The Mystery of God and the Father Meaning in Colossians 2:2?
1) Direct Answer
Colossians 2:2 is pointing to one revealed secret: the mystery of God—who is the Father—made known and unveiled in Jesus Christ. It is not three persons. It is one God, the Father, manifested in the Son, and now known by the Holy Spirit. The “mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ” means the one God (the Father) revealed in Christ.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- Now notice how Paul builds it:
- Colossians 1:15,19: Christ is “the image of the invisible God,” and “it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell.”
- Colossians 1:26–27: “the mystery… now made manifest… which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
- Colossians 2:2–3: the mystery leads to “full assurance,” and “in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
- Colossians 2:9: “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”
- 1 Timothy 3:16: “God was manifested in the flesh.”
- 2 Corinthians 5:19: “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.”
- John 14:9–10: “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father… the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.”
The Bible says the Father is the invisible God, and Jesus is His visible image. The Son is the body—born of a woman—while the indwelling is God Himself. That’s the mystery: God, the Father, unveiled in Christ, and then Christ in you by the Holy Spirit.
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- If “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,” then there isn’t another equal person of Deity outside of Christ. All the fulness is in Him.
- “God” names the Deity; “the Father” describes His relationship as the source and head; “Christ” is His manifestation in flesh. Not three Gods, not three divine persons—one God revealed.
- Therefore Colossians 2:2 is not dividing God; it is identifying Him: the mystery of God—who is the Father—made known in Christ. You see, Paul is guarding the church from philosophy and traditions (Colossians 2:8) by anchoring them in this revelation of who Jesus is.
4) Reinforcing Statement
The mystery isn’t confusion; it is revelation: the one God, the Father, dwelling bodily in Jesus Christ, and now dwelling in the believer. That’s why Paul says, “all the treasures” are hid in Him. Recognize Him right, and your heart is knit in love and kept from error.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 9:E-49
The Baptists have their creeds and dogmas based on the Word and you can't shake them. They say the apostolic days of miracles are over and there is no Baptism with the Holy Ghost, subsequent to believing. The Methodists say (based on the Word) there is no water baptism (sprinkling is not baptism) and that sanctification is the Baptism with the Holy Ghost. The Church of Christ majors in regenerational baptism and in all too many cases they go down dry sinners and come up wet ones. Yet they claim their doctrine is Wo...
Questions and Answers, part 1
54-0103M §1
That's fine, and I'm certainly happy to be here this morning to try to answer a few of these questions. And I see some more has come in. And so we're... It may take me just a little bit of time to kind of read some of these, because I just got them this morning. And I want to express my feeling of being here to worship God today on this beautiful Sabbath that He's give us to come together. And a little place that we gather in and for the pastor, our brother, Brother Neville---a servant of God---and for all the deac...
Christ is the mystery of God revealed
63-0728 §240
As the head was took from the grave, so must the body follow Him back to Eden. Where the head of the family, the man, the bridegroom---the bride being the body of the bridegroom must follow (the bride) because that's the head. And the head's revealed and come back with eternal life; and the body must follow that, because it is husband and wife again. Amen! And as long as you're pregnated with the same Word, which is His body, you've took His body, become in Him when you took the Word---not the creed, the Word... (O...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 1:E-1
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John: Who bare record of the Word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, fr...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 9:E-29
...out with the antichrist spirit as well as the Holy Spirit Who is to be blessed forever. I John 4:1, "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." Did you notice it? The antichrist spirit is identified with false prophets. The ages came in with false prophets and they will go out with false prophets. Now of course there is going to be a REAL FALSE PROPHET in the grand sense of that man mentioned in the Revelation. But as of...