“25 Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation about Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept silent for long ages 26a but now revealed and made known through the prophetic Scriptures…”
This is the beginning of Paul’s closing statement, and it is jam packed with the gospel. We’ll take the next two devotionals to dissect his words.
Paul begins by explaining that God is able to strengthen us, His people. It is through God’s saving grace and mercy in the gospel of Jesus Christ that He is able to strengthen us. Strengthen us how, and for what? Jude writes something similar in his letter’s closing statement.
“Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen.“ — Jude 1:24-25
Jude highlights that in the gospel, through Jesus Christ, we may now, “stand in the presence of God’s glory without blemish and with great joy!” (Jude 1:24b) That is how we are being strengthened by God through Jesus. We are being presented as blameless! What is it that God is strengthening us to withstand? Jude already gave us the answer. He is protecting us from stumbling back into our sin. God is strengthening us to withstand the temptation from, and struggle against, sin.
“…according to the revelation of the mystery kept silent for long ages but now revealed…” (v. 25c-26a) Part of what it means to be strengthened by God against the temptation to sin is to understand the mystery that Paul is talking about. What is this mystery? It is the mystery of how God will save His elect from their sin and establish His kingdom.
“And most certainly, the mystery of godliness is great: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.” — 1 Timothy 3:16
“He made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he purposed in Christ as a plan for the right time — to bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth in him.” — Ephesians 1:9-10
There are two things we need to understand about this mystery. First is that the ability to understand the gospel is given to us by God through the Holy Spirit. In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul gives a helpful explanation of why a majority of Israel did not understand the gospel, and what must happen in any of us in order to do so.
“We are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from gazing steadily until the end of the glory of what was being set aside, but their minds were hardened. For to this day, at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains; it is not lifted, because it is set aside only in Christ. Yet still today, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts, but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.“ — 2 Corinthians 3:13-18
The second thing we need to understand about this mystery is now that the Holy Spirit has revealed the truth of the gospel to us, we are called to action! What are we to do now that we understand this mystery that has been revealed to us?
“Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness.“ — 2 Corinthians 3:12
“Therefore, since we have this ministry because we were shown mercy, we do not give up. Instead, we have renounced secret and shameful things, not acting deceitfully or distorting the word of God, but commending ourselves before God to everyone’s conscience by an open display of the truth.“ — 2 Corinthians 4:1-2
Paul tells the Corinthians, now that you understand this mystery, it’s time to do something! You have hope in Christ, so be bold! You are saved through the gospel, so cast aside your sin and no longer participate in what is shameful. Don’t dare distort the Word of God, but speak the truth! This is where part two of the mystery comes into play. Now that we have an understanding of how God saves His elect through the gospel of Jesus Christ, we are called to live out lives of godliness in response. This is what God is strengthening us to do!
“His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” — 2 Peter 1:3
Paul has told us that this is what he has been called by God to do and that each of us is a part of God’s plan to bring all things together to Himself in Christ Jesus.
“I have become its servant, according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.” — Colossians 1:25-26