… which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.
Summary: Paul points out that our God can keep secrets. The biggest secret was how he planned to set the world right through his Son, Jesus Christ.
Is God allowed to keep secrets? Does it seem unfair if he does?
God is … God.
Do we think of God as a distant deity who is unchanging? If we do, keeping secrets doesn’t work. But our God did keep something hidden — for ages.
God had a plan for his Creation. It was an amazing plan and a daring one. It involved creating beings who could choose to reject their creator. Even the angels were given the power to choose.
Why?
Why would God do that?
He must have known that given a choice, some would choose badly. As it turns out, he did know, and he had a plan.
The plan is what Paul has been calling “The Mystery.”
It is the mystery the Lord gave Paul by revelation, meaning Jesus personally told Paul about it.
It is the mystery of Christ himself. Who is he? What is he? Why was he here? What did he accomplish?
It was the mystery of how God expanded his plan for salvation to include the entire world.
Finally, it is the mystery of how God reveals himself to us.
He could have made all this plain from the very beginning. Genesis chapter one could have contained a statement that foretold how mankind would reject God and then explained how God would restore us to a relationship with him. But God didn’t write his book that way.
Instead, he gave us clues. Mysterious ethereal breadcrumbs called prophecies. Some were so vague as to be unrecognizable until we looked at them in hindsight. Now we can see clearly. Now Jesus has explained the plan and Paul has shared what the Lord told him. Now we know.
Application: It is helpful to understand the plan, which is another reason to read our Bible every day.
Food for Thought: Why do you think God kept his plan hidden?
I don’t think of it as God keeping things hidden just to keep them hidden, but that everything He wants revealed would be revealed at the proper time. I think He kind of says this through verses 10 – 11 in our passage. God does things in His perfect timing for His perfect purposes (Galatians 4: 4; Ecclesiastes 3: 1).
Amen to that, Rich!
Nicely said! 🙂
05-21-2023, Why do you think God kept his plan hidden?
V10 So that through the church the complicated, many-sided wisdom of God in all its infinite variety and innumerable aspects might now be made known to the angelic rulers and authorities (principalities and powers) in the heavenly sphere.
Only God is All-Knowing, only He knew in advance the power of the Holy Spirit was going to dwell in all believers who by faith, would submit to His will, allowing the body of Christ to be revealed to all creation.
Ron
Isn’t it cool how God has laid all this out! 🙂
Yes indeed!