The Mystery of the Gospel, Part 1: The Great Secret Revealed

This is from the book The Mystery of the Gospel:

The Great Secret Revealed

"A great many Christians are saved people still living under the power of sin. A forgiven past and the promise of a blissful future are wonderful, but they do not solve the problem of a present which continues to be 'hell.' The Christian life for many is a battle between good and evil, with the evil frequently winning hands down.

"This is the problem that the apostle Paul outlined in Romans Seven. He had a desire to do good, but not the ability. The more he tried, the more he failed. He confessed that he continually found himself to be a prisoner of sin. He was trapped by a downward pull as powerful as the law of gravity. Time after time, he did the very thing he hated.

"All of us have sat in congregations and heard dedicated ministers 'preach their hearts out' to stir us to victory over sin and to a manifestation of the loving community that Jesus said the church was to be. We have been moved, even to tears. We have begged forgiveness for our failure to really produce the goods in our lives. We have cried out for power to overcome. But months and years later we still fail to show the life and love that the world so desperately needs to see.

"Something, somewhere, is wrong. In our more honest moments, most of us know that the old-fashioned gospel is missing something. Forgiveness of the past and bliss in the future alone are inadequate.

"There has to be another way. The Christian life was never meant to be slavery to sin. Sure, we will all get caught out at times. But we weren't intended to be enmeshed in our flesh, constantly failing to display the love, joy, and peace that are the fruits of the Spirit.

"Paul came to see that there had to be an alternative. In his desperation to live out the life of Christ, he finally reached the end of his rope. 'Wretched man that I am!' he cried out. 'Who will set me free from the body of this death?' And when he admitted his failure to manage life in his own strength, God used him to reveal the answer to our plight.

"Paul came to see that the total answer was the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our personal identification with our Savior in this total answer was meant to make a radical difference in our lives. Lack of understanding of this is the greatest single problem the church faces today. Most difficulties faced by Christians can be traced to this root cause.

"How do neighbors, friends and relatives learn that an individual has become a Christian? The first symptom is usually that he turns 'religious.' He might declare himself a Christian and 'witness' to them. He starts attending church. Time that he formerly whiled away watching television is now given over to time spent alone on his knees in his room. Bibles begin to appear about the house, and even at his place of work. There is a whole reorientation of interests, and of friends; there might even be the axing of a relationship with a girlfriend. Religion becomes the center of his life. This is what the world sees.

"The way the individual sees it, he is trying to live the Christian life. He becomes a tither maybe, or perhaps a prayer warrior, Bible reader, or soul-winner. He may even become a deacon or a preacher. These are the things Christians are 'supposed' to do. He also tries to produce 'fruits,' and perhaps obtains 'gifts.'

"Jesus told a group of religious people that they were doing all kinds of external activities because they were trying to hide a vacuum in their lives. He said that they were concerned with the outside of the cup because the inside wasn't all that godly. They wanted to look holy, but in reality they weren't holy.

"If someone were to suggest that we, too, are frequently occupied with the outside of the vessel, we would doubtless be as startled and angered by such an accusation as those who heard it from the lips of Jesus the first time. Yet for many of us, it is the painful truth.

"We hope our zeal in doing those things which are thought to be Christian will outweigh the evil in our lives. We imagine we will receive God's blessings as long as we mean well. We do a lot of things to try to look like we are living the Christian life. But in reality our ministry is often a cover-up for the fact that we find ourselves constantly beset by failure.

"Because we don't know God's answer for the present, we do the only thing we can: try to handle the present on our own. It is a battle between good and evil. It is having an adequate Christ for the past and for the future, but, in the 'awful present' we try to substitute a consecrated, dedicated self for Christ.

"But Jesus' incisive comment to the Pharisees reveals that wrestling with good and evil still amounts to evil. The net balance of 'good' versus evil always amounts to evil. And instead of being touched by our love, joy and peace, the world sees religious people who proclaim themselves to be something they very evidently are not. To them, our pretense at Christian living is as much a sham as children playing house.

"Faced with this same problem, Paul came to see that God has a total answer for man's plight, not a two-thirds answer. He isn't a God who brings us through the forgiveness of our sins and then informs us that He has little for us until He meets us on the other side. He called the completion of the answer to our problem, 'the revelation of the mystery.' The key that establishes us in the faith and leads us to a spontaneous 'obedience of faith' is the knowing of the secret of our union with Christ.

Now to Him who is able to establish you . . . according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past . . . leading to obedience of faith. Romans 16:25, 26

"In Colossians Paul clearly underscores the totality of the gospel that he had been commissioned to share with Gentile and Jew alike:

I was made a minister . . . that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, that is . . . to make known . . . this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:25-27

"Many talk about sharing a 'full gospel,' but the preceding passage makes clear that to fully carry out the preaching of the word of God we must emphasize and make known the ultimate secret--the mystery--which was for so long hidden: that Christ is in us and that He is our only hope of victory and glory in everyday living.

"The Scripture speaks of a number of different 'mysteries' (the mystery of godliness--1 Tim. 3:16; the mystery that Jews and Gentiles would be equal heirs--Eph. 3:6; the mystery of the future life--1 Cor. 15:51; etc.), but the great secret that is the key to Christian maturity and being 'more than conquerors' is the mystery of the union of Christ with the Church. The fact of 'Christ in us, the hope of glory' is a revelation that goes much, much deeper than the simple gospel of forgiveness and future bliss through the blood of the Cross. This revelation is that crucial last third of the gospel that many of us have missed--Christ dwelling in each believer.

"Paul frequently spoke of his message as 'my gospel.' Not that he preached an entirely different gospel--a different Jesus, a different Cross, a different resurrection. No, it was the same gospel that the other apostles preached, but Paul further unfolded what had previously been proclaimed.

"Paul's gospel continued a whole new insight into what really took place at the Cross. It was a revelation that went way beyond the gospel Peter preached before thousands of Jews on that first Pentecost day, years before Paul was even converted. To that degree, it was a unique gospel. And the other apostles did not all come to understand it right away.

"Do you want to be established in the Christian life? Do you long for that victorious life of love, joy, peace and all of the other fruits of the Spirit? Do you desire to actually be obedient to God?

"If you do, an understanding of the revelation of the mystery of the gospel is the key. Paul's continual prayer for those in the Ephesian church was 'that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him' (1:17). Paul knew that the revelation he had received was the answer to the Christian's longing for the power necessary to live the victorious life.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling,what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. Ephesians 1:18, 19

"Are you experiencing the surpassing greatness of His power in your life? In the next chapter--The 'Two Kingdoms'--we will explain to you the important difference between outer religion and inner Life."