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THE KING'S BUSINESS
loyalty to the truth compelled him to resist Peter to the face. "I resisted him to the face." "I must also see Rome." This expresses not the ambi– tion of a tourist but the passion of a missionary. All these various mental attitudes were created and founded up– on the one spiritual fact and testimony "For me to live Is Christ." Thus the great Apostle of the Gentiles becomes the Inspiration and pattern of those who would be ministers and mission– aries of the cross of Christ. j\ !A If Moses Is the central figure amid the witnesses for God in the Old Testa– ment, Paul Is the central figure amid the witnesses for Christ In the New the life of Paul Is equally antithetical. He was born a freeman and became a slave. He was born a freeman under the most tyrannical of masters, and be– came a slave under the most liberal of Redeemers. He was a rigid rituallst and an enemy of ceremonies. He lived under Jaw and taught only Grace. He was blamlessly righteous and the chief of sinners. He set aside the ordinances and placed himself under a vow. He would not allow Titus to be circumcised, but, himself, ottered a sacrifice in the Temple. He claimed citizenship with Christ and appealed to Nero. He preached peace and stirred up riots. He persecuted Christians and bu i It churches. He was Saul the Destroyer and became Paul the Worker. He died In Rome and Jives In Heaven. His pen is silent, but his epistles still speak. Not only is his life antithetical, but he himself stands In antithetical con– trast to the Moses whom he supersedes. Moses enfranchised a nation. Paul liberates a soul. Moses stamps the name of Jew on the world, Paul stamps the name of Christian on the world. Mo– ses reveals God as Lawgiver, Paul re– veals God as Graceglver. Moses points to the kingdom, Paul points to the church. Moses points to the land that Is full of fountains and broo'ke ot wa- COMMENTS SELECTED By Keith L. Brooks Testament. If the life of Moses presents a series of start– ling antitheses,
while on earth stoutly refused to be . labelled "sinners." During the three days and nights that Paul spent in darkness, he died out forever to him– self and arose into a new creation. When he began to preach, his theme was that Jesus is the Son of God. The other Apostles had believed and con– fessed Christ as the Son of God but Paul first proclaimed him such. Paul's first vision of Christ was that of the Son of God in resurrection glory. This thought pervades his Epistles. Paul's Gospel had nothing Jewish about it. He was not even converted In Jerusalem but near a Gentile city. He was told that his testimony would not be re– ceived by the Jews and that he was to go far from them, Acts 22: 18-21. Paul received his Gospel and his Apostleship not from any human source but directly from the Lord. Rom. 1: 5; 1 Cor. 15: 3. None of the Apostles could teach Paul anything after his three years with God in Arabia. Paul is as much the revelator of the New Testament as Moses Is of the Old Testa– ment. His ministry opens up a new and marvellous thing that far exceeds • in fulness of grace any previous revela– tion, Rom. 16:25, 26. The secret of Paul's career may be inferred from a few detached and significant sentences quoted from his writings. "I have put away childish things." Play time was followed by work time, instruction by construction. "I conferred not with flesh and blood." Here Is spiritual detachment from circumstances, which means their mastery. 11 1 am debtor." "I am ready." "I am not ashamed." The Gospel was a deposit which he held In trust. It was an equipment to discharge the debt. It was his delight to preach in even Imperial Rome. "I could wish that I were anathema from Christ for my brethren's sake." This compassion for the lost made him say of all his trials, "None of these things move me." His
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