`According to the revelation of a secret'.  It is entirely unnecessary to

assume that this is the secret, or mystery, revealed in Ephesians 3.  The

dispensational section of Romans had a secret, the making known of which

illuminated the problem resulting from Israel's failure (Rom. 11:25), and

this is the theme of another doxology, namely, that which closes Romans 11 at

verses 33 -36.

When examining Romans 5:12 to 8:39, we see that it constitutes a unique

section of the teaching of the epistle.  It goes back to a period before

there was a Jew, and before Abraham, to Adam.  No one can read Genesis 3

without being conscious that there is much unexplained.  Solomon writing in

Ecclesiastes 3 says, `To every thing there is a season, and a time to every

purpose under heaven', and in enumerating them he says, `A time to keep

silence, and a time to speak' (Eccles. 3:1,7).  The word translated in the

A.V., `kept secret' (Rom. 16:25), is sigao, translated elsewhere in the New

Testament, `keep silence' and `hold one's peace'.  Much important truth

latent in Genesis 1 to 11 was `hushed' until the `time to speak' had arrived,

and that was when Paul was inspired to write the epistle to the Romans.  The

study of Genesis 1 to 11 in the light of Romans 5:12 to 8:39 is therefore of

the utmost importance to the believer who would realize the peculiar

character of his calling.  From Genesis 12 until the end of the Acts, one

nation holds the pre -eminent place, and that part of the Old Testament which

deals with Israel knows no salvation apart from that chosen race, or from the

covenants made with Abraham.

If Israel should fail and fall, the prophets had nothing to tell us of

how God would cope with the resulting problem.  It is, accordingly, the

purpose of the central section of Romans to reveal the relationship of man,

as such (i.e. as neither Jew nor Gentile), to Adam and to Christ,

irrespective both of promises made to `the fathers', and the failure or

success of `the chosen people'.  But this is not the theme of the Old

Testament  prophecy in general.  The period covered by the Scriptures from

Genesis 12 to Matthew 1, is as long as that covered by Genesis 1:3 to chapter

11.  In that same space of eleven chapters is written all that can be known

of the first 2,000 years of this present creation.  What is written is

pregnant with truth, but it must await its appointed time, and just as the

gospel itself revealed teaching hidden in Old Testament  Scriptures (as we

have already seen in Habakkuk 2:3,4), so these early chapters of Genesis hold

much basic teaching, throwing light on the position of the believer who is

saved and justified without reference to the law of Moses.  Volumes have been

written to associate the obedience of Christ with the law of Moses, whereas

this law was but transient, it was `added because of transgressions', it was

`found fault with', and passed away (Heb. 8:7).  This secret has been hushed

in aionion times.  We read of some part of God's purpose as being related to

a period `before aionion times' (Tit. 1:2; 2 Tim. 1:9), and in 1 Corinthians

we read of `the wisdom of God in a mystery', which has been `hidden', and

which God `foreordained before the ages' (1 Cor. 2:7).  The Mystery of the

prison epistles was `hidden from the ages, and from the generations' (Col.

1:26).  These hidden subjects had `their own seasons' of manifestation, which

manifestations were through the medium of `preaching', and `according to' a

`commandment' (Tit. 1:3).

The mystery of Romans 16 is not said to be related to a period `before

age times', but silenced in or during age times.  This secret is the theme of

the central section of Romans, and its subject is Adam, not Abraham, man, not

Israel or Gentile; the law of sin, not the law of Sinai.