Homiletic Review Colossians 1:26 Even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: Christ, by His incarnation, answered the vague and unsatisfactory queries of the world. 1. The Second Person of the Godhead was suspected by the ancients to be the active agent of the unknown God. Seneca: "Whoever formed the universe, whether the Almighty God Himself, or that incorporeal reason which was the artificer of these vast concerns." 2. The ancients conceived this Second Person to stand to the First in the relation of a word to the thought which it expresses. Zendavesta: "O, Ormuzd, what is that great word given by God, that living and powerful word, which existed before the heavens, before the waters, before the earth, before the flocks?" Compare Philo's "Philosophy of the Logos" with the Introduction to John's Gospel. 3. The ancients looked for some incarnation of the Divine Word. Persian Serosch, Hindoo Vishnu. : "It is necessary that a Lawgiver be sent from heaven to instruct men; and this Lawgiver must be more than a man." Jewish expectancy. 4. The ancients tried to furnish the ideal of perfect human character — e.g., the ideals of , , Seneca. The mythologic personages. Christ appeared manifestly (1) perfectly a man, (2) a perfect man, and challenged all moralists. "Which of you convinceth Me of sin?" 5. The ancients had the idea of atonement. Altars lined the track of history. Christ's cry when coming into the world: "A body hast thou prepared Me. Lo! I come to do thy will." John the Baptist's recognition: "Behold the Lamb of God!" 6. The ancients tried to demonstrate the perpetuity of human life. Our strongest points in the philosophy of immortality announced by Plato. The mythology of Greeks and Scandinavians. Christ's declaration, "I am the Resurrection and the Life," demonstrated by His resurrection. (Homiletic Review.). Parallel Verses KJV: Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: |
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