Last week’s article was on “the mystery” revealed to the world through Christ and his followers (cf. Eph 3:1ff). This mystery was that God was going to unite all things and all peoples to himself through Jesus the Messiah (1:9–10). However, I left some questions unanswered, such as: Why did God keep this a mystery? Why not just explain everything in detail from the beginning? Would that not have made it easier for people to believe in Jesus when he was on this earth? I will do my best to respond to these difficult questions in the allotted space.

One hint can be found in our text from last week, Eph 3:8, 10, “To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ [i.e., the mystery]…so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places” (NASB, emphasis mine). A part of Paul’s ministry was to make known the wisdom of God to the angelic and demonic powers.

Why did God conceal his plan from angels and demons? The pictures of the Messiah in the Old Testament are fuzzy in many places. The Gospel accounts demonstrate this by showing how much disagreement there was over Jesus being the Messiah. How could the Savior be a Nazarene (John 1:46)? How could the King be a traveling vagabond (Matt 8:20)? One reason God likely concealed this fact was to strategize against the Enemy, namely, Satan and other malevolent powers. The Father caused the Son to die on the cross as a criminal in order to throw off the demonic forces of darkness. In fact, God allowed these forces of darkness to carry out his will, all the while, they thought that they were preventing God from rescuing the world. Thus, God concealed or “mystified” his wisdom in foolishness according to the world’s standard to accomplish the most important spiritual victory against the rulers of this age (1 Cor 2:7-8), be they human or demonic. Therefore, we can rightly say along with the apostle Paul, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!” (Rom 11:33).