Rom 11:25 For I do not desire you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, lest you be **wise in your own conceit** (opinion), that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
Paul describes a mystery here.
He then explains that failure to acknowledge a mystery, and to claim to have “nailed it down”, is called “being wise in one’s own conceit”. I need to be clear that I’m referring to a limited number of truths which Scripture defines as being mysteries.
He warns the believers against a pride in their own intellect (conceit) that would prevent them acknowledging FACTS that God has spoken.
Whatever facts are there concerning a mystery, they need to be acknowledged, otherwise God is impugned as a liar. That’s the reality whenever anyone denies what God has declared, they are calling Him a liar and fool.
Sovereignty/election and freewill can never be reconciled by the human mind-intellect, it’s one of the mysteries of God.
A mystery is simply something that’s undeniably true, but it’s too big for us to wrap our brains around it.
There’s a number of mysteries presented to us in God’s Word : Election and freewill, Christ and His Church, Christ in you, ……. We are stewards of the mysteries of God.
1Co 13:9 Now we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
selah………….
1Co 13:10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is partial shall pass away.
1Co 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, I reasoned as a child; but when I became a man, I put away the things of the child.
1Co 13:12 For now we see through a mirror by reflection, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
1Co 13:13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
ian.
Ian Vincent 
October 29, 2007 at 5:02 am
Romans 3:4 “…..let God be true and every man a liar…”
It’s virtually impossible to go forward in faith without settling this scripture within our spirits. Seldom have I seen in any internet forum someone actually say, “I don’t know.” The human nature departs from faith when it tries to explain everything away by pages of just words. Dialogging is helpful to try to understand some things, however, there comes a time when being wise in one conceits denies that we see through a glass darkly, thereby denying the validity of the word.
October 29, 2007 at 12:23 pm
Yes my brother. We’re on the same page here as usual.
I like what you’ve said here.
Belief always precedes understanding, and never the other way. This was God’s design thru His Word.
It’s hard to reconcile what our Lord said about becoming “as a little child” (for only such shall enter the Kingdom of God) with “becoming an expert”.
“I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to babes.
Yes, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.”