The Special Representative - Part 2

Paul and the Exalted, Glorified Christ

The twelve Apostles were called by the humbled Jesus, while Paul was called by the exalted and glorified Christ. Yet, the exalted Christ also remains the previously humbled Son of Man, who has not discarded the name Jesus. Saul was called by the Lord with the phrase, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest” (Acts 9:5).

Almost all of Paul’s letters begin with the wording, “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God” (Rom 1:1). Paul got to know Jesus from heaven, and his writings are primarily concerned with heavenly things. For example, when referring to himself and the Church, he writes, “And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen” (2 Tim 4:18; cf. Col 1:5).

This is what the Apostle Peter does when speaking of our inheritance in heaven (1 Pet 1:4). After all, the Church as Christ’s body is made up of Jews and Gentiles, and there is no division in it. But I would say that Paul does this on a deeper level (Eph 2:6). The other twelve Apostles still have the promise of sitting on twelve thrones when the Lord establishes His kingdom on earth (Matt 19:28; Luke 22:30). And you can see that this vision has stayed with them.

By “Jesus Christ,” Scripture means the Son of God come “in the flesh.” And “Christ (Jesus)” indicates the Son of God as having come “in the Spirit.” He came into the world in the flesh. It was through the Holy Spirit that He came into our hearts.

We find the expression “in Christ” more than 80 times in the New Testament. Because the Father brought us “in Christ Jesus” (1 Cor 1:30), we were crucified with Him, buried, raised up, and we sit with Him in heaven (Eph 2:6). It was the Apostle Paul’s task to reveal being “in Christ.”

For Paul, the exalted and glorified Christ was the only source of revelation. That is why he stressed that he no longer knew Christ in the flesh (2 Cor 5:16). Some sigh that if only they had been there to see Jesus when He lived on the earth… We forget that today, we have much more! Along these lines, William MacDonald writes:

“It was one thing to know Jesus as a next door neighbor in the village of Nazareth, or even as an earthly messiah, and quite another thing to know the glorified Christ who is at the right hand of God at this present time. We know the Lord Jesus more intimately and more truly today as He is revealed to us through the word by the Spirit, than those knew Him who judged Him simply according to human appearances when He was on earth.”

Only Paul received the revelation about the body and the head, as well as the message of the Rapture. We again see his heavenward gaze. Fourteen mysteries were revealed to him, which had been completely hidden and not revealed to anyone else until then. This means we can only find the height and peak of the deepest secrets of God’s heart in Paul’s letters. He wasn’t announcing a contradiction to what had come before, but a continuation with elements changed for the Church (for example, that the nations are not subject to the Mosaic Law).

Paul had a special calling for the special position of the Church as Christ’s body. He is the “special representative.” The church is a new creation, a new person, for whom the Law of the commandments in ordinances has been abolished (Eph 2:15). This message was only given to Paul. He himself emphasized that stewardship (administration) of the Church of nations had been given to him (Eph 3:2). Peter opened the door and held the key (Matt 16:19), but Paul was the steward.

Stewardship (administration) means running, planning, organizing, and governing a household. This house is the Church. A part of Paul’s important mission becomes visible here: He is the steward of God’s house. This being the case, we must take this fact into account and not neglect his message for us (cf. 1 Cor 4:1; 9:17).

A Neglected Topic

The gospel of the kingdom proclaimed in the Gospels recognized both grace and law. This gospel still had conditions. Peter said at the Apostles’ council: “We believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they” (Acts 15:11). But this was about the nations’ freedom from Jewish law, not Israel’s. The gospel of grace that Paul preached (Acts 20:24), on the other hand, only knows grace without any Old Testament Law or works (Rom 6:14). His gospel is a divine gift from above. A gift has no conditions (Rom 8:32; 1 Cor 2:12). That is why he called it the “glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust” (1 Tim 1:11, in the context of the preceding verses about the Law). Paul received the revelation that the Church, as a new creation and body, had already been chosen before the foundation of the world (that is, when there were no works at all). However, for converted Christians, Paul did stress the importance of works and practical sanctification. He attached great value to this.

We are bound to the entire Bible, but we must not ignore the special stewardship in Paul’s letters to the Church. Paul’s letters are of particular and utmost necessity if we want to lead the Church correctly and in alignment with the Holy Spirit, while ensuring our spiritual development. Johannes Ullmann once put it this way:

“If we were to compare the Word of God with a mixed choir, we would say that Paul isn’t just one voice of many in the chorus. No, he sang his own score, one specially written for him. The most brilliant Composer of all time has given it to him. And that’s why he never sings in a choir, or in a quartet or duet. He always sings alone. He sings multiple octaves…”

Due to his supreme revelations, Paul was very humbled by God, to the point that one of Satan’s angels was even permitted to strike him (2 Cor 12:7). Nothing like this happened to any other Apostle. He himself wrote that he experienced extraordinary sufferings because of these remarkable, complementary revelations for the Body of Christ. He wore the marks of Jesus on his body (Col 1:24; Gal 6:17).

Paul was scorned, despised, persecuted, misunderstood, and tormented like no one else (except Jesus). Everyone in Asia had forsaken him (2 Tim 1:15). Many people with whom he had previously worked had also turned their backs on him (2 Tim 4:10-11). Satan’s goal throughout Church history was to obscure Paul’s letters, because they shed the most light. There was never a danger of esteeming Paul’s letters too highly, but there was always a danger of elevating the other letters above his.

Satan tries to suppress the doctrine of Paul’s letters in two ways: either directly and brutally by means of great temptations and hostility (up to and including from within one’s own ranks), or in the pious disguise of implying that one is overly fixated on Paul’s meaning. The idea of avoiding “excessively dividing the Scriptures” can sound very devout, but in reality, it expresses pulling back from the deeper, more detailed truths that God has given us. This supposedly pious admonition can also be interpreted this way: “Don’t be so pedantic about the Holy Scriptures. Don’t overdo it; the specifics aren’t that important. Be content with what you know and don’t investigate deeper. Stick to the Gospels…”

Anyone who wants to penetrate the full depths of God’s message of salvation for the Church, can’t just occasionally quote from Paul’s letters, but must study his letters in-depth and pray about the things that concerned Paul. “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power” (Eph 1:17-19).

Michael Kotsch writes about the value of the apostolic letters overall: “In a sense, the writings of the Apostles are even more relevant for the New Testament Church than the Gospels, because they speak concretely into their redemptive era and everyday circumstances. Many details about the Christian life and conduct in the Church can only be found in Paul’s letters, not Jesus’ speeches. However, the two must not be understood as opposites, but rather as complements willed by God.”

Theologian Erich Sauer writes of Paul: “Paul was of particular importance in the calling of the Church. From the perspective of Church history, in spite of how highly others were esteemed, he was ‘The First After the One.’ Jesus was the One: the Foundation, the Incomparable, the Matchless. Paul was the First: the herald, the Gospel’s main pioneer in the vastness of the world of nations, the ‘first’ superlative one in the great, wide world of nations.”

Clifford Henry Brown gave three addresses on “The Outline of Paul’s Doctrine.” In them he said: “This reminds me of when I was a boy and used to go to Sunday school and study under the International Sunday School lessons: six months in the Old Testament—those beautiful stories, such as Joseph in Egypt and David and the giant—and six months in the New Testament. We learned the precious story of the life of our blessed Lord. It was valuable, and I thank God for those things. I came from a home where I did not get these things. But the point I am making is this: We never made an excursion into the epistles of Paul, unless it was to wrest some verse out of its context and get a temperance lesson. We were not given the faintest idea of the grand outline of the ministry committed to Paul. Paul was neglected […] God raised [Paul] up in this definite line of ministry, and woe to the one who neglects Paul. He is going to be emaciated in his spiritual life; he will be out of communion with the mind of Christ.”

And Heinz Schumacher observes: “Over and over, people make the mistake of exalting the message of the earthly Jesus above Paul’s teachings. It sounds so pious and plausible to say, ‘I’d rather stick with Jesus Himself than Paul and the other Apostles.’ So you stop after the four Gospels, and maybe accept Revelation 2–3 as well. But we can oppose this by saying, didn’t the exalted Lord speak through Paul? Didn’t Jesus call him ‘Teacher of the Gentiles’ (1 Tim 2:7)? There were things that Jesus couldn’t say while He was on earth because the time was not yet ripe, and these are precisely the things that He revealed as the exalted Lord in the Epistles, and especially Paul’s! The message of Paul’s letters isn’t just equally as important as that of the four Gospels, but even more so, just as a textbook for advanced learners (in Latin or Spanish, physics or chemistry) has more to offer than a beginner’s textbook. Jesus called Paul for the special purpose of carrying His Gospel into the world of nations (Acts 22:21; 26:17-20). Yes, He made him […] the perfecter of God’s Word and the revealer of the divine mysteries that God had previously kept under seal. Anyone who believes this to be contempt for earlier biblical revelation has thoroughly misunderstood the matter. When we assimilate a medical lecture through our brains or eyes, it’s reasonable not to blame the speaker for disregarding our feet or knees. Everything is important in its place, and the same is true of biblical revelation, be it the Pentateuch, the books of Kings, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, the Prophets, the four Gospels, or the Epistles. And Paul can only be properly understood against the background of the whole of scriptural revelation. He would be the last to say ‘Read only my letters!’ (cf. 1 Cor 3:21-23). But there are high points that tower above the others: our head over our hands and feet, and so also the Pauline epistles over the earlier epistles.”

I don’t by any means intend to overshadow the other Apostles, but it’s important for us to be willing to take this neglected subject out of the shadows and illuminate it the way the Bible does.