Mystery

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Bryce Griffy wrote:
 
> >
> > KV (FORMER POST):
> > >Illustrations of the "mystery of Godliness" (e.g. the
> > incarnation, per 1 Tim 3.16) are insufficient because, to a
> > large extent, it is just that--a mystery.
> >
> > TL:
> > >>>When the Greek said "here is a mystery" it was the same as
> > if I said to you "here is a secret."  Now, after I tell you
> > the "secret"
> > are you enlightened or left in the dark?
> >
> > 1 Tim 3:16 is saying "Here is the great secret of
> > godliness: that
> > God MANIFESTED Himself IN the flesh."  This is the ANSWER
> > and not the "mystery."<<<
> >
> > KV:
> > I must admit, here, that I have never done a Greek word study on "manifest" in
> > 1 Tim 3:16.  But, I think the context dictates that the mystery is that "God was
> > manifest in the flesh."  We can apply theories and explain it to the best of our
> > human ability, but it is still largely a mystery.  How was He manifest in flesh?
> > To what extent?  Did Jesus have a human soul, spirit, mind?  Or was the Spirit
> > of God the only spirit of Christ?  We can speculate...but where the Scripture is
> > silent, so should we be from a doctrinal standpoint.

> Does not Paul tell us in Colossians 1:27, that the _mystery_ is Christ in us the
> hope of glory! "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of
> this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
> 
> Yours In Christ
> Bryce

Great!  Got an additional thought about 1 Tim 3:16.

Godliness is an attribute we need as believers.  Throughout 1 Timothy,
Paul urges us towards it.  Physical exercise profitys little, but
godliness does us good in this and the next world!

Godliness, godliness, godliness.  Women should profess godliness
rather than worldly fashion.  Men should lift up holy hands.  The Bishop
must be godly.  

But, ohhhhh.....  it is such a mystery as to HOW to become godly.  And I 
think this is the context of 1 Tim 3:16.  It is not a departure from the
urgings of the church to be godly and an entrance into the subject of
the Oneness.  No.  It is the fact that the Oneness even teaches
us how WE can be godly!  It reveals the answer to the illusive "mystery"
of how to be godly, according to the context of 1 Timothy! 

Here is what Paul explained is the answer to living godly.  God was manifest
in flesh.  But God was not justified in that flesh!  Godliness did not
flow from Christ due to the flesh!  Not due to any "training" of the flesh,
or any "religionizing" of the flesh.  Christ lived JUSTLY in just the same
manner the "just" beliveres live justly.  And that is, the just shall 
live by faith!  Christ lived godly by faith!

Even God, when He was manifest, Himself, in flesh, lived a godly JUST life
not due to that flesh and its inherent abilities, but due to the
SPIRIT.  He was manifest in flesh but JUSTIFIED in SPIRIT.  And this is
the answer to godliness!  We live godly by justification of the SPIRIT.
IOW, Paul said, it is "yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."  Gal 2:20.

Paul lived godly due to his reliance upon the Spirit of Christ in him
to STRENGTHEN him to be so.  We do not make ourselves live godly, as
though we were supposed to be justified in flesh.  No.  We call upon
the strength of the Holy Ghost, and are then justified by Spirit. 

1 Tim 3:16 is showing us that ONENESS teaches us how to live godly 
ourselves!

Wow!!  What a writer and man of God Paul was!!!!!!

---
In Christ,  
Michael F. Blume   
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/mfblume/mblume.htm
http://www.netdot.com/jwg7192/writings/mike.htm