The mystery of God’s will is the story that can only be known by revelation, and it can only be fully known as events ripen to maturity in God’s timing. The mystery of salvation is something that no one could ever have figured out by reason alone: not because it is irrational, but because it is marvelous, because it is a higher wisdom, because it is with gracious motives that we have never suspected before. We have never imagined that God was actually like that and that this is what he is doing in the world. It is not revealed by common experience or much less by conventional wisdom. Paul uses the word mystery seven times in Ephesians. He will speak of the mystery of God’s will, the mystery of the gospel, the mystery of Christ. The mystery is the salvation-story made known by God’s revelation through the prophets and apostles, and brought to full expression in God’s timing through the coming of Jesus Christ.
Now if we think about this, we will realize what exciting news Paul is referring to here. Paul is saying that God’s will, which men and women could never fathom through their own efforts, is actually revealed to us in the gospel. The mind of God is disclosed to us mysteriously, marvelously, in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Christianity does not come to the world with a therapeutic program of earthly happiness and self-help. It is not a political action agenda. It is not a power grab by one ethnic religious group against others. Rather, Christianity presents God’s revelation concerning his otherwise secret plans for saving the fallen world.1
Dr. Richard D. Phillips
9 il nous a fait connaître le mystère de sa volonté, selon le bienveillant dessein qu'il avait formé en lui-même,