“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory” (1 Timothy 3:16).
As mentioned earlier, a Biblical “mystery” refers to a hidden spiritual truth that has been (or will be) revealed. While there may be many different aspects to “the mystery of Godliness,” they each find their ultimate resolution in Christ.
For instance, let’s consider the well-known and oft-quoted passage from John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” We don’t need to look any further than the example of Jesus’ first disciples before we encounter a mystery regarding that love.
It is an unfortunate reality, but the truth is that Jesus’ disciples were often dull (Mark 7:14-23), self-promoting (Luke 22:24, Mark 10:35-37), and given to impulsiveness (Luke 9:54). They deserted Him at His time of greatest need (Mark 14:43-50) and one denied that he had even known Jesus (Mathew 26:69-74). Yet John 13:1 reveals Jesus’ attitude towards these disciples just prior to His crucifixion…
“Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end” (John 13:1).
In this, the truth of 1 John 4:19 is revealed: “We love Him because He first loved us.” You see, one of the mysterious aspects of God’s love for humanity is that He loved us when we had nothing to offer Him. As Romans 5:8 tells us, “…God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (NAS).
Even though we did nothing to deserve it, God showed His love for the human family through Jesus’ sacrificial work on the cross…
“But God is so rich in mercy; he loved us so much that even though we were spiritually dead and doomed by our sins, he gave us back our lives again when he raised Christ from the dead-only by his undeserved favor have we ever been saved- and lifted us up from the grave into glory along with Christ, where we sit with him in the heavenly realms-all because of what Christ Jesus did. And now God can always point to us as examples of how very, very rich his kindness is, as shown in all he has done for us through Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 2:4-7 TLB).