The Secret of the Lord
By H. E. Brunson, II
There is an occasion in John Chapter Eleven in which Mary and Martha were mourning over the death of their brother Lazarus. When Jesus arrived, Martha went out to meet Him and reaffirmed her faith in Him. We then read in verse 28: "When she had so said, she went her way, and called Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master is come, and calleth for thee."Psalm 25:14; I Corinthians 2:6-14 What a glorious moment for Mary that must have been, to hear secretly that Jesus Christ had come and had specifically called for her. In response, she arose quickly and came unto him. That occasion, in my opinion, is a good illustration of what David means when he writes in Psalm 25:14, "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant."
There are a myriad of divine secrets. Moses wrote, "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever" (Deut. 29:29). What secret are believers alone privy to? Answer: "He will shew them his covenant"the mystery of salvation.
Perhaps because of our over familiarity with the surface meaning of the Bible, we sometimes forget that hidden in it are truths and mysteries that illustrate the various aspects of God's salvation program. And to those who fear Him, it is God's good pleasure to reveal them, and He does it in a few different ways.
Revealed in history
For instance, the history shown in the Old Testamentmore specifically, the history of Israeltells of an electing God who chose to place His love upon a nation and made them His people, not because they were the greatest or the most in number, but simply because it was in His sovereign will to do so. Reading the Old Testament, the natural man can learn about those historical events. But he can see no other truths in them.Through the writings of the apostle Paul in the New Testament, God is now showing us clearly how His program of salvation by grace works. The doctrine of election, for instance, explains that before the foundation of the world God had chosen a people comprising both Jews and Gentiles to be in Christ, unconditionally predestining them to be His adopted children. Having learned that, we now realize that hidden in the ethnic and political history God has recorded in the Old Testament is, among other things, the secret of the doctrine of election.
Hidden in the history of Israel is also the secret of redemption. It is a profound testimony of the veracity of divine truth that God used the freeing of a people out of Egypt to create for us believers a picture of the redemption He has provided for us. Thus, when we see the Israelites delivered by the blood of the Lamb from their bondage to Egypt, we see played out in history the perfect redemption of God's people by the blood of Christ.
Revealed in pictures
God reveals to believers the secret of His salvation program also through a variety of pictures. For example, the betrayal of Joseph by his brothers, his subsequent ascension to power, the eventual subjection of his brethren to him and finally his gracious provision for themthey all typify the relationship between Christ and His people.Likewise, Noah and the ark was a glorious picture of the restitution and regeneration of all things in Christ; the candlestick in the tabernacle and temple, of Christ being the light of the world; and the freeing of the redemptive dove after the washing of the leper, of our regeneration unto new life.
In a hundred fold ways, God has also painted pictures in the New Testament gospels showing us the various aspects of His salvation program. Thus, we see the secret of the Lord in the accounts of Jesus opening the eyes of the blind, His enabling the cripple to walk, and His bringing Lazarus back to life. From these accounts, all the unsaved can learn about are the visible miracles; their eyes have not been opened to any salvation truth.
Revealed in parables
In Matthew 13, the disciples ask Jesus why He speaks in parables, and He answers in verse 11, "Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given." There is thus an innate inability on the part of the natural man to understand the cryptic teachings of Christ. We have to be careful, therefore, when we talk about the simplicity of Scripture.At one level, the Scripture indeed is so simple that even little children can hear the gospel and come unto Christ. Yet, one cannot discern the secret of the Lord by studying the Bible, attending seminary, reading commentaries, and learning Hebrew and Greek, no matter how rigorously one studies. It all depends on whether or not God gives the understanding. Ultimately, God is the One who sovereignly determines to whom He reveals His secret.
Note further that in the phrase "mysteries of the kingdom of heaven" Jesus uses a plural word. It means that hidden in the parables are more than just one spiritual truth. While obviously not all Christians can understand all parables, one central mysterythe mystery of Christ and His covenant for His peopleis the secret of the Lord that is with all them that fear Him.
In Matthew 16, remember, Christ asked His disciples, "Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" When Simon Peter answered, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," Jesus replied, "Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven."
When God saves a person, He qualifies that person to know in his heart that Jesus Christ, his Lord and Savior, is the Son of the living God.
Revealed by the Spirit
In I Corinthians 2, the apostle Paul elaborates on this point. Contrasting himself with preachers who come "with excellency of speech or of wisdom", He says in verse 6, "Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought." Note the cryptic nature of this divine mystery as he continues in the verses 7-9:But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.A metaphor. In Genesis 1, where God says that the earth is void and without form and darkness is upon the face of the deep, that darkened chaos is a metaphor for human's inability to understand divine things. By nature, our rationality and consciousness are dark, empty and formless when it comes to understanding things above. Surely, human beings have a potential arena of knowledge. But there is also an impenetrable barrier between what human beings can know by rational means and what only God can tell in secretive counsel.As the Spirit of God moved upon the waters, the Genesis account of the Creation continues, God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. In the same way, as the Spirit of God moves upon the darkened chaos of the human mind, God says "Let there be light," and He illuminates human rationality to show it the secret of the Lord. In verses 10-13, Paul explains the importance of this divine illumination:
But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?The world considers the things of God foolishness because they don't know how to compare spiritual things with spiritual. We, on the other hand, are able to understand the secret of the Lord because God has given us the Holy Spirit, which, as Paul puts it in Ephesians 1:14, "is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory." Our ability to understand spiritual things is thus tantamount to an evidence of salvation.
even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.While every believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit at the moment he becomes saved, not every Christian, as we saw earlier, understands all the mysteries of the kingdom of God that have been given to us. But note how Paul prays for the Ephesians:
Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe (1:15-19).Paul is praying there for believers, people who have already known the experimental reality of trusting in Christ. But he desires that their eyes of understanding the secret of God be further enlightened so that they can
fully appreciate their having become the children of God thereby enjoying all the blessings that go with it. That, no doubt, is the Lord's will for you and me as well.Now, back to Psalm 25, "The secret of Yahweh is with them that fear Him and He will show them His covenant." Through the Holy Spirit, God shows us His covenant of grace in history, the typology of the Old Testament temples and tabernacles, the parables of Christ, and Paul's doctrine of unconditional and free grace. Every child of God who knows the secret of the Lord has been shown the covenant of His grace in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And in the knowledge of that covenant, may we go forth in cleanness, in sanctification, in purity and live in such a way as evidences that we are, indeed, heirs of the covenant of God who know the great secret of heaven. o
Dr. H. E. Brunson, II is pastor of the First Baptist Church, 5304 East Parker Road, Parker, Texas 75002.