Thoughts from The Bible

Thoughts from the Bible

Wednesday, 12 October 2022 08:36

Jesus solves the puzzle
I love to see a puzzle come together, however I’m at a distinct disadvantage when I have no picture to guide me Puzzle’s without pictures are a real mystery. God’s dealings with His people are like a puzzle. As we look back from our vantage point, we have a picture to guide us to understand what the total image is to look like. The mystery is revealed, and all the pieces of the puzzle just fall together. Back in the Old Testament it was still a hidden mystery. The picture was more difficult to understand.

The wisdom of God is a marvelous thing. His wisdom in generations before Christ came was a hidden “mystery” (See Ephesians 3:2-5; I Corinthians 2:7-8; Romans 16:25-26), that involved the salvation of all mankind. The revealed “mystery” came in the “fulness of time” when God sent forth His Son (Eph. 4:4). Jesus stepped into the pages of history to work the eternal purpose of God (Eph. 3:10-11), and the church, in that purpose, declares His manifold wisdom.

God sent the news of His “mystery” out into all nations that, now, in Christ, “Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6). Christians would do well to focus on “the riches of the glory of THIS MYSTERY among the Gentiles; which is CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY.” (Col. 1:27). He was preached by Paul in order to present “every man perfect in Christ Jesus” (Col. 1:28).

There it is!! There is our hope!! There lies the answer for the inner, crying needs of man—Our Hope For Glory!! JESUS IS THE ANSWER TO MAN’S HUNGER FOR GLORY– FOR SPIRITUAL PERFECTION / SPIRITUAL ATTAINMENT/ SPIRITUAL FULFILLMENT!!!

Man’s nature yearns to be like God. We contend that man has a yearning—a spiritual hunger that needs satisfying. David, in the long ago, said: “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.” (Psalms 42:1). A spiritual side of man longs for spiritual excellence, for the perfecting of the soul, for a union with God. There is a thirst that cannot be quenched easily, and will not be quenched by the artificial sources of enlightenment in the world.

A state of Spiritual death results when one is separated from God who gives and nourishes our spirit. The Gentile world had experienced that separation for centuries (Eph. 2:11-13). They were not privileged to share in the covenant relationship that produced promise or hope. And of their own selves they were not able to come back into God’s spiritual presence. No amount of ritual can bring life back into a spiritually dead soul. It takes the divine intervention of the Father of all spirits. Thanks be to God He has now called those who were not a people my people (Romans 9:25; Hosea 2:23).

Even as these Gentiles had a longing for spiritual things, and pursued them idolatrously, the majority of this world’s population has some religious concept of spirit-beings and of an afterlife in some form. Many cultic world religions have formulated concepts of the exaltation of man to a higher realm. There is, evidently, a world-wide longing for some extraordinary spiritual connection. In spite of the atheistic impact on the modern mind, man doesn’t really want it that way. He’s hungry for more. Thanks be to God that He has unveiled the mystery, and shows us the way to be conformed into the image of His dear Son. If you don’t enjoy this relationship, consider very seriously the wonderful benefit of becoming a Christian today.

The author can be reached for comments at 256.574.2489.

-Terry Broome