After Paul lost his eyesight the day he was converted on the road to Damascus, he soon miraculously recovered his physical sight, and then spent 3 years in the desert of “Arabia” (Gal. 1:17). He did not go then to Jerusalem to the Twelve learn of Christ, rather, in Arabia he gained spiritual insight and revelation of “the Mystery (secret)” gospel directly from the ascended Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Gal. 1:12).

As we will see in this article, our coming to ‘see spiritually’ is always the result of God-given ‘revelation’ of the Spirit, which automatically thereby produces a growth in ‘faith,’ hope and understanding.

In Eph. 3 (below) Paul, as “the Apostle to the Gentiles” (Rom. 11:13), notes how he preached the “unsearchable riches of Christ” to the Gentile “body of Christ” to bolster their “faith.” These riches that flow from the Cross were what Paul came to ‘see’ by revelation by “the Spirit.”

⁸Unto me [Pau], who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; ⁹And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: (Ephes. 3:8-9)

What Paul came to see was vital information pertaining to “the mystery (secret)” gospel that all men need to hear and receive if they are to be saved and be established in ‘the faith.’

²⁵Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my [Paul’s]gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the Revelation of The Mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, (Romans 16:25)

The word “unsearchable” (v8 above) is better translated as “untraceable,” for the Greek word, ‘anexichniastos.’ The limitless “riches of Christ” had never before been “traced out.” You may ask, why hadn’t this information been traced out before, by Peter, James, or John?  It is because this truth could not have been known by anyone until it was ‘first’ revealed by the ascended Christ to Paul... for us (1Tim. 1:16). Paul was called to bring this “mystery” gospel, a formerly ‘secret’ gospel, that he calls “the gospel of the grace of God” … for the Gentiles. Jesus and the Twelve had a different gospel for Israel.

“For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, ² If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: ³ How that by revelation he [Jesus from heaven] made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, ⁴ Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) ⁵ Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; (Ephesians 3:1-5 (KJV)

The word “mystery,” from the Greek, is “musterion,” meaning “a secret.” Paul calls the “gospel of the grace of God” that Christ from heaven gave him to preach, calling it “my gospel.” Paul says his gospel had been “kept secret [hid] since the world began” (Eph. 3:9, Rom. 16:25, Col. 1:26-27).

What was the secret of the mystery?

It was that of the two-sided Cross where Christ’s death was both ‘for us’ and ‘as us’… and His resurrection as the “the life-giving Spirit” (1Cor. 15:45) to be the believer’s new life. Christ makes believers who are then in union with Him to be the individual members of a “new creation” … called “the body of Christ.”

The Cross put away distinction among men racially and so it is the basis of Jew and Gentile being “one in Christ” as “the body of Christ.” Paul called this joint-body “the fellowship of the Mystery.”  

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for Ye Are All One In Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)

The secret was that the resurrected “Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” would come to save and indwell individual believing Gentiles and Jews to be members of “His body” … totally apart from Israel’s Prophetic program. (God has promised in Eze.37:14 to indwell all believing Jews at the Christ’s return, at the end of the Tribulation.) Though Jesus of Nazareth no doubt knew of “the Mystery” He never revealed “the mystery (secret)” concerning His ultimate indwelling of all genuine believers totally apart from Israel’s program.

Col. 1:26-27 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: ²⁷To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of This Mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ In You (in all believers), the hope of glory:

Romans 16:25 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of ‘the mystery,’ which was kept secret since the world began,

Jesus said “No man can come to me, except [unless] the Father which hath sent me draw him…” (Jn. 6:44). To be saved, being drawn by the Spirit, we then exercise ‘objective faith’ by believing and receiving Paul’s “mystery” gospel of grace just as Lydia heeded Paul (see below).

Acts 16:14 a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart The Lord Opened, that she attended unto [held in mind] the things which were spoken of Paul.

We receive Paul’s grace gospel message unto salvation by exercising ‘objective faith.’ We hear, our heart leaps, and we believe to receive salvation. We then grow to “see” further truth in greater detail by studying Paul’s thirteen epistles and having Spirit “revelation” in accord with “the word of truth.” This kind of ‘seeing’ that comes by ‘revelation’ spontaneously brings about what we can call ‘subjective or personal faith,’ in what we’ve personally seen of the word of God by the Spirit. We ‘see these truths as being for us personally.’ Our objective faith becomes subjective through the addition of ‘Holy Spirit revelation.’ This is the work of “the faith of [from] the Son of God” (Gal. 2:20). This then is faith that “the Spirit of God” dispenses into our soul’s ‘understanding.’ Subjective faith dispensed into us concerns the new relationship we enjoy in this age of “the dispensation of the grace of God” (Eph 3:2), We’ve then come to faith in what was given to Paul… for us.

The written “word (Gk. “logos”) of God,” must revealed by “the Spirit of truth” in order to become the “rhema (living word).” The Spirit electrifies or enlivens the written “word” of God to us. The Spirit makes the written “word of God” the living word to us personally … in a moment of personal enlightenment.  Thus, Paul wrote.

“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. ¹⁰ But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit Searcheth All Things, Yea, The Deep Things Of God. ¹¹ For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. ¹² Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but The Spirit Which Is of God; (So) That We Might KNOW The Things That Are Freely Given To Us of God. ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ But the natural (Gk. psuchikos, soulish) man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are Spiritually Discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:9-14)