Tuesday January 30
Read Colossians 2:2, 3 and 1 Timothy 3:16. What do these texts identify as a “mystery”? What does the fact that it is a “mystery” say to us about the limits of what we can know about it?
Zophar the Naamathite says to Job, “Can you fathom the mysteries of God?” (Job 11:7, NIV). The word “mystery” means puzzling, obscure, unknown, unexplained, or incomprehensible. The mysteries of God have been recorded in Scripture, even though understanding them fully is still beyond our comprehension. That’s why they are mysteries. It is like each of us is a nearsighted person looking into the heavens, hoping to see the smallest detail. We can’t see that far unless God reveals it to us.
What does Deuteronomy 29:29 say about what is revealed to us?
We are stewards of things that we do not fully understand. We know only as much as revelation and Scripture reveal. Our greatest stewardship is to live “as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor. 4:1, NKJV).
God wants us, as His stewards, to preserve, teach, protect, and care for divine truth that He has revealed. How we do this is the ultimate stewardship, and it means we are “holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience” (1 Tim. 3:9, NKJV).
The greatest of all mysteries is that we all can experience Christ, the “hope of glory.” The plan of salvation is supernatural and impossible for us to understand fully. That the Creator of all that was made (John 1:1-3) would come down to this earth and be “manifested in the flesh” (Ellen G. White, Manuscript Releases, vol. 6, p. 112) only to offer Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of humanity, entails mysteries that will probably never be fully comprehended by any of the creation. Even angels study to understand the mystery of why Jesus came to earth (1 Pet. 1:12). Nevertheless, what they do know causes us all to praise the Lord for His glory and goodness (see Rev. 5:13).
You have been called to be a steward of the gospel. What responsibilities does that automatically mean you have?
