Image: Azalea, North Garden, Virginia, April 2017
Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday morning's sermon on 1 Timothy 3:16.
And without controversy
great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in
the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the
world, received up into glory (1 Timothy 3:16).
Matthew Henry begins his exposition of this verse: “What is
the mystery of godliness? It is Christ.”
The verse presents six
points about Jesus:
First: “God was
manifest in the flesh.”
This is a place of textual controversy. I believe the
traditional text gets it right: God (rather
than “he” as in some modern translations) was manifest in the flesh.
This speaks to the doctrine of the incarnation, the Word made
flesh (John 1:14).
Second: he was
“justified in the Spirit.”
The sense here is of Christ having been vindicated through
his resurrection from the dead. This came about by the work of the Spirit (see
Rom 1:3-4).
Matthew Henry: “Whereas he was reproached as a sinner, and
put to death as a malefactor, he was raised again by the Spirit, and so was
justified from all the calumnies with which he was loaded.”
Third, he was “seen of
angels.”
What do we make of this? Surely the angels looked up the
second person of the Godhead before his incarnation. They were created by him
(cf. John 1:3; Heb 1:2).
According to Luke 2, the angelic host announced his birth to
the shepherds (vv. 13-14).
When arrested and taken to be crucified, Jesus said he might
have called upon “twelve legions of angels” to rescue him (Matt 26:53). No
doubt, the angels looked on with deep sadness and horror at the cross.
But they also looked with awe at the resurrection. It was the
angels appeared to the women at the empty tomb and announced that Jesus was
risen (cf. Mark 16:6).
Fourth, he was “preached
unto the Gentiles.”
After his resurrection, Jesus commissioned his disciples to
teach all nations (Matthew 28:19-20) and to preach the gospel to every creature
(Mark 16:15).
The shocking thing to many Jewish Christians, Paul included,
was that the gospel would be taken to non-Jews (cf. Rom 1:5; Eph 3:1-7).
Fifth, he was “believed
on in the world.”
Where Jesus was preached, some men came to believe. Not all
men but some (the elect of God). And this happened in the world, among both
Jews and Gentiles.
This is beautifully anticipated in John 12, when the
Pharisees say, “behold, the world is gone after him” (v. 19).
Christianity is a universal faith, not that it teaches
universalism (universal salvation, regardless of response to Christ), but that
it teaches that men from all nations are among the elect of God (cf. John
10:16).
Sixth he was “received
up into glory.”
The final point refers to the ascension of Jesus. He was
received up into glory. We have a full narrative of this in Acts 1 (see vv.
3-11). Jesus appeared for 40 days to his apostles and then he commanded them to
wait for the pouring out of the Holy Spirit and then to spread the gospel to
the ends of the earth.
This was prophesied in Psalm 47:5: “God is gone up with a
shout, the LORD with the sound of the trumpet.”
Where is Jesus now? He is seated at the right hand of God
(Mark 16:19); all things are being put under his footstool (Psalm 110:1); he
makes intercession for the saints (Hebrews 7:25).
To be a Christian is to confess the mystery of godliness
revealed in Christ.
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