My title is a quote from 1 Cor. 2:7: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory. Paul employed the word "mystery" in reference to the gospel (1 Cor. 2:1-2; cf. Rom.16:25). The gospel that Paul preached was a mystery that could be "understood only by divine revelation" (1 Cor. 2:14). The Holy Spirit is our teacher and he reveals the hidden things of God to his saints. There are SEVEN MYSTERIES that every God-called preacher is charged to keep and to teach to his flock. Let's begin by defining the word mystery. "In the NT, mystery refers to a secret that is revealed by God to his servants through His Spirit ... This mystery [of the gospel, author's note] was revealed by God through the prophetic Scriptures to Paul and the church." - The Illustrated Dictionary of the Bible, Tyndale Publishers.
"A mystery was not something mysterious (in the modern sense) but something unknown untill revealed to the initiated" (cf. Rom. 16:25). - The Ryrie Study Bible, note on Ephesians 3:3.
"The mystery . . . hid in God," Ephesians 3:9.
Duet. 29:29 (KJV) "The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law."
"... a sacred secret previously unknown, humanly unknowable, but now divinely revealed to the saints." -Believer's Bible Commentary, MacDonald, pg. 1909, 1925.
These definitions should suffice for now. In my next post, I will list the seven mysteries given to us by "the apostle of the Gentiles."