The Mystery Of The Universe

The First Mystery

The universe is a mystery. It is not just the innumerable wonders it contains that are mysterious. There is a mystery in the universe that is more profound than all its wonders. That mystery is God. If God had not chosen to reveal Himself to man, we could never discover Him. But, praise the Lord, He began to reveal Himself right after man was created. Since then, even though man fell, in each generation of mankind God had some people who loved and followed Him. God delighted to make Himself to them.

A Deeper Mystery

Gradually, little by little, God revealed more of Himself to His people. But even after thousands of years with much of the scriptures already written, very few of God's people had any idea what He was going to do next. They were looking for the promised Messiah but they merely thought that He would free them from the oppression of their enemies. They had no idea that He would be God Himself coming to men as a man. Thus, they did not recognize Him when He came and eventually even put Him to death.

A Closer Relationship

The coming of Christ revealed God much more than all that God's people had discovered before. The creator of the universe did not stay hidden in the heavens. He came to live among men as a real man. No one could have imagined that He would do such a thing. It was so far beyond man's natural concept that few could believe it even when they saw and heard Him themselves. Through the gospel we can realize that His life and death were not for Himself but to clear up the problems caused by man's fall so that man could come back to God. In other words, God was not satisfied with just worshipers and followers. He wanted a much closer relationship with man.

The Firstborn Son Gains Many Brothers

When Christ rose from the dead he was different. As a man on the earth He had been limited by time and space like everyone else. He could be with His disciples as a friend but that was all. Through death and resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). As the Spirit He could enter into His believers as life to regenerate them to be his many brothers (Heb. 2:11-12). As God in eternity past and even as a man on the earth Christ was the only begotten Son of God. In resurrection He became the Firstborn Son of God with many brothers (Rom. 8:29).

God Entering into Man

Another great wonder of the universe is that people can open their heart to the Lord Jesus and receive Him as life. When someone receives the Lord Jesus, He receives not just the Spirit but the triune God as life with both the divine, eternal life (John 3:16; 14:6) and the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). He becomes a new creation. From that time on the Lord begins to work within the believer and through his environment to transform him into His image (2 Cor. 3:18 ). So now, through the spreading of the gospel throughout the earth, there are millions of sons of God growing in the divine life. Before Christ came no one could have imagined that the creator of the universe would want to enter into man's spirit as life.

A Bride for God?

But still God is not finished. If that was His goal He would have achieved it already. There is another mystery in His heart that must be accomplished before He will be completely satisfied. God is seeking something more: a bride for His Son. Think about it, a bride should match her bridegroom. They should share the same life. Just as Adam could not receive an animal as his bride in the garden of Eden (Gen. 2:19-20), even so, Christ cannot receive a bride that doesn't match Him. How could there be a bride for God? In other words, how could anything in the universe match its creator?

The Preparation of the Bride

Even with God's salvation, no believer can match Christ by Himself. So God's desire is that the believers would be built together in spirit into a corporate bride for Christ. Each of the believers has something of Christ. When they share it with one another and learn to serve God together in spirit, then a spiritual building is taking place (Eph. 4:16). They are no longer simply individual believers but are becoming a built up church (Eph. 2:20-22), the house of God (1 Tim. 3:15), the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23), the bride (Eph. 5:25-27, 32).

The Climax of God's Work

Eventually this bride will be fully mature in the divine life, expressing and making God known to the entire universe. That will be the New Jerusalem, the climax of the Bible and of all God's work. The New Jerusalem is not a marvelous mansion in the physical realm. God could have created that with a single word. It is something divine, mysterious, and spiritual in which God and His people are built up together. God dwells in His people and they dwell in Him (John 14:20, 23). God has the desire of His heart and His people have found and fully entered into the meaning of their existence. This is the destiny and destination of all who open to receive the Lord as life in this age (John 10:28-29).