This Revealed Mystery, The Cross

By David Wyper

"My eyes haven't seen, nor have my ears heard, what my father has in store." Words from a great Gospel song that I recorded years ago, "The Scars in the Hands of Jesus," proclaiming the words from Isaiah and then repeated by Paul to the Corinthians.

When you hear these words what do you think the following message should be about? If you said Heaven, you'd be wrong. The song was ultimately about Heaven but the quoted scriptures are not. "What! That's been the message ever since I've been in church!" Yes it has, but these verses have nothing to do to with Heaven.

God speaks of Heaven in very specific ways in the Bible and does not leave it up to our imaginations. "In my Father's house are many mansions." - "There is a river that flows from the city of God." Heaven is a place with no tears, no sorrow, no dying or loneliness, where God is the light - a city of jeweled walls and gates.

Isaiah says that God has a plan in place before the earth was formed. A plan where He and He alone will save us from our 'righteousness', which is filthy rags to Him. He saves with His righteousness and man will not have a clue of what it is He will do for those who love and trust Him. Isaiah is prophesying Christ Jesus on the Cross.

Paul repeats the plan in I Corinthians in the context of, "I have come to you not knowing anything but Christ and Him crucified." He doesn't say he comes knowing only what God has in store for us in Heaven. Paul says it's a mystery that man cannot understand except by the Holy Spirit. If the princes of the world had understood, they would, Paul says, not have crucified the Lord of Glory. For 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." Paul then goes on to proclaim that when this mystery is known and understood, those who are spiritual should judge all things according to this revealed mystery, the Cross.

So when you hear these words, remember the Cross, remember the Lord's death until He comes. This is what God prepared for you. Man gave up the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden. God replanted it on the hill of Calvary, with the blood of Jesus, which now sustains us in all things to this day, the believer and unbeliever alike.

One thing that is very true about the song I recorded, God planned our redemption to be fulfilled by the nail prints in the hands of Jesus. It is finished!