question of the sovereignty of God, the freedom of a moral agent, the place of

contingency in a world where moral agents work, the meaning and bearing of

"foreknowledge" with regard to "election" are all involved in this consideration of the

"secret of His will". These deep and far-reaching themes require, however, very careful

handling, and we cannot hope to include their consideration in the present series.

Returning to the case in point--Israel were not driven by any necessity to refuse the

Saviour, or to spurn the Lord's stretched-out hands.  By so doing they were not

accomplishing His will. At the same time we must not leave out of our reckoning the fact

of "the mystery, or secret purpose of His will", which came into operation when Israel

passed into their present blind and "lo-ammi" condition. The present dispensation of the

Mystery, made known to and through the apostle Paul as the prisoner of the Lord, had

never been the subject of O.T. prophecy or of N.T. teaching up to the time of its

revelation at the close of Acts 28:

We come back now to Eph. 1: 3-14, and observe that no one was under any necessity

to sin, by reason of any will or purpose of God. When man did sin, however, as in the

case of Adam in the garden, God revealed to his wondering faith that He had provided a

Redeemer. The redemption of the fallen heirs of glory, and the heading up of all things

(ta panta, "the all things") in heaven and earth in Christ was the secret purpose of His

will. He knew that no creature would be able to stand, He knew that the Serpent would

assuredly attack and deceive, and so, instead of allowing irrevocable ruin to overtake His

plans, He, the only wise God, chose not to reveal all His will at once. And so, taking the

wise in his own craftiness, He carries His purpose on.

To sum up, we may say that the manifestation of the mystery of His will means

redemption by the blood of Christ, in the days of His flesh, and the reconciliation of "the

all things" under His headship in the glorious future.

The second reference to the mystery in Ephesians is found in Eph. 3: 3, "How that by

revelation He made known unto me the mystery".

Before we go a step further, let us realize the fact that in this chapter Paul speaks of

two related, yet distinct, mysteries. The one he calls "the mystery", the other "the

mystery of Christ". The one given to him by revelation and was made known through

him to all others who ever received it, but the mystery of Christ was not the exclusive

knowledge of any one of God's servants. It had been known, in part, by the sons of men

in earlier days, and was shared by Paul, in a superlative degree, with other apostles and

prophets, but it was not to be confused with the mystery itself. Accordingly we keep

these two subjects separate in this series, although, when we have concluded our