The Unwrapping

Paul often describes the message of the Gospel as a mystery.  The word for mystery in the Greek is a hard one to define.  It has a few meanings mixed into one.  It is sometimes translated as a secret.  However, the mysterious secret of the Gospel is not referring to being silent about it or not being able to find it.  Paul, instead, is describing the difficulty in explaining the total picture of the Gospel to someone that does not have Christ. 
How can you explain the empowering of the Holy Spirit to someone who does not know Christ?
It could seem farfetched to them.  
How can you explain the power of the cross from a historical event of almost 2000 years ago? 
It seems barbaric. 
How can you explain the Godman, Jesus Christ, who came once and for all, in order to bring salvation?  It seems cultic. 
How can you explain the glorious and imminent return of the Lord?  It is so apocalyptic. 
Maybe that is how we can explain it...it is apocalyptic. 
The meaning of the word apocalypse is an unveiling or a revelation.  There is unveiling not only about things to come but present opportunities.   It is hard to describe because there is so much that God has in store for us that the sharing of such truth is not near as powerful as the unwrapping or the realizing or the experiencing of all that we get in Jesus.  Salvation is an evergrowing gift. You just unwrap something new all the time and at the most unexpected times.  Salvation is the mysterious, unveiling of a gift that keeps on giving.  I John 3 hit on two of the wonderful things about our salvation in our reading today (www.lifejournal.cc).  I John 3:1-2 say-  See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ² Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.   Did you pick up on John talking about this mystery in v. 1? The world doesn't know what we are as Christians because they don't know Him.  Our job is not to describe to them who we are, but to tell them about Him and show them who we are because of His influence and power in our lives.  It is a wonderful mystery to ponder on:  God has made us, who have accepted Christ, His own children!  That is amazing, but that is not all there is.  V.2 describes what is to come.  Two miracles:  Christ will appear!  And we shall be like Him!  That does not mean we will be little gods. No, it means that as the old song says, "We will understand it better by and by..." The veil will be lifted.  The extent of our salvation will be revealed.  The package will finally be unwrapped... completely.  The mystery will be solved.  The secret will be out.  We'll finally know all that we got when we got Jesus!  What a Day that will be! 
Live in the shadow of it today!