Mystery (1:9)
- Mystery (mustērion refers to a divine secret previously undisclosed).
Summing up of all things (1:10)
to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. (NIV)
for the administration of the fullness of times, to bring together all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in him (LEB)
- This assumes that the cosmos (heaven & earth) is fragmented and broken and needs to be put back into an ordered unity
- In Genesis, we are presented with a united cosmos; a heaven & earth overlap. Remember God walking in the garden.
- Man fell, and that created a fracture between both realms. This is the origin of the necessity of altars/tabernacle/temple. Those were spaces that represented that united heaven-earth reality
Obtained an inheritance (1:11)
- Some translations have this as us being made an inheritance, and not just us receiving an inheritance. (check NET, NLT)
Paul’s Prayer (1:16-19)
I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance. (NLT)
- The word translated “revelation” is apokalypsis which means to uncover, reveal.
- The essence of this spirit of revelation is that they would:
- Grow in the knowledge of God
- Know the hope of their calling in the Messiah
- The magnitude of God’s power at work towards them
This age & age to come (1:21)
- The two-age distinction is one that was fully fleshed out in 2nd temple Judaism (the period between the return from Babylonian exile, and the destruction of the temple in 70A.D)
- The word for “age” is also used to mean “world”, such that the word carries a double (however, overlapping) space-time meaning.
- Biblical history is divided into two distinct ages:
- The current age (or the age of promise):
- In this age, God promises to:
- dwell with His people
- bring divine justice
- raise saints from the dead
- forgive sins
- reign as king
- This age starts at creation, and is characterized by death, evil, sin, slavery, curse violence e.t.c
- The age to come (or the age of fulfilment): This age is characterized by life/resurrection, justice, peace, love e.t.c. In this age, God fulfils all that He has promised.
- Right between the two ages is an event that regularly referenced in the OT as “The day of the lord”. It’s a day of divine justice and resurrection.
- The NT claims that:
- Jesus’ incarnation, death & resurrection marked the inauguration of an overlap between both ages
- there will be a full manifestation of the age to come when Christ returns.
- Further Reading
Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. 1 Corinthians 10:11
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law Galatians 4:4
Who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father Galatians 1:4
Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Hebrews 10:26
But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. 1 Corinthians 15:20
Note: with this understanding of “fulness of times”, we can go back to verse 10