Interpreting Paul
Bible Study Time 6-3-07
Bible Study Time 6-3-07
We have been talking for the past few weeks about the importance of accurate Bible interpretation. In Acts, Chapter 6, when the apostles were confronted with problems regarding the distribution of food to the assembly of believers, they said that other men should be appointed to serve the tables because they, as the leaders of the assembly, needed to devote themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.
After the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, the proper interpretation of the Old Testament scriptures became the focal point of the ministry of the apostles. They would turn to one passage after another in the Old Testament to show that Jesus had fulfilled every prophesy in regard to the birth, ministry, death and resurrection of the Messiah. The preaching of the word along with the performing of miracles shaped the ministry of the apostles.
When the Apostle Paul came along, he too turned to the Old Testament scriptures to confirm that Jesus was Israel’s promised Messiah. Then, when God called him to preach to the Gentiles, he turned to the Old Testament once again to justify his ministry. In Romans, Chapter 10, he said:
Romans 10:8-12, 16-21 (NKJ)
8 . . . "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we preach):
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
11 For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame."
12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our report?"
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
18 But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed: "Their sound has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world."
19 But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says: "I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation, I will move you to anger by a foolish nation."
20 But Isaiah is very bold and says: "I was found by those who did not seek Me; I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me."
21 But to Israel he says: "All day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and contrary people."
So Paul’s ministry among the Gentiles was strictly in accordance with the prophesies of the Old Testament. The salvation of the Gentiles had always been predicted as a part of the New Covenant.
The New Covenant gave the promise of an earthly kingdom in which Israel would rule the world under the authority of the Messiah. It predicted the salvation of the Gentiles. And then, it gave the hope of the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, which was to be the spiritual power behind the kingdom and the salvation of the Gentiles.
Well, all of these things regarding the New Covenant were in the back of Paul’s mind as he went out preaching to the Gentiles during the Acts period. In Romans, Chapter 9, he said:
Romans 9:3-5 (NKJ)
3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh,
4 who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises;
5 of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.
In Romans, Chapter 11, Paul said:
Romans 11:26-27 (NKJ)
26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
27 For this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins."
During this period of time, Paul was certainly an able minister of the New Covenant. However, when Paul came to the end of his third missionary journey, he was arrested in Jerusalem and sent to Rome to stand trial. When he got to Rome, he called for the Jewish leaders of that city, and when they refused to believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah, he said:
Acts 28:28 (NKJ)
28 "Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!"
Shortly after that Paul wrote his letters to the Ephesians, the Philippians and the Colossians. In these letters, Paul went in a new direction. He no longer spoke about the Messianic prophesies of the Old Testament. He no longer spoke of Israel’s New Covenant. He never once mentioned Abraham’s name.
In these letters to the Ephesians, the Philippians and the Colossians, Paul plainly declared that he was revealing something that had never been revealed to or through any of the Old Testament prophets. In Colossians, he said:
Colossians 1:24-26 (NKJ)
24 I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church,
25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God,
26 the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.
Here, Paul reveals the mystery concerning the Church which is the Body of Christ, and in Ephesians, he said:
Ephesians 3:8-9 (NKJ)
8 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
9 and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ;
This mystery concerning the Church was hidden in God from the beginning of the ages, while the mystery of the Acts period concerning salvation by grace through faith was hidden in the prophetic scriptures according to Romans, Chapter 16.
Today, we study Paul in much the same way that the apostles studied the Old Testament scriptures. For them, the key to understanding what God was doing in and through them was to be found in the Old Testament scriptures. Likewise, if we are to understand what God wants to do in and through us, we must understand what Paul wrote to and about the Church which is the Body of Christ.
This does not mean that all we need to study are those books of the Bible which were written directly to us. Certainly not. All scripture is profitable for us. The apostles were primarily interested in the passages of the Old Testament which related to the Messiah, but they also needed to know all that was in the Old Testament.
They needed to know about the creation. They needed to know about Cain and Abel, Noah and the flood, and the complete history of the nation of Israel. Peter wrote about the apostasy of Noah’s day, and he told how Jesus went to preach to the imprisoned spirits who were disobedient during the days of Noah. He told how eight souls were lifted up above the judgment waters even as we are lifted up by the resurrection of Christ.
In order to truly understand the message concerning the Messiah, the apostles needed to understand all of the scriptures. Some people today question the value of studying the Bible. They say that all we really need to know is that Jesus died for ours sins and that God has given us eternal life.
Well, of course, that’s the most important thing for us to know and believe, but God wants us to know all of the great truths of the Bible. If the gospel was all we needed to know, God could have just given mankind a tract explaining the fact that Christ died for our sins.
But God wants us to grow in grace in our knowledge of Jesus Christ. He wants the eyes of our understanding to be enlightened so that we might know the hope of our calling and the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. He wants us to know the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places. (Ephesians, Chapter 1)
God has given us the whole Bible because He has so much that He wants to tell us. But when it comes to studying the Bible, many people get frustrated because they see what they think are contradictions. Then they see the many different ways that different groups try to reconcile these apparent contradictions with their established doctrines.
But if we simply let the Bible speak for itself, we will find that there is no reason for all of the confusion. The Bible is such a great source of joy and enjoyment when we simply rightly divide the word of truth.
Most of the confusion clears up when we recognize that most of the Bible was written to and about the nation of Israel, while the prison epistles of Paul were written specifically to us as members of the Church which is the Body of Christ.
All of the things that Paul wrote during the Acts period regarding the gospel of grace and the righteousness that flows from the Holy Spirit into the heart of every believer is something that we have all experienced as believers from the time that the Holy Spirit was given in Acts, Chapter 2. Kingdom saints and members of Church have all enjoyed these marvelous spiritual blessings. That’s why Paul’s Acts-period epistles are so precious to us today.
But today, there are no believers who have the hope of the New Covenant Kingdom as many of the believers did during the Acts period. All believers today are waiting to be caught up into heaven with a new, glorious, immortal body. Those who are waiting for or trying to establish the kingdom of God on this earth are trying to force what was intended for Israel into God’s program for us today.
The Lord Jesus made it clear when He was on the earth that what was intended for Israel was not to be given to the Gentiles. When Jesus went into the region of Tyre and Sidon:
Matthew 15:22-28 (KJV)
22 . . . a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
23 But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.
24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
25 Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.
26 But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.
27 And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.
28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.
Here we see a Gentile woman seeking the blessings of the kingdom. She called Jesus the Son of David, which is the title by which Jesus will sit upon the throne of David and rule the earth during the kingdom. In response to her plea for help, Jesus said, “No. The blessings of the kingdom belong to the nation of Israel, not to the Gentiles.”
When this woman addressed Jesus as Lord, however, Jesus agreed to let her partake of the left over crumbs that fell from table that was being prepared for the Jews. Now this agrees with all of the prophets of the Old Testament that many Gentiles will be saved to enter into the New Covenant Kingdom under the rule of the nation of Israel.
Many Bible students see the church of today as a Gentile church, and they say that in this passage the Lord was giving the world a clue that the blessings which were promised to the Jews would ultimately be given to the Gentiles. Well, first of all, the Church of our present age is not a Gentile church. It is neither Jew nor Gentile. Paul said that in the Church which is the Body of Christ, Gentiles are fellow heirs and of the same body with the Jews.
Secondly, the kingdom program which anticipated the Son of David sitting upon the throne of David is no longer being offered to either Jews or Gentiles. If we try to read ourselves into this passage, it will result in real confusion. But if we distinguish what belongs to Israel from what belongs to us, the confusion disappears and the Bible becomes such a source of joy and encouragement.
As I’ve mentioned earlier, the prison epistles make no mention of Abraham or the New Covenant. They reveal that the Law of Moses was actually nailed to the cross when Christ was crucified so that the Law has no claim on us.
The prison epistles teach that believers are complete in Christ and that we truly can rest in the fact that we are saved by faith alone in Christ alone. We have no need of rituals or ceremonies to make us acceptable in the sight of God. We have been circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, and we are baptized by faith in the working of God who raised Christ from the dead.
It is in the prison epistles of the Apostle Paul that the world is first introduced to the idea that Jesus Christ was actually the creator of all things. Many years before John said that all things were made by Him and without Him nothing was made that was made, Paul said to the Colossians that:
Colossians 1:15-17 (NKJ)
15 (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
16 (and) by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
The prison epistles are filled with glorious, heavenly, spiritual truths, and what a special blessing they become to us when we learn to rightly divide the word of truth.
Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning. I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Church links:
After the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, the proper interpretation of the Old Testament scriptures became the focal point of the ministry of the apostles. They would turn to one passage after another in the Old Testament to show that Jesus had fulfilled every prophesy in regard to the birth, ministry, death and resurrection of the Messiah. The preaching of the word along with the performing of miracles shaped the ministry of the apostles.
When the Apostle Paul came along, he too turned to the Old Testament scriptures to confirm that Jesus was Israel’s promised Messiah. Then, when God called him to preach to the Gentiles, he turned to the Old Testament once again to justify his ministry. In Romans, Chapter 10, he said:
Romans 10:8-12, 16-21 (NKJ)
8 . . . "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we preach):
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
11 For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame."
12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our report?"
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
18 But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed: "Their sound has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world."
19 But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says: "I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation, I will move you to anger by a foolish nation."
20 But Isaiah is very bold and says: "I was found by those who did not seek Me; I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me."
21 But to Israel he says: "All day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and contrary people."
So Paul’s ministry among the Gentiles was strictly in accordance with the prophesies of the Old Testament. The salvation of the Gentiles had always been predicted as a part of the New Covenant.
The New Covenant gave the promise of an earthly kingdom in which Israel would rule the world under the authority of the Messiah. It predicted the salvation of the Gentiles. And then, it gave the hope of the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, which was to be the spiritual power behind the kingdom and the salvation of the Gentiles.
Well, all of these things regarding the New Covenant were in the back of Paul’s mind as he went out preaching to the Gentiles during the Acts period. In Romans, Chapter 9, he said:
Romans 9:3-5 (NKJ)
3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh,
4 who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises;
5 of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.
In Romans, Chapter 11, Paul said:
Romans 11:26-27 (NKJ)
26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
27 For this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins."
During this period of time, Paul was certainly an able minister of the New Covenant. However, when Paul came to the end of his third missionary journey, he was arrested in Jerusalem and sent to Rome to stand trial. When he got to Rome, he called for the Jewish leaders of that city, and when they refused to believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah, he said:
Acts 28:28 (NKJ)
28 "Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!"
Shortly after that Paul wrote his letters to the Ephesians, the Philippians and the Colossians. In these letters, Paul went in a new direction. He no longer spoke about the Messianic prophesies of the Old Testament. He no longer spoke of Israel’s New Covenant. He never once mentioned Abraham’s name.
In these letters to the Ephesians, the Philippians and the Colossians, Paul plainly declared that he was revealing something that had never been revealed to or through any of the Old Testament prophets. In Colossians, he said:
Colossians 1:24-26 (NKJ)
24 I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church,
25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God,
26 the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.
Here, Paul reveals the mystery concerning the Church which is the Body of Christ, and in Ephesians, he said:
Ephesians 3:8-9 (NKJ)
8 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
9 and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ;
This mystery concerning the Church was hidden in God from the beginning of the ages, while the mystery of the Acts period concerning salvation by grace through faith was hidden in the prophetic scriptures according to Romans, Chapter 16.
Today, we study Paul in much the same way that the apostles studied the Old Testament scriptures. For them, the key to understanding what God was doing in and through them was to be found in the Old Testament scriptures. Likewise, if we are to understand what God wants to do in and through us, we must understand what Paul wrote to and about the Church which is the Body of Christ.
This does not mean that all we need to study are those books of the Bible which were written directly to us. Certainly not. All scripture is profitable for us. The apostles were primarily interested in the passages of the Old Testament which related to the Messiah, but they also needed to know all that was in the Old Testament.
They needed to know about the creation. They needed to know about Cain and Abel, Noah and the flood, and the complete history of the nation of Israel. Peter wrote about the apostasy of Noah’s day, and he told how Jesus went to preach to the imprisoned spirits who were disobedient during the days of Noah. He told how eight souls were lifted up above the judgment waters even as we are lifted up by the resurrection of Christ.
In order to truly understand the message concerning the Messiah, the apostles needed to understand all of the scriptures. Some people today question the value of studying the Bible. They say that all we really need to know is that Jesus died for ours sins and that God has given us eternal life.
Well, of course, that’s the most important thing for us to know and believe, but God wants us to know all of the great truths of the Bible. If the gospel was all we needed to know, God could have just given mankind a tract explaining the fact that Christ died for our sins.
But God wants us to grow in grace in our knowledge of Jesus Christ. He wants the eyes of our understanding to be enlightened so that we might know the hope of our calling and the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. He wants us to know the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places. (Ephesians, Chapter 1)
God has given us the whole Bible because He has so much that He wants to tell us. But when it comes to studying the Bible, many people get frustrated because they see what they think are contradictions. Then they see the many different ways that different groups try to reconcile these apparent contradictions with their established doctrines.
But if we simply let the Bible speak for itself, we will find that there is no reason for all of the confusion. The Bible is such a great source of joy and enjoyment when we simply rightly divide the word of truth.
Most of the confusion clears up when we recognize that most of the Bible was written to and about the nation of Israel, while the prison epistles of Paul were written specifically to us as members of the Church which is the Body of Christ.
All of the things that Paul wrote during the Acts period regarding the gospel of grace and the righteousness that flows from the Holy Spirit into the heart of every believer is something that we have all experienced as believers from the time that the Holy Spirit was given in Acts, Chapter 2. Kingdom saints and members of Church have all enjoyed these marvelous spiritual blessings. That’s why Paul’s Acts-period epistles are so precious to us today.
But today, there are no believers who have the hope of the New Covenant Kingdom as many of the believers did during the Acts period. All believers today are waiting to be caught up into heaven with a new, glorious, immortal body. Those who are waiting for or trying to establish the kingdom of God on this earth are trying to force what was intended for Israel into God’s program for us today.
The Lord Jesus made it clear when He was on the earth that what was intended for Israel was not to be given to the Gentiles. When Jesus went into the region of Tyre and Sidon:
Matthew 15:22-28 (KJV)
22 . . . a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
23 But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.
24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
25 Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.
26 But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.
27 And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.
28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.
Here we see a Gentile woman seeking the blessings of the kingdom. She called Jesus the Son of David, which is the title by which Jesus will sit upon the throne of David and rule the earth during the kingdom. In response to her plea for help, Jesus said, “No. The blessings of the kingdom belong to the nation of Israel, not to the Gentiles.”
When this woman addressed Jesus as Lord, however, Jesus agreed to let her partake of the left over crumbs that fell from table that was being prepared for the Jews. Now this agrees with all of the prophets of the Old Testament that many Gentiles will be saved to enter into the New Covenant Kingdom under the rule of the nation of Israel.
Many Bible students see the church of today as a Gentile church, and they say that in this passage the Lord was giving the world a clue that the blessings which were promised to the Jews would ultimately be given to the Gentiles. Well, first of all, the Church of our present age is not a Gentile church. It is neither Jew nor Gentile. Paul said that in the Church which is the Body of Christ, Gentiles are fellow heirs and of the same body with the Jews.
Secondly, the kingdom program which anticipated the Son of David sitting upon the throne of David is no longer being offered to either Jews or Gentiles. If we try to read ourselves into this passage, it will result in real confusion. But if we distinguish what belongs to Israel from what belongs to us, the confusion disappears and the Bible becomes such a source of joy and encouragement.
As I’ve mentioned earlier, the prison epistles make no mention of Abraham or the New Covenant. They reveal that the Law of Moses was actually nailed to the cross when Christ was crucified so that the Law has no claim on us.
The prison epistles teach that believers are complete in Christ and that we truly can rest in the fact that we are saved by faith alone in Christ alone. We have no need of rituals or ceremonies to make us acceptable in the sight of God. We have been circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, and we are baptized by faith in the working of God who raised Christ from the dead.
It is in the prison epistles of the Apostle Paul that the world is first introduced to the idea that Jesus Christ was actually the creator of all things. Many years before John said that all things were made by Him and without Him nothing was made that was made, Paul said to the Colossians that:
Colossians 1:15-17 (NKJ)
15 (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
16 (and) by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
The prison epistles are filled with glorious, heavenly, spiritual truths, and what a special blessing they become to us when we learn to rightly divide the word of truth.
Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning. I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Church links:
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