Adam and Eve were created perfect, but we were born in sin. For the preservation of their perfection hinged on their choice. When they ate of the forbidden tree, the human race was doomed (Romans 6:23). Yet, before the foundation of the world, the Father and Son agreed that if humanity sinned, they could be saved by the life of Christ (Revelation 13:8; Zechariah 6:13). Jesus, the second Person of the Godhead, would be born of a woman in the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3), die on the cross, resurrect the third day, ascend to His Father, be preached to all nations and be seen by the universe. Paul, in 1 Timothy 3:16 calls this the mystery of godliness.
During the open forum segment of the Q&A with Elder Randy Skeete, the audience wondered, how did Jesus take on human form? How did He veil His divinity without losing it? How did He grow in humanity and yet not sin? As a human, did He have the nature of Adam before the fall or after the fall? These intricacies we can only chip the surface of and will spend eternity getting to the center of. Aptly, Ellen White in Manuscript 114, 1898, par. 16 says, “Christ is the mystery of godliness.” And the ability of Christ to impart unto us His overcoming power through the infilling of the Holy Spirit adds to the mysteriousness of this mystery (Colossians 1:26, 27). Paul posits, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave [H]imself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Even the angels desire to look into the plan of salvation through Jesus and from our Christian journey learn of the character of God (1 Peter 1:12).
While we can never fully understanding the inner workings of God, He behooves us to, “[s]tudy to shew [ourselves] approved unto [Him],…workm[e]n that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). Even to the people of Judah, God cries in Isaiah 1:18, “Come now, and let us reason together…though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” We must study, reason, ruminate and disseminate this mystery as God reveals it to us. For the mystery of godliness is the essence of the gospel of salvation. This gospel was preached in the Old Testament through the sanctuary system (Hebrews 4:2; Psalm 77:13) and to us through the life of Christ.
God’s desire is that we should so live that the world sees the mystery of godliness manifest in us and thus seeks to be transformed by Christ.
Watch this video for an in depth study on mystery of godliness:
The Word Inspired 