Colossians 2:2

That their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of under standing that they may know the mystery of God, even Christ, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden.

An unusually incisive and penetrating analysis of the whole paragraph which began at Colossians 1:24 and ends with these verses was written by Morgan thus:

We find reference to a threefold mystery: (1) the church which is the body of Christ; (2) the secret of life in the individual believer, "Christ in you, the hope of glory"; and (3) the deepest mystery of all, "the mystery of God even Christ.[8]

As frequently pointed out, the "mystery" of the New Testament is exceedingly large and extensive, no less than three facets of it appearing in the single paragraph before us; and yet, strangely enough, all parts of this mystery are wrapped, entwined and fitted together in the most amazing unity.

In whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden ...

Nielson read the meaning of this to be: "In Jesus Christ are hid all the attributes of Deity."[9] The word "hidden" he construed as meaning "Contained, waiting to be revealed in their time."[10] George A. Buttrick wrote extensively on "Jesus Christ as the Truth" (John 14:6), declaring that "The ultimate wisdom for mankind is not another formula, another gadget or a new discovery ... Every door man opens discloses not the answer, but another corridor with other doors opening into still other corridors, etc."[11] Buttrick illustrated this by pointing out the Copernican discovery. He concluded with a grand proposition that for mankind the ultimate answer is not a mathematical formula, an intricate scientific gadget, nor some startling new discovery - it is a Person; that Person is Christ! Paul discovered this long ago and thundered the message in this verse.

[8] G. Campbell Morgan, op. cit., p. 496.

[9] John B. Nielson, op. cit., p. 396.

[10] Ibid.

[11] George A. Buttrick, Christ and Man's Dilemma (New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1950), pp. 29ff.