By Ken Pierce

And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:
(1) God was manifested in the flesh,
(2) Justified in the Spirit,
(3) Seen by angels,
(4) Preached among the Gentiles,
(5) Believed on in the world,
(6) Received up in glory
(1 Tim 3:16, numbers added).

Not long after the demise of the Soviet Union, a US Navy ship on which I served made a port visit to Odessa, Ukraine. The Ukrainian people were very happy to see us. They were euphoric about the end of communism and looked forward to a brighter future. In their eyes, our visit affirmed the end of their fifty-year nightmare under communism.

The area near the pier was lined with vendors, eager to sell all manner of souvenirs. One offered items from uniforms previously worn by sailors in the then-defunct Soviet Navy. Another sold flags of the former USSR alongside Russian crosses and Orthodox icons. In addition to a couple of wooden boxes engraved with scenes from the Ukrainian countryside, I bought several matryoshka dolls—hollow wooden characters stacked one inside the other. Removing the head of the first doll exposed another nested inside, and so on, until the prize at the center could be reached.

The Bible contains several passages like those matryoshka dolls. Each successive point depends on the ones before it, forging a sequential chain of dependency. A well-known example is found in Paul’s letter to the church in Rome:

How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? (Rom 10:14-15a).

The act of sending logically serves as the first link. Preaching depends upon sending, followed by hearing, believing, and calling on the name of the Lord. Much like a matryoshka doll, getting to the prize doll (calling on the name of the Lord) requires opening the other dolls in sequence.

In 1 Tim 3:16, Paul presents Timothy with another matryoshka doll.

His instruction to Timothy on the mystery of godliness concerns the surprising union of Jews and Gentiles in one Body, the Church. Timothy, a man with a foot in both camps (Gentile by his father, Jewish by his mother) was well-positioned to help Paul explain the union of the two communities—Jew and Gentile—in Christ and in the local assembly. It made very good sense, then, for Paul to invest time and effort in discussing the mystery of godliness with his protégé.

Paul traced a chain of six sequential dependencies. Each event had been fulfilled in the rather recent past, and the order in which they occurred is of incalculable importance.

First, “God was manifested in the flesh.” That simple statement remains as astonishing today as when Paul wrote it. It represented the outermost shell of the matryoshka doll. Without it, nothing else that followed could be possible. Because it did occur, the rest of the chain has also become eternally true. Jesus’ incarnation stands forever as the paramount essential reality, the sine qua non. God was manifested in the flesh. Without that, nothing else matters.

Second, He “was justified [vindicated]ⁱ in the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit vindicated the Lord Jesus Christ. His validation of Christ cannot be overstated.

Third, He was “seen by angels.” Together, the entire angelic host—every member of the bene ha Elohim assembly, the elect and the fallen alike—witnessed the shocking spectacle of the God-Man walking on the face of the earth in human flesh. For the first time, they beheld a Man thoroughly pleasing to the Father. They saw that God has forever pitched His tent with mankind (John 1:14), not with angels. He is on our side. He has taken up our cause. The elect angels rejoiced (Luke 2:13-14), while the fallen cringed, howled and cursed (Ps 22:12-13). The deed is forever done. The immeasurable expression of God’s love and grace for humankind can never be undone (John 3:16).

Fourth, He was “preached among the Gentiles.” The Lord Jesus sent His apostles “to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Rom 1:16; 2:10). The astonishment and amazement attached to that truth must not be diminished by its familiarity. The Goyim, born far from Israel, aliens of God and children of wrath, have seen a great light (Isa 9:2; Matt 4:16). Through the efforts of faithful servants like Paul and Timothy, and countless Jewish evangelists after them, Jesus Christ has also been preached to the Gentiles. As the character Tevye (or Tevyah: “Yah is Good”) might have exclaimed in Fiddler on the Roof, “Unheard of! Unthinkable!” But it is so!

Fifth, the Lord Jesus Christ “was believed on in the world.” Again, the seismic magnitude of that statement must not be missed. He was believed on in Israel, though the majority of His own had not (and have not) yet received Him (John 1:11). Still, many Jewish people have believed in Him (John 10:25-27), accompanied by an inestimable number of Gentiles.

Towner makes this great comment:

The real clue that this hymn is about Christian existence, and not just about Christ’s existence—that it truly does explicate “the mystery of godliness” and provide a christological foundation for “conduct in God’s household”—can be seen in lines 4–5. These lines fully implicate human beings in the salvation plan of God, not just as undeserving recipients of God’s grace (line 5), but firstly as messengers who announce the truth enfleshed in the Messiah. The aorist tenses are not to be read as signaling completion, but rather fact. In God’s salvation drama, Paul (and the church) has proclaimed the gospel, and the mission has produced results. But the ministry and results are characteristic of the church’s present age—as the age continues towards the end, so must the activity (Letters to Timothy and Titus, p. 285).

Sixth, He was “received up in glory.” With the penultimate matryoshka doll opened, the innermost treasure came into view. Authentically crafted, the innermost prize of a matryoshka doll is usually intricately adorned with tiny, delicate features, well worth the effort required to open each of the nested dolls in succession. So it is with the final link in Paul’s discussion of the mystery of godliness. He reminded Timothy that God the Father has seated the Lord Jesus in the most coveted position in the universe––at the Father’s right hand. A human being with breath, a pulse, and a body temperature just like ours now sits exalted far above every angelic creature, regardless of rank.

Because of these six spectacular substantives, believers uniquely enjoy the potential to experience genuine godliness here and now—a possibility otherwise unimaginable and unobtainable.

Concerning the expression the mystery of godliness, Towner comments: “Consequently, the ‘mystery of godliness’ means the revelation of Jesus Christ in which Christian existence has its origin” (Letters to Timothy and Titus, p. 277).

As Timothy read this letter, one may imagine his being overwhelmed anew at the magnitude of Messiah’s grace and truth. Timothy must have found Paul’s words extraordinarily motivating, strengthening, and encouraging. Great is the mystery of godliness! Timothy had important work to accomplish: communicating this edifying message to believers in his charge. Because of who Jesus Christ is and what He has accomplished, all who have been permanently united to Him by faith alone now enjoy the power to walk in righteousness and, much more, to experience genuine godliness—all for His name’s sake.

No wonder Paul was so proud of the good news of Messiah. It still holds the power of God unto deliverance for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and—brace yourself!—also for the Gentile (Rom 1:16-17).

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Ken Pierce is a retired Navy intelligence officer with combat service in Panama, the former Yugoslavia, and Iraq. Ken studied Biblical Hebrew and Archaeology at the Jerusalem Center for Biblical Studies. Now retired, he leads a lively men’s Bible Study using Zane Hodges’ commentary on Romans, occasionally fills the pulpit for his and other pastors in NE Florida, and is contributing to a forthcoming GES commentary on the Tanakh (Old Testament). He and his wife Ana Maria recently celebrated thirty-eight years of marriage.

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ⁱ Towner writes, “The verb of line 2 is correctly translated ‘was vindicated’ (Titus 3:7), against the OT background of the term, and indicates God’s demonstration of Jesus’ innocence” (Letters to Timothy and Titus, p. 280).