The revelation of the mystery of Christ by the Holy Spirit is found in the Epistles, especially in the Epistles of Paul. In Ephesians 3:3b and 4 he says, “I have written previously in brief, by which, in reading it, you can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ.”
The expression “the mystery of Christ” is very profound. Paul considered the church the mystery of Christ. The church truly is a mystery.
Whereas unbelievers may think of the church as a physical building, the Brethren teachers a century and a half ago pointed out that the church is not a material building but the assembly. The Greek word for church, ekklesia, denotes a called-out assembly. This indicates that the church is a congregation, an assembly of those people who have been called out of the world by God. Hence, the church is a called-out congregation. However, if the church were merely a group of genuine believers called out of the world by God, the church would not be a mystery. We need to understand why Paul regards the church as a mystery.
What is the crucial matter which makes the church a mystery? This crucial matter is Christ. Christ Himself is a mystery. In Colossians 1:25-27 Paul indicates clearly that Christ is a mystery. “I became a minister according to the stewardship of God, which was given to me for you, to complete the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from the ages and from the generations, but now has been manifested to His saints; to whom God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Through the divine word and by the Holy Spirit this mysterious Christ, who is the unique mystery, has been imparted into us. The mysterious Christ, who is the mystery of God, has been ministered into our being, and now we have Him within us. This is the reason Paul says, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Christ as the mystery within us makes us all parts of a totality which is the mystery of Christ. This totality, the mystery of Christ, is the church. This is the sense in which the church is a mystery.
Christ as the indwelling mystery is our righteousness, holiness, victory, life, living, and testimony. Anyone who has this mystery within him should be recognized as a brother. This mystery within us responds to the mystery within other believers. Furthermore, this mystery governs us, rules us, controls us, for this mystery is a great Ruler, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. This mystery also causes us to love one another. We love one another not because we have been taught to love but because we have a loving factor-Christ as the mystery-within us. If we do not love one another, we do not have peace and joy. But if we love one another, we are filled with peace and joy.
Christ could not speak to the first group of apostles concerning this aspect of the church because by that time the Spirit of reality had not yet entered into them. But after His resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit, and He breathed Himself as such a Spirit into the apostles (John 20:22). From that time the apostles had within them the Spirit of reality to reveal the deeper and more profound aspects of Christ and the church. In particular, these aspects were revealed to Paul. He could write his Epistles because he had the Spirit of reality within him revealing to him Christ as the mystery of God and the church as the mystery of Christ.
Through resurrection Christ became a wonderful Spirit, and as this Spirit He is now within us. This Spirit is a mystery. As believers, we all have something mysterious within us, and this mystery is Christ. The Christ who is the life-giving Spirit dwelling within us, therefore, is the essence, element, substance, and factor which make the church mysterious and cause every member of the church to be a mystery. For this reason, in the eyes of our unbelieving relatives and friends we are a mystery, and they cannot understand us. We are the mysterious members of the mysterious Body of Christ, the church.
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