Mystery or Whodunit

Mirabile mysterium declaratur hodie.

A wonderful mystery is revealed today.

“According to revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past.”

Romans 16:25 (NASB95)

The incarnation of Jesus Christ is a mystery; not the machinations of an Agatha Christie whodunit, but a true biblical mystery. Unlike murder mysteries, biblical mysteries cannot be unraveled with Sherlockian deductive reasoning. For even curious angels and querying prophets failed to unlock divine enigmas (cf. 1 Peter 1:12).

No, human beings know the secret things of God only through revelation (Deuteronomy 29:29). Why? Is God arrogantly asserting his superiority at cosmic hide and seek? Hardly, revelation is necessary because the human mind is incapable of imagining the mysteries of God.

Unfortunately, many insist on solving all puzzles on their own, and when a mystery refuses to yield to logical discovery, they declare it unknowable or untrue. Thus, they assign the incarnation to the annals of quaint myths; but limits of human understanding do not abolish truth. Though it boggles investigative minds, Christ’s incarnation, as one of God’s revealed mysteries, is to be confessed as truth (cf. 1 Timothy 3:14-16).