When the disciples come to understand Jesus’s words and actions after his resurrection, it is because they understand that Scripture prophesied Jesus’s death and resurrection as the climax of redemptive history. John expressly tells us this: “When, therefore, he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken” (John 2:22). His point is that this retrospective illumination comes through the Spirit, whom the Father sends to instruct and remind them concerning all Jesus’s deeds and words (John 14:26).[8]

Scripture as Mystery
We all enjoy well-written novels entailing a mystery.[1] Novelists imitate their Creator, who permeates his created order with mystery: “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out” (Prov. 25:2). Likewise, mystery saturates the biblical storyline. With the resurrection of Jesus Christ, this reality dawned upon individuals he called as his witnesses. Hence, the word “mystery” frequently occurs in the New Testament, mainly in Paul’s letters, and once in each of the Synoptic Gospels. Though the word is never used in John’s Gospel, the concept is present, as is often the case. But before we turn there, how exactly is the word “mystery” used in the Bible?
The closing of Paul’s Letter to the Romans captures the essential meaning: in times past, the gospel of Christ Jesus was simultaneously hidden and disclosed through the Law and the Prophets; now that Christ Jesus has come, by God’s command, the gospel has been made known to people everywhere through those same concealing-revealing prophetic Scriptures (Rom. 16:25–27).
The Bible’s storyline is a mystery; it’s the true story of the whole world, from creation to restoration.[2] This story’s unfolding and transcription within history establishes the paradigm that every human story resembles, with renowned authors testifying to and replicating the Bible’s story in their masterpieces.[3] Their human stories underscore the reality that the Creator situated every one of us within the biblical storyline. Scripture’s storyline is fully written, so we read how the story’s climax in the advent of the Lord Christ already anticipates the not-yet final resolution. Consequently, we who enter as participants in the biblical storyline in the Last Days await the story’s prophesied consummation.

The concept of mystery aptly describes how the Old Testament prophetically presages the One who is to come and how Jesus reveals he is the Coming One, fulfilling Scripture’s prophecies concerning Israel’s Messiah. In the Four Gospels, we see Jesus revealing his identity through deeds and words that reenact events and reiterate prophecies from the Old Testament. Indeed, this is how the mystery is revealed.

Decades after the events took place, the four Evangelists masterfully replicate in literary form the unfolding drama of Jesus’s self-disclosure. He incrementally reveals himself before the eyes of the Twelve and other first witnesses whose sin-induced impaired vision and hearing encountered Jesus’s revelatory concealments with misunderstanding.[4] With awakened senses, they patiently retrace the unfolding mystery of Jesus’s veiled identity by recounting episodes selected from thousands of experiences (cf. John 21:25; 20:30–31). By judiciously refusing to superimpose their mature, post-resurrection faith and understanding onto their narratives, they achieve historically realistic and climactic developing self-disclosure concerning how Jesus fulfills the Old Testament prophecies of the promised Messiah.
For our consideration, John faithfully reproduces in a literary form a sequence of Jesus’s signs, teachings, and prophetic actions, all designed to prompt belief that the Christ, the Son of God, is Jesus of Nazareth (John 20:30–31).[5] Jesus’s acts and words foreshadow his sacrificial death and bodily resurrection. This article focuses on Jesus’s first sign as instructive for how we must read all of Jesus’s signs and discourse throughout John’s gospel.[6]

John’s Gospel as Mystery as Seen in Jesus’s First Sign

“On the third day,” Jesus performs his first sign at a wedding in Cana (John 2:1–11) at the end of his first week of ministry (see the day markers in John 1:19, 29, 35, 40, 43; 2:1). A brief conversation with seeming cross-purposes unfolds between Jesus and his mother, who at this point in John’s gospel is unnamed. She tells him, “They do not have wine.” He responds, “What does this have to do with you and me, woman? My hour has not yet come.” Undaunted, his mother gives an expectant directive to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:3–5).
Jesus directs the servants to fill with water six large stone jars, which were now empty after having cleansed guests’ hands and serving utensils in keeping with the Mosaic Law. The servants fill each jar with water “to the brim,” a significant detail John reports to eliminate any notion of sleight-of-hand trickery. “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast” (John 2:8), Jesus instructs the servants. The master of the feast tastes what is in his cup, and only by his astonished reaction do we learn that the six jars are full not of water but of wine—the best wine: “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now” (John 2:10). He confirms the miracle, though he has no knowledge of what took place. He speaks better than he understands. His praise for the speechless bridegroom unwittingly credits Jesus, who unobtrusively fulfills the role at which the silent bridegroom fails.
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The more we recognize Christ and His work as sufficient, the less we need man’s endless legislation of rituals and observances to feel spiritually complete. However, the less we see Christ as sufficient the more vulnerable we will be to all sorts of clever ways to either add to the gospel’s sufficiency and/or efficiency. 

It seems that in the recent years Lent has been trending in Evangelical churches where it was not a part of their practice.  In a period where things like woke religion, an inflated and ever-increasing civil government, and the general world of Pandemic are excessively binding the conscience and endlessly legislating all spheres of life, it seems timely to address the legalistic nature of Lent.  Below are thirteen reasons why Evangelicals in general, and the Reformed churches in particular, should leave Lent behind.

God never commands the church to observe annual fasts to remember the cross. God has always been specific about special days and certain rituals that the church is to observe; where God has not been specific on such things there is no need to fill in the blanks.
We have been given two sacraments in the New Testament church, baptism and the Lord’s Supper. So there is no need to add anymore sacraments and/or sacramental like signs. The sign that God gave us to regularly focus on Christ is the Table with faith and repentance, not an ashy cross on one’s forehead 40 days of avoiding burgers, social media or the like.
Jesus fasted in the wilderness before He went to the cross and that fast is sufficient. There is no need for us to deprive ourselves to come to the cross of Christ as Jesus sufficiently did that for us.
Lent began in a superstitious way where it was believed that there was something extra spiritual and special about avoiding certain foods. 1 Timothy 4:3 says that those who claim to be spiritual due to avoiding certain foods are being demonically deceived. There is nothing spiritual about avoiding French toast, there is nothing sinful about having bacon; spiritual is eating or drinking through faith in Christ in thanksgiving for His grace.
Christ commands us to fast in secret with no need to broadcast it to the world (Matthew 6:16-18). He tells us to go out of our way to not be obviously seen as fasting. Lent is an annual virtue signal fast that runs contrary to the way God calls us to fast when and if we believe the need to.
Colossians 2:20-23 says that merely abstaining from things has no value in making us godly or curbing our fleshly desires. Lent and the pseudo spirituality of asceticism are closely related. Finding our joy and satisfaction in Christ is that which makes us holy, not creating an annual rule of deprivation and abstinence of some particular thing.
We are called to repent of idols and receive Christ as a regular part of our walk with him, not a set month on a scheduled calendar (Colossians 3:1-8). We do not schedule repentance, rather we walk in repentance as a lifestyle.
Lent comes historically from Roman Catholicism which has an elaborate system of works and penance to add to the gospel. I personally am not interested in redeeming that system of works and penance at all.
Lent is part of enforcing a liturgical calendar throughout the whole year where the church mandates endless observances rather than simply acknowledging the one observance Christ has prescribed which is the one day in seven Lord’s Day.
The Reformation and what it stood for was sparked by Zwingli eating sausage during the season of Lent. He protested the extra-biblical binding of the conscience and the superficial view of sanctification taught by the Roman Catholic Church overall and in the practice of Lent in particular. The Reformed tradition is to protest the endless traditions of men that add to the commands of God, and not to observe them.
Lent (though people now define and practice Lent however they want) goes against the nature of the New Covenant where God has declared all foods to be clean (Mark 7:20-23; Acts 10:9-16); Lent takes the church back to the Mosaic era of types and shadows.
We are commanded to focus on the cross not by images of the cross but by the word of the cross (Colossians 3:16).
Contra the reasons for Lent, Jesus’ fast in the wilderness was not for exemplary purposes but objective, redemptive ones. His fast wasn’t a model but a unique and finished work for us to believe. It is inappropriate to see Jesus’ ministry as nothing more than moralistic acts of “go and do likewise,” rather than the unique and finished work to believe and apply.

The more we recognize Christ and His work as sufficient, the less we need man’s endless legislation of rituals and observances to feel spiritually complete. However, the less we see Christ as sufficient the more vulnerable we will be to all sorts of clever ways to either add to the gospel’s sufficiency and/or efficiency.  It is Jesus, fasting for 40 days to obey and fulfill where Adam and Israel failed, emptying, humbling, and sacrificing himself that makes us spiritually whole (Philippians 2:5-8).  And it is by God’s ordained and prescribed means of Word, sacrament, prayer, and weekly Sabbath worship, empowered by the Holy Spirit, that are the simple and sufficient means by which we are connected to Christ’s finished work.
Aldo Leon is a Minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and is Pastor of Pinelands PCA in Miami, Fla.

Instead of forgiving oneself, it is necessary to accept the forgiveness granted by God and/or others, and, live in light of that forgiveness. As forgiven, loved, and set free from God, our shame diminishes in light of God’s incredible grace. We humbly respond as a passionate follower of Jesus Christ.

Seeking as Answer
Not infrequently a counselee or a student will inquire about what to do when I cannot forgive myself. Here is my summary answer to the question.
Survey the Old Testament
If you have read the Old Testament through at some point, you have indeed observed that Israel, at one time or another, committed every sin known to man. Nowhere do you ever read that they were instructed to forgive themselves. Here is what we do know they were asked to do.
1) Remember that God chose you—Abraham is so important to the Jewish nation throughout the Bible. Remember the Pharisees’ claim, “We are of our father, Abraham”. God chose Israel in the calling of Abraham. They became his covenant people.
2) Remember that God loves you is a consistent message of the Old Testament from the choosing of Abraham (demonstrated love) through Malachi: Deuteronomy 7:7, 4:37, 10:5, 33:3, 12; II Sam 12:25; I Kings 19:9; Hosea 11:1 Mal 1:2-3.
3) Remember to repent—is the consistent instruction. Turn from your sin and turn in obedience to God. They are called to corporate worship as God prescribed for Israel and family/personal worship (too many passages to cite here).
4) Remember that God’s response to their repentance is forgiveness. Here are three references to illustrate this from Isaiah1:18-20, 43:25, and 44:21-22. These give us beautiful pictures to depict His forgiveness.

Comment 1: Yes, God is omniscient (knows everything), but He covers our sin (including Israel’s) with his blood, and He chooses NOT to remember it any longer. There are times when there are consequences with which we must live. A contemporary example is a person who contracts AIDS from illicit sex. God will forgive, but he/she will live with AIDS. That is the consequence, not God remembering or punishing their sin.
Comment 2: We learn from Hebrews 12:4-12 that God is our loving Father who disciplines us for our good and His glory. Discipline is not punishment. Discipline is a “spanking” to get our attention with the intent that we will choose to repent and become obedient.

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