Rev D W B Somerset
(1) The incarnation of Christ.
“God manifest in the flesh.” This encompasses several of the principal mysteries of the Christian religion.
There is first “the mystery of God”, already mentioned: “But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as He hath declared to His servants the prophets” (Rev 10:7). The “mystery of God” covers the whole revelation that God has given of Himself, but first and foremost among this would be the Being and attributes of God – His Triune nature, His holiness, His omnipotence, His omniscience, His omnipresence, His love, His righteousness and so on. This is a central subject of preaching and divinity, and need not detain us on this occasion. It is referred to again in Colossians 2:2: “That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ”. Here, we would understand the “mystery of God” to be the Divine attributes and purposes and God’s relation to creation; the “mystery of the Father” to be the Father’s relation to the Son and the wonder of the adoption of His people, a subject which merits more attention than it receives; and the “mystery of Christ” to be the mystery of Christ’s Person and work.
This brings us to the second principal mystery included in “God manifest in the flesh”, which is “the mystery of Christ”. This is referred to again in Ephesians 3:4: “Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ”, and in Colossians 4:3: “Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds”. This is the mystery (as mentioned) of Christ’s Person and work, including His eternal Being (as Son, Word, Wisdom, “brightness of God’s glory” etc) and His incarnation. Again, these matters are central to preaching and divinity, and we need not dwell on them. One thing that we learn, or learn more clearly, from the incarnation of Christ is that mankind is closely modelled on God – “the image of God” – so that the incarnation is possible. There is enough in man for the Godhead to manifest Itself through “the man Christ Jesus”. Man is “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps 139:14). This is both a wonder and a point of instruction which the natural man does not discern.
The third principal mystery included in “God manifest in the flesh”, and in “the mystery of Christ”, is the death of Christ, with the further glorious manifestation of God given there. Again, this is one of the central subjects of preaching and divinity, and we cannot dwell on it now.
(2) The justification of Christ.
“Justified in the Spirit.” The justification of Christ is a matter that has been considerably neglected in theology. We have much on the justification of sinners – a subject which has been intensely debated from the Reformation onwards – but relatively little on the justification of Christ, on which the justification of sinners entirely depends. Francis Turretin mentions the justification of Christ in passing,2 and Thomas Goodwin dwells on it at greater length,3 but many standard Reformed sources on justification are silent. It is an aspect of the doctrine that has never been the subject of controversy, and therefore has never been developed.
In the paired expressions, “manifest in the flesh” and “justified in the Spirit”, there is a contrast between “flesh and Spirit”, and I am inclined to follow Professors Geerhardus Vos and John Murray in taking “the flesh” as a reference to Christ’s life up to the time of His death and burial, and “the Spirit” as referring to the period following His resurrection. For example, 1 Peter 3:18 says: “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit”. A similar progression is expressed in Romans 1:3-4: “Concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared [constituted or instated] to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead”. At His resurrection, Christ, the last Adam, was “made a quickening spirit” (1 Cor 15:45).
Thus Christ was “justified in the Spirit” when He was raised from the dead and exalted to heaven, where He received “the promise of the Spirit” to bestow on others (Gal 3:14). Up to the time of His death, He was under a double reproach: the reproach of imputed sin before God, and the reproach of rejection and denial by men and devils. But having endured the penalty for this upon the cross, His resurrection was both a declaration of His justification before God on behalf of His people, and also of the truth of His claim or assertion that He was the Son of God.
The “mystery” here is both that of His death, by which He put away sin, and that of His resurrection: “For he that is dead is freed (justified) from sin” (Rom 6:7); “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin” (1 Pet 4:1). Christ’s connection or association with sin had come to an end. The first time that Christ came, it was “with sin”, but being justified, in due time, “unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Heb 9:28).
With the justification of Christ goes the justification of the people of God. His justification is the very basis of theirs. He was “delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification” (Rom 4:25). His justification is the foundation on which theirs is established, or the legal declaration from which theirs is derived. The late Rev D A Macfarlane (Dingwall) used to summarise Christianity itself in these terms: “Justifying faith in a justified Redeemer”.
(3) Christ’s appearance before angels.
“Seen of angels”. Here we have another less-often-considered mystery: that of the incarnate Christ being seen in this world by the angels. We would be very slow to see the wonder of this if Scripture did not point it out. Though it is not so often considered, this mystery has been comprehensively covered in the famous sermon by Alexander Stewart of Cromarty on the text: “Which things the angels desire to look into” (1 Pet 1:12) (in Precious Seed Discourses). Here we summarise a few of Alexander Stewart’s points.
Stewart notes that unlike ourselves in New Testament times, who have known about the Son of God incarnate virtually since we were born, the angels knew the Son of God infinitely and gloriously above them for thousands of years, with Scripture declaring, but with no actual appearance of, His humiliation at that stage. Thus the wonder and surprise is very much greater for them than it is for us. Furthermore, they saw the devils cast down, and no mercy shown for their glorious order of beings; so again the appearance of Christ, and the display of mercy to men, who are dust and ashes, comes as a great wonder to them. They had no idea of mercy before. Then, being without sin themselves, they see far more of the depravity of sin, and therefore of the difficulty of salvation and of restoring sinful creatures to holiness. So again the achievement of Christ in salvation is a matter of astonishment. The whole work of Christ is a wonder to them. There is more in the sermon, but we must move on.
Angels themselves are a mystery which is too little thought of in the Christian Church, but this part of Scripture helps to focus attention upon them.
- This Theological Conference paper deals with the use of the words, “mystery” and “mysteries” in the New Testament. The first section explained the biblical meaning of these words – a mystery is “something which was hidden and unobserved but has now been disclosed”. The writer went on to comment on the number of mysteries; he then stated, “We view the ‘mystery of godliness’ (1 Tim 3:16) as the great mystery, and then group all other New Testament mysteries under the six heads that Paul gives there”. The rest of the paper considers these “six heads”, which are followed by a conclusion.
- Turretin, Institutes, P & R Publishing, 1994, vol 2, p 685.
- Goodwin, Works, vol 4, pp 36-37.