SHALLOWNESS OF DEEP MYSTERIES

By Akin Ojumu

You hear a lot about deep mysteries these days. There are preachers whose entire ministry and persona are built on the sinking sand of recondite secrets to which they alone are privy. The more esoteric the mystery they claim to know, the more extraordinary they seem in the eyes of their followers. And the wackier the mysteries, the larger the size of impressionable crowd they tend to draw. 

Guess what? It’s all a façade. These claims of unique insight into unknown phenomena are a cynical ploy to deceive and defraud people with itching ears who have traded the truth of God for superstitions, just as Apostle Paul rightly warned Timothy.

2 TIMOTHY 4:3-4

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”

So, what exactly are mysteries within the context of the New Testament?

Simply put, mysteries are revealed truths. There is no mystery of God that we ought to know that the Lord Jesus has not already revealed to His Apostles. And by “Apostles,” I’m referring to the real Apostles (i.e., the 12 disciples and Paul who actually met the Biblical qualifications of an Apostle). 

If you believe that any of these modern-day impostors who go by the title of apostle are real Apostles, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

But I digress.

Mystery is the term used by Apostle Paul to indicate truths hidden in the Old Testament age that have now been revealed in the New Testament. God has made these mysteries known to His Apostles. In turn, the Apostles spoke of the revealed mysteries in all their writings in the Bible for our benefit.

Just so you know what these mysteries are, the following are just a few of them.

1) Mystery of God Incarnate

COLOSSIANS 2:1-3

“For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

2) Mystery of Godliness i.e., True and Perfect Righteousness in Jesus Christ

1 TIMOTHY 3:16

“Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.”

3) Mystery of Israel Unbelief

ROMANS 11

“Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” (Romans 11:25).

4) Mystery of Jews & Gentiles as Joint Heirs in Christ

EPHESIANS 3:1-6

“For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles – assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, 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. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

5) Mystery of Christ Indwelling the Gentiles

COLOSSIANS 1:24-27

“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, 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, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

6) Mystery of the Rapture

1 CORINTHIANS 15:51

“Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”

“O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?”

7) Mystery of the Man of Lawlessness

2 THESSALONIANS 2:1-7

“Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.”

8) Mystery of Marriage

EPHESIANS 5:25-33

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”

Here’s my advise to you, if you are reading this. Shun anyone who tells you that he is privy to some mysteries of God that other people don’t know about. Such an individual is a Gnostic deceiver who is either gaslighting you to enrich himself or he’s drunk on his own the Kool-Aid of delusion and hubris.