94
March, 1939
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
P a u l’s Passion "W E PREACH CHRIST CRUC IF IED" Is I t Yours?
Meditations on the Life and Letters of Paul
By H. A. IRON S IDE * Chicago, Illinois
T HERE is a marvelous symmetry and orderliness evidenced in the manner of the divine revelation to mankind. God has spoken in His Word—the Word personal and the Word written. The law and the prophets were until John. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Following Christ’s crucifixion, resurrection, and ascen sion, the Holy Spirit came to form the church of the new dispensation and to be the Guide, Comforter, and Teacher of the saints until all should come to the unity of the faith and should be presented fault less in the presence of Christ’s glory. The Holy Spirit selected different serv ants to emphasize various phases of truth.
Him crucified. Hidden for a time in Arabia Petra, he was instructed by the Lord Him self as to the message he was to carry to the world. His was to be a double ministry: that of the gospel and of the church. From the first, Paul went beyond the twelve in his proclamation of the gospel, for he preached justification from all things, in addition to remission of sins. And he de clared even in Damascus that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God. Peter had declared Him to be Christ the servant of God; for if the Revised Version be referred to, it will be seen that this is the term used in Acts 3:13, 26; 4:30. Peter did not deny His Sonship. In the sermon at Pentecost, he calls Him Lord and Christ, which im plies full deity (Acts 2:36). And when questioned by the Lord at Caesarea Philippi as recorded in Matthew 16:16, he had already confessed Him as Son of the living
Had it been the mind of God that Paul’s ministry should have set all the rest to one side, Paul would have been the last to write. But the fact is that all of his epistles were written, and he himself was probably in heaven, when Peter wrote his second epistle, and all of John’s writings were penned many years after Paul’s personal ministry on earth had ceased. These con siderations alone should impress upon us the value of every portion of the Word of God. Unfolding Two Great Mysteries • How like God it was to choose for the special mission to the Gentiles a stem, bigoted Jewish zealot, who could not brook the thought of any further revelation than that given by Moses and the prophets, and who was so blinded by prejudice that he failed to see in Christ Jesus the One of whom all
To Peter, James, and Jude it was given to open up sanctifying truth as to the believer’s relation to the kingdom of God, while that kingdom is still rejected by the world. T o the A p o stle John was given particularly to make known precious and intimate things having to do with our place as children in the family of God. And to Paul, fore ordained to be an apostle to the nations, was revealed in all its fullness the great m y stery o f the Body of Christ. These va riou s lines of truth are not antagonistic one to the other; neither does one supersede and thus make needless any other line of truth. All are re
God. But in presenting Him to Israel in the beginning, it was as the Servant of Jeh o v ah he proclaimed Him. But from the very first Paul was led to insist upon His’Sonship. Side by side with this mystery of the gospel went the mys tery of the body. The oth er apostles saw, in meas ure at least, that Jew and Gentile were to be blessed on the common ground of grace. To Paul was vouch safed the great truth that the middle wall was done away completely and that all who believed were bap
P au l——A n d The International Sunday-School Lessons
Dr. Ironside
For three months, beginning with April, all Sunday-schools that follow the subject outlines of the International Sunday-school Lessons will center their interest on the life and message of Paul, the great "apostle to the Gentiles.’’ The editors of THE ICING’S BUSINESS are glad to present Dr. Ironside’s article as added inspiration for teachers who will be using the lessons on Paul that appear in this month’s issue.
these prophets spake! Paul’s remarkable experience on the way to Dam ascus opened his eyes to heavenly realities and blinded them to all human religiousness and worldly glory. It was the revelation of God’s Son in him that revolutionized him completely. Henceforth he would know nothing among men but Jesus Christ and
quired in order that the believer may be per fect or mature, wanting nothing. For the Christian is, at one and the same time, a child in the family, a subject of the king dom, and a member of the body.
tized by one Spirit into one body and thus were as intimately related each to the other as the members of a human body are to its head and to one another (1 Cor. 12:12, 13). To Paul it was given to complete the Word of God by unfolding all His counsels and purpose. For though others wrote later.
*Pastor, Moody Memorial Church.
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