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In my personal assumption the phrase “Paul’s Gospel” is generally the same declaration of the Gospel of Christ that any of the other Apostles would bring forth, which was “entrusted” to each (1Tim 1:11); and is what is intended by his use of the phrase “my gospel” (Rom 2:16; 16:25; 2Ti 2:8). But there is that which Scripture makes clear, which is to be given humble regard that Christ chose only Paul to introduce the doctrine of His Body—the Church, and all the growth truths deriving from this relationship (Eph 5:32; Col 1:18); which wasn’t even mentioned in the prior dispensation (excluding types, e.g. Adam and Eve representing Christ and His Church).
The sole mention regarding His Church before Paul, was by the Lord Jesus when speaking to His disciples about Peter’s admission of faith in Him. Jesus was alluding to the fact that faith in Christ was the Rock from which He would build His Church, seen in Matthew 16:16-18. Of all the “mysteries” of Scripture which reveal God and His operations, the union of man unto Himself through His Son is doubtless the most important of all knowledge, and designs the intention of the entirety of Scripture!
NC
The sole mention regarding His Church before Paul, was by the Lord Jesus when speaking to His disciples about Peter’s admission of faith in Him. Jesus was alluding to the fact that faith in Christ was the Rock from which He would build His Church, seen in Matthew 16:16-18. Of all the “mysteries” of Scripture which reveal God and His operations, the union of man unto Himself through His Son is doubtless the most important of all knowledge, and designs the intention of the entirety of Scripture!
NC
Paul’s Gospel
It is essential to keep in mind that Paul preached and taught and ever insisted upon resurrection. He himself was converted to the risen and glorified Lord Jesus (all the Apostles saw Him after His resurrection but before glorification, i.e. His return to the Father (Jhn 7:39; 20:17). The “light” - Act 9:3 – which Paul saw was Christ glorified—NC). The very glimpse he caught of Jesus of Nazareth was the risen Man in glory. It is only thus he knew Him, as he tells us in 2Corinthians 5:16, “Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more.”
Paul preached a resurrection gospel. He labored to present every man perfect (i.e. complete - Col 1:28—NC) in the risen glorified Lord Jesus Christ. He did not confine himself to the mere question of forgiveness of sin and salvation from hell—blessed, beyond all price, as are these fruits of the atoning death of the Savior—he aimed at the glorious end of planting the believer in Christ, and of keeping him there. “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him: Rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.” “Ye are complete in Him”—“Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him”—“Quickened together with Him” (Col 2).
Such was Paul’s preaching and teaching. This was his gospel. This is true Christianity, in contrast with all the forms of human righteousness and fleshly pietism under the sun. Life in the ascended Lord Jesus was Paul’s theme. It was not merely forgiveness and salvation by Christ, but union with Him (and growth in His fellowship—NC). Paul’s gospel planted the believer at once in the risen and glorified Lord Jesus, in the very presence of the Father (positionally now - Eph 2:6, literally later—NC). This is “the glorious gospel of the blessed God, “which was committed” to Paul’s “trust” (1Ti 1:11).
If the resurrected and ascended Lord Jesus is the Source of our life, the Savior who lived and died down here in this world is our pattern. The features of our Christian life are those selfsame features that shone in Him as a Man here below. Through death, He has made His Life to be our Life. He has linked us with Himself on high by a bond that can never be severed, and now we are privileged to go back and study the Gospels in order to learn of Him, to see how He walked, that we may, through the grace and enablement of the indwelling Spirit of Christ (“Spirit of God”; “Holy Ghost”; “Spirit of the Father”—NC), “walk even as He walked” (1Jo 2:6).
It is a very blessed though a very solemn truth, that there is nothing of value, in God’s account, save the outflow of the Life of the Lord Jesus from His members here (Church—NC). All that is not the direct fruit of that Life is utterly valueless to the Father. The activities of the old man are not merely worthless but sinful (Tit 1:15—NC). We are recognized, for example, as parents and children, masters and servants, and instructed as to our deportment in these blessed relationships; but all this is on the new ground of risen Life in Christ (Col 3; Eph 5 and 6). The old man is not recognized at all (e.g. Act 17:30—NC). It is viewed crucified (Rom 6:6), dead and buried (concerning its “dominion” and “condemnation” but not its “indwelling” – Rom 6:14; 7:17, 20; 8:1—NC); and we are called upon to reckon it so (reckoning doesn’t make it so but shows it’s so—NC), and to “mortify our members which are on the earth” (Col 3:5)—to live a life of manifesting the Life of the Lord Jesus (2Cor 4:11). This is practical Christianity. May we understand it better!
May we, at last, remember that nothing is of the smallest value in the Father’s estimation save the life of His Son manifested in the believer, from day to day, by the enablement of the Holy Spirit. The feeblest expression of this Life is sweet incense to the Father. The mightiest efforts of mere religious flesh (man-centered—NC)—the costliest sacrifices—the most imposing ordinances and ceremonies, are but “dead works,” in the sight of the Father. Religiousness is one thing; Christianity is quite another.
—Charles Andrew Coats (1862-1945)
MJS devotional excerpt for June 10
““We are the objects of the continual care and discipline of our heavenly Father. If we walk after the flesh, instead of after the Spirit, this may call for His loving rebuke and chastening (child training); but that in no way interferes with the precious truth of our continual acceptance and position in the risen Lord Jesus Christ, by whose one offering we have been perfected forever.
“Through grace, we are not in the flesh, but in Christ, yet the flesh is in us; but our part is to reckon it as having been, before God and to faith, judicially put to death in Christ crucified, thus setting us free to be so constantly occupied with the triumphant Son of God, as to find all our resources, all our strength, all our springs, in Him.” - Hugh Henry Snell (1817-1892)
