When you are presented with something that you think to be not just accidentally mysterious but necessarily mysterious, there is always the danger that you have fallen into an obscurantist muddle. . . . Far worse is the superficiality that conceives nothing to be unfathomable because it has fished only in coastal waters. (R. F. Holland)
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The mystery of Christ has two sides. On the one hand, it is entirely beyond the grasp of human wisdom. The mysterious wisdom of God is:
- prepared before the world began (1 Cor. 2:7),
- concealed through the ages until its time for revelation arrives (1 Cor. 2:7; Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:26; Rom. 16:25–26), and
- hidden in God, the Creator of all things (Eph. 3:9), who himself makes it known to us (Eph. 1:9).
What human mind could ever aspire to all this? On the other hand, this mystery is not esoteric, ethereal, or in any way otherworldly. It is played out in concrete historical events, foremost the person of Jesus Christ and his death on the cross.
While God’s mystery is now out in the open—demonstrated in historical events—its riches are not thereby exhausted. “The glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27), are inexhaustible. The breathtaking grandeur of Christ’s mystery is displayed in Ephesians 3, where Paul sums up many of the themes of the hidden/revealed nature of God’s mystery discussed above:
“Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things” (Eph. 3:8–9).
This passage is a wonderful corrective to the assumption that because Christ—the fountainhead of God’s mystery—has been revealed, the Christian faith is now without mystery! To assume we know the width and length and height and depth of the mystery of God’s love in Jesus Christ is to fish only in coastal waters. Paul’s doxology at the close of this passage fittingly glorifies this mysterious Lord “who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (Eph. 3:20).
What are we to make of all these biblical promises? The typical Western worldview, inherited from Greek philosophy, is a belief in the divinity of the intellect. The Greeks trusted human reason as the perfect instrument to discern eternal mystery.
However, God’s mystery always comes as a revelation to humans, never as an answer to our questions. Human reason never sets the agenda in God’s revelation; on the contrary, God always takes the initiative. Out of the silence of God’s own mystery, God addresses us.
Why is this? Soren Kierkegaard, the 19th century Danish theologian, talked about an “infinite qualitative difference” between Creator and creatures. Our creaturely reason cannot bridge the gap between God and us. Thus, no matter how much God graciously reveals to us, God always remains hidden. In response, hopefully our minds come to deeper and deeper appreciation of our conscious ignorance regarding God.
It’s when we begin to “know what we do not know” regarding God that we move beyond the coastal waters.
