| Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness—the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me. |
| —Colossians 1:24-29 |
I hear lots of talk about “hope” these days. I imagine that’s because it seems as if we live in somewhat hopeless times. Quite often, hope seems very elusive. It’s almost as if hope has become a great mystery.
In the Scripture passage at the beginning of this blog post, the Apostle Paul talks about “the glorious riches of this mystery.” I’ve noticed that Paul writes a lot about “mystery” in his letters to the fledgling churches of the first century A.D. In fact, one electronic search through the text of the New Testament discloses no less than 15 references to the word “mystery” in Paul’s letters.
Notice, in the passage above, that the Apostle makes a clear explanation of the particular “mystery” he writes about to the church at Colosse. He describes the mystery as “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” In other words, our hope of spending eternity with God rests on the Presence of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, dwelling within us by the power of the Holy Spirit. That means the source of our hope, which seems like a great mystery, really isn’t so mysterious after all.
