How blessed it is to contemplate the work of reconciliation, to see that the Lord Jesus Christ died upon the cross that we might be brought home to God for His pleasure. Nothing but the death of God's Son could accomplish this; the cross was a divine necessity if God was to have us in His own presence for His joy and satisfaction. As having been brought to God, and as knowing Him through what He has done, it is our joy to boast in the God who has brought us near in grace through Jesus.
But God has wrought in grace towards us for His own pleasure, bringing us near to Himself where He can disclose to us the secrets of His heart. And what a great secret is the truth of the mystery! Christ has not only died for us, but he indwells us, and that not only individually, but corporately as his assembly. In Colossians, we read, "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27).
Christ indwells His own, but is in their midst to direct and control, and to lead our hearts into all that God has secured for us through His death. In the coming day He will be found in the midst of His earthly people, Israel; but today Christ's place is not with an earthly people, but in the midst of a heavenly company that He has redeemed to God by His precious blood, and who are united to Him as having His own life.
This great secret is also spoken of as the mystery of God. How great this secret must be when it can be said of it "In which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." There is no other secret like this one; and to think that God has made it known to us that we might enter into the thoughts of His own heart, and in doing so acquire the treasures that can never be lost.
R. Duncanson.