1 Timothy 3:16:  “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”
When he says: ‘without controversy,’ he means that there ought to be no controversy about these facts, though controversies have arisen concerning them, and always will, since the most self-evident truth will always find self-evident fools to contradict it. Observe that the comprehensive summary of the gospel given here is contained in six little sentences, which run with regularity in the original Greek, so that some have supposed them to be an ancient hymn; and it’s possible that they were in the early church. God was manifested in the flesh: This is the essence of the incarnation; that God the Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, added to His deity humanity & was manifested in the flesh.  Justified in the Spirit: We can say that Jesus was justified by the Spirit not in the sense that He was once sinful but made righteous, but in the sense that He was declared to be, by the Holy Spirit, what He always was: completely justified before the Father. This declaration was made at His baptism (Matthew 3:16), and at His resurrection (1Peter 3:18; Acts 2:32-33). Seen by angels: The ministry of Jesus, both on earth and through the Church, is of great interest to angelic beings. There were many instances when Jesus was seen by angels (Mark 1:13; Luke 22:41-43), and especially at the resurrection (Matthew 28:2-7). Paul mentions this to show the greatness of our belief, since the noblest intellects are interested in it. Did you ever hear of angels hovering around the assemblies of philosophers? The Godhead was seen in Christ by angels, as they had never seen it before. They had beheld the attribute of justice, they had seen the attribute of power, they had marked the attribute of wisdom and seen the Prerogative of sovereignty; but never had angels seen love, and condescension, and tenderness, and pity, in God as they saw these things resplendent in the person and the life of Christ. Preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world: Paul himself did his best to fulfill these statements. He was busy preaching Jesus among the Gentiles and bringing the world to belief. God’s way of creating faith in men’s hearts is not by pictures, music, or symbols, but by the hearing of the word of God. This may seem a strange thing, and strange let it be, because it’s a mystery, a great mystery, but a fact beyond all controversy; forever let the church maintain that Christ is to be preached unto the Gentiles. Received up in glory: This reminds us of Jesus’ ascension (Luke 24:51), His finished work on our behalf (Hebrews 1:3), and His present intercession for us (1 John 2:1).  He was so received because His work is finished. He would never have gone into His glory if He hadn’t finished all his toil. He would have accepted no reward had he not fully earned it. Received up in glory: Jesus ascended into heaven in a resurrection body; yet it was a body that still retained the scars of His great work of love for us. It still had the nail prints in His hands and feet, the wound in his side, all marks of His suffering on our behalf (John 20:24-29).  Paul’s description of Jesus after the passage speaking of Christian character reminds us of the key to our own character transformation – beholding Jesus.  It’s just as Paul wrote in 2Corinthians 3:18: “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” Jesus is the perfect fulfillment of these descriptions of Christian character. We trust that Jesus will transform our life according to the same character, as we put our focus on Him. Sometimes we want belief to build this character in us; but truly, relationship with Jesus is what really does it.