¹⁶By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh, was vindicated in the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

The early church referred to “the rule of faith” or simply “the faith.” It incorporated the foundational truths accepted by all believers in Jesus Christ. Here, we find one aspect, a central truth held by all the apostles and the churches they founded: “the mystery of godliness.”

A mystery is not something that cannot be understood, but something that was once concealed but is now revealed. We can never exhaustively understand God’s truth, but we can know it in part. Our responsibility is to “confess” what we do know. We must acknowledge this now-revealed mystery as our own belief—not a superficial recitation but a confession of what the heart believes.

This truth that remains a mystery to unbelievers is “great.” What the world does not understand, we know to be transformational, unparalleled in the human experience. This truth takes on six aspects.

First, Christ became human (John 1:14) and lived among His people as a man. He who existed before time was “revealed” in time as a human. Everything hinges on this truth. He is “a priori,” as philosophers would say, that is, His incarnation is the starting point on which faith rests apart from logical deduction from previous truths. This truth can only be known through revelation; thus, Paul says, He was “revealed.”

Second, He was “vindicated,” that is, shown to be the revelation from God by the work of the Holy Spirit in Him. His miracles attested to this.

Third, He was “seen by angels.” Hebrews tells us, “Even angels long to look into these things” (1 Peter 1:12 NIV), as a great cloud of witnesses.

Fourth, He is “proclaimed among the nations,” the subject of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18–20).

Fifth, He is “believed on in the world”: as God said, “My word . . . will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it” (Is. 55:11, see also 2 Peter 3:9).

Finally, He was “taken up in glory,” from where He came. The cycle is complete: Jesus, who was with God the Father in His glory from eternity past (John 17:5), came to earth to reveal God to us (see John 1:18) and has returned to the Father. The message of Christ has now gone out to the world, and people believe. That, in a nutshell, is the great mystery of godliness. God is working in the world; the true nature of godliness is what He has done and is doing.

Lord, I want this kind of godliness, to join God in this great mystery.