II.ITS SOURCE. The God of power.

III.ITS MEANS.

1. The gospel.

2. The gospel of Paul.

3. The gospel preached.

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

II. ITS CONCEALMENT. "Which was kept silent in the aeonian periods."

1. The past ages received concerning this great truth no voice from the Divine silence. Men knew nothing of this gracious scheme of salvation for the universe.(1) The Jew did not know it. If he regarded his God as also the creator and ruler of other men, they at least bore to Him some inferior relation, and if they were to be blessed at all, it was to be by and through the law of Moses.(2) The Gentile had altogether failed to gain a glimpse of it. Each people held itself to be autochthonous, sprung from the soil; all the rest were strangers, aliens, slaves. Humanity was unknown, and anything like a moral dealing with the individual that was to be of universal application, had never been hinted at in the whole range of Gentile philosophy and faith.(3) And now those who have not themselves accepted this gracious mystery in practice wholly ignore the idea that the entire human race is dealt with in the atonement of Jesus, and that the purpose of God includes that whole race within His love and power. Even within the Church, how few fully understand or obey the law which declares that there is in Jesus Christ neither bond nor free, etc.

2. What wisdom may we not find, yea, what grace, in the concealment of this truth! The world had to be and is still being prepared for it. All those denominationalisms which are only the Judaisms of the modern world, and the patriotisms which at best are but pagan virtues, are nothing but the concealment of the truth of the human unity in Jesus Christ, which is part of the plan of God when He will perfect the society of man in the breaking down of nationalities and ecclesiasticisms in a world-wide union. Happy souls who catch some glimpses of this bright day! Happier they who help on its coming, and make this their gospel, the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the unveiling of the mystery which in the past ages of the Divine purpose had not been uttered unto men.

III. ITS MANIFESTATION.

1. The mystery was manifested in the character of Christ. While our Lord was a Jew and was careful of all Mosaic ordinances, yet the "enthusiasm of humanity" glowed within Him. His parables, sermons, conversations, works of charity and power, and death, are stamped with the mark of human nature, and have in them not a trace of the Israelite. He predicts the fall of the sacred city, affirms the universal worship of the God of heaven, and points with sublime assurance to the fact that when He has been crucified, He will draw all men unto Him.

2. And the history of the Church reflects the quality of its Master's work: At first baptized with a spirit which promised a universal scope, then narrowing down to the dimensions of a new Jewish sect, Divine providence compelled it to pass beyond the limits within which its leaders would have confined it, until it proved itself to be a world-wide Church, every road in life leading to its sacred courts.

3. And does not the history of the Church prove this in every succeeding age? What nation has been able to resist its advance? The seed of the kingdom grows in every soil.Conclusion:

1. In respect of the inexplicable and perplexed events and conditions of human life we have only to await the Divine time, and all shall be made clear.

2. Learn from this mystery the measure and the inspiration of our preaching. "According to the revelation of the mystery." For every man is the mercy obtained; to every man its grace offered.

3. This mystery being for a world, awaits your acceptance.

(Ll. D. Bevan, D.D.)

I. A MYSTERY — long kept secret.

II. A mystery REVEALED.

1. By the prophets.

2. Apostles.

III. A mystery REVEALED BY THE COMMANDMENT OF GOD.

IV. A mystery revealed by the commandment of God TO ALL NATIONS.

V. A mystery revealed by the commandment of God to all nations FOR THE OBEDIENCE OF FAITH.

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

2. The means of this information is the Scriptures of the prophets. Which from Ephesians 3:3-6 we must not limit to either those of the ancient or the later dispensation. The later Scriptures supplement and expound the former, and thus come to the obedience of faith.

I. THE GOSPEL AS A SCHEME OF UNIVERSAL SALVATION IS REVEALED IN ORDER THAT IT MAY BE PUBLISHED TO ALL MEN.

1. God might have adopted some method of treatment of the race which was not a matter for revelation. There must be a great part of the Divine system of the universe which deeply affects man which, perhaps, he never will and never can know. Indeed, very much of the physical constitution of things, by which the circumstances of our daily life are determined, is wholly unknown to us. We find it out only by patient observation after long ignorance, repeated failure, constant mistake. The system of nature is left for man to find it out for himself. But this is not so with the gospel. It must be made known, to be effective. There are no esoteric or exoteric doctrines in Christianity. All need it, all may receive it; it must be made known to all, and this universal knowledge must be a knowledge of all the truth. When Jesus was revealed, nothing was to be kept back. "All the truth," and "All the world" are the twin legends of His revelation.

2. Thus nothing which conceals from men the truth or seeks to produce spiritual effect other than by the influence of truth clearly apprehended, can be in harmony with the gospel. Two evils are contrary to this clear law of gospel promulgation, viz: the sacrifice of intelligent apprehension to mere feeling and sentiment; and the production of religious ends by mechanical services. The former is the error of the fanatic, the latter of the sacerdotalist.

II. THE LAW OF THIS PROMULGATION IS THE COMMANDMENT OF THE ETERNAL GOD.

1. We might seek for illustrations of this command in the words of Christ, "Go ye into all the world," etc., or in His appointment of those who should be "witnesses unto Him," etc. (Acts 1:8), or in the vision of Peter, or in the word to Ananias concerning Saul, or to any other of those direct appointments of the gospel ministry in its relation to the entire race. But we prefer to understand by the "command of the eternal God" that everlasting purpose which lay at the base of the methods of the Divine procedure. Any conception of the gospel which is less than this, must necessarily be incomplete. Creation lies in the bosom of redemption. Salvation by Christ is not a mere scene enacted as part of a vast drama upon the theatre of time and nature. The world, with all its physical characteristics, i.e., its human story are but episodes in vast movements and evolutions of salvation.

2. Science boasts that it has relegated the earth and all earthly things to their proper place as very minor items in the universe of being. But such science forgets that, after all, its universe must be a universe which thought transcends. I can, in imagination, pass beyond the utmost limits of your natural universe, and I can rise to a height of moral being, beyond the uttermost reach even of my thought. Thus, vast though the universe may be, I am greater even than all the worlds, and it is with this range of being that the eternal God is concerned in the redemption of Jesus Christ. Hence, the consummation of the spiritual ends of the Divine purpose is the only infinite. It is this that circumscribes the universe. It is this that antedates creation.

3. The gospel is thus no expedient put in to prop the falling race, the temporal cure of an accidental injury to man. The salvation of the entire race of man is part of that universal gathering of all things into one in Christ which has been the everlasting purpose of God's almighty will. Upon this ocean of eternal will, time and being float, as the barques which the waves lift and the currents bear. And, as a part of this commandment of the eternal God, the mystery is revealed and made known unto all nations.

4. If this be so, with what calm equanimity shall we not regard the phases through which the Divine designs move on to their accomplishment. We see the world in its apostacy, overwhelmed by a flood, and threatened with complete destruction. Over the raging of that catastrophe moves the calm purpose of the eternal God. We behold patriarchal ages when one family, and it but feebly, maintained the pure faith. How the flame flickers; but we know the eternal God is overhead, and His purposes depend not upon the choice and fleeting life and character of man. It is the time of the Mosaic economy, and one people is chosen, one family is priestly, one land alone has received the light of God's revealed grace; and we are affronted by its idolatry and sin. Shall we fear for the outcome? Not at all. The purposes of God are ripening fast, and millenniums are only the moments of the Eternal. And so of our own age and time. Perchance we lift the old lament or mocking cry: "The fathers, where are they?" etc. Lift up your eyes and see the clear, calm stars of an eternal purpose. The tempest reaches but a few fathoms below the surface, and the waves that strew the ocean with wrecks are only ripples in the mighty currents that roll unceasing in the sovereign will of God. The gospel is His; its proclamation is His command. And when the eternal throne crumbles into ruin, then, and then only, shall the evangel of God's grace and Christ's redemption be an empty sound.

III. THIS DIVINE PURPOSE OF THE PROMULGATION OF THE GOSPEL HAS BEEN MADE KNOWN BY THE UTTERANCES OF A CONTINUED SERIES OF INSPIRED PERSONS. There has ever been a witness amongst men, the sum of whose testimony has been to make known to all nations the mystery of a universal salvation. A Divine purpose has ever been accompanied by a prophetic word.

IV. THE ULTIMATE END OF THIS PUBLISHING OF THE MYSTERY IS THE OBEDIENCE OF FAITH AMONG ALL NATIONS.

1. Paul here returns to the opening ideas and expressions of the Epistle, one of which is the "obedience of faith." By this, some understand that obedience which springs from faith. But this does not seem altogether to suit the word as it is used in the first passage. Others give to faith the meaning of "the Christian truth" — a signification which belongs to the word in the later usage of the Church and not in the New Testament. Is it not rather that obedience which counts as faith itself, that yielding of the heart and the will to the revelations of God which is the ground of justification on its human side? (Romans 10:3). To accept the grace, to believe in God through Jesus Christ, is to render the obedience of faith. This, then, is the object which is sought by the divulging of the mystery.

2. The end, then, of an apostolic ministry is more than a mere testimony. Some have held that the gospel is only a test, whereby the elect and non-elect are discovered. Men say, on the one hand, We have preached the truth, the hearer must take the responsibility. On the other hand, men say, We have heard the truth; it does not compel our faith; it cannot be for us. Now, to both of these Paul says, "Made known to all nations for the obedience of faith." Shall we dare to rest content that we have spoken even the whole of the Divine grace, and not seek by every means in our power to induce men to obey? How is it with you who have believed? Are you content with a world still disobedient, with your city full of the faithless, with your homes, your very pews, occupied by those who resist the gospel? And what shall I say to you who hear and refuse? You heap judgment on yourselves. There is no hope but in the gospel. If you do not obey, with faith in God's way of salvation, there is nothing for you in this world but disappointment, and in the world to come eternal death.

3. The promulgation of the gospel is not merely that men may know; the object of its being known is the obedience of faith. Will you believe? Then you take Jesus Christ not only as your atonement, but as your Lord, your pattern, your rule, your guide.

(Ll.D. Bevan, D.D.)

I. THE CONSIDERATION OF THE GOSPEL AS A SCHEME OF UNIVERSAL SALVATION, NATURALLY DIRECTS THE ATTENTION OF THE DEVOUT AND EARNEST HEART TOWARDS THE ONLY WISE GOD. Christianity, though rich in its ideas, is also always a practical and an efficient system. It is not the parent of dreams, it is not a mere poet. It presents the dream only as the token of what it will produce. It chants its sublime rhapsodies only as preludes of what shall be the song of triumph when its redeeming, its new creating work, is done. Thus, is it an ideal man that it would paint? It manifests Him and makes us touch Him, and hear Him, and walk with Him, and live in the light of His beauty and perfectness, in the person of Jesus Christ. Or is it a Divine power which, it declares, man needs? This power it gives to man. The Holy Ghost is shed abroad. The Comforter has come, and has abided for all the past years, and throughout all the world He is now dwelling as a real and actual strength and grace and life among the saints. So with this conception of the perfected and glorified Church of the redeemed: the race restored and made one not only with itself but with its God and Governor, its Lord and Ruler. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ which supplies the conception. Nowhere else has the grand vision been displayed.

II. SUCH TURNING OF THE HEART GODWARDS DEMANDS THE MEDIATION OF JESUS CHRIST, NOT ONLY AS THE MEANS OF FINDING GOD, BUT ALSO AS THE INSTRUMENT THROUGH WHOM GOD WILL BESTOW ALL GRACE. Two attributes that necessarily are involved in this mystery of a world's salvation are clearly displayed. The one is power and the other love. All natural reasoning upon the state of man and his relation to God would lead us to conclude that the only possible end of human life must be everlasting destruction and eternal loss. All that we can see is the law and the sin. Man needs no revelation to make this plain. But the gospel declares that man can be rescued, and rescued without any loss of the dignity of law, without any lessening of the sanction and obligations of moral duty. This is done by a sacrifice on the part of God, not of the law, but of Himself, at a vast cost of suffering and shame, and weakness and death, all borne in the person of Jesus Christ. What is this, then, but the wisdom which we have seen God alone possesses in the fashion and guise of love? Nay, it is love itself. And all so necessarily and inherently Divine, that the love becomes a showing of that very being of God which is Love. But this thought of a world's salvation that leads us to our God is not only a thought of love, but also a thought of power. To bring it about will need a strength far beyond any wielded by a human arm.

III. THE CONCLUSION OF THIS GODWARD ASPECT WILL BE THE ASCRIPTION OF ETERNAL GLORY TO THE AUTHOR OF THIS SALVATION. This glory is ascribed to the God of salvation by the conscious and uttered praises of the redeemed. How wonderful is that song of praise which ever ascends to the eternal throne! And what will be the ascription of glory when earth is exchanged for heaven, and the curtains of the eternal world are withdrawn, and the redeemed race has entered into its promised inheritance of bliss! But the glory that will be rendered to the Author of our salvation will not be the mere ascription of praise from the assembled myriads of the redeemed; it is to be found also in the very nature and character of the salvation itself. You all remember how the architect of St. Paul's Cathedral has no tomb or sculptured monument, to bear his name and tell the story of his skill in carven effigy, or cut upon the lasting brass. A brief inscription over the entrance of the cathedral gives his name, and then bids you "if you seek his monument to look around." And such as this is the true ascription of glory to the Lord. It is not the mere voices of the angels; it is their hosts themselves, kept in their places, holden in their high, unfallen blessedness. It is not the cry of jubilant triumph from the creation of life; it is that very creation itself, in its being, in its growth, in its perfectness, made by His word, sustained by His power, completed for the great purposes of His changeless will.

IV. THE PRAYER AND DOXOLOGY OF THE EARNEST CHRISTIAN WORKMAN WILL RECEIVE THE ACCORDANT ACCLAIM OF THE UNIVERSE. The word Amen is used as the expression of agreement, of consent, of assurance, of certainty. The doxology uttered by St. Paul is such as all will unite in. The prayer, the commending to God, the giving of glory, are the consentaneous expressions of all who may catch the ideas and hear the words.

1. It is the consent of wonder. All will marvel at the great achievement of God and His Christ. In awe and reverence profound the universe shall cry, "Amen."

2. It is the consent of delight. Throughout the universe of spiritual being, then freely traversed by the purified minds, all parts being in harmony, a communication opened up between all spheres, the delight shall spread when the glory of God shall be seen in the heavens.

3. It is the consent of approval. God's right to judge will be recognised, and His higher right to save will be equally assured. Splendid will be the state of heaven; high will be the joys of that serene condition. But chief of all, men and angels will perceive the justice and the righteousness of that salvation which the human race shall gain.

4. Then finally, this consent shall be the consent of all. Not a single spirit in the entire universe shall hold back its acclaim. All men who shall be saved must surely join in the "Amen." It will be impossible that any of the redeemed will be silent.

(Ll. D. Bevan, D.D.)

(C. Neil, M.A.)

1. Acting for a right end.

2. Observing all circumstances for action.

3. Willing and acting according to the right reason and judgment of things. Wisdom and knowledge are two distinct perfections. Knowledge hath its seat in the speculative understanding, wisdom in the practical.

II. SOME PROPOSITIONS IN GENERAL CONCERNING THE WISDOM OF GOD.

1. There is an essential and a personal wisdom of God. The essential wisdom is the essence of God, the personal wisdom is the Son of God (Luke 7:35; 1 Corinthians 1:24).

2. It is not a habit added to God's essence, as it is in man, but it is His essence. It is like the splendour of the sun, the same with the sun itself.

3. It is the property of God alone. He is only wise.(1) Necessarily. He cannot but contrive counsels, and exert operations becoming the greatness of His nature.(2) Originally. Men acquire wisdom; God goes not out of Himself to search it (Romans 11:34; Isaiah 40:14).(3) Perfectly. There is no cloud upon His understanding.(4) Universally. Wisdom in one man is of one sort, in another of another sort. But God hath an universal wisdom. His executions are as wise as His contrivances.(5) Perpetually. The wisdom of man is got by instruction and lost by dotage. But "the Ancient of days" is an unchangeable possessor of it (Job 12:13; Psalm 33:11).(6) Incomprehensibly (Psalm 92:5; Romans 11:33).(7) Infallibly. The wisest men often design and fail; God never fails of anything He aims at (Isaiah 55:11; Proverbs 21:30).

III. THE PROOFS OF GOD'S WISDOM.

1. God could not be infinitely perfect without wisdom. All the other perfections of God without this would be as a body without an eye, a soul without understanding. God, being the first Being, possesses whatsoever is most noble in any being.

2. Without infinite wisdom He could not govern the world. He could not be an universal governer without a universal wisdom; nor the sole governor without an inimitable wisdom; not an independent governor without an original and independent wisdom; nor a perpetual governor without an incorruptible wisdom.

3. The creatures working for an end, without their own knowledge, demonstrates the wisdom of God that guides them. As there was some prime cause, which by His power inspired them with their several instincts, so there must be some supreme wisdom which moves and guides them to their end.

4. God is the fountain of all wisdom in the creatures, and therefore is infinitely wise Himself. As He hath a fulness of being in Himself, because the streams of being are derived to other things from Him, so He hath a fulness of wisdom, because He is the spring of wisdom to angels and men (Job 32:8; Daniel 2:21).

IV. WHEREIN IT APPEARS.

1. In creation. As in a musical instrument there is first the skill of the workman in the frame, then the skill of the musician in stringing it proper for such musical notes as he will express upon it, and after that the tempering of the strings, by various stops, to a delightful harmony, so is the wisdom of God seen in framing the world, then in tuning it, and afterwards in the motion of the several creatures (Psalm 104:24; Proverbs 3:19; Jeremiah 10:12). This wisdom of the creation appears in —(1) Its variety (Psalm 104:24).(2) Its beauty and order, and in the situation of the several creatures (Ecclesiastes 3:11).(3) The fitness of everything for its end, and the usefulness of it. Divine wisdom is more illustrious in this than in the composure of the distinct parts, as the artificer's skill is more eminent in fitting the wheels, and setting them in order for their due motion, than in the external fabric of the materials which compose the clock.(4) The linking all these useful parts together, so that one is subordinate to the other for a common end.

2. In His government of man —(1) As a rational creature.

(a)In the law He gives to man, which is suited to his nature, happiness and conscience.

(b)In the various inclinations and conditions of men. Some are inspired with a particular genius for one art, some for another. The rich have as much need of the poor as the poor have of the rich.(2) As fallen and sinful. God's wisdom is seen in —

(a)The bounding of sin (Psalm 76:10).

(b)The bringing glory to Himself out of sin.

(c)Bringing good to the creature out of sin.The redemption of man in so excellent a way was drawn from the occasion of sin. The devil inspired man to content his own fury in the death of Christ, and God ordered it to accomplish His own design of redemption. The sins and corruptions remaining in the heart of a man, God orders for good, and there are good effects by the direction of His wisdom and grace.(3) As converted (Ephesians 1:11, 12). Divine wisdom appears —

(a)In the subjects of conversion. Who will question the skill that alters jet into crystal, a glow-worm into a star, a lion into a lamb, and a swine into a dove?

(b)In the seasons of conversion. The prudence of man consists in the timing the execution of his counsels; and no less doth the wisdom of God consist in this.

(c)In the manner of conversion. So great a change God makes, not by a destruction, but with a preservation of, and suitableness to, nature.

(d)In His discipline.

3. In redemption. The wisdom of God is seen here —(1) In that the greatest different interests are reconciled, justice in punishing and mercy in pardoning (Romans 3:24, 25).(2) In selecting the fittest person for this work. He by whom God created the world was most conveniently employed in restoring it (Hebrews 1:2). He was the light of men in creation (John 1:4), and therefore it was most reasonable He should be the light of men in redemption. Who fitter to reform the Divine image than He that first formed it? Who fitter to speak for us to God than He who was the Word? (John 1:1).(3) In the two natures of Christ, whereby this redemption was accomplished. This union was the foundation of the union of God and the fallen creature. He had a nature whereby to suffer for us, and a nature whereby to be meritorious in those sufferings.(4) In manifesting two contrary affections at the same time, and in one act: the greatest hatred of sin, and the greatest love to the sinner.(5) In overturning the devil's empire by the nature He had vanquished, and by ways quite contrary to what that malicious spirit could imagine.(6) In giving us this way the surest ground of comfort, and the strongest incentive to obedience. The rebel is reconciled, and the rebellion shamed; God is propitiated and the sinner sanctified by the same blood.(7) In the condition He hath settled for the enjoying the fruits of redemption; and this is faith, a wise and reasonable condition, and the concomitants of it.(8) In the manner of the publishing and propagating this doctrine of redemption.

(a)In the gradual discoveries of it.

(b)In using all proper means to render the belief of it easy.

(c)In the instruments He employed in the publishing it.

(S. Charnock, B.D.).