Colossians 1:24-2:5, Part 5
As for the content of this mystery, Paul writes in verse 27, "To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." This mystery was hidden in a manner but it is now declared in the open. It was hidden only "in a manner," because there are explicit prophecies in the Old Testament stating that God would save his people through Christ, that Christ would redeem his people by sacrificing himself to make an atonement, and that through faith in Christ peoples of all nations, and not just the Jews, would be included in the church.
This does not seem very hidden at all. So has it ever been a mystery? It was a mystery in a manner, and in the way that Paul means it. The Old Testament prophecies hardly left anything unsaid in terms of principles and generalities. The prophets had discovered even "the times and circumstances" of "the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow" (1 Peter 1:11-12). Nevertheless, New Testament revelation indeed contains additional details and even greater clarity. In addition, many of the Jews denied what had been in their Scripture all along about the inclusion of the Gentiles into the covenant community. In fact, the Jews themselves are excluded by their unbelief.
Finally, this promise was hidden from the Gentiles – not that it was entirely impossible for any of them to find out, since they could have read the Old Testament as well, and there had always been some Gentiles who believed, but by God's providence it was generally not known among them. For this reason, before the coming of Christ and the preaching of the apostles, the Gentiles were "without hope and without God in the world" (Ephesians 2:12). The Jews had the promise of the coming Messiah, and knew to expect him, whereas the Gentiles did not know that anyone was coming to save them. But the mystery has been disclosed, and now they know.
Sometimes people are so fond of popular biblical expressions (not that they are used often in Scripture, but that they have become Christian clichés) that they repeat them without regard to their original contexts and meanings. When Paul says that God has sent him to proclaim to the Gentiles the mystery, now disclosed, which is "Christ in you," he does not mean that he travels to city after city, town and town , village after village, shouting, "Christ in you! Christ in you!" And when he writes to the Corinthians that he did not preach anything to them other than "Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2), it does not mean that he came to them and shouted, "Jesus Christ and him crucified! Jesus Christ and him crucified!" The latter is sometimes used to promote a "simple gospel," the idea that we should "just preach the gospel" and not argue about it, or some anti-intellectual agenda.
However, these are mere expressions that represent entire sets of doctrines, even elaborate, complex, and lengthy discourses. They do not so much tell us the actual words of the message (not to say all the words of the message) as the central motif of the message or even the theme of the worldview expounded to the people. One revelation behind Paul's ministry is that both Jews and non-Jews must come to God on the same basis, through faith in Jesus Christ, and they will be accepted when they come in this way. And this is why he travels to the various peoples, to tell them about this. This is the idea behind the statement that he preached "Christ in you" among the Gentiles. As for "Jesus Christ and him crucified," it does not mean that Paul refrains from argumentation, but that he refuses to include pagan philosophy in his doctrines, and that he does not employ sophisticated rhetoric to manipulate his audience. He preaches only the Christian faith.
When it comes to his actual sermons and letters, we find extensive expositions and arguments about various doctrines, and sometimes practically a whole systematic theology, all centered around Jesus Christ as the only way to salvation. We can indeed preach a simple message, in the sense that we should make it easy to understand, but we must not preach a partial message, in the sense that it is incomplete in its content. If we are to follow Paul's example, we should do the same thing. We need not repeat in every presentation things that people already know or assume, but to those who are either hostile or ignorant about the faith in general, as in almost the entire population of the world today, both Christians and non-Christians, we must do what Paul did – preach a whole system of theology.