The Mystery of Godliness – Devotions for 3-12-25
1 Timothy 3:16 “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness…”
There is a line in a great hymn of the faith, “And Can it Be” that states, “Tis mystery all! The immortal dies! Who can explore His great design?”
Mystery. We tend to think of foggy scenes where nothing is in clear view or where there is some hidden truth to be revealed at some time. Most people even love a good mystery book or movie. What is the Apostle Paul talking about when he says, “Great is the mystery of godliness?”
What the rest of that verse says is a quote from an early Christian hymn or maybe a psalm, but surely something the early Christian churches said or sung often in their worship services. What follows are six statements about who Jesus was. He was, “manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.” All of those statements remind us that everything about Jesus is shrouded, at least somewhat, in mystery. We cannot understand His birth, angels, how people come to faith or the rest without there being some mystery involved in it. We do not have the ability to completely understand all things of the faith.
Here is the truth, Jesus is a mystery and faith is a mystery. No one can truthfully claim to know everything there is about Jesus or about our faith. As people living in this world there is always a shroud of mystery regarding the world we have never seen, the God who created both worlds and our own faith. Tis mystery all, indeed!
For that reason, I love the song “I Can Only Imagine.” To me that states clearly the mystery involved in trying to apply our reason to something we cannot possibly know about with certainty. We can know a lot about God, about Jesus and about eternity, but we can never know about any of them with absolute clarity. That is why Paul also says that we see through a glass darkly now, but then we shall see face to face. There is mystery involved in our walk of faith.
I talked with a young man the other day who was struggling with this. He wanted to know why! Why did God do this in his life? Why did that have to happen? Why couldn’t he just go on without the crisis he was dealing with at that moment?
I wish I had deeper answers in those times than I do, but we don’t. All we can do in those times is what I tried to share with that young man, God is with you and will help you through it. We don’t know all the why’s, we don’t have all our questions answered in this world. Job surely didn’t and God never gave him the answers he was seeking. But God was with Job and God is with us. He is with us as we walk in faith.
Faith is the answer to the mystery. It doesn’t make things any clearer, we still don’t get all our questions answered, but by faith we walk through the mysteries of this life and of our faith. We walk by faith, not by sight. We hold onto the hands of God while we walk through the mysteries we cannot fully understand.
What are the mysteries you are wrestling with today? Hold onto His hands in faith, and though you may not get the answers you seek, or see with clearer eyes, though the mystery may still remain, God will lead you through it until the day you will see clearly, the day you walk though the doors to heaven. Hang on until then. The mystery will be clear then, your questions, if you still have any, will be answered then. Until then, try and enjoy the mystery.
Pastor Gary.
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