IV. In its ultimate design--to our glory. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
The gospel-wisdom
I. It is God’s wisdom (1Co_2:6-9).
II. It is revealed inwardly by the Spirit (1Co_2:10-13).
III. It is understood only by the spiritual man (verse 2:14-3:4). (Principal Edwards.)
God’s wisdom in a mystery
Christianity is--
I. “The wisdom of God.” Wisdom is knowledge directed to practical ends through the most effectual means. The moral systems of Greece ill deserved that appellation. They were imaginative; they fed the appetite for speculation, but fell with no power upon conscience or conduct. But in the gospel “the wisdom of Godis displayed in efficient and wondrous arrangements to enlighten and save a fallen world.
1. It affords infallible instruction in all necessary truth. All true knowledge properly comes from God. Even art and science were probably first suggested to the mind by God, but secretly and without any mark of distinction. It is conceivable that much of Bible truth might have been thus secretly suggested, and have been published only as the results of the human investigation. Beyond their own rational evidence none of these truths, however, would have had, in this case, a greater than human authority. They would have been but matters of opinion still. The disadvantage of the most enlightened paganism was, that what of the wisdom of God was in it was not known to be from God. When they met with truth they met also with error; and both appeared to rest upon equal authority, and each was held with equal unsteadfastness and doubt. What was wanting was truth in a revealed form. “The wisdom of God” has supplied that desideratum. Whilst human teachers remained in the human court darkly investigating what might be hidden within that veil, the “Teacher sent from God” rent that veil, and He who dwelt between the cherubim “shone forth.” Whilst they were gazing upon every dark form of error which flitted before them like the clouds of night, He came forth, and cried, “I am the light of the world; he that followeth Me,” &c.; and the credentials He bore were equal to this high declaration.
2. It is a Divine contrivance to administer pardon to the guilty. This is peculiar to the gospel. The question, “What must I do to be saved?” has been sighed from many a breast, but has obtained no answer except from Christianity.
3. It is an efficient scheme for promoting personal and universal happiness. Man is miserable, and cannot be otherwise. Between sin and misery there is a necessary connection. Many experiments have been tried to build up happy and peaceful societies, but all have failed. Christianity would not have been “wisdom” had it not provided for man’s happiness; and it could only provide for it by effecting his regeneration. When this takes place the heart is at rest; “the fruits of the Spirit” spring forth from the renewed soil; then man lives to help and bless his fellows.
II. “The wisdom of God in a mystery.” The apostle here probably alludes to the mysteries of Paganism. The priesthood in many places pretended to be in possession of a higher and purer doctrine which they kept from the vulgar, under the plea that they were too base and impure to be entrusted with it. It was, therefore, “hidden wisdom.” But it was occasionally communicated to distinguished persons. The “initiated” had, however, to undergo severe penances; scenic symbolic representations in caverns, and in the night, were the means adopted for unfolding the secret; and these, and other ceremonies, were employed to inspire greater awe and to enforce secrecy. Probably this secret doctrine contained some of the ancient and purer theology, but mingled with fables. The apostle supposes--
1. Points of resemblance; but even the resemblances are implied contrasts such as exist between the sun and a fire, which at once calls our thoughts from what is common to both, to the contrast exhibited between a darkened blaze and an unsullied light.
(1) Christianity was connected with symbolic representations running through the previous ages, of which it was at once the accomplishment and the exposition; and it retained some figurative rites of its own--e.g., Baptism, the Eucharist, and the Sabbath.
(2) It, too, is hidden from the profane, and those who receive it must be prepared by a previous discipline. But its discipline is not some foolish bodily austerity or onerous ceremonies, it is the discipline of humility and prayer. For “the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him,” and to them “He shows His covenant.”
(3) It also produces deep impressions of awe and reverence upon those who are admitted, to it. Religion has an awful grandeur, but nowhere is it displayed so impressively as in the gospel.
2. Points of direct contrast.
(1) The mysteries of Paganism were, for the most part, by artifice; those of Christianity by nature and necessity. The bottom of this ocean is not discovered, not because the waters are muddy, but because they are deep.
(2) In the Pagan mysteries plain truths were often hidden in doubtful enigmas; in Christianity nothing is mysterious but what is so by the appointment of Him who hides that from us which is unfit for us to know, or from the necessary magnitude of the objects.
(3) The impression produced upon the initiated was the result greatly of trick, and brought the spirit of man into bondage and disquieting superstition. But “the mysteries of godliness” at once humble and exalt; and whilst they inspire fear, elevate, strengthen, and sanctify.
(4) In the mysteries of Paganism, whatever wisdom was “hidden” was for the few; that of Christianity, for all. From the former the poor were systematically excluded. The poor find mercy in the gospel, but nowhere else.
III. This “Wisdom of God In a mystery” was “Ordained before the world to glory.”
1. Christianity was ordained “before the world.” We hear sometimes of its invention by man. We acknowledge that things invented have been added by human authority. But these are no parts of the system itself; and we may ask, When was that invented? And what human mind first devised its leading fundamental principles?--that man is a fallen being who can be saved only through the merits of a Divine sacrifice.
2. It was ordained as a perfect and efficient plan for human recovery. (R. Watson.)
The great theme of gospel preaching
I. The wisdom referred to in the text. It is called the wisdom of God; by which we are to understand, not that attribute of God’s nature, but that attribute in its display. The wisdom of God has been denominated manifold--manifold, not simply because the things in which it is displayed are many, but because, as displayed in each of those things, it is in itself manifold; in other words, ample, full in its display. And of what does he thus speak? It is of God’s wisdom as displayed in the economy of human salvation. What is wisdom? What but that which, having an object in view, chooses a plan, and employs means for the attainment of its object--not indeed any plan, but that which is indisputably the best--nor any means, but those which are indisputably the most suitable; and by its choice of the one and its employment of the other, both seeks the attainment of its object, and makes provision for the removal out of the way of what would otherwise operate to make its attainment impossible. If this be what wisdom is, does it not furnish an explanation of what the wisdom of God is, as displayed in the economy of human salvation? He had an object in view. That object was twofold--His own glory and man’s salvation. Had sinful man been left to perish, without any regard to the wish of mercy, the holiness, and the faithfulness, and the justice of God would doubtless have been seen in man’s perdition. Or had sinful man been rescued from destruction, without any regard to the demand of holiness, and faithfulness, and justice, the mercy of God would doubtless have been seen in man’s preservation from ruin. But where--in either the one or the other of those supposed cases--where would have been God’s glory? For His glory is not His mercy, or His justice, or His faithfulness, or His holiness, in their separate form, but all these perfections in combination. And is not this the appearance which these perfections of God present to view in His mode of saving man?
II. The peculiar description which the apostle in the text further gives of it.
1. “The wisdom of God in a mystery.” By this, questionless, the apostle primarily intended to intimate that in speaking, or in ministerially publishing the wisdom of God, or the plan of human salvation in the mode of its accomplishment, in which the wisdom of God has its highest illustration, he proclaimed that which, in itself, is mysterious or incomprehensible. And is it not so? But though there is here that which is mysterious, that which is incomprehensible, there is nothing that is incredible. To refuse the plan of human salvation a place in our creed, because the mode of its accomplishment transcends our comprehension, we must, in order to be consistent, disbelieve whatever we cannot fully understand or explain. And in what tremendous and hopeless scepticism would this involve us! For what is there that is not to us replete with mystery?
2. But though the apostle may have referred to what is strictly mysterious in the plan of human salvation when he said, “We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery,” yet, from what immediately follows, it would appear that he meant to be understood as referring, not so much to the essential incomprehensibility of that plan, as to its previous secrecy. The plan of human salvation was before a mystery, a secret; but in consequence of the commencement of the Christian era, it is now made known: hence, “We speak--I and my fellow-apostles” speak--publish, proclaim, the once “hidden wisdom.” His meaning is, that, compared with the revelation of it now made, all former revelations of it were imperfect. Though adapted to be spiritually and morally useful, yet every former revelation was not only partial, but oftentimes obscure. In this latter revelation, however, there was no darkness; it was clear, intelligible, satisfactory. But the apostle refers, not merely to the complete discovery now made of the plan of human salvation compared with the former partial and defective revelations of it, but also to its benevolent, its philanthropic character, when he says, “We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom.” The plan of human salvation was primarily revealed to the progenitor of the human race as their representative; but subsequently this revelation was made only to a portion of his descendants. The rest of mankind needed it, as well as these favoured ones; but from all without the pale of their privileged community it was withheld, and long withheld--so long, that to this latter class it seemed its revelation was never to be made. Until the commencement of this era the calling of the Gentiles to be partakers with the Jews of the blessings of salvation was a “mystery,” a secret; but no sooner did this era commence than the original benevolent and philanthropic character of the plan of human salvation was made manifest. Widely was the revelation of this plan spread during the apostolic age; widely has it been spread since; but still it is far, very far from being universally spread.
III. The source whence it originated, the antiquity of its device, and the grandeur of the object of its revelation.
1. Its source was God. “We speak the wisdom of God”; that in which “the wisdom of God” was illustriously displayed we publish--even the plan of human salvation “which God ordained”; that is, which God decreed, and having decreed, revealed as His own contrivance. And is not this what the plan of human salvation is? Could it have any other origin than that to which it is here traced? Does not that about it which exceeds all description and transcends all conception prove that its contrivance not only was, but must have been Divine?
2. The antiquity of its device. “We speak the wisdom of God” the plan of human salvation “which God ordained before the world,” that is, before the creation of the world; and if before the creation of the world, before the beginning of time; and if before the beginning of time, from eternity. And is not the plan of human salvation thus ancient? “Known unto God,” it is said, “are all His works from the beginning f the world”; language which, whilst it undeniably imports antecedent arrangement, as undeniably implies that that arrangement was, on the part of God, eternal. And if, in reference to all His other works, the date of God’s plans must be fixed in eternity, what other date can be reasonably assigned to His plan of human salvation? What admiration, what gratitude, what confidence is this fitted to excite in our breast!
3. The grandeur of the object of its revelation. “We speak the wisdom of God, which God ordained before the world, unto our glory.” In devising the plan of human salvation, God sought His own glory; and in the accomplishment of that plan His glory has been secured. But though in devising that plan God chiefly sought His own glory, yet He sought ours also; even our spiritual, moral, and eternal benefit, which constitutes our glory. Indeed, the device of that plan would have failed in its object had not its accomplishment combined, in this sense, our glory with the glory of God. And have we not every reason to be assured, from it adaption to our ease, of its fitness to promote our glory, by promoting our spiritual, moral, and eternal benefit? (A. Jack, D. D.)
The wisdom of God in mystery
Light and darkness are here mingled together. It is wisdom, but wisdom in a mystery. We may know from it enough to make us wise unto salvation, but the gospel never proposes to give answers to the catechism of curiosity. Consider--
I. The mystery which lies in the crucifixion of Christ. It is entirely a mystery to us--
1. How it could comport with the justice of God to lay the punishment of our sins on the head of an innocent Being. He has done it. There is no mystery about that. But we know no more.
2. How justice could be satisfied through such an infliction. We cannot tell. All we know is that Divine justice positively did receive there the very last item of her demands.
3. How Christ could render satisfaction to Divine justice, while, at the same time, He was the Being to whom satisfaction was rendered, and the very Being who rendered it.
4. How it came to pass that, while the Divine nature is utterly unsusceptible of pain and death, nevertheless the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ have all their value and efficacy from the Divine nature of the Victim. We know it is so, but we know nothing further.
5. How there could be, in the “one person” of Christ upon the Cross, such a wonderful union of grandeur and humiliation--of complaining and omnipotence--of immortal Deity and expiring humanity! They are truths, but they are mysteries--Divine mysteries of Divine truth.
6. How that Son on the Cross, in whom the Father was well pleased, could have been abandoned at such a moment, and left to wail, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”. How the love of God should ever have brought Jesus Christ to the Cross.
II. The demonstration that all this mysteriousness is no greater than we ought to expect on the subject-matter before us. It perfectly accords with all the facts and all the other arrangements of the plan of redemption. In this accordance beams out the wisdom of God.
1. Sin was the great evil which brought our Saviour into the world and took Him to the Cross. And the existence of sin is just as mysterious a matter to us as its expiation. If sin is a mystery, the expiation of it ought to be a mystery also. And so it is. Great is the mystery of godliness, &c.
2. Why did the Son of God select this world as the theatre of His redeeming wonders? Spirits as precious as ours had fallen. Why did God pass angels by when He rescued us? No answer comes, except, “Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight.” There we must leave it. And if it be a mystery how God came to select this apostate world, it accords with God that that work itself should be a mystery also.
3. There is an entire correspondence between the doctrines of Christ’s expiation of sin and satisfaction of justice, and all the other information we have about the Saviour Himself. The incarnation of Jesus ,Christ is just as mysterious to us as His atonement. That Jesus Christ should be able to give strength to the poor cripple’s bones, and yet be Himself weary and wayworn--that He should feed thousands of men, and yet be a man of hunger--that He should please the Father, and yet the Father be pleased to bruise Rim, these are things before which faith and love may wonder and adore, but which reason can never explain!
4. There is something truly amazing in the mode of the redemption of sinners. If it were so, that Jesus Christ were coming into this world to ransom sinners, we should naturally have expected that He would come in the chariots of His omnipotence! But He was a poor man, and at the end of His work, instead of receiving any signals of triumph, He was mocked as an impostor and crucified as a malefactor. This is the mode in which God treated His Son! It corresponds with the mysteries of its design.
5. Through this Christ some sinners are brought into favour with God. They are believers. They are adopted into God’s family, and He loves them with an unequalled tenderness and strength. But how does He treat them? The very pathway by which they travel to heaven corresponds in wonders with all the rest of their redemption! (L S. Spencer, D. D.)
Christianity the wisdom of God in a mystery
I.Mystery primarily signifies a secret, and Christianity is the wisdom of God in a mystery, because of its having been long a secret. “It was ordained before the foundation of the world” it was a Divine plan formed in the mind of God, but, from eternity to the point of time when it was needed, it remained a secret there. But at the moment of man’s fall then came the wisdom of God out of this long mystery. And whilst justice shut the gates of paradise, mercy opened the new and living way to reconciliation and friendship with God. But the apostle speaks of God’s purpose to call the Gentiles as a mystery. The wisdom of God had retired behind the impenetrable cloud for ages till our Saviour gave the charter of salvation to all nations--“Go ye into all the world,” &c.
II. A mystery is an emblem, and Christianity is the wisdom of God in a mystery, because it has delighted in all ages to array itself in emblem. The parables of our Lord were called mysteries for this reason, and “the golden candlesticks” and “the stars” in the Book of the Revelation. But the object of a mystery, in this respect, is not so much concealment as to test whether men love the truth sufficiently to investigate the figures under which it is presented. The wisdom of God chose the ancient types for the manifestation of itself. All nature is made use of in this respect. The sun is the established emblem of Christ, the light of the world. In the shadows of evening the voice of heavenly wisdom admonishes us that the night cometh in which no man can work. Dews and rains remind us of the great promise of the fertilising and life-giving Spirit. It was for this very reason that the sacraments were anciently called mysteries. Baptism teaches us the washing away of sin, and the Lord’s Supper that we live by His death.
III. A mystery is a deep and dark enigma, and Christianity is the wisdom of God in a mystery, because it is by the most perplexing circumstances that it has often accomplished its designs. Take--
1. The humiliation of our Lord. The great pretensions of all the prophets were that He was to save and redeem and reign. Well, this Saviour is seen in the form of an infant--is placed in entire obscurity for thirty years. He was despised and rejected by the people at large, and His character and designs often perplexed His immediate followers. By and by we see this universal sovereign and Saviour expiring on a Cross, and provoking the taunt, “He saved others, but Himself He cannot save.” Yet, however deep that mystery, there was wisdom behind it, and on the morning of the resurrection the wisdom of God came forth from the mystery. There seems to be an allusion to this in the words of St. Paul: “Great,” says he, “is themystery of godliness,” &c.
2. The history of the Church. There have been so many manifestations of the wisdom of God in the mystery that certainly there is something for faith to rest upon with respect to the grand result as to the Church; and yet how deep and portentous are the clouds which arise before the mind of him who contemplates the apostasies of the Church, &c.
IV. A mystery is a proceeding which contradicts the notions which men ordinarily form of fitness; and Christianity is the wisdom of God in a mystery, because it employs, for the accomplishment of its proposes, means which contradict all the notions of men.
1. There was nothing agreeable to human wisdom in the agents appointed for the conversion of the world; but Paul tells us that the wisdom of God had proved stronger than the wisdom of men, and that God had chosen the weak things to confound the mighty, &c. The mystery was to the men of the world; the wisdom in the mystery was manifested in the end.
2. There is the soul of a man immersed in worldliness and sin to be made sensible of its sin and danger--to have produced within it a new train of emotions which shall lead to God. What is the instrumentality which the wisdom of God employs in producing this effect? Is it the work of an angel? Verily it were worthy of such an agency. But now the wisdom of God veils itself in mystery, and makes use of a fellow-man, and by the secret influence which God gives, the work is done.
3. A soul reconciled to God is to be matured in grace and to be qualified for glory. How often does the wisdom of God, in accomplishing this great end, wrap itself in mystery! One object is to cure the spirit of worldly care, and a load of additional care is laid upon it. Another object is to teach reflectiveness of spirit, and the subject is plunged in most perplexing circumstances. Another object is to increase the peace of the soul; and yet the soul is placed in the midst of the turbulent storm. Another object is to excite a higher love, and yet the heavier stroke of the Lord is laid upon him. Here is the mystery; but we know the wisdom notwithstanding this, “for tribulation worketh patience,” &c.
4. A nation sunk in ignorance and immorality is to be raised into a better state. How is it done? Never by means which are at all taken into the calculation of statesmen. God raises up His own instruments--they may be few in number--from the lower class of society, and the work goes on, principles are secretly spreading, and the scene changes. It is amusing to read the theories of the worldly wise on these changes, whereas the whole proves that the wisdom of God has been proceeding in a mystery to them.
5. And so it is with respect to foreign missions.
V. A mystery is as unfathomable subject, and Christianity is the wisdom of God in a mystery, because the subjects with which it is conversant are of this kind. There are many persons who object to our religion because of its mysteriousness. But what would a religion be that had no mysteries? What view could you have of God if you could comprehend Him? God is eternal--can the creature of a day take in the idea of eternal duration? God’s plans must be like Himself; must they, then, not be incomprehensible by the necessity of nature to creatures like ourselves? The subject is clear, but our minds are clouded by reason of darkness, We cannot perceive the beauty and the proportions of an extended landscape, not because the objects in themselves are indistinct, but because they are distant.
VI. Christianity is a mystery of love. Great has been the manifestation of the goodness of God to His people. Christ has come--the Holy Spirit has been poured out--the ordinances of Christianity instituted; but there is a period coming of still greater glory for the Church. They whom Christ has redeemed are to be with Him for ever and see His glory. (R. Watson.)
The mystery of the gospel
I. In its principles. It reveals reconciliation with God,
1. By sacrifice.
2. By the sacrifice of His own dear Son.
II. In its spirituality.
1. It is revealed by the Spirit of God.
2. To the spirit of man.
3. By faith.
III. In its design.
1. To manifest the glory of God.
2. Secure the glorification of man. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
The mystery of the gospel
The gospel--
I. May well be mysterious--for it is the wisdom of God.
II. Must be acknowledged to be mysterious. For its doctrines--
1. Transcend human thought.
2. Are spiritual in their nature.
3. Are in opposition to our common modes of thinking,
III. Is wisely mysterious.
1. To command our reverence.
2. Humble our pride.
3. Provoke our inquiry.
4. Awaken anticipation of a brighter revelation in another life. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
Mystery
The word has four meanings which may be arranged almost in chronological order.
I. That which it is forbidden to divulge except to the initiated. Such were the secrets of the political and religious festivals held in most cities of Greece. We have a trace of this meaning in Mat_13:2. In 2Pe_1:16 it is said that the apostles did not follow the false track of rationalised myths, but were eye-witnesses by initiation of Christ’s majesty (Col_2:3).
II. That which cannot be known except by revelation (cf. Rom_16:25; Eph_3:3-4; Col_1:26)
.
III. Sacred ceremonies that have a symbolical or spiritual significance; sometimes restricted to denote the Eucharist. After the time of Tertullian this is its prevailing signification, and its Latin equivalent is sacramentum.
IV. A truth that transcends the human intellect to comprehend, and this may be absolute impossibility or impossible till the Spirit of God gives an inward revelation. In the present passage the word includes somewhat of all these meanings except the third. The word “perfect,” while it signifies “full-grown,” contains an allusion to initiation into mysteries. (Principal Edwards.)
Mystery no obstacle to faith
Each human being at his birth has everything to learn. The child is apt to imagine that those who are older than himself, and whom he has found able to answer his first inquiries, know almost everything, and he is surprised and disappointed when he finds, in many instances, that no sufficient explanation of his difficulties can be given, and he is inclined to disbelieve whatever offers itself as a mystery to his mind. In this vulnerable point, scepticism in reference to subjects of a religious nature is wont to assail the mind. It would have it believed that mystery is something peculiar to religion, and then insists that what is so incomprehensible cannot rationally be believed. But neither is true. We purpose to show the contrary.
I. There is mystery in everything.
1. Of nothing can we feel a greater certainty than of our own being and personal identity. But what am I? I can no more understand the essence of my conscious self, than I can that of God the Infinite Spirit. The philosopher here is no wiser than the child.
2. Turn to nature in any of her various departments. Look, e.g., at--
(1) The facts presented in the animal kingdom. Explain the nature of instinct. Observe that spider, which has spread her gossamer across your window. How did she learn to construct that octagon as perfect as if drawn by the nicest geometrician? Or watch the robin; that nest is the first she ever built: yet see how perfect--the most practised of her kind has never formed a better. Where did she gain her skill in architecture?
(2) Animal life and the functions of the vital economy. What is it that prevents the decomposition of the flesh of animals so long as the vital principle is there, while decay commences the moment it is gone? Tell us how it is that the gross substances taken in the form of food are converted into the beautiful carnation of the human cheek, and the gorgeous and variegated dyes of birds and insects. Show what it is that keeps the heart for ever throbbing, and the lungs perpetually heaving, without any effort of the will.
(3) The vegetable world. There is the rose blushing crimson by your window. What elements have been concerned in its production? Light, heat, moisture, and the common earth. But by what means have the petal, the odour, and the hues been elaborated from such materials? How has the same sap been made to produce the hard stalk, the sharp thorn, the green leaf, and the admirable flower? There, too, is the lily by its side. It springs from the same soil, is warmed by the same sun, watered by the same showers, yet instead of having the same colour it is white as the virgin snow. Again, there is the grass and the violet that both spring from one common mould, and yet, one is a soft and lively green, and the other an imperial purple.
(4) Inorganic matter. You have here the laws of chemical affinity and repulsion. You find that certain substances when reduced to a fluid state and then placed in given conditions, return to solids by the process of crystallisation; and that in doing this one always takes the cubic form, another always that of an octahedron, another always that of a parallelopiped, and so on. But of these, and a multitude of other plain and unquestionable facts, you cannot by the nicest observation detect the cause, or the mode of its operation. Nature veils it in deep mystery.
(5) Those subtle yet efficient agents that produce the more general and grand phenomena of nature. Put an end to the conjectures of mankind, by telling us what light, and heat, and electricity, and magnetism are. That mighty universal force, to which, by way of concealing our ignorance, we give the name of gravity, which brings the pebble to the earth, and chains revolving worlds about their centres; search out the secret and instruct us in relation to its nature. You cannot answer our inquiries. You see, then, that mystery is written all over the universe of God.
II. That the truths of revealed religion are confessedly mysterious, is a confirmation of its Divinity.
1. A system of religion which professed to be from God, and yet claimed to have no mysteries, would prove it to be false. For such a system would be anomalous, and we should justly reason that if earthly things are found to be beyond our comprehension, much more ought heavenly things to be expected to be so. To the Omniscient only are there no dark and hidden things.
2. There may be many other reasons besides that of our want of capacity to comprehend Him, to render it fit that God should withhold from us many kinds and degrees of knowledge which might without difficulty be imparted. It might, for example, only perplex us to have our minds excited to yet higher inquiry by further disclosures as to things that have no immediate relation to our duty or our happiness for the present. Life is so short, so full of engrossing occupation, that very little time is allowed us for merely speculative thought. Then, further, it is no less obvious that this living in the midst of mysteries may prove a most salutary moral discipline. By contact with the as yet unopened secrets of the universe our pride receives a salutary check. Both as regards the ends of practical life and the development in our souls of sentiments of humility, of veneration, and of worship, there are great advantages to be derived from the present withholding of many parts of Divine knowledge which might possibly be revealed.
3. Instead, then, of suffering ourselves to be perplexed because we encounter mysteries in the Christian revelation, it is much wiser, as well as more becoming, that we cultivate a humble, docile spirit. How exceedingly limited, at best, is our horizon! What an infant, in a sober view, does the wisest man on earth appear on the scale of universal being!
4. We ought likewise to consider, for the enkindling of a heartfelt gratitude, that the mysteries of our being had been far deeper and darker than they are, but for the partial light which God has afforded in His Word. By the help of this, where the wisest heathen, in all ages, have groped their way, we are able to see distinctly; and though we are able to know so little comparatively, yet let us devotedly praise God that He has enabled us to know enough to enable us to discern and keep the path of duty and of life.
5. For the rest it may content us that we can confidently anticipate the future increase of our knowledge. (Ray Palmer, D. D.)
Christianity mysterious, and the wisdom of God in making it so
The reasons of this may be stated upon these two grounds.
I. The nature and quality of the things treated of.
1. Their surpassing greatness to the mind of man. God is an infinite being, a world in Himself, too high for our speculations and too great for our descriptions. Heaven enters into us, as we must into it, by a very narrow passage. But how shall the King of glory, whom the heavens themselves cannot contain, enter in by these doors? How shall these short faculties measure the lengths of His eternity, the breadths of His immensity, the heights of His prescience, and the depths of His decrees? and those mysteries of two natures united into one person and of one nature diffused into a triple personality?
2. Their spirituality. When we read that God is a Spirit, and that angels and the souls of men are spirits, we cannot frame any notion or resemblance of them. We can fetch in no information from our senses. Imagine a man born blind, able upon hearsay to conceive all the varieties of colour, to draw a map of France, &c. But as it would be extremely irrational for a blind man to deny that there are such things as colours, &c., because he cannot form any mental perception of them, so would it be superlatively more unreasonable for us to deny on the same grounds the great articles of our Christianity.
3. Their strangeness and unreducibleness to the common methods and observations of nature. Take, e.g.--
(1) Christ’s satisfaction for sin. That He who was the offended person should provide a satisfaction and concern Himself to solicit a needless reconciliation, that a Father should deliver up an innocent and infinitely beloved Son for the redemption of His enemies, are transactions such as we can find nothing analogous to in all the dealings of men.
(2) Regeneration, concerning which men wonder by what strange power it should come to pass that any one should be brought to conquer inveterate appetites and desires, and to have new ones absolutely contrary planted in their room. So that when our Saviour discoursed of these things to Nicodemus, he asked, “How can these things be?”
(3) The resurrection.
II. Some of its principal ends and designs. But may it not be objected that the grand design of religion is to engage men in the practice of its commands, and that the way to obey a law is to know it, and the way to know it is to have it plainly propounded? To this I answer, first, that it is as much thedesign of religion to oblige men to believe the credenda as to practise the agenda of it: and secondly, that there is as clear a reason for the belief of the one as for thepractice of the other. They exceed indeed the human reason to comprehend them scientifically, and are therefore proposed, not to our knowledge, but to our belief; but since God has revealed them we may with the highest reason, upon His bare word, believe them. But then, as for those things that concern our practice, they indeed are of that clearness that being once proposed to us, need not our study, but only our acceptance. In sum, the articles of our faith are those depths in which the elephant may swim, and the rules of our practice those shallows in which the lamb may wade. But as both light and darkness make but one natural day, so both the clearness of the agenda and the mystery of the credenda of thegospel constitute but one entire religion. I come now to show that the mysteriousness of the credenda, or matters of our faith, is most subservient to the great ends of religion.
1. Because religion in its prime institution was designed to make impressions of awe and reverential fear upon men’s minds. God, who designed man to a supernatural end, thought fit also to engage him to a way of living above the bare course of nature, and for that purpose to oblige him to a control of his mere natural desires. And this can never be done but by imprinting such apprehensions of dread as may stave off appetite from its desired satisfactions, which the infinite wisdom of God has thought fit to do, by nonplussing the world with certain new and unaccountable revelations. To protect which from the encroachments of bold minds, He has hedged it in with a sacred obscurity in some of theprincipal parts of it, inasmuch as “familiarity breeds contempt.”
2. Because religion is delivered by God to humble the pride of man’s reason. Man fell by pride, founded upon an irregular desire of knowledge, and therefore Divine wisdom contrived man’s recovery by such a method as should abase him in that very perfection, whereof the ambitious improvement first cast him down from that glorious condition.
3. Because He would engage us in a more diligent search into the articles of religion. No man studies things plain and evident. We are commanded by Christ to search the Scriptures, and whosoever shall apply himself to a thorough performance of this high command, shall find difficulty enough in thethings searched into to perpetuate his search. For they are a rich mine which the greatest wit and diligence may dig in for ever and still find new matter to entertainthe busiest contemplation with, even to the utmost period of the most extended life. Truth, we are told, dwells low, and in a bottom; and the most valued things of the creation are hidden from the common view, so that violence must be done tonature, before she will produce and bring them forth.
4. Because the full know]edge of it may be one principal part of our blessedness hereafter. All those heights and depths which confound the subtlest apprehension shall then be made clear to us. (R. South, D. D.)
