

6 · Oswald begins expounding the mystery

So in that order, first, what is the mystery? Our first question. What's the mystery of the hope of glory? The heart of this passage is wrestling with that, that Paul has described. He says there is a mystery that has been hidden for ages and generations. A mystery hidden for ages. Do we have any mystery lovers in the room? Well, Hardy Boys can eat your heart out. Here we're talking about the mystery for the ages. What does Paul mean when he says that? Is this some sort of Da Vinci Code-esque mystical quest for secret knowledge? Our culture loves it. There's a burgeoning book industry making tons of money off of secret societies and mysteries and knowledge known only by elite groups. They protect these secrets from disclosure to the broad public. Is that what's going on in Colossians 1? No, that's not what Paul means by mystery. How do we know this? Well, look at verses 25-26. 'I, Paul, became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you for this purpose, to make the Word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to His saints.' To make the Word of God fully known. Connection: the mystery hidden for ages but now revealed to His saints. This mystery that is being revealed is a full knowledge and understanding of the Word of God. It's not some secret society, some mystical knowledge. What Paul is describing is the unveiling of God's plan of salvation. Where is the mystery? It's hidden in plain sight. Yet still hidden for ages and generations and only now revealed. Revealed, Paul says, to a specific group of people. Not to the Skull and Bones group from Yale, elite as they may think they are, but to the saints. To the people of God, revealed and explained in the New Testament. This mystery has been hidden by sin. It's been shrouded from view. If you don't have the faith to see it, you don't know that it's there. But it's revealed to God's people, not through cryptography, not through code breaking.

7 · Oswald uses the famous A Christmas Story decoder scene to illustrate the difference between trivial secret codes and the revealed mystery of salvation

It's not like on A Christmas Story where you run up to your bathroom and you get this little decoder pen, little orphanage decoder pen, and you sit there and you decipher out the code and you look at the— You do all the lettering and the numbering. You say, here's the mystery. The code is remember to drink your Ovaltine. A crummy commercial. All of his hope is building towards the glory of the decoder pen. He listens to that radio set. Little Orphan Annie. And then it's remember to drink your Ovaltine. Bummer. There's no letdown with this mystery. It's revealed to God's people. Not by code breaking, but through the illumination of the Holy Spirit.

8 · Oswald unpacks verse 27 with Ephesians 3 as a parallel text, revealing that the mystery is the inclusion of Gentiles as full covenant members — fellow heirs, members of the same body

So we're unpacking that first question. What is the mystery? At the most basic level, it's the Word of God made fully known. But how has the Word of God been made fully known? What is the mystery that's been revealed to the saints? Well, read v. 27 again. To them, the saints, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery. That's a lot of words. How great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery. Superlative rich sentence. It hits at how fickle our hearts can be. This glorious implication of the Gospel, this mystery revealed, can become so mundane and dry. Did you catch what Paul has put down in shorthand there? He's just described why the Gospel is good news for most of the people gathered in this room. Because the riches of the glory of this mystery are great among the Gentiles. Listen to how Paul puts it in the sister letter to Ephesians. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ. You hear the language which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. Illumination. Verse 6: The mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs members of the same body, partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. That, friends, is the gospel brought home, the gospel laid at your doorstep. From the time of Abraham, it's been known that his descendants— out of his descendants, there is going to come a blessing for the nations. But this, the Gentiles as full covenant members, as fellow heirs, that's more than mere salvation. Here Paul is pointing to the mystery revealed. It's not just the Jews. It's not just those people who can look to Abraham and say, we are literally from his flesh. We are His descendants, and that's why we can hope in God. No, it's not just the Jews, but it's the Greeks. It's Englishmen and Africans and Koreans and Chinese and Russians and Indians and Arabs. We've all been made full partakers of the covenant of Christ's own blood through faith in the grace of God. Members of the same body without distinction. A body, a church, a people, a fellowship that transcends language and nationality and culture.

9 · Oswald transitions to the deeper dimension of the mystery by reciting the Christological portrait from earlier in Colossians 1

So what is the mystery? Well, it's the reality that all people have been made heirs of the riches of this glory. But it's also more than that. For Paul, the riches of the glory of this mystery are truly awesome. The very core of this hope of glory, we'll see in a moment, is something that really ravishes logic. I want you to think back a couple weeks back. Think about how Christ has been described in the preceding verses. I'm going to actually read it for us. In verses 15-18, 19-20. Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He's the head of the body. The church. He's the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent. For in Him, in Christ, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.

10 · Oswald arrives at the climax of the mystery: Christ in you, the hope of glory

One of the most glorious descriptions ever written. You do not and cannot get more breathtaking and glorious than Jesus Christ. Paul sketches it out for us in Colossians 1. And the mystery revealed is this. Look at verse 27 of our passage. All of that glory is Christ. Verse 27: To them, to the Gentiles, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery. Here it is, which is Christ in you. The hope of glory. You have to read verse 27 in the context of the rest of chapter 1 to understand the enormity and the magnitude of what Paul is saying. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Not a guy in you. No, the God-Man, the image of the invisible God, firstborn of all creation, the one by whom all things were created. The One for whom they're all created. The One who's preeminent in all things. The One who holds all things together. The One in whom all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. That same individual, Paul says, Christ Jesus, that individual through the power of the Spirit indwells His people. He's here this morning. The Spirit brings His presence as the body gathers. The head is here.

11 · Oswald steps into direct pastoral address, calling the congregation to look around and see their fellow believers as indwelt by the God-Man

So look around the room. These fellow believers, these saints you pray with and for, these members of your care group, the people you mow the grass of the church with, people you go serve at Forest Avenue with, think of who Paul says they are. Yes, the chosen saints of God, but more than that, united to and indwelt with the very presence of the God-Man, Jesus Christ. This is the ground of our hope for future glory. This is the foundation that it's built upon. That the One now glorified, the One that we sang to this morning, the One that's seated at the right hand of Most High God, Jesus Christ, at the same time through the power of the Spirit dwells in you. To use a Southern sense, dwells in y'all. Plural. This is the greatest possible assurance that we will be partakers in a glory the likes of which the world has never seen. What's the hope of glory? That the King of glory indwells in you. He loves you. And when He returns, He will return in glory and welcome you into it. There's so much more to unpack here. I don't want us to lose sight of the bigger picture. Yes, there is hope beyond anything the world has to offer. Glory that far surpasses presidents, way beyond movie stars and billionaires. But don't lose sight of the true riches this glory offers. Think of for a moment, think for a second what the word glory actually means. What is glory referring to? Well, for man, glory merely describes one's wealth. Maybe your car is your glory. Maybe it's your reputation. Maybe it's the power that you wield. But for God, glory denotes His very nature. His presence being shown and displayed to mankind and all creation. God's glory is the manifestation of His holiness. It's the display of God's character to a world obsessed with lesser glories. We sit there, a handful of dirt, wow, amazing, and there's a diamond sitting here. Glory is a helpful way to think of it. Glory is God going public with his greatness. That's what glory is. So the richness of this mercy is not thank God, glory just for the sake of glory. The end goal is not just that we get glory and we get to be a part of it. That's not the biggest purpose. No, it's glory for the sake of God Himself. That's the point of the glory that God is made much of. Remember what we said at the very beginning? How you seek glory, where you seek glory, is what defines you. Listen how Sam Storms puts it: Christ is not simply the reason we can hope for glory, but Christ is himself that glory, the glory for which we long, the glory for which we have been predestined, the glory that makes all suffering and pain and disappointment in this life unworthy of comparison. That glory is the person and presence of Jesus Christ himself. He is our glory. Being with him, to know him, to see him, to relish him and rejoice in his beauty is the glory for which we hope.

12 · Oswald issues direct application, pressing the congregation to examine where their hope rests

Our hope is Christ. Period. Full stop. So ask yourself this: where does your hope rest? Where are you seeking glory? Does your hope rest in a raise at work? Maybe a different job altogether? Maybe you're just thinking, I would just like a job, period. Is it a different category? Does your hope rest in health? In family, finances, fame, whatever it is, make it personal. Don't think about where your neighbor hopes, think about where you hope. Where do you dream of glory when you lay awake in bed at night? And is it glory? Or is it dust? If you've listened to this description of Christ in you, the hope of glory, and felt something stirring, just felt something inside you being drawn, you felt a desire for meaning, for something you've always wanted but never known, It's because this is the very reason why you were created. This is the reason you draw breath, the reason why you exist on this planet. You were made to know the joy of Christ Jesus. You were made to know him not just as a historical person, not just as this guy that we sing to, but to know him personally as Lord and Savior. Every molecule of your being was designed and created by God. Every cell in your body is being held together at this very moment by Christ Jesus so that, for the purpose that you would turn to Him and treasure Him above everything else. If you feel that this morning, please understand what Paul is saying. He says the Gentiles get to know this. He's saying everybody has access. Doesn't matter what side of the tracks you were born on. Doesn't matter where you went to college or if you went to college. Doesn't matter what your job is, if you have a job. Doesn't matter if you're married or you were married or it's ended in divorce. You can have access to Jesus by faith. You can know the riches of the glory of this mystery, Christ himself, the radiance of the glory of God. You were created for it. You were created to know him and to treasure him and to relish him for all eternity.

13 · Oswald pivots from the first question to the second

I think we see clearly the answer to our first question. What is the hope of glory? Remember what we said we're going to discover this morning. The mystery of the hope of glory leads believers to maturity. The mystery of the hope of glory. Christ in you, right? The unveiling of the plan of salvation. All people have access to God now through Christ Jesus. The mystery of the hope of glory. Second part of the clause, leads believers to maturity. So question 2, what does maturity have to do with the hope of glory?

14 · Oswald expounds verses 28-29, establishing that maturity is a community project

I think there can be a temptation to gloss over the last part of that passage. The meat, I mean, I'm studying it and it seems like the substance and the power and the stuff that you just really get charged up about, it seems like it's in the first few verses and then it sort of slows down. But it doesn't slow down. The last sentence, the last two verses, they're giving us the application. They're taking all of that and bringing it home. After painting this astounding picture of hope of glory, Paul calls the church to a task. Simply this: proclaim Christ in us, the hope of glory. Proclaim this, but proclaim it with a purpose. And the purpose is this. This is why he toils, why Paul labors, why he puts all this effort forward for his ministry. That he might present everyone mature in Christ. Paul goes on to say that this bringing believers to maturity is why at the end of the letter he's going to say, 'Remember me in my chains.' It's why he views imprisonment as something worthwhile to be endured. So he can present people as mature in Christ. So let's take a closer look. First, we see this maturity that Paul talks about, it's not an individualized thing. It's not a me and Jesus thing. This community, this maturity is a community project. Read verse 28 again. It says, 'Him we proclaim.' Warning everyone, teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ. Now, the 'we' could just be a reference to Paul and Timothy's preaching ministry. And the 'everyone' just include the wider body of Christ. We might think that until we read later in the letter in Colossians 3:16. Let the word of Christ— remember the way the word ties into this mystery in our text? Let that word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom. The connection with our passage this morning is unmistakable. Both make clear reference to the word of God, both reference teaching, and in the original Greek, the word for admonish and the word for warn, they're the same word. But in 3:16, there's an unmistakable fact that the pursuit of maturity happens in the context of community, in the context of a local body that fellowships together.

15 · Oswald establishes the necessity of both preaching and communal application

The preaching office of the church, when a pastor stands behind the pulpit and proclaims God's Word, it is central to the calling of a church. Churches that don't labor well in preaching or minimize preaching or just kind of push it off to the side, they're not being faithful to their calling. Those pastors aren't being faithful to their calling. But as central as that is, it will never achieve its goal without the full commitment of the body to take the word proclaimed and see it applied. Pastors can proclaim God's Word every Sunday, but without commitment and partnership from everyone gathered here to teach and warn, to exhort one another from those messages and from the Scriptures, the effect is truncated. This toil and struggle of Paul's is the definition of biblical fellowship. It's why we gather in care groups. It's why we have to be, if we're going to fulfill our calling as the body of Christ, we have to be committed together to teaching and warning one another from God's Word, toiling together with Paul. That word toiling is loaded. It's not just sort of like flippantly, oh, I got a little extra space in my calendar here for a half hour. I had a really easy week at work, so I'm feeling a little extra energy, so I'm going to make it to care group. No, toiling, putting forth effort. Paul says it in this sweet way, doesn't he? This is the reason I toil. This is the reason I do all this. I toil, I struggle with all his, God's energy that he powerfully works within me. Remember, I'm indwelt by the risen Christ. I'm filled with His Spirit, the Spirit that brings the power of resurrection. I have that in me, and I'm not just supposed to sit there and kind of fritter it away. No, I have it, and with it I toil, not for my own glory, but for your maturity. Aka I toil, I struggle with all God's power that you, brother, that you, sister, might be satisfied in Jesus, might find more joy in Jesus, might reflect Jesus more fully.

16 · Oswald unpacks what maturity means: Christlikeness

There's a deep connection between our maturity and the hope of glory. The hope of glory is the fact that Christ indwells all believers. The Holy Son of God is united to the body of believers. And Paul declares that this maturity of these people already united to Christ is his great toil. We've already covered that. Why does he say that? What is— what does maturity look like? What makes somebody mature? If you had to give— I was going to give you 5 words or less to say, what does maturity look like? I could do it in 2. Like Christ. That's maturity. Like Christ. Christlikeness. The word translated mature literally means complete. It means perfect. In other words, those who reach maturity in Christ are those who are sanctified and holy. Romans 8:29-30. Famous chapter, famous verses, right? For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined. He predestined. This is God setting out before time begins. I am predestining you. I'm giving you this destiny. Those who I've foreknown, those who I've chosen, I'm giving you this, that you would be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He, Christ, might be the firstborn among many brothers. Firstborn. Wow, that sounds a lot like Colossians, doesn't it? Firstborn of the dead, the Head of the church. Why is He Head of the church? Why is He preeminent? Why is He firstborn from the dead? This is why. Because the Father foreknew and chose and predestined that all these people would be gathered in and conformed to the image of the God-Man. And those whom He predestined, He called. Those He called, He also justified. And those who He justified, He also glorified. Being conformed to the image of Christ, what Colossians calls our being mature, complete, and perfect, is parallel in thought with being glorified.

17 · Oswald establishes the necessary connection between maturity and glorification

Our maturity and future glorification are related and connected, and they're related by necessity. In our union with Christ, we're indwelt by the Son. The Son described in Colossians 1 in all His glory. The Son who is preeminent in all creation. The Son who is perfect in holiness. Where's the place that God has gone most public with His glory? Jesus. His holiness on display. His character on display. The reason that Paul labors so hard for the maturity of believers is because his highest goal is not that they would be mature. His highest goal is that in them being mature, Christ would be glorified. Because what brings Christ glory? That the same believers who Christ now dwells in, who've been clothed in His righteousness, who the Father through faith, because of grace, has declared holy, that those same believers would one day be holy, be mature, and be complete. Paul toils and struggles for the maturity of the Colossians because he wants his life's work to bring glory to Christ. I toil and struggle, Paul is saying, with everything I have so that one day you Colossians, you Providence, one day you will be what you already are in Christ Jesus. The manifestation of God's glorious character in the person of Christ now matched in his holy people.

18 · Oswald tackles the difficult verse 24 — Paul filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions

That connection between maturity and Christ-likeness under his care and the glory of Christ is what I think is the key to unlocking what's going on at the beginning of our passage. If you were paying attention, you noticed I skipped over the first verse. It's sort of a strange verse. Colossians 1:24. Now, I, Paul, rejoice in my sufferings. That's not uncommon Paul language, right? James uses similar language. Now, I, Paul, rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. Now it gets different. And in my flesh, I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of His body. That is the church. Back the truck up, Paul. You're claiming that you find joy in your suffering because your suffering somehow completes something that's lacking in Christ's suffering for the church? At first blush, it seems disjointed. How does this fit in with the rest of the passage? What is Paul saying? Is he suggesting that there's something incomplete? That what Christ did at Calvary was really cool and really amazing and almost good enough, but now Paul is finishing part of it? No. Paul and the rest of the New Testament leave no room for that interpretation. If you come to that interpretation that Calvary wasn't quite enough and Paul is somehow finishing up the work of atonement, you have to ignore the rest of the New Testament. Even in v. 13 and 19-20 of this first chapter in Colossians, Paul clearly establishes redemption is perfect in all that it accomplishes. Totally secured in Christ's death. So what does Paul mean by the phrase, 'I'm filling up what's lacking in Christ's suffering'? Well, the lack in Christ's afflictions would seem to be this: that while the cross is completely sufficient to redeem sinners, it lacks a present testimony among the nations. Put it this way. What is lacking in Christ's affliction is that they have to be incarnated by the body of Christ. That the body through its joyful suffering has to give personal testimony to the radical power of the gospel to provide people in the midst of the worst circumstances an unmistakable, unshakable hope of glory. Paul in his suffering takes joy in it because he knows as he suffers appropriately with joy, when people see his suffering and wonder, how can that man in those chains in that prison facing death be joyful? He knows he bears witness to the hope of the Gospel. He takes the afflictions of Christ and pushes them in front of the eyes of his audience. John Piper puts it this way: God intends for the afflictions of Christ to be presented to the world through the afflictions of his people. God really means for the body of Christ, the church, to experience some of the suffering he experienced so that it's not arbitrary suffering. When you suffer, it's not arbitrary. That's the hope of Romans 8:28, right? All things are working together for good. Not for everybody. For those who love God. Who've been called according to His purposes. Here's why. So the church might experience some of that suffering. The suffering He experienced so that when we offer Christ and the Christ of the cross to people, they would see the Christ of the cross. In us. What Paul fills up in the afflictions of Christ is the witness that he bears to it in his flesh.

19 · Oswald summarizes Paul's rejoicing in suffering as bearing witness to the hope of glory, citing Romans 8:18 as supporting text

So Paul speaks of rejoicing in suffering. I rejoice as I'm bound in chains to this cold stone wall because this very suffering with the eternal perspective of future glory bears witness to the hope I have in a crucified and risen Christ. That's why Paul says in Romans 8:18, 'For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.' I want to conclude with an illustration of how this comes home.

20 · Oswald tells the story of a Chinese Christian woman — a PhD professor stripped of her position, relocated to a rural village, and assigned to clean latrines

Remember we talked about what glory do you live for? What glory do you dream about? What glory is your goal? How does that define you? I had a professor in college, a Greek professor. He served as a missionary in China for years. He actually taught Greek at a Chinese seminary to Chinese-speaking students, so he's kind of a bright guy. He taught and served in China for a while, and he learned of a woman there. This woman was highly intelligent. She was very small in stature, kind of like classic juxtaposition of as small as she was, was opposite in proportion to how brilliant she was. So this little, little woman who had a PhD, well known in her field, she taught at one of the top universities in China. Taught at the university in her city. She was also a strong believer. This is back in the early parts of the 20th century. So when the Communist revolution swept through China and the Communists came to power, they saw Christianity as a threat. And so they sought to root out Christianity. And they just came down hard against the church. They expelled the missionaries. They persecuted Christians. They killed Christians. They did everything they can to drive out that Christian faith as a competition to their identity as Communist China. It was illegal, according to the laws they set for Christians, to teach in the university. And so she had the option, she could either deny her faith, keep her position, or stand firm in her faith and lose her livelihood. Lose her identity in some ways, right? What she does, this PhD that she has. Well, she stood firm. She lost her position. She was stripped of it. She was stripped of her title. Everything she'd worked her entire life to accomplish. That wasn't far enough for the Chinese government. To add insult to injury, they took her from that city, this cosmopolitan life, and they relocated her to this obscure village. Deciding that wasn't quite enough either, they not only stripped her of her position, moved her from the university out into the sticks— the sticks in China is not a good place to be. It's rudimentary, especially back in the early parts of the 20th century. The things you take for granted in city life don't exist out there. So here she is in the sticks, limited plumbing, limited running water. What's electricity look like? Living a rustic lifestyle. And they took it a step further. Not only do they relocate her there, they give her a new job. You're not going to teach in the university. You're a Christian, that's illegal. But we found a job perfectly suited for you as a Christian. In this rural village are latrines that need cleaning. I actually have a pastor friend who's been to China in some of these rural villages, and he said he actually had the joyful experience of eating some bad Chinese food and having to run out to one of these latrines. What he described was not a pleasant experience. You go out to these latrines and it's this ramshackle little shanty. It's got creaky doors. It looks like it's gonna fall on top of you if the wind blows too hard. And you go inside and there's a hole dug into the ground, and then there's this nasty wooden seat that sits there, just raw wood. You close the door, not really a lock on it, so you hope people respect your privacy, and you use the restroom. Not like modern porta-potties or whatever you call them here, where you go and it's really gross, but you at least know like once every month you hope that gets cleaned and emptied. Now this latrine just sits there. People use the restroom, it does what it does, and people go and the flies gather and the stink sits. And they take her and they show her and say, 'This, this is your earthly reward. Clean these latrines.' They assumed that this humiliating work would break her. They hoped it would lead her to recant her faith. But an unpredictable thing happened. This small in stature woman had massive faith, had eternal hope in the glory of Christ. Shockingly, they saw that this faithful believer couldn't be broken. Not only could they not break her, she found joy in the work. The whole village knew who she was and who she'd been. They knew the job that she now had, and they kind of watched and they whispered, and then they stood back in awe as day after day and week after week she went to work cleaning the latrines. Scrubbing the excrement, working in the filth, and with a joy that could not be reached and could not be diminished. Her joyful suffering unwittingly became a testimony to the village. It incarnated the afflictions of Christ. In the wisdom of the communist government, they thought, we'll give her latrine duty and will strip her of her identity. In the wisdom of God, the latrine duty brought her identity of Christ out in a glorious way for the entire village to see. And so here in the wisdom of Communist China, they stick her there to make her obscure. In the wisdom of God, she goes there and an entire village sees. She fills up what is lacking in Christ's affliction. And the Gospel is played out in front of their eyes. It's incarnated. How do you have joy like this? How are you not broken? How have you not already committed suicide? Well, let me tell you about Christ, the hope of glory.

21 · Oswald closes by synthesizing the passage's bookends — Paul's rejoicing in suffering and his toil for maturity both serve the same purpose: to bring glory to Christ

In this way, verse 24 and verse 29 serve as perfect bookends to the passage. Paul rejoices in his suffering and toils, struggling with all his might for the same reason. Both his testimony of personal suffering and the maturity of Christians under his care would serve to bring glory to his Savior, Christ Jesus. 'Remember my chains,' he writes at the end. Don't be embarrassed by them. If you receive chains, don't shirk away from it. Suffering joyfully gives you the opportunity to bear testimony to the gospel of the cross, a gospel of glory this world can't comprehend. My prayer this morning is that the same would be true of us, that the hope of glory, Christ in us, would transform the way we would suffer. That it would fill us with unquenchable desire to bring everyone here to maturity in Christ, that in all of it Jesus Christ, the firstborn of all creation, the Savior of his people, might receive the glory, might receive his honor, that he would hold up his wounds and we would cry with the throne room of heaven, worthy, worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Would you bow your heads?