Colossians 1:25 Commentary and Bible Study

The words ‘to fulfil’ reminds us that the prophets prophesised that even the Gentiles would be brought in to the church and saved. The sublime secret and mystery, the hidden mystery – what is it? Well, it is the message of the gospel. It is the revelation of Christ. It is the conversion of a Gentile. When the apostle speaks of the mystery or the secret, he is referring to something compound. Some people say that the great mystery is simply that the Gentiles would be saved. That is part of it. Some people say the great mystery is the person of Christ. That is part of it. Some people say the great mystery is the plan of salvation, the gospel, atonement, the incarnation of the Son of God, his atoning death and his resurrection. Those things were not clearly seen in Old Testament days. That is part of it too. We need not argue which of them is the mystery, they are all the mystery. It is compound, these three things. The clear doctrines of the Gospel – incarnation, atonement, resurrection, how our salvation was secured by Christ. The revelation of Christ himself, his perfection, his divinity, his holiness, his compassionate miracles, his death on Calvary, yes, and his resurrection. And then, that the Gentiles would be brought into Zion, the kingdom of God. And it would not only be elect Jews, it would be elect Jews and Gentiles all together. All those three things are the mystery.Listen to these words, if only they would sink into us – ‘But now is made manifest,’ opened up and shown, ‘to his saints.’ That is us. What an enormous sense of privilege and responsibility that this should give us. This is why it is part of authentic evangelism. There needs to dawn on us a terrific sense of privilege, something concealed for generations has been revealed to the saints, through the Scriptures. We have the privilege and we have the responsibility.These things were revealed in the Old Testament but in a shadowy way. People knew that there would be a great sacrifice to come, that God would do something to take away sin. They had the system of sacrifices to teach them that without the shedding of blood there would be no forgiveness. When with hindsight you read the book of the prophet Isaiah and you read chapter 53 you say, there it is, there is Calvary, isn’t it so clear? But it was not so clear to them. It was still shrouded by the types and the shadows. So the people of God could be saved in Old Testament times, trusting in the mercy of God and the provision of forgiveness that was prefigured in the ancient worship and would one day would be accomplished, but they did not know quite how and quite when. The apostle Peter tells us in his epistle that the prophets of old searched diligently their own scriptures, and they looked at such prophecies as Isaiah 53 and they asked the question – well, how, and when?