Part II "STEWARDS OF THE
MYSTERIES OF GOD."
That the ignorance referred to
in the closing paragraphs of the article in the previous issue is most
lamentable, every intelligent Christian must admit. If God has in our day made
known things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world, it
is surely to our interest and God’s glory to understand and value them. Isaiah
could write the words which the apostle Paul quotes in 1 Cor. 2:9:"Eye
hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the
things which God hath prepared for them that love Him" (Isa. 64:4). But
the apostle does not stop there, as do many Christians; he immediately adds,
"But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit:for the Spirit
searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God."
Clearly, then, there are
precious truths which even as late as in Isaiah’s day were among the secret
things but which have now been added to things which are revealed and which are
for us and for our children. It is to these things he refers when he writes,
"Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards
of the mysteries of God" (1 Cor. 4:1). The Greek word musterion, here
used, which is simply Anglicized into our word mysteries, refers to secret
things known only to the initiated. It is not that the things in themselves were
mysteries and beyond finite comprehension, or even above the range of ordinary
minds, but that they could never be known at all unless revealed by another. So
we speak of the Eleusinian mysteries:they were teachings not given to the
multitude, but imparted to a select company of initiates. As used in the New
Testament, the mysteries are those truths which in Old Testament days were kept
in silence, but which are now the common property of all believers. They are
not special truths for a special class, but every Christian is privileged to
enter into the knowledge of these mysteries. More than that, no Christian can
properly enter upon the responsibilities flowing from the relationship in which
he stands toward God if he remains in ignorance of these same mysteries. The
word "musterion" is found twenty-seven times in the received text of
the New Testament, viz.. Matt. 13:11; Mark 4:11:Luke 8:10:Rom. 11:25; 16:25;
1 Cor. 2:7; 4:1; 13:2; 14:2; 15:51; Eph. 1:9; 3:3, 4, 9; 5:32; 6:19; Col. 1:26,
27; 2:2; 4:3; 2 Thess. 2:7; 1 Tim. 3:9, 18; Rev. 1:20; 10:7; 17:5, 7. Some
versions add 1 Cor. 2:1, where marturion seems to be a copyist’s error for
musterion. Westcott and Hort, and the Revisers, adopt the latter reading.
Christ’s ministers are to be
stewards of the mysteries of God, not merely preachers of what people so often
call "the simple gospel." Out of their treasure they are to bring
forth things new and old if instructed in the mysteries of the kingdom of
heaven. Nor are these things of an abstruse, impractical nature, but intensely
otherwise; they are the very lines of truth which above all others tend to form
the character and guide the ways of the Christian. Hence, if we accept the
preferred reading of 1 Cor. 2:1, it is to these very things that the apostle
referred when he wrote, "1, brethren, when I came to you, came not with
excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you (not the testimony, but)
the mystery of God." And yet he immediately adds, "For I determined
not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." But
"Jesus Christ, and Him crucified" will never be truly known, in the
apostle’s sense, if the soul be content to go on in ignorance of the mysteries.
Rome, we know, has attempted to foist on the Church a
lot of legendary traditions and sacramental observances as the mysteries, thus
emulating the pagan cults, which had their inner secrets for the special few.
But the Christian mysteries are for every child of God in this dispensation of
grace. Nor are they of an occult and metaphysical nature, appealing only to the
erudite and mystical. They are simple truths of tremendous importance, some of
which, at least, have been utterly ignored by the vast majority of theologians,
ancient and modern, and this to their shame and loss.
It has often been remarked that
every teaching which the apostles preface with such an expression as, "I
would not have you ignorant, brethren," will be found to be a line of
truth of which, after nearly twenty centuries of Christianity, the bulk of
professing believers know little or nothing. It will be only necessary to refer
to the passages to see how true the statement is.
In Rom. 11:25, 26 Paul writes,
"For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery,
lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened
to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved:as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and
shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." Now, how seldom does one hear any
reference to the fulness of the Gentiles or the salvation of Israel as a nation, in the pulpit instruction of the day? As a result, the Gentiles are wise
in their own conceits, and boasting of the near conversion of the world, and
the transference of Jewish promises to the Church of God.
Again, writing of the rapture of
the saints at the second advent of our Lord, the same apostle says:"I
would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep,
that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope" (1 Thess. 4:13);
and he proceeds to comfort them with teaching as to the raising of the dead and
simultaneous catching up of the living at the Lord’s return, which, it is not
too much to say, not one Christian in ten knows anything of.
Peter writes of the
manifestation of the Lord Jesus and says:"But, beloved, be not ignorant
of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a
thousand years as one day" (2 Peter 3:8); and with this he couples solemn
and important truth as to the day of the Lord and the day of God; and probably
not a saint in a hundred knows the difference between the two terms.
What have Christians to say to
this? What can thousands say for thus failing to value and appropriate
mysteries of such tremendous importance? Failing to enter into these things,
the Church has lost the sense of her pilgrim character, confusing teaching as
to Israel and the nations with divine instruction regarding the Body of Christ.
The heavenly calling has been lost sight of, and practically given up for an
earthly one.
Unquestionably the onus of blame
rests upon the guides who, professing to be Christ’s ministers, are anything
but stewards of the mysteries of God. Stewards of science, of philosophy, of
political economy, of literature, of historic lore, and of religious notions,
many of them undoubtedly are; but it is quite another thing to be dispensers of
the now-revealed secret things which for ages past were hid in God.
But all the blame does not rest
upon the leaders of religious thought, as they are called. In his day Jeremiah
could declare, "The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule
by their means; and My people love to have it so":therefore he solemnly
asks, "And what will ye do in the end thereof?" (Jer. 5:31.) The
people love to have it so! This is most significant. Heretical teachers could
not flourish for one day if the people did not wish for their ministry. And
preachers of Old Testament truths, which they offer in place of New Testament
mysteries, would not find it so easy to go on confusing the people of God if
there was real exercise of conscience among those who are content to be styled
"the laity" and who seldom read their Bibles for themselves and
endeavor to rightly divide the word of truth.
Do not let me be misunderstood.
I do not for an instant decry the expounding of the Old Testament. Far be the
thought! I believe it is of the utmost importance that the soul be established
in all that is there revealed in order to his going on unto the perfection of
the full Christian revelation. I believe in the importance of the kindergarten
and the primary school, but I do not believe it is a sound principle of
education to keep people going over the alphabet when age and intelligence fit
them for the university, if but properly instructed.
The Old Testament is "the
word of the beginning of Christ" (see margin of Heb. 6:1), which the
apostle exhorts us to leave, that we may go on to full growth—that is,
Christianity. It is not that he would have us forget the beginning, any more
than the university student forgets the instruction of the primary school. He
leaves it, but carries with him the knowledge received.
In the next issue we purpose
thus to leave the revealed things of the past dispensation, and go on to
contemplate the mysteries of God which He has now made known for our
edification and blessing.