Seeing that Christ is the Mystery of God and the Church is the Mystery of Christ

According to the divine revelation in the New Testament, God is a mystery, Christ is the mystery of God, the church is the mystery of Christ, and Christ and the church are a great mystery; we need to be unveiled to see the mystery of God, Christ, and the church. Amen!

According to God’s view, there are different dispensations in which God works differently and relates to man in a different way; throughout all the dispensations, however, His heart’s desire and intent remain the same.

There’s the dispensation before the law, the dispensation of the law (from Moses to Christ), the dispensation of grace, and the dispensation of the kingdom.

In the dispensation from Adam to Moses and from Moses to Christ, everything is unveiled and manifested, and there is no mystery.

However, in the dispensation from Christ to the end of this age, that is, until the age of the millennium, everything is a mystery.

Christ is a mystery, the church is a mystery, the kingdom of the heavens is a mystery, the gospel is a mystery, the indwelling of Christ is a mystery, and the coming resurrection and transfiguration of the saints is also a mystery.

All these mysteries were hidden in the times of the ages, but they were revealed to us in the New Testament age in spirit.

All these mysteries will be completed and finished at the trumpeting of the seventh trumpet. Praise the Lord!

One day, all mysteries will be finished; until that day, however, we live in the age of mystery, which is the age of grace, the age of the church, and the age of faith.

If we read the New Testament, we realise that everything related to God, Christ, His economy, and His plan is a mystery; this mystery can be revealed to us only in spirit.

Today, we need to exercise our spirit to see the mystery of God, Christ, and the church.

Just look at the incarnation of Christ; it was not only clouded in mystery outwardly as it happened but even more, not many realised what exactly happened at the time of Christ’s incarnation.

The wonderful, infinite, all-inclusive, almighty, Creating God became a man and was willing to be made finite and limited to be a man!

The whole universe cannot contain this One, yet He became a man. In Him dwells all the fullness of Godhead bodily, and He expressed God and manifested God on the earth.

The mystery of the incarnation of Christ began the age of mystery; today we are in the age of mystery, where we believers in Christ are part of the mystery of God.

Seeing that Christ is the Mystery of God and the Church is the Mystery of Christ

Colossians 2:2 speaks of the mystery of God, Christ. God Himself is a mystery. The universe is wonderful, filled with many things, but the universe has a mystery; the mystery of the universe is God.

God created the universe and then hid Himself in it so that man would not visibly see Him but search for Him, grope for Him, seeking that man might find Him.

God is a mystery, and the mystery of God is Christ. God is invisible, but there’s a visible expression of God, which is Christ as the embodiment of God.

No one has ever seen God, but the only begotten Son came to manifest Him and make Him visible (John 1:16-18). We can say that Christ is the mystery of the mystery, for God is a mystery and Christ is the mystery of God.

He made God visible; He explained God, expressed God, manifested God, and made God known and approachable. We need to come to the full knowledge of the mystery of God, Christ.

God in Himself is a mystery; even though He is real, living, and almighty, He is invisible, for no one has ever seen Him. However, this mysterious God is embodied in Christ; Christ is the mystery of God.

Christ is not only God – Christ is God embodied, God defined, God explained, and God expressed. Christ is God made visible.

When others saw Christ, they saw God the Father, for the Father was in the Son, being expressed through the Son (John 14:9). When we look at Christ, we see God. When we hear Christ, we hear God. When we touch Christ, we touch God.

Christ Himself also has a mystery; as seen in Ephesians 3:4, the mystery of Christ is the church. The church is the mystery of Christ.

How can we see Christ? Where can we see Christ? How can we hear and see Christ today?

Christ today can be found in the church, for the church is the Body of Christ. When we come to the church, we see Christ expressed and manifested, for the church is the mystery of Christ.

The church is not just a gathering of Christians coming together to listen to a sermon or do some evangelistic work, have praise and worship, and do many social things.

The church is the Body of Christ, the mysterious corporate expression of Christ. The church is the mystery of Christ, who is the mystery of God. God is found in Christ, and Christ is found in the church.

The church is the mystery of Christ, who in turn is the mystery of God, who Himself is the mystery of the universe.

We need to exercise our spirit and contact the Lord so that He may reveal to us in spirit how Christ is the mystery of God and the church is the mystery of Christ.

Christ and the church are the great mystery (see Eph. 5:32). Christ and the church are one, for He is the Head and the church is the Body, and the Head with the Body are the great mystery.

The great mystery we see in the Bible is Christ and the church. Christ is the mystery of God.

The church is the mystery of Christ. Christ and the church are the great mystery. We need to grow in the knowledge, enjoyment, and experience of Christ as the mystery of God and the church as the mystery of Christ.

We may know Christ personally and subjectively by exercising our spirit to call on His name and by coming to Him in His word (John 5:39; 6:63).

When we contact the Lord in His word, we receive Him, we enjoy Him, and we are constituted with Him.

We can know the mystery of Christ, the church, by exercising our spirit day by day as we contact the saints, the fellow members of the Body of Christ.

We need to pray that the Lord would bring us into a further seeing of the Body of Christ so that we may realise that the Body is more than the local church we meet in – the Body is universal.

Universally, the Body of Christ includes all the believers in Christ; locally, the local church is a local expression of the one universal Body of Christ. We need to be Christ-centred and also be Body-centred.

On one hand, we need to be daily unveiled to see Christ as the mystery of God, and on the other hand, we need to be further unveiled to see the church as the mystery of Christ.

If we see the vision of Christ and the church, the great mystery, we cannot be shaken, and no matter how many turmoils we may experience in our Christian life and church life, the vision of God’s eternal economy will keep us.

There is a certain amount of mystery with us, the believers in Christ, but there’s a greater amount of mystery with the church, for the church is the mystery of Christ.

The all-inclusive Christ is the mystery of the mysterious God, and this Christ produces the church as the mystery of Christ. The church is the continuation of the mystery which is Christ; mystery produces mystery.

Lord Jesus, unveil us to see Christ as the mystery of God and the church as the mystery of Christ. Hallelujah, the mysterious, invisible, almighty God has been revealed and embodied in Christ, who is the mystery of God! Amen, Lord Jesus, we come to You in Your word today with the exercise of our spirit to enjoy You, partake of Your riches, and be filled with You. May our heart be comforted, may we be knit together in love and unto all the riches of the full assurance of understanding, unto the full knowledge of the mystery of God, Christ! Amen, Lord Jesus, we exercise our spirit to see You and enjoy You! Grant us to see a vision of the church as the Body of Christ, the mystery of Christ. Amen, Lord, may we be Christ-centred and church-centered today. May we pursue the full knowledge of the mystery of God, Christ, and of the mystery of Christ, the church. Keep us under the heavenly vision of God’s eternal economy today. May we enjoy Christ as the mystery of God so that we may become the church as the mystery of Christ!

The Indwelling of Christ is a Mystery and Christ is Building up the Church as His Bride

Colossians 1:27 speaks of the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ indwells us; this is a mystery.

How can someone indwell us? We cannot indwell anyone else; however, God in Christ became the life-giving Spirit to come into our spirit and indwell us today.

We all can testify that, as believers in Christ, we have another Person living and dwelling in us.

When we repented and believed into the Lord Jesus, we received the Lord Jesus as the Spirit in our spirit, and now we are joined to Him as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).

When we want to do something, when we’re about to say something, or when we are in a particular place, we have an inner feeling from the living Christ indwelling us.

He is a real and living person dwelling in us, and He gives us a certain sense or feeling concerning the things we say, do, and even concerning our attitude. This is truly a mystery!

Although Christ lives in us and dwells in us, others around us cannot see Him, nor can they sense Him.

Christ is the mystery of God, the church is the mystery of Christ, and Christ dwells in us in a mysterious way today.

Even though God is mysterious, Christ makes Him visible and known; even though Christ is mysterious, the church manifests Him.

Even though the church may be mysterious, the indwelling Christ is real and living in us. Others may see us, men in flesh and blood, but they sense something different about us; they sense there’s another One living in us. Praise the Lord!

Today during the church age, the age of mystery, Christ is building up the church to be His bride (Matt. 16:18; Eph. 4:16; Rev. 19:7-9).

We believers in Christ not only know Christ as the mystery of God and the church as the mystery of Christ; even more, we are built up in spirit to be the church as the bride of Christ.

Christ is building up His church to be the bride of Christ. This is mysterious and hidden.

If you look outwardly at the situation among the Christians, you may not be so encouraged with what you see; however, if you exercise your spirit and live in spirit, you realise that the Lord today is building up His church to be the bride of Christ. Praise the Lord!

Then, one day, the Lord will return to rapture His bride. As seen in Revelation 19:7-9, there will be a great cry: rejoice, exult, let us give glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready!

Today the Lord is making His bride ready, and one day the church as the bride of Christ, will be clothed in fine linen, bright and clean, for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.

Then, the wedding feast will start, and the overcomers as the components of the bride of Christ will feast with Christ for one thousand years at the wedding feast. This is what God desires.

Today it seems that we live in the days of Noah, for the age is getting more and more evil, and from the leaders to the lowest of the people, man is in rebellion against God.

May we live in the reality of the mystery of God, Christ, and the mystery of Christ, the church, as we live our Christian life today.

We may be going to work, taking care of our family at home, or doing all kinds of things necessary to our human existence, but as we do all these things, may we live in the divine history within the history.

May we grow in the Lord day by day, and may we abide in the Lord in all things in our daily life.

May we cooperate with the Lord to be prepared as His bride today so that, when He returns, He may rapture us as the church, the bride of Christ.

Lord Jesus, thank You for coming to dwell in us! Hallelujah for the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in us, the hope of glory! Praise the Lord, He is in us as our hope of glory! We open to You, Lord. We want to live in our spirit and do all things by contacting You in spirit. May we enjoy Your indwelling today. Amen, Lord, may we partake of Your riches in spirit as we keep turning to You throughout the day. Grow in us today. Build us up into the church. Prepare us to be Your bride. Make us Your duplication, Your counterpart. We give ourselves to You, Lord Jesus, to enjoy You as the mystery of God so that we may become the church as the mystery of Christ! Oh Lord, keep us abiding in You today. Prepare us to be Your bride. May You be the One living in us and being expressed through us. Amen, Lord, we aspire to be the overcomers today to fulfil Your purpose and to bring You back!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ron Kangas in the message for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 190, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (2) (2024 December Training), week 21 (msg. 9), The Mystery of the Church.
• Similar articles on this topic:
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  – Have You Seen the Heavenly Vision of Christ and the Church? More via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – The mystery of God – Christ, a portion from, The Mysteries in God’s New Testament Economy, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee.
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• Hymns on this topic:
  – Christ is the mystery of God; / God is invisible, unshown, / His image man hath never seen, / But Christ the Son hath made Him known… / The Church the myst’ry is of Christ, / For He is now to man unshown; / No man on earth may see Him now, / But thru the Church He is made known. / The Church is Christ’s expression full, / In her Christ dwelleth bodily; / She is His duplication true, / And man in her Himself may see. (Hymns #818 stanzas 1, 4-5)
  – Is the Church to Christ, and thereby / God in Christ may be / Glorified thru His redeemed ones / To eternity. / Thus the Church and Christ together, / God’s great mystery, / Is the mingling of the Godhead / With humanity. (Hymns #819 stanzas 8-9)
  – Glory, glory, Christ is life in me! / Glory, glory, what a hope is He! / Now within my spirit He’s the mystery! / Then the glory He will be to me. / In my spirit He regenerated me, / In my soul He’s now transforming me. / He will change my body like unto His own, / Wholly making me the same as He. (Hymns #948 stanza 2 and chorus)