May 22, 2024
By Pastor Richard Jordan
From Grace School of the Bible
In recent years, I have come to understand the distinctive ministry of the Apostle Paul. He is extremely important due to the fact that it is Paul who wrote one half of the New Testament, and three-fourths of the epistles. To ignore or diminish his epistles is to be disobedient to the Heavenly Ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ in both doctrine and practice.
For the next several articles, I am reposting Richard Jordan’s booklet WHY PAUL?
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There is a haunting question the church of Jesus Christ never seems to address-one that provides the antidote for the religious confusion all about us. It is really a very simple question: Why Paul? Exactly why did the Lord reach down from heaven’s glory and save His chief opponent, Saul of Tarsus, and make him Paul the Apostle?
The Scriptural answer to this question is not hard to find. One simple verse will suffice:
“For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office” (Romans 11:13).
Notice carefully that Paul says, “I magnify mine office.” Clearly Paul was not exalting himself. Rather he magnified His God-given office as “the apostle of the Gentiles.” Thus, far from magnifying Paul, to speak about and magnify the fact that he is God’s chosen apostle for today is to make much of that which God Himself magnifies: the office that Jesus Christ gave to Paul-and the ministry and message He gave to us through him.
Think for a moment: the Scriptures repeatedly refer to “the law of Moses” – but who would question that it is in reality “the law of God”? Moses was simply the one through whom the law was given to Israel. Thus Moses boldly declared, “Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you…”
“Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you” (Deuteronomy 4:1, 2).
Was this self-important self-exaltation on Moses’ part? Would Israel be “following man rather than God” when they “obeyed Moses”? Could it be that our Lord was exalting Moses above Himself when He commanded the leper to offer “those things which Moses commanded” (Mark 1:44 )? Of course not!
None of this is exalting the man Moses; rather it is a recognition of his God-given office as the Law-giver to Israel, the instrument through whom the Lord revealed His law to them. In like manner, Paul is the one through whom the Lord Jesus has made known the truth of “the mystery.” For us to recognize his special office no more exalts Paul over Christ than Israel ‘s honoring of Moses’ position exalted Moses over Jehovah.
Paul’s epistles clearly set forth his position as the “Grace-giver” for the present dispensation. For example, “For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: How that BY REVELATION HE MADE KNOWN UNTO ME THE MYSTERY… (Ephesians 3:1-3).
It was by direct, personal revelation from Christ Himself that Paul was given a new revelation about God’s secret purpose in the dispensation of grace. Thus he writes about “the grace that is given to me of God, that I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles” (Romans 15:15, 16).
To recognize the special place committed to the Apostle Paul in the program of God is not to exalt the man Paul. It is simply to honor his God-given position as “our apostle.” We continue in our next article…