Iāve always had trouble accepting the realities of lifeās mysteries. For example, in Kindergarten I pestered my dad incessantly with this question: why can birds fly, and I canāt? Though I have no recollection of his answers, my guess is he attempted to give some scientific explanation, and when that didnāt work, he likely resorted to the kind of exasperated response I have given my own young children with their persistent questions: Because you canāt fly!
Whatever his response may have been, I decided that since it didnāt make sense to me, it must not be true. Naturally, this led to an attempt to fly.
I truly donāt know how my parents survived me.
I came up with a plan. I came up with a detailed plan to fly, for heaven’s sake. And though my plan was simple – jump off the highest point on the schoolās playground – the particulars were a little more nuanced. I gathered an audience, because who would want to miss my flight, and I picked a friend to do the pushing. The push was key. I needed the momentum to get in the air.
Duh.
The result was a foot broken, a friend who was sent to the principal for pushing (oy vey), and a very disappointed six-year old.
While Iāve come to accept the reality that I cannot fly, I still struggle with wanting to understand ā fully and completely ā in order to believe. Several weeks ago, I meditated for quite a while on one verse: āAnd Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and manā (Luke 2:52).
The Mysteries
I couldnāt get my mind around this. How is it possible that Jesus came to earth, remained fully and completely God, yet still grew in understanding of the world around Him? How is it possible that Jesus learned about Himself by reading the Old Testament? Could it be that there was a moment in which Jesus realized He was the King echoed throughout the Psalms? How is it that God used His inspired Words through David while suffering on the cross? How can this all be? It didnāt make sense. So, I brought the questions to my theology professor.
āGood questionsā¦ā he remarked. I hunkered down with my notebook and pen ready to attempt to understand the implications of the incarnation. But our conversation was short lived:
āā¦but there are aspects of God that will, simply put, always remain a mystery.ā
Unlike my kindergarten experience, his answer didnāt leave me disappointed. In fact, over the next several days, the reminder opened my heart to a deeper gratitude for my beautiful Savior.
I was encouraged to review the lyrics of the old hymn, And Can it Be, which Charles Wesley penned soon after his conversion to Christianity. Verse 2 is especially remarkable:
Tis mystery all! The Immortal dies!
Who can explore His strange design?
In vain the firstborn seraph tries
To sound the depths of love Divine!
āTis mercy all! let earth adore,
Let angel minds inquire no more.
āTis mercy all! let earth adore,
Let angel minds inquire no more.
The mercy and love God has shown us is truly incomprehensible. Itās a mystery. How can the immortal die? Itās a mystery. How is it that Jesus loves us so much that He died an excruciating death in order that we might live eternally? Itās a mystery. Itās a beautiful, unfathomable mystery.
There is so much unveiled about Jesus in the Scripture ā God has not given His redemptive story with only unknowns. But the more we study Scripture, the more mysteries we begin to capture. Itās worth wrestling through a difficult concept, but it may come to the point of simply trusting in our Almighty God and admitting the inability of our finite mind to understand every aspect of some of the mind-bending truths found in the Bible.
The Motivators
There is freedom, after rigorous effort, to simply trust in the inherency of Scripture, but these mysteries should be motivators. Rather than shrugging our shoulders in apathy, they should cause us to outwardly display gratitude for all God has done:
Because He has shown us undeserved and unexplainable mercy, we should be merciful toward others. Rather than immediate criticism or harsh words toward someone with whom we have a differing opinion, we should offer a gracious response because of the mercy weāve received.
Because God is sovereign in a way we canāt fully comprehend, we should trust fully and completely that He holds tomorrow in His hands. Rather than fretting through the night about all we canāt control, His Word assures us that we can rest because nothing happens that does not serve Godās good and great plan for each of His children.
Because God took on flesh without abandoning one bit of what it means to be God, we can know that our Savior identifies with us. When you pray because youāre worried, God understands anxiety. When you weep because of bad news, He knows sorrow and weeps with you. He is fully God and fully man and the mystery of this is nothing short of remarkable. You do not worship a God who cannot completely identify with your joy and your pain.
For ten chapters in the book of Romans, Paul beautifully explains the grace and righteousness given to us through faith. Itās no wonder that the Apostle ends his exposition with a hymn that adores the depth of how amazing ā how mysterious ā our God is: āFor from him and through him and to him are all things.”
God is the source of all things and in Him all things are held together. Astonishing. Paul has no other response but to give glory and praise to this great God: “To him be the glory forever and ever, Amen!ā May these words become our mantra as we live motivated by the awesome mysteries of our great God.
