SEXAGESIMA – SATURDAY

LESSON: EPHESIANS 3:7-13

To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God. Luke 8:10

What does He mean when He says: “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God”? What is a “secret” here? If one cannot know it, why does one preach it?

“Secret” means a hidden, concealed matter which one does not know, and “the secrets of the kingdom of God” are the matters in God’s kingdom which are hidden. Christ, with all the grace He has manifested to us as Paul describes Him, is one of these “secrets.” He who knows Christ aright knows what God’s kingdom is and what it contains.

This is called a “secret” because it is spiritual and concealed and remains so unless the Spirit reveals it. For there are many who see it and hear about it but who do not accept it.

There are many today who preach Christ and hear how He was given for us, but this is often only a matter of the tongue, not of the heart. They do not believe it themselves and have no real experience of it, for as Paul declares, “This unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

So, Christ says here, “To you it has been given,” that is, the Holy Spirit has enabled you not to hear and to see, but to recognize and to believe with your hearts, and, therefore, it is no longer a “secret” for you.

SL.XI.523,19
AE 76,337

PRAYER: Thanks and praise be to you, O heavenly Father, for the revelation of the mystery of your grace in Christ Jesus our Lord which you have made known to us in the Gospel. Establish us in the grace that we may witness to it before our fellowmen, for Christ’s sake. Amen.