The Mystery

by Mike Ratliff

28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of His body. 31 FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. 32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Ephesians 5:28-32 (NASB) 

In our 21^st Century languages, the word “mystery” is used as a series of clues to be figured out. However, the Apostle Paul used the Greek word μυστήριον (mustērion) six times in the book of Ephesians, twice in Romans, once in 1 Corinthians, four times in Colossians, and once in 1 Timothy. It is found nowhere else in the New Testament. His usage was not as a series of clues to be figured out, but of a grand word that points to mystery as a heretofore-unrevealed truth that has been made clear. Its usage in the Greek text preserves the sense that the revealed truth has such awesome implications that it continues to amaze and humble those who accept it. Many of you are familiar with the term describing the current day Evangelical Church as being a million miles wide and one inch deep. That sad fact is due to its losing its grasp of this Mystery and its implications all tied to the Sovereignty of God, the Deity of Christ, and the fact that Salvation is the result of Justification by Faith alone by the Grace of God alone not by the efforts of man. This loss has resulted in a focus on self rather than God. In return, God has caused His judgment to fall on these people so that they no longer hunger for God’s truth, but only hunger for what is new, cool, and culturally relevant. They seek it, but are never fulfilled by it while the very thing that would fulfill their hunger, God’s truth according to His grace, is available, but they look everywhere but there.