We must then ask, what is God’s mystery? Where is God? The Jews and Moslems all believe in God. Upon this earth, no one dares to declare that other things are God. They know that all those things are not God, but idols. There is only one God. The Jews believe in the Old Testament, and the Moslems believe in the Koran. The Koran is an imitation of the Old Testament. They all believe in the unique God, but they do not know that this God is a mystery. Neither do they know that this mystery of God is Christ (Col. 2:2).
The divine mystery is first the mystery of God and second the mystery of Christ. We need to read, study, and pray over Colossians and Ephesians, for they unveil to us the mystery of God, Christ. The Jews have God in name, but they do not have God in reality. They have God in a mystery. They do not have God in reality because they do not know the mystery of God. The mystery of God is Christ! If you do not know God, and if you have not met God, just come to Christ, because God is embodied in Christ. All the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in this Christ (Col. 2:9). If you do not believe in Christ, you miss God. Without Christ, although you may say you believe in God, you believe only in terms. You believe God as a mystery. You could never realize God. You could never touch God, get God, or get into God except through Christ. The Moslems and Jews have God without Christ, but eventually they have nothing. The very God is in Christ. If you do not have Christ, you do not have God. Christ is wonderful because He is the mystery, the answer, the definition, the embodiment, and the reality of God. He is nothing less than God, but He is God with something more. Christ is God-plus. It is hard for us to explain. He was a little man who came from a despised region called Galilee, yet this man is the mystery of God. Outside of Him and without Him you could never see God. Whether you believe it or not, He is God. He is just God! In the whole universe, God is in Christ. Where Christ is, there is God. Apart from Christ, you could never find God.
Christ is the mystery of God. Where then is Christ? In history there has never been a name so wonderful as Jesus Christ. Whether they are for Him or not for Him, today all the nations use the calendar of Jesus. This is the year of Jesus. Every year is the year of the chronicle of Christ, of that little man. Is not this Christ wonderful? There is no man so big. There is no name bigger than the name of Jesus. Yet where is He? Some say that He is in the heavens. He is not only in the heavens but right on this earth. He is right here in this room. The mystery of the universe is God, the mystery of God is Christ, and the mystery of Christ is the church (Eph. 3:4-11). For years and years I have been ministering Christ and the church, and the more I minister, the more I have to minister. Over fifty years ago I learned that the church is not a Western bungalow with a belltower. I learned that the church is the gathering of God’s called ones. However, even to say that the church is the gathering of God’s called people is too superficial. The church is the Body of Christ. The church is an organism, not an organization. Do not consider the church as an organization, but an organism. For so many years I never saw that the church is a mystery. The church is the mystery of Christ. In other words, the church is just Christ in a mysterious way. The church is Christ (1 Cor. 12:12). So, when we say that we are the Christ, this is not too much. Hallelujah, we are the Christ here! On one hand, we are wonderful persons, and on the other, we are Christ in a mysterious way. Within us we have a mysterious part, and that part is Christ. Christ today is right here.
This mystery has an economy. To us today the mystery is no longer mysterious. The mystery is no longer hidden. It is an open mystery. We do know that the whole universe is the mystery of God, this mystery of God is just Christ, and this mystery of Christ is the church. We are the mystery of Christ, Christ is the mystery of God, and God is the mystery of the universe. Surely we are a mysterious and universal people!
The word economy in the English language is an anglicized word borrowed from the Greek. It contains the matter of dispensing, as in today’s modern economy. In modern economy, a kind of dispensing is implied. If we have billions of dollars worth of capital, we have to dispense it. Hence, in God’s economy, the first aspect is to dispense Himself into His chosen ones.
(The Two Great Mysteries in God's Economy, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee)