Who doesn’t like a good mystery? Whether it be Nancy Drew, the game of Clue, or a riveting who-dunnit on TV, they draw us in, don’t they? Some people are really good at solving them, but count me among those who have to wait for the revelation at the end. Consider, then, the ancient Greek concept of “musterion,” a type of mystery knowable only by the initiator and those to whom he or she chooses to reveal it. It was this “musterion” kind of secret that God kept “hidden for ages and generations”1 for eternity past, “God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that [had] been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.”2 Then when the time was right, He called Paul “to make God’s word fully known”3 by revealing this hidden mystery to His people.
So, what one proclamation—what one mystery now revealed—could possibly make God’s word “fully known”? What “secret wisdom” was “destined for our glory before time began”? What “glorious riches” did God keep hidden in Himself until this singular moment in history? Paul tells us: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”4 Stop for a moment and soak this in, for it is not simply catechism or creed, nor may we reduce it to the lowly status of a mere “worldview.” This is God’s heart, and this is God’s heart for us. The God who displayed His power in the glory of creation, the God who demonstrated His glory in the humility of Christ, now shines forth His glory from the unlikeliest of places and in the most inconceivable of ways—Christ in us. Of us, Jesus spoke to His Father, “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me.”5 Can we even begin to imagine the enormity of God’s love for us? Can we do anything less than to receive it now and entrust to Him all our days?
As we’ve revisited over the past few weeks, “we, who … reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory.”6 To know what we will be, well, we’ll just have to wait for the revelation at the end. But I think for today, we do well to contemplate the love and the power of a God who would choose to live in us as our hope of glory. For transformation begins here.
“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ …” (Colossians 2:9, 10)
Father, your love for me triumphs over my unworthiness of you. Thank you for living in me and being my hope of glory. Shine forth from me. Amen.
1 Colossians 1:26
2 1 Corinthians 2:7
3 Colossians 1:25 ESV
4 Colossians 1:27
5 John 17:22, 23
6 2 Corinthians 3:18
Paul Nordman—Author 