Peter SmytheA Different Kind of Word Preacher

Of which I have become minister - According to the administration [or stewardship] of God which hath been given unto me to you-ward, To fill up the word of God, The sacred secret which had been hidden away from the ages and from the generations, But now hath been made manifest unto his saints - Unto whom God hath been pleased to make known what is the glorious wealth of this sacred secret among the nations, Which is Christ in you, the hope of the glory - (Colossians 1.25-27, Rotherham) (emphasis supplied)

f one follows churchy news (how else to say it), he’ll find that the church is very strong in teaching about man’s sin, his darkened heart, and his inability to stand in God’s presence, let alone please Him in any way. Along with this line of preaching has come talk about social issues and world conformity. For instance, the latest is that “evangelical leaders,” whoever they are supposed to be, are now concerned about the environment and how Christians are now supposed to be “green.” Very rarely, if ever, does one find a newsletter, blog, YouTube video, Digg, or other media that even mentions the Pauline Revelation. Indeed, our ditty of a post, The New Testament as Revelation, Not Command, finds itself #18 on the Google search “Pauline Revelation.”

Paul’s revelation of the great substitutionary work of Jesus Christ and its “Christ in you” stands as the greatest revelation given to mankind. As Paul writes in Colossians, it was a sacred secret hidden for generations that was initially revealed to Paul. That is why we see Paul calling the Gospel “my Gospel” -

on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus. (Romans 2.16, NASB)

Now according to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested … (Romans 16.25, 26a, NASB)

Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel - (2 Timothy 2.8, NASB)

One reason that the church gets dogged down into emphasizing sin and social issues (which vary from year to year) is because she not only doesn’t get the gist of Paul’s revelation, she doesn’t even recognize that he had one.

We often represent the contemporaries of Jesus as people who had a clear understanding of his message and mission. (E. Margaret Howe in Robert Mounce, Basics of Biblical Greek at 319)

(see also Geir Lie, E.W. Kenyon and Dispensationalism - the hermeneutical distinction between the Four Gospels and the Pauline Epistles must be rejected)

Consequently, any and all the remarks of any disciples are munched together into a patchwork of incoherency. For example, how can you compare Peter’s wonderment at the tomb and Cleopas’s sadness and lost hope on the road to Emmaus to Paul’s declaration that he received his gospel directly from the Lord?

And Peter having risen, did run to the tomb, and having stooped down he seeth the linen clothes lying alone, and he went away to his own home, wondering at that which was come to pass. (Luke 24.12, Young’s Literal)

And He said to them, “What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?” And they stood still, looking sad. One of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, “Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?” And He said to them, “What things? And they said to Him, “The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to the sentence of death, and crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. (Luke 24.17-21a, NASB)

For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. (Galatians 1.11-12, NASB)

Peter’s wonderment at the linen cloths and Cleopas’s sadness for Jesus’s death betray a lack of understanding of the purpose of Jesus’s death and his resurrection and, frankly, are completely at odds with Paul’s statement that his letters were written so that the church could “understand [his] insight into the mystery of Christ.”

By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ - (Ephesians 3.4, NASB) (emphasis supplied)

While the disciples might have seen Jesus as Israel’s Messiah, they did not have any conception that “they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel” -

But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel - (Romans 9.6, NASB)

- or that Jesus, by his death, burial, and resurrection, would become the firstborn of many brethren.

For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren - (Romans 8.29, NASB)

Thankfully, the Lord gave Paul (and to us through Paul) the revelation of just what “you must be born-again” is all about.

[Note: This essay was #7 on Google (“Pauline Revelation”) just one hour after posting.]