Mystery SOLVED!!!

Making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ (Eph 1:9).

I'll never forget watching "The Sixth Sense" for the very first time.  The big twist at the end absolutely threw me for a loop.  Whoa!  

I watched the last bit of the movie with my jaw on the floor.  OK, relax.  I'm not going to spoil it if you haven't seen it yet.  But for Pete's sake, it's not like it came out last year.

Not longer after, I watched the flick a second time.  Knowing how it ended, I saw the plot unfold with new eyes.  

Now I saw the hints along the way.  Dialogue had an entirely new meaning.  Knowing the end let me understand the beginning.

Mystery SOLVED!!!

Here in Ephesians, Paul lets us know that since we now know the ending of God's story, we now understand the beginning.  

He says God has made "known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose which He set forth in Christ" (v9).  

In other words, now that we know who Jesus is and what He has done, we can look back on the God's ancient story with new meaning.  

What was once a mystery is now fact.  The pieces of the divine puzzle now fit together perfectly.  Goofy and weird prophecies now make sense.  

Jesus makes it all clear.  Now when we go back and read those crazy stories in the Old Testament, it comes into focus.  Knowing the end helps us understand the beginning.

Mystery SOVLED!!!

This little verse is smack dab in the middle of God's Tsunami of Blessing we read in Ephesians 1:3-14.  

Paul gets so stoked in telling this Ephesian friends about gracious God and all the incredible things He's given us, he just can't stop.  

You can't tell it in your English translation, but in the apostle's original letter this is one, long, non-stop freight train of God's goodness.  

Ever been so excited about something that you couldn't contain yourself?  Well, that's our buddy Paul here.  And the source and focus of His blessing to us is the one and only Jesus of Nazareth.

Think I'm making this all up?  Think this is all the result of a bad burrito and no sleep?  

The Apostle Paul told the folks in Colossae that all the rules in the OT were just symbols of something better.  "These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ" (Col 2:17).  

The writer of Hebrews wants us to know that all those complicated and bloody sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem was simply a preview of what Jesus would do (Heb 8:5-6; 10:1-10).  

These folks sure believe Christ isn't just another prophet or teacher but THE HERO of THE STORY!  

Even Jesus believed that.  While He was busy busting the chops of religious leaders, Christ told them they were reading the Bible all wrong.  

Now remember the only Bible they had at the time was the Old Testament.  "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about Me" (Jn 5:39).  

The top theological thinkers had missed the main thing of God's story.  Jesus.  

Later in the same scene, the radical Rabbi/Carpenter made it clear that He's been the Hero of the story from the very beginning.  

These Jewish scholars believed Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible (the Pentateuch).  Jesus told them, "For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me" (Jn 5:46).  

He's trying to tell them that He's the One God promised would come.  He's the fulfillment of all the prophecies.  He's the One the authors of the OT have been talking about.  

He's the Hero.  He's the Reason.  He's the Blessing.  Jesus wanted folks to realize now that they know the end, they can understand the beginning.

Mystery SOLVED!!!

If you've seen "The Sixth Sense" once, you'll always watch it differently the next time.  Once we've seen Jesus, we'll read God's story differently the next time.  Now that we know the end, we can understand the beginning.

Mystery SOLVED!!! 

©2013

Jay Jennings