Son, With whom Thy love hath made us one."

While this as a fact is blessedly true, the question is, Is this the mind of the Spirit here? I think not.

There are riches in Christ which we may call the searchable riches, such as the revealed prophecies and

promises concerning Him, which could be searched and understood by the Prophets who wrote them. But

there were others which they could not search. They were "unsearchable."

The Greek word here rendered "unsearchable" occurs twice, (here and Rom. xi. 33), and each time it is

translated differently. It means, that which cannot be traced or tracked, untrackable. Here it is rendered

"unsearchable," and in Roman xi. 33 "past finding out." There is another word translated "unsearchable" in

the same verse (Rom. xi. 33), but that denotes, that which cannot be understood even if found, inscrutable.

"Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how inscrutable are His judgments

and His ways untrackable " (R.V. past tracing out). So here in our text, the word does not mean that which

cannot be understood, if found; but that which cannot be traced, or followed out.

These untrackable riches of Christ which the Prophets could not trace out, are not merely the blessing of the

Gentiles as such, as might be inferred from verse 6. That was never any secret. It was revealed from the

beginning to Abraham that "in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed" (Gen. xii. 3): "All the nations of

the earth shall be blessed through him" (Abraham) (Gen. xviii. 18). Many prophecies reveal this truth of

which aged Simeon testified when he spoke of Christ as "a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of Thy

people Israel" (Luke ii. 32).

These untrackable riches of Christ, therefore, were not merely the blessing of Gentiles, as such, by and by,

but the taking out of a people from among them now (Acts xv. 14) to form the one body in Christ, the

mystery of the Church. This is what had, until now, been hidden, and what h ad now been specially revealed

to St. Paul. In testimony of this, note the following Scriptures: Rom. xvi. 25, 26, "Now to Him that is of power

to stablish you according to my Gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the

mystery  7 which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the Scriptures of

the prophets,8 according to the commandment of the everlasting God made known to all nations for the

obedience of faith." Col. i. 24-27, speaking of Chris t's body, "the Church (the Apostle says) whereof I am

made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of

God; even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to

the Saints: 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 whom we preach," &c. (margin, "Christ among you," i.e.

among you Gentiles was well as among the Jews). Again, Eph. iii. 2-11, "Ye have heard of the dispensation

of the Grace of God which is given me to you-ward: how that by revelation he made known unto me the

mystery (as I wrote afore in few words, whereby, when ye read ye may understand my knowledge in the

mystery of Christ) which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto

His holy Apostles and Prophets  9 by the Spirit: that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same

body, and partakers of the promise in Christ by His Gospel: whereof I was made a minister, according to the

gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power: unto me, who am less than the

least of all saints is this grace given, that I should preach among the gentiles the unsearchable riches of

Christ; and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world

hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: to the intent that now unto the principalities

The Greek word means, not that which cannot be understood, but a secret revealed or communicated to

one initiated.

i.e.-- The New Testament prophets referred to in Eph. iv. 11, "And He gave some apostles, and some

prophets," &c. See also I Cor. xii. 28; Eph. ii. 20; Acts xi. 27, xiii. 1, xv. 32; Rom. xii. 6.