PAUL’S PRISON EPISTLES AFTER THE ACTS PERIOD - Part II

[Brother Marvs]

PAUL’S PRISON EPISTLES AFTER THE ACTS PERIOD
Part II


This age is predominantly a Gentile one, so can we find any Scriptures written after the Acts (recording Israel’s setting aside) which are addressed specifically to Gentiles without being associated with Israel nationally? Can we find a New Testament writer who is commissioned by the Ascended Christ to minister to Gentiles alone? The answer is “yes”, and that man is the Apostle Paul. After the Acts period Paul wrote seven more epistles. They are Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Titus, Philemon, 1 and 2 Timothy.

In Ephesians 3:1 we read “I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles” and, verse eight, “that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.” Colossians 1:27, “To whom God would (wills to) make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery (secret) among the Gentiles”; 1 Timothy 2:7, “I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle…a teacher of the Gentiles”; 2 Timothy 1:11, “I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles”; 2 Timothy 4:17, “Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear.” The words “Jew” and “Israel” are conspicuously absent from Paul’s prison ministry.

Here then is what we are seeking, a mouthpiece for the Ascended Christ with a message for us who are Gentiles by birth, showing exactly where we stand in God’s plan if we are saved by His grace and believe what He has written. No other N.T. writer makes this claim. Paul pre-eminently is the Apostle of the Gentiles; it is in the epistles mentioned above that we have the highest aspects of truth revealed for this Gentile age, the wonderful superstructure resting upon the Death, Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is to Paul’s prison ministry after the Acts we must turn if we want to understand the truth that is peculiar to this age. It is not the foundation that has changed, for the Lord Jesus Christ is the “same yesterday, and today and for ever” (Heb. 13:8). The basic truths concerning sin, salvation by grace, sanctification and allied foundation doctrines never change, and the earlier Scriptures that deal with these great themes obviously are still true today. What has happened is that the Divine superstructure has changed, or to put it another way, consequent on Israel’s failure, God has revealed another phase of His plan, this time touching the highest heavens and not the earth. This revelation rests as securely on the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ as the earthly plan revealed in the Old Testament and the earlier New Testament writings, which we have been considering in previous chapters. He alone is the Centre and Circumference of all the purpose of the ages, relating to the universe. We wish to stress this lest we shall be accused of limiting our Bible to the seven epistles of Paul written after Acts twenty-eight. We need all Scripture for our instruction (2 Tim. 3:16), but we leave to God the right to reveal different aspects of truth in His Word at the time when His infinite wisdom decrees. We shall honor Him by recognizing this fact; we shall dishonour Him and confuse ourselves and others if we fail to do so.

(to be continued)