Conclusion - 6

Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen. (Romans 16:25-27) As I look at this one more time to see how all these elements fit together, I am more and more convinced that they all refer to each other almost equally. Especially the beginning and ending factors lend themselves easily to all of the following or previous ones respectively. So here is how they might be seen. Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel according to the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery by the Scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment of the eternal God leading to obedience of faith. Now here it is again but looking back from the other end. Obedience of faith is a result of... understanding the commandment, the will of the eternal God immersing one's self in the messages from the prophets having a revelation of the mystery about God in one's heart and mind hearing the presentation of the real truth about God as revealed in Jesus Christ learning the good news about God that is the essence of the gospel this obedience itself is what it looks like to be established by God. Surrounding this like a protective encasement that shields it from the deceptions and attacks of the enemy is the beginning and ending phrases referring to God the Father. Now to Him, to the only wise God... be the glory forever. Again, in this last verse there is a descriptor of how that glory is channeled. All the glory that is produced for God is a result of the work and example and teachings of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the revelation of God's glory and the one who attracts all praise and glory to be returned back to its source. Jesus takes God's glory and transforms it into understandable forms for others to understand and appreciate. And as that glory spontaneously produces praise, gratitude and love, all of those things are received by Christ and returned to the Father. This whole cycle is literally a circuit of life-giving love which is the current that powers all of the universe. It is crucial that each intelligent being find their proper place within this circuit and be aligned correctly with that current of power so that the whole circuit will fulfill its original purpose and design. And it is only as we discover and are restored to our proper place and function within this circuit will we find the deepest sense of fulfillment, satisfaction and joy in our own hearts. This is what we were created for in the first place and only this will bring us into alignment with what our deepest cravings long for. We are right now living in a time different from any other time in history. In this generation the final polarization is going to be completed. God is moving in dramatic ways to attract and permanently seal everyone who is willing to listen with their heart to His Spirit drawing them to Himself. Each one who responds and follows on to know Him and chooses to let go of their pride and independence will find themselves drawn closer and closer to others who are likewise being drawn into His intimacy. At the same time, all those who resist His drawing on their hearts and the messages of truth to their minds will have that resistance polarize them, blinding them and hardening their hearts. But because of the deceptive nature of this hardness they will not realize they are becoming hardened until it is far too late. They will believe that they are saved, that they are on the right track, that their form of religion or the emotional highs they get in religious services are what God designed for them to thrive on and live by. But if they do not humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, they can never be lifted up by that same hand and instead they will become more aligned with the counterfeit system of religion that feels like it is the real deal. Jesus said that narrow is the way that leads to life and very few will find it. It is not because God does not want us to find it or that it is too hard to find, but it is because the only way to find it and stay on it is with a spirit of humility and submission to the work of God in the soul which is very often painful and even abrasive at times. If I am not willing to endure the pain of the polishing and the extraction of the sinful cravings from deep in my own heart, then I will be embraced by the counterfeit grace that appeals more to my pride and independence. I will have my own desires reinforced by those around me and will become united in heart and spirit with the majority of the world in a spirit of independence and a thrilling sense of power. I want to have this mystery of truth revealed to me, to my heart and mind and soul. Further, I want to be a channel of this revelation to other hearts through the transformation of my life and spirit and soul. I want to be a “little Christ”, one who reveals the real truth about God's faithful love and compassion and goodness to others who are afraid of Him because of the lies they believe about Him. I want to be established by the eternal God in a solid, clear understanding of the gospel as it is in Jesus Christ. I want this passage to be a description of my life and my experience.

Conclusion - 5 The Glory

To the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen. (Romans 16:27)

This is the glorious climax of the final exclamation of Paul at the very end of his letter to the Romans. It is not only a summary of and finale of what he wants to convey to us in this letter, but it is also something of a synopsis of the history of the great war between God and his archenemy who defected from the highest position of trust and honor in the whole universe.

These last three verses cover the whole history of the earth as well, from its beginning to the future eternity that we can experience with God on the earth restored and made new. They point out that there has been a mystery that has been hidden from mankind for many ages – since the fall of man really. But during those ages of mystery we were not left clueless about how God felt about us. God spoke important truths and interacted with those on earth through various means and at various times more directly. He used prophets in particular to communicate His thoughts and desires to His people on earth. Much of the Old Testament Scriptures is the records of what some of these prophets had to say on behalf of God as well as stories of how God interacted with those living on earth.

But all during those times God's will and His ways and attitudes toward humanity remained a mystery. People were baffled by the seemingly strange symbols that God used to reveal things about Himself. People became confused by the language and commandments of God reading much of their own cultural assumptions into the things God was trying to convey to them. The Old Testament Scriptures are often referred to, especially by those that He chose to be His people during that time period, as the Law and the Prophets. But even though the Jews had a long history of direct attention and divine favor from the God of heaven and they had the written words reminding them of all that God had tried to do with them, still the nature and disposition of God toward humans remained largely a mystery. Very few during the Old Testament period caught on to the true beauty and attractiveness of the glory of God.

But things changed at the appearance of Jesus the Christ (or Messiah – the one sent to rescue). Jesus was sent by the Father to change this situation, to radically disrupt our paradigms, to shatter our assumptions about a distant, frightening, intimidating God that appeared all too much like many of the other pagan false gods evolved from the imaginations and fears of selfish men. Jesus came to unmask the mystery that clouded our hearts from knowing the real truth about how God feels about humans. Jesus was sent to show us what the Father really is like and how passionately He desires to have us in close, intimate relationship with Himself. Jesus came to explode the myths about God that have haunted humanity ever since the days of sinful Adam, and to shine a brilliant light that would expel the deep darkness created by the myriad lies of Satan about the Father.

The mystery has been dark for long ages, not because God wanted the truth about Him to be hidden from us, but due to the enormous mass of lies under which we have been buried – lies both about God and about the real truth about ourselves. This mystery has continued to be a mystery because of the blindness of our own hearts, not because God has been hiding from us.

Even during those long ages of dark mystery God had stated quite plainly at times that the real problem has always been with us, never with Him. Behold, the Lord's hand is not so short that it cannot save; nor is His ear so dull that it cannot hear. but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. (Isaiah 59:1-2) It is this separation that has created and amplified the mystery for all the long ages past and for too many even yet today. For the core of the reason there is a mystery to begin with is our unbelief about the real truths about God and how He relates to those who rebel against Him.

The unmasking of this mystery became very intense in the life and example of Jesus while He lived among us here on earth. It was not just his sinless behavior that was helpful for us to see, but far more important was the attitude that He revealed about how God feels about sinners. The interactions of Jesus as He encountered all sorts of people in all kinds of situations was intended to show our hearts the real grace that fills the heart of the Father and the passion with which He desires to attract us back into a loving, trusting relationship with Him.

For those who feel determined to resist these revelations about the heart of the Father, the truth will continue to remain a mystery. In fact, sadly these people will find themselves becoming angry and scandalized by the revelations of the heart of the Father whenever they encounter them either in the stories of Jesus or in the lives and teachings of those being transformed into His image and likeness. For the real truth about God, His grace, His compassion, His unconditional love and forgiveness is so abrasive and contradictory to the things we have believed about Him in the past that without a radical new birth experience we cannot embrace them or believe them authentically.

But when a person surrenders to the love and becomes overwhelmed with the beauty and passion that emanates from the heart of God for each of His created children, that person is empowered to suddenly begin to perceive the glory of God as revealed in the life of Jesus as well as being able to experience it in their everyday relationship with Him through the presence of His Spirit. Instead of living in constant resistance to the love that is the life current that powers all of the universe, they will come into proper alignment with it so that it will become a source of life-giving power instead of pain-producing irritation. The things they once ridiculed and resisted they now embrace with enthusiasm and passion.

In the revelation of this mystery will be found true wisdom. I believe that most of us have very little real perception of what wisdom really means. We have some vague ideas of what we think wisdom is, but until we encounter a personal, radical, disturbing conversion experience in our deepest heart and thinking, we are unable to even perceive what constitutes true wisdom. Instead, we often believe that wisdom is the high intellectual constructs that we have created in our own intense study of various subjects including the study of God. We think that because our minds are acute and we have figured out how many things seem to fit together that we have found wisdom.

But real wisdom has far more to do with a vital and on-going interaction with the mind of God who is the only real source of wisdom than it has to do with figuring out how things work or the accumulation of enormous amounts of knowledge.

If we were to have our eyes opened we would be ashamed to see that we have created multitudes of false gods and worship all sorts of false idols just as much or more than the pagans and heathen did centuries ago. It is just that we do not use the same terminology for them as the pagans did so we don't often realize that we are worshiping things that have no wisdom in them.

Repeatedly throughout the Old Testament God pointed out the foolishness of those who worshiped idols that couldn't see or hear or think. And at times He even likened His own people to be just like the idols that they worshiped – not able to see or hear.

Now hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see; who have ears but do not hear. (Jeremiah 5:21)

Son of man, you live in the midst of the rebellious house, who have eyes to see but do not see, ears to hear but do not hear; for they are a rebellious house. (Ezekiel 12:2)

This is the real cause of the truth about God being veiled as a mystery for long ages. It is a mystery largely because we live in a state of rebellion that has been going on far longer than even this world has been around. And on top of that we were born with a rebellious nature inherited from our ancestors and infused into our human nature by the sin of our parents in Eden.

But God is in the process of unveiling the mystery about Himself and the most prominent way that He has chosen to do that is through the revelation of Himself through His Son Jesus Christ. That is why the presentation of Jesus through preaching, teaching and living with Jesus in the heart is a powerful means of bringing light to shine in the hearts of those still enshrouded in the shadows of the mystery. And as we perceive the real truth about God and how He feels about His created beings, we also begin to see the wisdom that we have been lacking in our blindness of rebellion against Him.

As the wisdom of God becomes more evident to our hearts, the resulting amazement, gratitude and expressions of life and joy all add to the great concert of honor and praise from the rest of the universe which brings glory to the reputation of God. What I see here in this last verse of Romans is Paul's invitation for each one of us to join in this great, stirring, life-changing symphony of praise and worship that will prepare our hearts more deeply to glorify God throughout all of eternity.

To the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen.

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Conclusion - 4 The Mystery

... according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested.... (Romans 16:25-26)

Part of the ways listed here by which God is going to settle me into the truth about Him is by the revelation of the mystery. To talk about the mystery is almost problematic to start with, for to explain a mystery is to assume that one already understands the mystery themselves. That is a very tricky proposition in my opinion.

On the other hand, Paul in various places makes it quite clear that he believed he understood what this mystery was as had devoted his life to sharing it with anyone who would listen. He said that this mystery had been personally revealed to him by God and therefore by implication he was capable of unveiling it for others.

I do not doubt that Paul had a good grasp of what was contained in the mystery that he refers to in a number of his letters. He talks the most about it in the letter to the Ephesians and also some in Colossians. I have spent some time studying Ephesians with other people at times that were very intense and tremendously enlightening. And what I learned in those times of revelation and amazement was that the mystery is far deeper and bigger than anyone usually ever imagines. As a result I have great suspicion about those who flippantly attempt to toss out simplistic ideas as to what this mystery is that Paul refers to in this passage.

But I believe that one reason this good news is such a mystery to us is not because God is trying to hide it from us but because of the preconditions in our own thinking that preclude us from believing many of the things necessary to comprehend this mystery. This verse says that this mystery has been kept secret for long ages past. But it does not say that God hid it through long ages past. I don't believe that God deliberately hides truth from people who are willing to be open to receiving it. Jesus stated that He Himself was the truth and He spent His whole life trying to get people to know Him and by extension to really know the Father.

The truth about the mystery of God is revealed more and more as we come to accept the real truth as it is revealed in the attitudes and actions of Jesus who came to reveal how God really feels about us. The greatest obstacle to absorbing the content of this mystery is not its unavailability but is a spirit of unbelief. I have observed this more and more over the past few years, both in others and in my own heart. I am becoming more aware and convicted that it is my resistance to believing what God reveals to me about Himself that is the greatest hindrance preventing me from entering into the mystery and experiencing the awe and joy of that mystery. This resistance is what the Bible calls unbelief. I see it in myself and I see it displayed in the attitudes of most people around me.

Paul here declares that though this mystery has indeed been kept secret for long ages past for whatever reasons, it is now manifested. So there is no excuse not to find out for ourselves what this mystery is if we truly desire to know it. But it will take far more than just an intellectual curiosity to be able to know what this mystery contains. I am convinced that until the heart is warmed by the Spirit of God and the soul becomes intensely hungry to know the real truth about God, the mind will be incapable of coming up with a valid explanation of what constitutes the real essence of this mystery.

As I keep looking at this passage to see clues as to how to know more about this mystery, I notice that the mystery is manifested partly through the other elements listed in this text.

• The mystery will be perceived by listening to the gospel as Paul understood it.
• The mystery will be heard in authentic preaching of Jesus Christ.
• The mystery will be found in an honest search of the Scriptures and by paying attention to the prophets. And I believe that this is not necessarily restricted to prophets published only in the Old Testament.
• And finally in this list, the mystery is manifested because the eternal God has commanded it to be manifested so that it will be made known to all the nations on earth.

The purpose for the revelation of this mystery is made clear at the end of verse 26. It says here that the result of the manifestation of this mystery leads to obedience of faith. That implies that there might be some other kind of obedience that is not of faith. Of course that is something of an oxymoron, for the Bible declares that whatever is not of faith is sin. But there is a pseudo-obedience that many people believe is real obedience that is not of faith but from self-effort. And it is likely the prevalence of this confusion about obedience based on false assumptions that has kept the truth in this mystery veiled for so many long ages.

So, just what is this mystery that Paul declares here has been manifested?

I am not going to attempt a detailed explanation of what is in this mystery, for to do so would be to assume that I understand it well which I am not ready to claim. But I do believe that God has been in the process of slowly revealing it more and more to me over the past few years as my heart has been more open to receive from Him. And all of these elements listed in this passage have had a part in revealing to my heart and mind the true nature of what is likely contained in this mystery.

• My increasing awareness of the truly positive nature of what is called the good news, the gospel.
• The reception of occasional but refreshing authentic presentations by others of the real truths about Jesus Christ.
• A more intense and deliberate and careful personal examination of the Bible which contains far more than I ever dreamed possible most of my life.
• And most importantly, personal revelations by the Spirit to my heart and mind as I allow all of these influences to affect and transform my perceptions about God. Through the will of God – His commandment – the revelation of this mystery is slowly becoming a reality in my own life as I let go of more and more of my resistance and unbelief.

As I did a search on this word mystery with my Bible software, I found it interesting that the only reference to the word mystery in the Old Testament is in the book of Daniel. But then I also noticed that the first reference to this word in the New Testament is the words of Jesus to His disciples telling them that He was revealing this mystery to them because they were His followers. (Mark 4:11)

From the texts that I observed in this short research, the most clear and concise explanations as to the content of this mystery are two places found in Colossians. The first one comes from a passage that very closely parallels this one in Romans. But I will only quote the final punch line, so to speak.

...God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27)

The second text reinforces the truth found in this first one.

...that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery, that is, Christ Himself. (Colossians 2:2)

Father, fill my mind and heart with a fresh infusion of the reality of Your mystery. Encourage my heart, knit my heart together with Yours and with the hearts of Your children in love. Cause me to attain to and make use of all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding so that I may experience the result of knowing Your mystery – Christ Himself. Thank-you for knowing my heart, for accepting my prayers and for revealing more about Your mystery to me this morning.

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Conclusion - 3 Preaching

Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, (Romans 16:25)

Yesterday I started to unpack this verse but actually overlooked the first word. From the context it appears that Paul is signaling that he is beginning the conclusion of his letter, which is indeed what this is. In fact, it appears to me that this is the sum of everything that he has written condensed into one long sentence. That this is his concluding statement is signaled in this word now.

The object of this long sentence interestingly appears both at the beginning and at the end of it. This sentence goes from here all the way through verse 27. Here at the beginning the object of the sentence, which is later identified as God the Father, is presented as the one who is able. The word in Greek is very compelling much more than in English. It is very similar to the word from which we get our word dynamite. It denotes power as well as possibility. Following is the reason or target for this potential power which is identified as being us and our settling into a saving relationship with Him. This is contained in the root word for establish.

Everything after this until verse 27 are descriptors of how God goes about doing this in our lives. So everything we look at in the next couple verses reveals how God intends to settle us into the truth about Him and about reality. And the very first thing listed is that God intends to settle us into the truth according to the gospel as Paul viewed it.

For me this is very significant maybe more than for others. For I grew up with very confusing ideas about what the gospel was and I still struggle to unwrap just what it really refers to, though I have drastically updated much of what I used to assume. I can remember many times when a teacher would say that the word gospel meant “good news”, and in my mind I would wonder what was so good about anything I was hearing about God.

But in the past few years I have been led by the Spirit of God to challenge much of what I was taught growing up and to let go of many of the false assumptions about God I collected along the way. This was done by allowing myself to take a fresh look at the Word of God for myself using new “glasses” so to speak. Over and over God impressed me with new insights of what He was really like and how He felt about me. As my conceptions begin to align more closely with what I was being taught directly by the Spirit of God, the more alive and congruent and attractive the messages and instructions from inspired sources became for me.

What I see Paul saying here is that as I learn the real truth about God which is contained in the real gospel, I will experience the power of God drawing me deeper into that truth about Himself. And this leads me to the next point that he makes which is the preaching of Jesus Christ. For it is the revelation of God through the life and death of Jesus that reveals much more plainly how the Father feels about me than anything else. And it is through the sharing of the story of Jesus that humans become attracted to God in a way that nothing else can accomplish.

This is where I need to face yet another trigger word in my own experience. This word preaching for me has far too much unwanted baggage from a lifetime of dry, Christless sermons and hours of just filling up time to fulfill the demands of tradition in formal religious services. Most religions have long histories of assumed traditions of how to do worship and unfortunately, when the truth is finally exposed, it has to be admitted that we have actually come to value and even worship our routines more than we value God Himself. Of course we cannot admit such a thing openly as that would sound blasphemous; but the same problem existed in Jesus' day and indeed has been a problem all down through much of the history of the world.

Thus it is that preaching itself has taken on a mantle of “holiness” in the sense of the common assumptions of what that word means. Most churches today would be horrified and scandalized at the thought of not having a formal sermon each week. They would think that we had abandoned our devotion to God and there would be an outcry to restore the old traditions and re-institute the traditions of our fathers by placing the sermon at the center of our church service. Just think about this realistically for a little while yourself and ponder if what I am saying is true or not.

What has come to exist is that our routine, and particularly the exercise of preaching a sermon, has almost become the most important and hallowed exercise in all of Christianity. And yet if one carefully examines the record of the New Testament it is not preaching that is at the center of the gospel message. There is almost no record at all of Jesus preaching, especially in the sense that we think of it today. And even the sermons of Paul were quite likely not delivered in the way that preaching has become for most of us today. In fact, Paul himself referred to preaching as something he called foolishness. Does that not give us reason to pause and rethink our fierce defensive attitudes about how we conduct our own worship services?

And yet God continues to work with us where we are in the midst of our prejudices and traditions. But that does not mean that He endorses them or desires us to remain stuck in habits that lend themselves to keeping us at a distance from Him. Please don't misunderstand me here. I am not claiming that we should eliminate preaching altogether or ban it from our churches. But what I am saying is that we are so reluctant to expose this practice to the true light of the gospel, the real truth about God, that we tend to often enshrine preaching itself in place of cherishing God in our religious performances.

Having said all that, I will note here that Paul states in this verse that part of the way God settles us into the truth is through the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery.... Far from being something to be sidelined, the activity of preaching needs to be reinvented and reinvigorated by infusing it with the passion of God Himself. Preaching should be a means of unveiling the mystery about God that it too often obscures instead. Too much of our preaching leaves the listeners wondering just what it was that they learned that day or maybe leaves them feeling good about themselves with wonderful new suggestions as to how to get along with others. But how much preaching centers around the revelation of God by explaining how Jesus reveals the mystery about Him that has keep Him hidden from our hearts for so many years?

I am hungry for preaching, teaching and any other activities that will focus on uncovering the light of God's glory to believers and unbelievers alike.

I am starved for preaching that challenges my heart while at the same time fills me with hope and faith and love.

I crave to hear preaching that will fan the fire in my bones with the passion of Christ and to unmask the dark lies about God by revealing the real truths about His beauty, compassion and perfect love for all of us.

I want to experience preaching that actually follows the formula laid out by Paul in these verses so that anyone listening can never be the same again once they have been confronted by the real gospel.

I want to see our preaching center every presentation around the truth as it is revealed in Jesus.

God, send us bold and passionate people to preach the truth about You as revealed in the life of Jesus. Expose our silly exercises of filling up time to satisfy our mindless demands for routine and formalism. Heal us of our fear of breaking with traditions and cause us to see the living power of the gospel that You are waiting to share with us when we let go of our devotion to tradition. Send us real preachers of the gospel who are not afraid of us because they are so focused on You and Your glory. Lord, send us preachers of the real gospel.

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Conclusion - 2 Repentance

Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen. (Romans 16:25-27)

In my last post I arranged this text in an outline form to present one option of how it might fit together. I feel that there are possibly many ways that the various pieces may compliment and enforce each other and I would like to possibly look at several. At the same time I also want to start unpacking what some of the words and phrases mean as well as how the context influences that.

Now to Him is an interesting phrase that confused me somewhat when I looked it up in the Greek. I could not find any reference to the to Him part of this phrase. But when I contacted a theology professor who taught Greek he assured me that it was inherent in the language nuances of the original Greek words. I have to take his word for this since I have no training in Greek myself.

What does seem more evident to me is that Paul begins to apply a long list of qualifiers to this first subject and does not return to “finishing the sentence” until the very end of the last verse where he then identifies who the him is. Paul is known for some of his rather lengthy and sometimes convoluted language structures which at times evidently even caused some of the other apostles to scratch their heads trying to figure out just what he was trying to get across. (see 2 Peter 3:15, 16)

But in the end, the him referred to is interestingly God the Father. I find this very helpful and informative given that very often Christians tend to put so much focus on Jesus that they create a rift in the minds of many between Jesus and the Father and cause many to think that Jesus and God are somehow different in their attitudes and feelings towards us. But in this passage Paul makes it very clear that everything we learn about God is expressed from the Father through Jesus. But now I am referring to the end of this text instead of starting at the beginning as I intended.

What does become more clear at the beginning of this passage is that it is the Father God who is the one causing us to be established using all the following ways listed of accomplishing this goal. I find this very compelling and even comforting. For too many years I, like many others, lived in secret fear of God the Father while Jesus seemed much more likable and approachable. I was taught externally that Jesus and God were supposed to be the same, but the implications of much of the religious teachings that I absorbed growing up often implied something quite different than this. So I lived with the assumption that Jesus was somehow sent to this earth to run interference between me and God and to satisfy His hunger for vengeance, to exhaust His wrath against me and to protect me from the fierce punishments that the Father seemed eager to dish out on anyone not thus shielded.

I am very glad to be in the process of coming free of these terrible lies about the Father. It still makes me very upset when I hear people teaching and promoting such concepts, but I have to remember to be patient with them as well, just as God has been patient with me for so many years while I changed my opinions about Him. Now I am coming to realize the glorious truth that God the Father Himself is just as eager and willing to draw me into His grace and peace and love as anything I have ever learned about Jesus. This verse tells me that it is the Father who is the one who is able to establish me through the various ways that are spelled out in these two verses.

I looked up the Greek word for this establish and found it helpful in enhancing my understanding of what God wants to do for me. Here is the explanation of what this word means from Strong's definition.

to set fast, i.e. (literally) to turn resolutely in a certain direction, or (figuratively) to confirm:--fix, (e-)stablish, steadfastly set, strengthen.

One thing that I really like to remind myself of when thinking about this definition is that it is God, yes even God the Father, who is the one who causes me to turn resolutely in a certain direction, which is toward knowing Him and drawing close to Him. This reminds me of the text that reveals one of the real truths about repentance which is what this seems to be likely referring to.

The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross. He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. (Acts 5:30-31)

Repentance is a gift that must be received from God before anyone can use it or implement it in their salvation. Too often we think that we can just repent any time we feel like it and turn our life around when we get around to it. But this is not the truth as taught in the Word of God. Repentance is a change of mind and direction inwardly that can only happen in us when we choose to accept this work in our hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit sent to us by Jesus. The changing of direction in our hearts is only accomplished through the power of God, not by our own willpower. The part we have in this is to accept the spirit of repentance when it is offered to us, take possession of it by choosing to own it and then exercise it immediately in obedience to the promptings of the Spirit, which then gives the Spirit permission to implement it effectively into our experience.

As I accept this gift of repentance and experience the transformative changes that it brings into my life, I will also become established, steadfastly set, settled and strengthened in the truth, the truth about reality and my relationship with God and how He thinks about me. And the really good news (which is what the gospel is all about) is that it is God the Father along with His Son and His Spirit that are all eager and ready to do this in my life personally. They want me to be set in my ways and unmovable as I settle into the real truth about God and come to know and love Him more and more.

I choose to accept this invitation by the Father to have Him grant me repentance and settle me into the truth about Him. I accept the truth in this verse that He is able to do this in my life and I ask Him to do it right now.

Next time I want to explore more of just how this is to take place – through the gospel, the preaching of Jesus Christ, through the unveiling of the great mystery that is waiting to glow with transforming light deep within my soul.

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